A Doctor On The Public Record: When The American Dream Became The American Nightmare . . . In Asheboro

I was born in 1962.  And this is my 1,962nd post since I answered Greensboro N&R Editor, John Robinson's call to "citizen journalism" back in 2005.

Of course, I think it's now well-established what a crock it was to put any faith in the inherent nobility of the truth-seeking journalists in Greensboro and Asheboro, North Carolina.

I mean, when your local newspaper (that would be the Courier Tribune - owned by the Stephens Media Group) can be bought off by your local government (that would be Asheboro City Hall), things are pretty much in the toilet in America. 

It's not the America I envisioned for 2010 . . . certainly not the life I hoped for all those years ago when I decided to dedicate all of my efforts into becoming a Pediatrician people could trust.  I mean, according to the American playbook, in terms of my personal choices, I did everything "right".  Played by all the rules.  Followed the cookbook for success.  Yet somehow, a "normal" existence in "Mayberry" enjoying the fruits of years of grueling work never came to be.  My dreams of a family and children and changing my little part of the world for the better got trampled by someone else's 20-200 vision.

Somehow the American dream became the American nightmare.  And I haven't woken up.

Meanwhile, I still work every day in a beyond-broken system that literally rewards every bad choice . . . over-looking (even rewarding) corruption and feeding faux-victimhood & entitlement.  It's TOTALLY NOT FAIR to those of us who did make the "right" choices, but have wound up bailing out everyone on all sides.  Something has got to give.

It's what our Havard-educated-yet-totally-oblivious-pseudo-socialist President does not understand.  The government that is now supposed to oversee healthcare did not police ANYTHING when Randolph Hospital worked its dark magic on my life and career.  Bill Clinton's DHHS was asleep-at-the-wheel.  The IRS & U.S. Attorney couldn't have cared less.  And it's certainly now well-established that North Carolina law enforcement is a joke.  Being treated like a nothing and a nobody - after working so hard to become what I am takes it toll.  Indeed, it's that kind of disillusionment and anger that birthed the Tea-Party movement.

I've digressed, but not really.  Getting on with the life I do lead, my 1980 AHS
classmate (neither one of us will be going to the 30th), Henry Millis Armfield ("Buzz") Armfield, Jr.-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-a-million-dollars-to-help-fund-the-Randolph-Hospital-Cancer-Center and I have joined forces to pry public records out of Randolph Hospital . . . most specifically, a list of their Board-of-Directors and Corporate Membership since 1994.

I believe it will be a veritable "who's who" of the people who helped put Asheboro on the map (#4) as one of America's fastest dying towns.

Of course one of the things these right fine honorable gentlemen (and a few ladies) are responsible for is Bob Morrison's $704,020 compensation package as Randolph Hospital's CEO in 2008.

(As you might recall, 2008 was the year that the world went to hell for everyone else.  But Bob Morrison pocketed nearly three-quarters-of-a-million-dollars from a public charity.)

These "right-honorable", many-of-them-supposedly-God-fearing people are also responsible for Steve Eblin running a home-grown Pediatrician out of her hometown for the unforgivable sin of facing down threats . . . doing her duty as defined by the North Carolina Medical Board . . . answering a terrified nurse's call one night in the middle-of-the-night in 1998 . . . saving a very sick newborn baby's life . . . and reporting what happened to peer review and the Medical Board.

Eblin had all the power.  Because no-one-who-was-supposed-to asked a SINGLE question.  And Steve Eblin, oily corporate bully that he is, was going to make sure Mary Johnson ate her whistle.

These "right people" of Asheboro are also LEGALLY responsible for the ILLEGAL actions of their executives - who had no problem knowingly, willingly, corruptly and repeatedly lying under Oath about matters relevant to the Pediatrician's damages claim . . . PERJURY that ultimately defrauded said Pediatrician of the just/fair compensation she was rightfully owed for the waste they laid to her practice, life and career.

These community leaders could cough up the big money for the Bobber.  But somehow, destroying the homegrown Pediatrician's practice and local reputation . . . irrevocably altering her career . . . and putting the doctor and her family through HELL for several years . . . was only worth $125,000.

The problem these right "honorable" people have now is that perjury is a crime without a statute of limitations and this Pediatrician IS NOT GOING AWAY until something is done about it .  She doesn't give a flying fig how many names they call her.

WHAT BOB MORRISON AND STEVEN EBLIN DID WAS WRONG.

IT WAS AMORAL, UNETHICAL, AND ILLEGAL.

AND INSTEAD OF GETTING PHAT PARACHUTES AND RAISES NOW, THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED FOR CAUSE IN 2003 . . . when this "situation" was first brought to the attention of their lawyers, their Board-of-Directors and Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates.

Of course, many of our noble truth-loving, justice-seeking local bloggers (one of whom's family name is on the hospital that Randolph's eager-to-cooperate execs schlepped to serve) . . . as they push their "progressive" notions about the government "reforming" healthcare . . . think that what happened to this doctor-formerly-in-public-service right under their stuck-up noses is neither here nor there.  It's "old" news.  I should "get over it" and "move on".

