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Recent nationally televised and print media news reports focusing on improvement in the healthcare system have taken their inquiries further, questioning the accountability of both hospitals and some of the physicians who practice in them.

Having in some instances brought in government to help with accountability measures, the reports state that the role of government calls for quality of care which involves overseeing the community of those interested in enforcing standards.

The reports also point out that when ethical doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel try to speak out about unsavory practices and conduct going on in hospitals, they are often confronted with the possibility of losing their jobs. An August 2004 report stated:

“Advocate workers from hospitals are coming together for the fi rst time to speak out about needed improvements that include improved staffing, a voice on the job and what (hospital) management is doing to stop them.”

A source noted that in the Tri-Cities area there is growing need to hold hospitals and doctors to strict moral and ethical codes, as the situation has broadened with allegations stretching beyond fraudulent patient care and misbilling insurance at Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg.

The source says that for one thing, doctors who bring in big bucks for hospitals are not subjected to peer reviews nor given the boot when they indulge in unethical behavior.

The source, who is familiar with alleged misdoings evolving around Dr. Gopinath Jadhav and other doctors affiliated with SRMC, adds that not only are the physicians guilty of inappropriate conduct, but the source insists administrators at SRMC and John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell will continue to look the other way as long as corrupt doctors keep money rolling in.

“In each hospital there is a core group of three or four physicians that are proven moneymakers,” said the source. “They are so essential to the hospital. If a hospital brings in $100 million a year, you can be sure that each of these core surgeons are making at least four to fi ve million alone for the hospital. If they are caught up in any wrongdoing, the hospital is not going to just let them go. If they do, the hospitals will fold. The hospitals don’t care for the patients, only the numbers.”

The source said in order to protect the physicians, hospitals will basically cater to the physicians’ whims.

Further, said the source, “This even trickles down to ordering medications. To save a hospital money, administrators will not order a certain medication for patients, knowing full well it puts the patient’s health at risk. Instead, they will order a cheaper drug to prescribe to a patient with major medical problems knowing the wrong medication may wosen the patient’s life. But, the bottom line is to save the hospital money.”

The source said there are many instances going on daily where poor patients are billed fi ve times the usual rate for procedures, just because they have no insurance.

“The hospital administration and physicians know for certain they are going to get the Medicaid and Medicare money as well as other kinds of insurance, so they hike up the patient care costs. If a poor patient’s total medical bill is $500, then corrupt physicians can easily make it look like so many procedures were done, and then bill the insurance provider for more money. It’s done all the time and the hospital administrators help keep it hushed up in order to keep the physicians aboard and also helps the hospital to get more money.”

The source added it is not uncommon for poor patients at SRMC to be threatened with loss of their homes or wages garnishment if they are unable to pay for hospitalization. The national reports concur, stating that many patients have to end up fi ling bankruptcy to offset the costs of medical care.

According to the source there are many noncorrupt doctors at both JRMC and SRMC. The source said however, that several non-corrupt doctors and nurses have seen Jadhav in action.

“One time they did a survey on Dr. Jadhav to document the number of times he performed unnecessary biopsies and other procedures. They witnessed him perform upper endoscopies in less than a minute when the procedure normally taand colonoscopies in less than fi ve minutes when the procedure nornally takes at least 10 to 15 minutes,” the source said. “He was doing these kinds of things (procedures) so often, that other doctors would have to stop what they were doing with their patients to assist him.”

The source said the hospitals’ core group of physicians are rewarded for generating extra monies. The source said that in addition, the physicians get a monthly stipend from the hospital, even if they didn’t do anything.

“The hospitals in essence, are just using these corrupt physicians,” said the source. “They buy them out by allowing the doctors to engage in fraudulent activities. The doctor ends up having to be loyal to the hospital.

The hospitals use the corrupt doctors because some of them have to do the dirty jobs of the peer review system (such as writing up doctors or taking away the hospital privileges of others). They become pawns for the hospital by using the peer review process to weed out honest and ethical physicians.”

The source also states that hospitals are guilty of allowing doctors who have no specialty in a fi eld perform procedures on patients.

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