Northeast Essent...2/8

Greetings from the Northeast (specifically, Ayer, Massachusetts)

We are alive but not well! Recently discovered your blog and couldn’t believe what was before my eyes. The same management style has been felt by all current and former employees here at Neshoba Valley Medical Center. Let’s start by setting you straight on former CEO Andrei Soran. Andrei was a “puppet” for Hud and his “buds” and only had one thing in mind. The almighty dollar! Andrei and his senior “MIS-MANAGEMENT” team were and still are incompetent when it comes to their ability to provide quality care to the residents of these communities.

The same tactics of suspension and job termination are issued to quality care givers who speak to advocate for safer working conditions. Essent healthcare is unwilling and unable to provide a quality workplace and a standard of care which is the acceptable standard throughout the nation. It’s healthcare on the cheap.

NVMC is a 57 bed hospital which has never been at capacity and struggles week to week to keep 20 patients on the floor. The 6 bed Intensive Care Unit closes every other week due to lack of patients or no staff. Word is out in these communities to drive a few extra miles to Emerson Hospital, Leominster Hospital or the Lowell Hospitals to have a chance at a good outcome. One patient made a $1000 donation to a local ambulance service to bring him to a facility other than Nashoba Valley Medical Center.

The new CEO Steve Roach (previously the CFO) is a 33 year old bean counter who spends his time photographing employees as they drive up to the back door to punch in. These photographs are distributed to department managers with threats of written warnings and termination. All managers are required to park in a designated area of the parking lot “FOR MANAGERS ONLY.” The security department is often requested to run plates to be sure rules are being followed. The latest is PARKING TICKETS to any staff violating Essent’s parking rules. While all this is taking place patients have empty O2 tanks, antibiotic doses are consistently left over from failure to be given, PACS is down for 3 days, Human Resource Manager functioning as Nursing Supervisor on 11 to 7 shift, patients being boarded in the Emergency Room overnight due to lack of staff, hospitalists are no where to be found after 8 pm , 3 physicians resigned from the medical staff due to the poor quality of care. The “red sox” program for denoting risk to fall patients is a miserable failure. A visiting family found a patient lying on the floor yelling help with her RED SOX on as they came off an elevator.

If you visit the NVMC job postings you’ll see that in 2006 over 100 positions have been open. In the last year the CEO, Risk Manager, CNO, PT Manager, Pharmacy Director, and IT Director have all moved on. Essent’s philosophy of hiring new grads is in full swing up here also. However, it has come back to bite them in the butt. The Radiology Department is currently under investigation by the Department of Public Health for having an unlicensed and unregistered technologist working since May 2006. She has failed the registry 3 times. Essent is facing fines for each day she worked unlicensed. Administration had full knowledge of this and chose to ignore it.

The Board of Registration in Medicine is also in town. There have been 4 physicians on staff at Nashoba Valley Medical Center under investigation by the state for numerous violations. I can assure you it was not due to Esssent’s administration that investigations took place. It was ethical employees and patients who had to go out on a limb to protect the public. Essent’s policy was COVER IT UP. It became a police state in the hospital. If you were caught talking about the situation you were disciplined.

The bottom line is residents of the Nashoba Valley expect and deserve to have access to high quality healthcare. It is time for Essent healthcare to put Nashoba Valley Medical Center “FOR SALE” and give these communities a chance to receive the quality medical care they deserve.

So long from Ayer, MA “Where Excellence is (Non) Essential”

Essent is gold--fool's gold. Note to all the bean counters: Only one out of five hospitals has not piped up....frank