Tehachapi News

Washburn and all other concerned citizens of Tehachapi.  Welcome to the real world of TVHD stacked deck policies. I have been trying to tell the folks of this great community for years that those DOCTORS are anti Hospital. and have been since the beginning. If they are not replaced in the up coming election , Tehachapi will not see a new Hospital on the hill, and maybe never anywhere . If y'all would read through the blog postings , you will see some of the facts and truths of just what has been taking place. 

    The good folks of Tehachapi need to wake up and see how they have been led down the path of deciet by the GOOD OLD BOY DOCTORS of the community . What a shame 

     Check those posted by TK

   I have returned from the missing. Actually I was not missing. just waitihg for some new comments.Washburn is right on with his oppinions about the DOCTORS not wanting a new Hospital. Read through the blogs that have been posted, and you will see that problem has been addressed 

Well, we still don't have a hospital or completed and approved plans.  I've lived here for 15 years.  15 years I've heard about this hospital. 

It this point, I have absolutely no trust in what any one says about what we are gonna get for hundreds of millions of dollars.  It is crazy budgetry.  I don't think the doctors want this hospital because they may be obliged to actually go to work!!!  Good luck with that.

I tell everyone ..... if I get really sick ..... take the time and take me all the way into the Orange County Saint Jude Hospital.  I wouldn't let the doctors at the Tehachapi Hospital sew up a small cut.  I have stories and have told stories on this site ..... the doctors that work our hospital are irresponsible.  Plane and simple.  You want to live ...... make a trip outside Tehachapi.

    John : The information that you were receiving was from the inmates that took over the running of the prison . I must inform you that these guys are slick as they come. If you were to go back on the history of the hospital, and its reputation prior to the hiring of Mr. Hino you will find that the good folks of Tehachapi would not have passed a bond issue for $15.00 much less the one for $15 Mil  that took a whole lot of us concerned local citizens a lot of blood sweat and tears to get passed. At the time it was given thought to ask for more, but the general opinion was that we were pushing our luck to even get as much as we did. All interested parties were fully aware (including the voters i might add). that there would be need for more money . At the time, there were several options available to get the funds to complete the project, and many investors waiting for things to start happening so they could jump on the band wagon. When the new board took over it was "ABANDON SHIP"  It seemed as though an all point bulletin had been put out warning of what was going to happen.  Know what , IT DID ! ! As I had mentioned before "Its complicated and involved"  One could go on and on.

 TK's "some facts for you" argument needs to be addressed since they claim these facts were "all documented in TVHD Board minutes". Having attended those meetings and not recollecting those "facts" as stated, I re-read through the original Dec.20, 2006 and Jan.17, 2007 board meeting minutes and found no public open-meeting (or even closed session) discussion by the board of the new hospital development/status in either the Old Business or New Business sessions. Having just been installed as board members, there was nothing to discuss or decide on - just updates from the CEO. The only information covered on the new hospital status was in the Administrator's Report by Interim CEO Bob Duncan with no action taken other than a vote to accept the reports.

The Dec.'06 Administrator's Report gave an update on the new hospital status and stated that the "LAFCO plan for the annexation of Broome Ranch (donated property) from County property to Tehachapi City was approved." His report was simply accepted by the board. The meeting minutes contained nothing about the board moving "to quietly drop/cancel the pre-construction plans put in place." as asserted. The Jan. '07 Administrator's Report was another info update on the new hospital development status where Duncan stated "due to cost constraints" construction of the new hospital Administration Building "may be delayed" because it was already clear the project was over budget. It was the architect's recommendation that the Admin building be cut out of the plans as a cost saving measure, not the board's. There's no mention in the minutes of discussion or board action that "agreements were being dropped and the timeline for construction was being stripped" (unless suggested by the architects themselves) since the building plans had only been submitted to OSHPD for review some 11 months before.

To set the record straight on the board's intent as I read it, I was asked to act as interim project manager in Oct.2007 precisely because the board had heard nothing of the status of the building plan approval at OSHPD "for many months". Initially they simply asked me to investigate and report on the status, what the holdup might be on final approval, and if I could do anything to help the architects locally or otherwise to "break the logjam" and move the plans forward. The architect firm admitted to me personally at the time that they estimated the construction cost alone (i.e., no furnishings, medical equipment, etc.) to be almost twice what they had originally thought (and recall we only had $15M "in the bank" at the time from the first bond sale). That's one reason they were suggesting cutting out non-critical buildings such as the Admin Bldg. and other cost saving measures, etc. in an attempt to get the budget under some kind of control. It was clear then that we were going to have to raise considerable extra funds from new sources such as bank loans, a second public bond, corporate donations, etc. as we discussed with the architects. Several ideas from several sources were suggested but loans didn't pan out.

