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A former John Randolph Medical Center insider claims there are no bylaws, rules, or regulations in place when patient care is compromised at the 271-bed Hopewell hospital.

The insider also says three JRMC gasterenterologists – doctors Sanjeev Jairath, Gopinath Jadhav and Alfred Lee – performed thousands of endoscopy procedures at the facility (having been under active staff privileges, as per bylaws) up until 2002.

But the source said that initially, Lee and Jairath changed their status from active staff to courtesy staff, which meant they could not take care of more than 10 patients a year.

`“Jadhav followed the footsteps of those two doctors, but as courtesy staff physicians, they’re not supposed to come to the hospital on a daily basis,” the source said. “However among the three, they were bringing their patients almost every day and performing thousands of procedures a year.

The source said that in doing so, the three physicians were not admitting patients, were not on call for the emergency room and that they didn’t take care of in-patients, “including their own patients, even if they were dying or had developed complications during a procedure that was performed at JRMC.” He said the care went goes lacking by Lee, Jairath and Jadhav had to be taken care of by the other gasterenterologists, even if they were (the three doctors) are coming to the hospital.

“The three were only interested in doing endoscopies, and didn’t want to take care of some patients on whom they’re performing endoscopies who are dying at JRMC,” the source said.

He said the trio’s lack of interest boiled down to “a pure violation of both medical ethics and medical staff bylaws,’ and that as a result, there is no respect by neither the hospital’s administration, executive committee nor three doctors for patients’ lives.

“They’re allowing them to practice like this to make money, which is nothing but a violation,” the source alleges. “This unethical practice, which goes on with lawlessness, was brought to the administration’s attention multiple times in the executive committee meeting,” according to the inside source.

The source who also had direct knowledge of what occurred at executive committee meetings, said he brought it to the attention of the Virginia Times in the past, that the administration only cares for money, and can’t possibly care for JRMC’s bylaws or the patient complications and corruption that results.

“Anyone who talks about this fraud has become a victim of the hospital’s peer review system,” the source said, “as was the physician who brought the matter to the administration’s attention.

The reason they did not bring him in front of any committee is because he’s exposing this fraud.”

The source further claims that the hospital’s Chief Executive Offi cer Bernie Boone, Chief Operating Offi cer D. Nicholas and the executive committee at JRMC are all part of corruption regarding major medical ethics and bylaws violations.

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