Menifee Valley Medical Center Goes to Voters
Last August 8, Valley Health System board of directors voted to approve the sale of its three hospitals to Select Healthcare Solutions of De...
http://www.menifee247.com/2007/08/menifee-valley-medical-center-goes-to.htm
Last August 8, Valley Health System board of directors voted to approve the sale of its three hospitals to Select Healthcare Solutions of Del Mar, CA.
The sale cannot go through, however, pending the outcome of a popular vote from the people within the hospital district this November. If the voters approve the sale, the sale will go through.
However, the sale is not without its critics, namely, the VHS board of directors. Of primary concern, is that Dr. Kali Chaudhuri may one day gain control of the hospitals. Chaudhuri is a 50% owner, and chairman, of a company that VHS hired to manage the hospitals. The other 50% owner is VHS itself. The sale contract prevents Select Heathcare from selling the hospitals to Chaudhuri within the first five years. After that, anything goes.
The reason why the VHS board of directors are concerned about Chaudhuri coming back to own the hospitals is because they feel Chaudhuri's company was responsible for putting the three hospitals into the poor financial situation they are in.
I think VHS's concerns are good, but they're moot. The fact is that the quality of service at Menifee Valley Medical Center is already in the dumps. Why are we concerned about quality of service five years from now, when we don't even have decent quality of service right now?
The poor management of VHS' hospitals continued for years with VHS arguing that the only solution was to sell bonds (plus interest) at the burden of taxpayers. VHS didn't attempt to terminate Chaudhuri and the management company until as recently as last June, well after the problems had settled in, and well after the proposed sale was made. The way I see things, the only way to improve service is to separate Menifee Valley Medical Center from VHS and get entirely new management at the top.
Chaudhuri coming back to run our hospital may certainly be a possibility, but it doesn't make sense to warn us about going to Hell in a handbasket, when we're already in Hell.
Read more about this issue here...
Press Enterprise, August 1, 2007
http://www.pe.com/..../PE_News_Local_H_vhs01.3f2bced.html
Idyllwild Town Crier, August 16, 2007
http://www.towncrier.com/pages/stories/story220070816.html
The sale cannot go through, however, pending the outcome of a popular vote from the people within the hospital district this November. If the voters approve the sale, the sale will go through.
However, the sale is not without its critics, namely, the VHS board of directors. Of primary concern, is that Dr. Kali Chaudhuri may one day gain control of the hospitals. Chaudhuri is a 50% owner, and chairman, of a company that VHS hired to manage the hospitals. The other 50% owner is VHS itself. The sale contract prevents Select Heathcare from selling the hospitals to Chaudhuri within the first five years. After that, anything goes.
The reason why the VHS board of directors are concerned about Chaudhuri coming back to own the hospitals is because they feel Chaudhuri's company was responsible for putting the three hospitals into the poor financial situation they are in.
I think VHS's concerns are good, but they're moot. The fact is that the quality of service at Menifee Valley Medical Center is already in the dumps. Why are we concerned about quality of service five years from now, when we don't even have decent quality of service right now?
The poor management of VHS' hospitals continued for years with VHS arguing that the only solution was to sell bonds (plus interest) at the burden of taxpayers. VHS didn't attempt to terminate Chaudhuri and the management company until as recently as last June, well after the problems had settled in, and well after the proposed sale was made. The way I see things, the only way to improve service is to separate Menifee Valley Medical Center from VHS and get entirely new management at the top.
Chaudhuri coming back to run our hospital may certainly be a possibility, but it doesn't make sense to warn us about going to Hell in a handbasket, when we're already in Hell.
Read more about this issue here...
Press Enterprise, August 1, 2007
http://www.pe.com/..../PE_News_Local_H_vhs01.3f2bced.html
Idyllwild Town Crier, August 16, 2007
http://www.towncrier.com/pages/stories/story220070816.html
It was almost a year ago exactly that a dear elderly lady went into that awful facility and died waiting to have her appendix removed. She was there for nearly 12 hours and left to die unattended. She died alone from something so simple to remedy. She had come from out of state to babysit her grandchildren, and hours later she had died. I had gone over to watch the children while she was at the hospital and then I recieved a phone call that she had passed away. Can you imagine the confusion in the home? She had been scheduled for surgery and passed away while they were supposed to be prepping her. We are afraid and refuse to use this hospital for our families. We have mandates that tell an ambulance NOT to take us there. I am part of a large sports organization in Menifee and we direct our families NOT to go there for serious treatment. A boy had broken his arm at Paloma stadium and we directed his parents to take him anywhere but there.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad and immoral that such a great little town has such a terrible medical center. My experience closely reflects those expressed here, without the deadly results. I was told there would be a four hour wait to have a broken arm looked at. I drove to Sharp in Rancho Bernardo 50 miles away and was taken care of with in minutes. Americans should demand much higher standards of care and professionalism from the medical industry.
ReplyDeleteKali Chaudhuri bankrupted the physician practice management company (KPC Global Care) and left 300,000 patients without medical records. 2,500 employees and physicians were left without jobs. Several serious patient care concerns were raised, in 2000.
ReplyDeleteWhereas the management company went bankrupt, Chaudhuri siphoned off monies through real-estate holdings and off shore reinsurance companies.
Bankrupted a pharmacy company, Southern California Pharmacy, in 2000.