        These are FACTS! ( "A thing that has actually happened,or is  really true") Websters

               I can guarantee that the Engineers that are employed by the State of California and responsible for the final approval by OSHPOD  will not put even a preliminary or partial OK on any plans that are not complete, and  buildable. That is " FACT"

              The original plans submitted by ASAI were approved and the areas in question were in "FACT" corrected prior to be released back to the ASAI group.

           As a matter of "FACT"  In the late 1980's I was partners in an Electrical Engineering Co (Bartenstein Elect. Eng ) in Bakersfield Ca.

             In "FACT" We did work  for a company  known as CDMC that was responsible for the installation of several MRI  facilities throughout  So. Cal., and I did in "FACT" have direct dealings with the folks at OSHPOD

Again I have waded through the above commentaries, informed and uninformed, biased or unbiased regarding the problems regarding building a new medical facility and some of the Tehachapi Medical community who, when they received their licenses to practice medicine some years ago, swore an oath, the Hippocratic oath, to do no harm to others in the practice of their art, (which I was raised to believe meant to care for those injured or ill to the best of the abilities of the Doctor called to help).  Medicine was considered an art in the dark ages, not a profitible business venture, as seems to be the credo now.

I've read through opinions regarding the infallibility of Boards of Directors and other political bodies whose opinions are supposedly forbidden to be colored by conflicts of personal interest ie: furnishing computers and soft ware to store patients' medical records with Federal grant monies and matching funds from TVHD, among other programs - a couple of which did benefit the community at large- (your tax dollars, folks).  Where did the majority of that $3 million go?

And on and on and on.

Thanks to TK, some of the smoke and mirrors have been blown away - there is no proof that attending a board meeting as a member of the public will get you  close to the truth of what is going on in 'closed session' and various committee meetings - you will hear what the Board and Administration want you to hear, and nothing more. 

Those who want to see the TVHD survive had best get serious about the up-coming Board election.  The three MDs who were elected by their patients, for the most part- (and I believe that my Dr. walks just above the waves, too,) who were told that they could make things better with the present hospital and build a new one with no sweat, are up for re election.  I reserve judgmet on the present hospital - I have had excellant care there as have many of my friends.  I also have heard some horror stories - unfortunately, 'you can't win 'em all'.  Well, according to JHicks, it will still take a miracle for the board to slog through all of the pitfalls awaiting new construction - is this an excuse for failure? - and "git 'er done", which I understand is the slogan of the Board.

Being a Board member requires time and ability.  There are department meetings, finance meetings - meetings, meetings and meetings, that must be attended.  There are business matters that must be seen to.  There is personnel that must be overseen.  This is a serious committment.  You must be willing to serve the community and be responsible for the management of the hospital. 

I pray that there are at least three souls in the Tehachapi Valley Hospital District that are brave enough and have the skill to take on this task.

So, in short, WHAT NEW EQUIPMENT DID THESE DOCTORS PURCHASE FOR THEIR OFFICES?  I have BEEN in all three offices; and have not seen anything different from when I first began using their services in 2000!  What did each doctor DO with their share of the $3M???  Go on fancy vacations, put kids through college, add on to or fix up their own home at the expense of tax payers??  Why did the federal governemnt not ask for accounting on this money; how it was spent? This is absolutely disgusting!  I am sorry to say that I only use these doctors as a last resort and not one of them could save my life if he/she had to! I know for a FACT that this "hospitalist" DOES NOT SHOW HIS FACE TO SEE HIS PATIENTS...if a patient starts to have problems once he/she is admiited to Tehachapi Hospital this doctor relies on the lab results, x-rays reports FAXED to him  and the telephoniic conversations between himself and the nurses to decide if his patient needs to be transfered to a bigger hospital for a higher level of care!  ABSURD!  What happened to the days when a doctors would "make rounds" and actually physically SEE their patients in the hospital? So, when YOU: Mr. or Mrs. Public are admitted to Tehachapi Hospital plan on probably never seeing this doctors; yet getting a huge bill for his "daily visits"!  Forget Tehachapi Hospital...buy yourselves a fast car and DRIVE like hell down to Bakersfield!

TK, thanks for posting. I would say that we did have an unbuildable set of plans. This I know for sure, as I have taken the time to investigate the old plans. They were generated by an architect who had who had never designed a hospital before and employed a large dose of, shall we say, wishful thinking.I would think that a lawsuit against this architect is  being looked into at this point.

The rest of your post gets into areas that I have no knowledge of. I would be interested if someone else who knows the the history of the things that you allege would post a comment. That would make for an interesting discussion. It  would provide us with  some much needed information to talk about and maybe we could have a real debate here rather than a lot of unsubstantiated emotional strereotyping.

