I've decided that I'm going to hold off on publishing the infamous confidential letter I sent to Bill Clinton's USDHHS Secretary, Donna Shalala, in the summer of 1999. It is the document Randolph Hospital sued me for "libel" over in 2000 - in a misguided effort to intimidate me into silence.
Of course, I was ready to rumble. And it was the content of that letter that Bob, Steve and Mike did not want splattered all over the innards of a Randolph County courtroom in 2001.
Randolph Medical Associates was removed from the National Health Service Corps list of approved providers because of that letter. So someone in Washington/Bethesda must have thought I was credible.
My reasoning for not publishing the letter (yet) is this: I sent the letter to Shalala in confidence. It was copied only to those agencies that had a need to know. I never wanted it in the public domain. I was going through channels and being "collegial".
But the legal & business geniuses Randolph Hospital put it in the public domain when they sued me over excerpts from the letter.
Moreover, "Shalala" is thirty-five pages long (challenging even the most attentive blogger's attention span), and I've covered (or will shortly cover) the basics of the case I have to make against Randolph Hospital on Housecalls.
Here's the thing. I poured my guts/hearts out in Shalala - and vented well over a year of pent-up frustration in what I thought was a protected communication (silly me). Plus, at settlement (in 2001), I put "Shalala" in a box and resolved not to take it back out.
So for now, it will remain in reserve. After all, I still may have a lawsuit left in me.
However, I realize that some "fact-checkers" in the blogosphere (who want me to "put it all out there" . . . never mind that they haven't done thing one with what I've already put "out there") might scoff at this decision . . . or think that I am afraid of what I wrote.
So I have decided to post the primary reasons Randolph Hospital was forced to run from its own "libel" lawsuit when it was all said and done.
And those reasons were two very good doctors . . . two very good friends . . . who refused to stand by and let the ambulance run over me after Bob Morrison and Steve Eblin threw me under it.
The next two posts re-publish letters from Drs. Laurie Anderson and Nancy Toy . . . letters sent to JCAHO prior to one of Randolph Hospital's re-accreditation surveys . . . letters supporting the veracity of everything I reported in "Shalala".
Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin did not know about the existence of the letters when they deposed me . . . or filed their little SLAPP suit.
In her correspondence to JCAHO, Laurie actually references another letter I sent to the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors, Corporate Membership and medical staff . . . a letter that countered a self-serving missive Morrison & Eblin sent to the medical staff. That letter (which Morrison/Eblin did not see fit to copy to me) was full of factual inaccuracies and not-so-subtle put-downs . . . painting me as some kind of extortionist.
Those letters are not published here. I don't have the energy. And I'd just be repeating myself.
I expect that learning about the existence of Laurie & Nancy's letters was not a pleasant surprise . . . to Morrison & Eblin, their bully-lawyers, or their Board of Directors. Mary Johnson was not going to stand all alone (as they obviously assumed she would be).
JCAHO, of course, turned out to be fundamentally useless . . . absolutely toothless (I met with them twice over several years). The organization . . . outwardly so concerned about patient safety . . . had no mechanism to deal with horrible/lying/cheating/corrupt hospital administrators whose decisions and directives might put doctors in bad places and patients in danger. And, to my knowledge, JCAHO has put nothing in place to deal with this serious gap in oversight since I sent them this complaint ten years ago.
Instead, since hospitals fule this dog & pony show, JCAHO has focused almost exclusively on "disruptive doctors" as a nebulous psychiatric diagnosis. JCAHO has not bothered to look beneath the label . . . or to tackle issues like cause and effect . . . or what comes first - the chicken or the egg?
Honestly, the whole JCAHO thing is a racket anyway. I roll my eyes every time they show up at a hospital anywhere on my travels. The staff gets all in a tizzy - people shrink in fear - on the theory that JCAHO can hurt you . . . JCAHO can shut you down. But the truth is that without hospitals feeding the machine, JCAHO doesn't exist. It's a self-perpetuating cottage industry. JCAHO is not going to do anything to really hurt a hospital because the hospitals write the checks that keep them surveying. Hospitals OWN JCAHO - not the other way around.
Oh, they'll play at it . . . and put on a "reallybig" show. But everything you've ever heard about JCAHO shutting a hospital down is an overblown urban myth.
Dr. Laurie Anderson was always dismissed by Eblin & company as living & practicing in my shadow . . . and in Kathy Riley's. But the truth was she was her own person . . . a gifted, compassionate Pediatrician . . . and she had the backbone of a steel magnolia. And she did not mince any words when it came to Steve Eblin.
I LOVED IT!
Here is Laurie's letter, dated November, 20, 1999:
Attn: Jana Elb
Office of Quality Monitoring
JCAHO
One Renaissance Blvd.
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois 60181
Dear Ms. Elb,
I am writing regarding Dr. Mary H. Johnson and Randolph Hospital/Randolph Medical Associates. I have read the letters which Dr. Johnson wrote to Donna Shalala, and in response to the letter which Mr. Steven Eblin sent to the general medical staff.
I would like to assure you that I agree with everything which Dr. Johnson wrote, and I feel her missive to be an accurate representation of the events which took place in Asheboro during the time I was there (July 1995-January 1999).
Unfortunately, Randolph Hospital and Mr. Eblin have not made the same effort to be factual in their communication with other physicians, other hospitals or JCAHO.
During the previous JCAHO evaluation, I remember clearly how happy the hospital powers-that-be were that they were able to cover over their problems with a tarp, both literally and figuratively. I hope that they will not be able to the same thing this time around.
Randolph Hospital has a history of treating their female physicians poorly, as evidenced not only by Dr. Johnson's departure, but also that of Dr. Nancy Toy and myself. I hope that she will be treated well by your representative.
Sincerely,
Laurie Anderson, M.D., FAAP
Nuff said:)
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