Used his ownership in Hemet Community Medical Group, an IPA, to borrow $ 3 million from Valley Healthcare System, a healthcare district to fund his private acquisition as part of shared risk pool (Jeff Lang, CEO of the hospital was gone).
Chaudhuri through a complex scheme became part owner of Integrated Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (IHHI) that operates four hospitals in Orange County; Chapman Medical Center, Coastal Communities Hospital, Western Medical Center – Anaheim and Western Medical Center – Santa Ana. 49% of the real estate is owned by Chaudhuri, Ganesha Realty, LLC. Whereas he was prevented from managing the hospitals by the State, he recently exercised the option to acquire 39.7 million shares of IHHI along with his attorney William Thomas and joint Bruce Mogul and Larry Anderson to take over the control of the Board. The Court appointed a retired judge to the Board. Judge Lewis said the future of IHHI’s hospitals was “too important to allow Dr. Chaudhuri any potential involvement with the running of this company.”
Chaudhuri orchestrated the Valley Health System’s Board to sell the three district hospitals to Select Healthcare that has no track record of operating hospitals. Board of Directors, Darren Magness is Chaudhuri’s henchman and Dr. William Cherry is a full time employee of Dr. Chaudhuri’s related company. Most of the supporting physicians receive substantial payouts from the affiliated HCMG in addition to being aspiring to be owners along with Chaudhuri in Select i.e., Drs. Nakka, Rastogi, Tiwari, Mathias, etc.
Chaudhuri has a management contract with the hospital district since 1998 with an annual fees of $ 9 million per annum. The operations have steadily deteriorated with an estimated $ 12 million in losses for fiscal year 2006 alone. Chaudhuri and his affiliated physicians that manage the operations to date now want to be owners.
The not for profit board can hire an able management company. If Select can borrow money, the District could borrow the same and improve the operations. After all, it is the same area and the same hospitals. Nothing is changing by Select with no hospital management experience and the same doctors that failed the system in the first place claiming to resurrect the operations.
Select has no track record of either owning or managing hospitals. Mat Cutler the infamous representative of Select operates out of his car and on a small residence (maybe an apartment) out of Del Mar. He cheated several physicians out of their investment in Perris Valley Hospital and bankrupted the place. There are no positive accomplishments that anybody could site of Mr. Cutler.
The Board needs to take the responsibility or failure and should resign. The Attorney Generals Office should step in and monitor the process whether sale or refinancing. A credible investment banker should be hired to recommend to the lay board. The best options in turning around the operations of the healthcare district.
Chaudhuri is simply a crook, that too a failed one. Mat Cutler of Select is a low level cheat (Chaudhuri and Cutler, a crook and a cheat).
Your comments are amazingly detailed and not very comforting.
ReplyDeleteThe comment published on 8/19 should be published on the front page of the Press Enterprise & the Valley Chronicle, the Hemet Valley Medical Center is in as bad shape as Menifee.
ReplyDeleteWhat disturbs me more is that it has been reported that Mary Bono was asked to launch an inquiry some time ago into the financial dealings of the management of Dr. Chaudhuri,
she refused, but a while later she was hosted at a $1000 a plate fund raiser - where? At Dr. Chaudhuri's compound - if you haven't seen it
it is worth the ride into Hemet.
It looks like some Oil Baron has moved into Hemet, Your guess is as good as ours where all that money came from, check his website, his holdings and money trails are unlimited, did you know that he operates a Nursing School in India, where do you think he was going to import the nurses from at $50,000 each...... This guy has to go,
if this hospital deal goes through, we all might as well rent a shuttle bus to take patients to Riverside or to Loma Linda or maybe LA.
God help us all if you are really sick, how many will die on the trip out of town to be treated? One dead patient is too many in my book. We need to tell everyone that we need to keep our COMMUNITY HOSPITAL - for the Communities under competent management -- NOT the current one!
Spread the word, VOTE NO ON 'G' IN NOVEMBER!
The Valley Health System is indeed in serious financial trouble and we have Kali Chauduri to thank for that. As part of a group that has spent several years trying to bring issues like this to light, all of our efforts fell on to deaf ears. Now it is spiraling out of control. The communities need to make it known that NO on measure G. Even with Chauduri's management company out, who do you think is backing the purchase deal by Select??!!! I recall many years ago overhearing him say that he would buy Hemet for $.10 on the dollar and here it is. And chapter 9 bankruptcy may be the only thing to save us. As for the put down for the care provided by all facilities. The best possible care is provided, and when in E.R. remember that the most ill are priority. How many times have you seen an ambulance come into the hospital while siting in the waiting room. And for those who use the ER as a place to go for the sniffles instead of urgent care, it bogs things down even more.
ReplyDeleteI worked in a company under the umbrella of KPC Global way back when, and I remember how badly the healthcare facility was managed, to the point that there was no film to take x-rays, and no way of filling certain prescriptions. It was a pitiful sight, so unlike what healthcare should be. As employees, we lost heart when it came to that point. We were sad for the patients, and could not take pride in our work or our company any longer. I moved on, but some held out to the bitter end, and some did not even get their last paycheck, or any advance notice of being laid off. The medical records were so difficult for patients to obtain after that - I felt bad for a long time about what happened. I don't think Dr. Chaudhuri should be allowed to be in any way related to healthcare management or business dealings again. I wouldn't trust Select Healthcare to manage the hospitals well because of their affiliation with Dr. Chaudhuri.
ReplyDelete