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A source close to the Southside Regional Medical Center controversy that’s been brewing for weeks and causing many a raised eyebrow among the public, says hospital offi cials lied when they presented information to the state surrounding its certifi cation two years ago.

“When the hospital presented information to the state regulators, it lied and admitted under oath that they misled state regulators and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),” said the source.

Prior to the source’s claims, The Times had come in possession of a copy of a letter addressed in 2003 to Nancy Hofheimer, director for the Center for Quality Health Care Services and Consumer Protection, and which referenced SRMC.

The one-page document, signed by Timothy J. Hock, CMS manager for the certifi cation and enforcement branch, states the following:

“Enclosed you will find a copy of our letter to Southside Regional Medical Center’s advising the hospital that we are moving its “deemed status.” In accord with the instructions in State Operations Manual 3268, the hospital is now under the survey jurisdiction of your agency, and is subject to the same certifi cation requirements and procedures as any non-accredited hospital.

Please conduct a recertifi cation survey of the hospital within the next 60 days. At a minimum, that survey should cover all requirements that were not covered by the recently completed investigation, including life safety code. When the facility has provided an acceptable plan of correction for the defi ciencies, which led to our decision to remove deemed status, you may perform a follow-up on those deficiencies during your survey visit.

The results of your survey should be handled like any other recertifi - cation survey, e.g., if there are defi - ciencies you should request a plan of correction, a certifi cation recommendation should be made based on the survey fi nding, etc. “

The letter instructs Hofheimer to contact Bill McNeal in Philadelphia where the CMS offi ce is located, if further questions persisted.

Said the source, “This is one example of how the hospital falsified and lied under oath to regulators.” The source explained that the sentence in the letter indicating the hospital was being stripped of its “deemed status,” meant SRMC was being put on probation.

“They only gave CMS specified cases where [Dr. Gopinath] Jadhav – who has been repeatedly referred to in previous SRMC articles – did colonoscopies, when in fact, he did most of them within or under fi ve minutes,” the source said.

“A young patient died in the hospital’s endoscopy suite who had been under Jadhav’s partner’s care when Jadhav was in charge of endoscopy. They presented altered documents to CMS and misled them that nothing (wrong) happened to the patient,” said the source.

“There were various other kinds of allegations and altered documents including (information about) sexual harassment in the operating room. They did not allow CMS access to real witnesses,” said the source, “because they chose their own witnesses.”

The source concluded saying those allegations and others clearly proved that what the hospital did in 2003 led to its probation.

“Nothing’s changed as of today. Jadhav’s still doing the same (unethical) things,” the source said, “which was proved to readers of the March 30 edition of the Times.

“How does SRMC, a failed hospital, still do the same procedures and allow doctors like Jadhav to practice. Isn’t the quality of care at stake,” the source asked.

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