These hypocrites-of-the-first-order have delinked and banned and even cyber-stalked . . . they've reveled in flinging the LIBEL that I'm somehow mentally-unstable for pursing justice for as long as I have - for insisting upon the very transparency and accountability in my own situation that they constantly whine and pontificate about . . .

. . . like the availability of public records . . . records that contain financial data and salaries and NAMES . . . information that is NOT confidential . . . information that we ordinary tax-payers have the bought-and-paid-for-bills-that-kill right to see.

That's why I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Buzz Armfield's e-mail to April Thornton (Randolph Hospital's longtime Barbie-doll in charge of PR) this week (copied to me) - which mirrored my own frustration with the hospital's well-honed stall & obfuscate routine . . . with April insisting that we must communicate directly with Mr. Morrison to obtain information that she would have no problem publishing in a self-aggrandizing press release (information which, in fact, has been published in self-aggrandizing press releases in the past).

The names of these "right honorables" are just NOT confidential, folks.  In other words, if you want privacy, then don't serve on a non-profit's Board of Directors:

Ms. Thornton,

First, you did not provide a contact e-mail for Robert Morrison.  Am I to understand that my family has given a great deal of money to your hospital, and you want me to buy a stamp?  While I appreciate the offer of a private tour, my interest in your organization is not concerned with "brick and mortar", but more so with the management of the medical facility, and especially the financial compensation of senior management, and the board that is charged with overseeing such.

I find it somewhat disconcerting that Dr. Mary H. Johnson has alleged that the head of Randolph Hospital has a salary paid by said institution that would rival that of any CEO with one of the larger banks based in this state. And, please forgive my using banks for comparison purposes, but I once was a banker, and owned several thousand shares of stock in a bank, and I have a rough idea as to how institutions with boards of directors function.

Second, please explain why you cannot provide the information - or at the very least, forward my request on to Mr. Morrison. Both of these things would seem to fall within your job description.

I must question your "process". The CEO of a "state-of-the-art" hospital, I would think, should have more important things to do than handle very simple public records requests - and certainly would not want to give the impression that he or his staff is stalling or withholding information.

Lastly, in meeting with two of my cousins this past week in Winston-Salem, I mentioned the allegations of Dr. Johnson with regard to the financial compensation of the senior management of Randolph Hospital. My cousins, and I feel that the head of a small town hospital could not possibly be earning an annual income of $700,000, more so since the hospital is not run for profit. I feel confident that once you provide me with the requested information, any speculation regarding what Dr. Johnson has said can be settled once and for all.

Thank you,

Henry M. Armfield, Jr.

Of course, as Buzz and his smarter relatives know, it's very hard to argue with IRS 990's posted on Guidestar (register - it's free, log in, click on documents, and see for yourself).  But Bob Morrison is planning setting up his parachute - on our dimes - and it was all supposed to be flown in under the radar.  Plainly and simply, he's laughing all the way to the bank (although probably not First National Bank).

What really KILLS me is the mental picture of one of Randolph Hospital's "right-people" ex-Foundation Board members standing in the middle of a local produce store and assuring everyone within earshot that he was a Board member and he KNOWS that Bob DOESN'T pull down those kinds of bucks.

I have decided not to post THE VERY IMPORTANT ALBEIT FUDAMENTALLY CLUELESS NIMROD'S name here.

But it was very, very tempting.

All of this really makes the morons running Bell, California look fairly tame.  I'd like to see the citizens of Asheboro make like the angry citizens of Bell . . . and pick up their pitchforks and torches and rise up against this deep-seeded good-ole-boys-winking-and-nodding-at-their-good-ole-boy-friends-brand-of-public-corruption and show Bob/his "team" of rubber-stamping sycophants the door.

Because a "non-profit" hospital needs to be about what's best for patients.  Not what's best for Bob's retirement.

And doing what was best for patients is NOT what happened in 1998.  It's not what happened when "the team" SLAPP-sued me for "libel" in 2000 (too bad for them truth is absolute protection in a Court of law).  And it's not what happened in 2001, when this Pediatrician who fought back was swindled at settlement . . . and therefore was robbed of the opportunity to return home and rebuild what Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin did to service their egos, their malice and their greed.

It's the reason that Courier Tribune Editor, Ray Crisco's LAME musings about jealousy being our biggest malady fall on deaf ears.  My Mother taught his children.  But when it came time to step and do the right thing by hers, Ray was too busy stuffing his face at the hospitals' Dine-Arounds.  It ain't jealousy, Ray.  It's greed and cowardice.

Ray, you see, is one of those "focus on the positive" guys.  He wanted so much to be "important" in the more rarefied Asheboro circles (the kind that get invited to Dine-Arounds) that he long ago forgot that it's HIS JOB to question and criticize the powers-that-be . . . to catch them and challenge them when they do wrong.

Because all criticism of the powers-that-be was deemed "destructive" (or in a doctor's case, "disruptive"), the citizens of Asheboro long ago saw their newspaper (with David Renfro at its helm) sell it's soul to its biggest advertisers (so actually, a reporter taking some money on the sly is small potatoes).

