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Cases keep coming to light about unethical practices among doctors affi liated with Southside Regional Medical Center. This time, as in the recent past, SRMC physicians are pointing the fi nger at their colleagues. Each of the physicians asked not to be named.

One of them told the Virginia Times last week that Dr. Kamalesh Dave is one of several doctors tied in with medical misdeeds at the hospital. Dave has been similarly referred to in other Times articles. According to the accusing physician, Dave has been in the habit of performing unnecessary procedures such as cardiac catherizations on patients.

The accusing physician said one such procedure was performed on an elderly patient. “She was admitted and put on antibiotics,” said the physician, who added the woman had come to the hospital with an infection in her lower extremities. “The admitting physician had ordered some X-rays, but Dr. Dave cancelled them and did a cardiac catherization, which was unnecessary. He cancels other consults and does them all the time.”

Another physician said Dave performed an unnecessary cardiac catherization on a young federal prisoner who was transported to John Randolph Medical Center.

“He came in with pneumonia. He had chest pains and Dr. Dave did a cardiac catherization,” said the physician. According to earlier sources, the patient did not have cardiac problems. The physician explained that this was one example how Dave helps drive up health care costs. [“ If a catherization is done on a regular patient, the insurance is billed a certain percentage. But if the procedure is done on a federal prisoner, the insurance pays 100 percent of the bill.”]

In another situation involving Dave, the wife of an SRMC physician said Dave tried to make a deal with the couple who had just arrived in the area and were looking for a house. The woman said Dave promised that if they purchased a house he had on the market in the River’ Bend community, that “he’d give the thumbs up getting the woman’s husband patient referrals.

Said the woman, “He also implied that we wouldn’t have to worry about credit approval, as he was on the board of directors for a bank that had just opened.” The woman said Dave was selling the house for $450,000 and told them that if they signed to purchase it by midnight on a given date that they wouldn’t have to worry about paying a realtor’s fee.

Dave has also been accused of:

• Not following guidelines for performing cardiac catherizations:

• Having been investigated by Chippenham Hospital for performing cardiac catherizations;

• Having been scheduled to perform a cardiac catherization on a psychiatric patient who already had a normal procedure done a few months earlier at JRMC: and,

• Being involved in a peer review of doctors Lokinath Shandiliya and A. Dave.

Despite several attempts to reach Dave, he did has not returned reporters’ phone calls for comment.

One of the accusing physicians concluded: “His ethics and conduct in the peer review at SRMC is criminal in nature. There are also numerous accusations on Dr. Dave that he does procedures indiscriminately on patients. This is one reason health care keeps going up. Physicians like Dr. Dave keep driving up the costs.”

The Times tried to fi nd involvement of Dave in the treatment of Beverley Flowers a 36 year-old-year who died at Southside Regional Medical Center due to physician negligence. The reporters also tried to fi nd out what time the echocardiogram was done and what time it was read and what Dave interpreted the echocardiogram. And if Dave informed any of the fi ndings to the family and the PCP Dr. Lee.

He also preforms a diagnostic cardiac catheterization initially at SRMC and John Randolph Medical Center then taken the patient to Chippenham Medical Center for therapeutic cardiac catheterization. Dave knows patient needs therapeutic procedure, but puts the patient at the risk of cardiac catheterization twice and bills the patient twice, where as patient needed one procedure if he preforms by transferring the patient to Chippenham in the beginning.

This illegal billing practice and medical practice is very well know to the CEO of SRMC, Mr. Fikse, COE of John Randolph Medical Center, Mr Boone and the CEO or the Chippenham Hospital. This double whammy of the patients resulted in millions of dollars to the insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.

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