It's very unfortunate that The Courier Tribune specializes in lies of omission.  Because if we had a local newspaper that was worth a damn (sorry, Mama) - as opposed to a bought-and-paid for suck-up machine, I think Asheboro's "not-so-right" citizenry would've put a stop to a lot of this good-ole-boy CRAP a long time ago.  Our town might not be in the top ten of a list nobody wants to be on.

We-the-People might even have a good reason to buy newspapers again . . .

And now, dear readers, it seems like a good time to step back, take a real blogging break, and let word-of-mouth work its magic . . . while I work on projects that need my undivided attention this fall and winter.  Feel free to peruse the sidebar or search the blog archives.  The whole ugly story . . . downplayed, buried and ignored for years and years . . . is all there.

I'm gonna close now with an observation about my hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina:

Asheboro was never really "Mayberry", you know.  It's always been a mill town where the haves ruled the have-nots . . . where the mill-owners decided what was best for everybody - after they decided was best for themselves first.  In large part, this paternalistic environment was fairly benevolent, but ugly things did happen.  Most got along to get along.  Those who didn't like it left.

Those of us who grew up here saw the ugly and learned our lessons very young.  Many left swearing never to return.  Those of us who came back - hoping to change the town for the better - found we either had to "break" and become part of it . . . or have our hearts broken.

It's why I don't feel like going to Pinewood in two weeks and toasting Asheboro High.  Sorry, Jane.  Sorry Suzanne.

Back in the early nineties, things took a more sinister turn.  A group of men with MBA's and law degrees found a small Southern town in North Carolina and decided to take it over.  And they did - with very little resistance - by networking via the various small town civic groups (most notably the Rotary Club) - and even trying to weave local churches into their web.  Over the years, these self-described "right people" preached small town values and charity . . . all the while compounding on what I have often heard referred to as "the mill town mentality".  In a short period of time, they enjoyed absolute power over our banks/economy and our hospital and our community college and our schools and (most disconcertingly) our newspaper.

And you know what they say about absolute power . . .

While they advanced their own careers and filled their pockets (oftentimes on the public's dime), they methodically trampled the hopes and dreams of good people sucked in by their empty promises (I lost count of the doctors who came to Asheboro because of its Mayberrish qualities and wound up leaving in disgust . . . or the nurses who work out-of-town), and literally killed the town.

No one talked back to "the team".  Real oversight and accountability were non-existent.

Small-town values were not reflected at all in the despicable/amoral things these community leaders and their "teams" did.  And their "vision" did not extend beyond their next quarter profits.

It's 2010.  The town has been bled dry . . . by self-serving schemers like Bob Morrison whose absurd/obscene/offensive compensation package courtesy of a "non-profit" hospital that cried poor-mouth to me in 2001 - and in 2010 has been laying off nurses/cutting their time - makes California-crooks-masquerading-as-public-servants look almost angelic (one friend calls Bob the Bernie Madoff of Asheboro).  The worst-kept secret in town in that Federal regulators are preparing to take over First National Bank/Community One . . . Randolph Technical College is on probation . . . Randolph Hospital is the laughing stock of the state (certainly a hospital that no savvy Pediatrician in their right mind would touch with a ten-foot-pole) . . . our local economy is in the tank . . . and our City Council can "hire" the reporters that cover its actions not to cover its actions.

Alcohol aint' gonna fix that.

And I'm wondering.  WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO STOP IT?

When does the local populace rise up and say, "STOP LYING TO US AND STOP RIPPING US OFF!!!" . . . when do they throw these liars and thieves
out?

While they're at it, why can't they send two of them to jail?

A new friend (who understands all too well what I've been through) and I were talking one evening last week on the phone, and something she said really hit home:

Mary, YOU DID NOT DESERVE WHAT THIS TOWN DISHED OUT.  You DESERVE to working at home . . . sleeping in your own bed . . . having dinner with your Mama any time you want . . . seeing your niece and your nephew any time the mood strikes . . . and serving the children of THIS community . . . as opposed to somewhere else far away.

YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.  YOU HELPED THAT BABY AND THOSE PARENTS.  You DESERVE TO BE COMPLETELY VINDICATED and TOTALLY FREE of thinking about this EVERY SINGLE DAY since the day it happened.

We know how you feel.  And we're going to stand with you and we're going to help."

At the risk of sounding maudlin, I had to choke back a sob when I heard that.

"We're going to help".  How many YEARS I have waited to hear someone (someone I wasn't paying just to screw me over) say that?

And isn't it just PATHETIC and sad that, in all of the time that my story has been on the public record, the offer has NEVER come from ANY of the high-minded right people" . . . or politicians . . . or local journalists . . . who should have said it?

The list is long.

P.S.  For anyone else who would like to ask Bob Morrison about this salary & benefits package . . . or about what he did to Dr. Mary Johnson, his e-mail address is rem@randolphhospital.org.

Tell him Mary Johnson sent you;)