Here's some facts for you.  In 2005-2006 it became almost impossible to get any local doctor to attend a non-assigned (did not have a local doctor) patient who needed hospital admittance.  The Medical Staff was responsible for having one of their own on call until they voted to make coverage the responsibility of hospital administration.  In other words, our local doctors couldn't be bothered leaving home at night or on a weekend to attend someone who was poor or uninsured and needed to be cared for in a hospital bed.  Once the Medical Staff abdicated their responsibility, the Board and Administration moved to hire a company to supply the community with a hospitalist - a doctor whose job is to attend the admitted patients.  This so infuriated certain members of the Medical Staff that they decided to run for Board seats.  There was also a matter of a $3M Matching Funds Federal Grant that certain doctors were profiting from that was going to go away if they didn't gain control of both the hospital Board and the EKCITA Board (the instrument designed to spend the Grant Funds).  With the assistance of an outside political hack, three doctors managed to work together to spin a line of crap that the public lapped up.  Remember how they warned that we'd never see a new hospital unless they were elected? 

Once elected, in November 2006, and installed in office, December 2006, they moved to quietly drop / cancel the pre-construction plans put in place.  By January 2007 agreements were being dropped and the timeline for construction was being stripped.  This was ten months before the plans were scheduled to come out of OSHPD review so it was not in response to a "faulty plan".   They moved to cancel the Hospitalist program but were stopped by the administration head of the time, Bob Duncan.  Boy, was that a screaming match.  During this time the Broome Ranch people, who were giving our community the land for the new hospital, delivered the deed transfer agreement.  It had previously been approved by TVHD lawyers and then sent to Broome lawyers for final approval, and now it was back for Board acceptance.  Except, it wasn't accepted.  The news flash said TVHD lawyers found a law that wouldn't allow TVHD to give back the land if the new hospital wasn't built there, but they hadn't had such a revelation in the two years previous - only after the Board changed hands.  Now the deed stated that Broome would only get the first right to purchase at fair market value if TVHD didn't want the land anymore.  Odd that the Broome Ranch has given land and buildings in other philanthropic ventures and never had a problem with the law before. 

Anyway, the hospital Board voted to give all oversight of the Matching Funds Federal Grant money to the Board of EKCITA, even though the hospital was still responsible to the Federal Government for how the money was spent.  Two hospital Board members retained ex-officio status on the EKCITA Board, and they were getting equipment in their businesses as part of the Grant plan.  Please reread those facts again, I think they are significant.  It is all documented in TVHD Board Minutes.  Has anyone heard of EKCITA lately?  Did they blow through the money, all $3M, and get less than half of the goals completed?  These are the same people who have promised us a new hospital for four years and are further behind than we were in 2006. 

I could go on with more facts, but I'll give ya'll a chance to digest.  BTW JHicks, what is the "agenda" to which you allude? 

 I think Mr. Evelguth and I simply have a marked disagreement about whether the community can trust the TVHD board to faithfully complete the new hospital by 2013 - I can accept that. He and I have met and discussed much of this in the past, but he is set in his opinion, which as I said is his right to express. I likewise was somewhat skeptical about the expertise and business acumen of a bunch of doctors when they first ran for the board, and, as one of the doctors told me sometime back when I was interim project manager, he never realized how much complexity there was to a building development project such as this and how much he had learned about executing a project in general. I must say all the board have been quick learners and so ask tough questions of the CEO/project manager now with much more appreciation of what the community is up against with the state building standards, costs, schedules, etc. It really doesn't make any difference if you are a supporter or not of the current board and hospital project; what is far more important is public participation and an inquiring interest in how the project is progressing, what the issues and problems are, how the budget and building schedule is holding up to meet the 2013 completion date, etc. So I hope you all see why I urge ALL in the community to participate in the board meetings as much as possible to make sure this gets done - that includes everyone Mr. Evelguth!! It's your hospital/your tax dollars, and so you have a big stake in its completion no matter what you might think of the board. We truly can't waste time bickering over who would make up a more ideal board. There are very few experts in this community in developing the new hospital whether they be health worker, business person, CCI worker, construction worker, or whatever.

I guess if you print something as  FACT in capital letters it automatically becomes a fact. How could I have not been aware of this earlier? All you have to do is print FACT in capital letters to make an opinion a fact.

      Thank you John for accepting my opinion. The reason you do not see me at any of the board meeting is as simple as my remarks about the inmates running the prison. Why bother when one is pretty sure of the end results. I told anyone that would listen, that if the doctors took over control of the hospital,the new hospital would face certain death. Mission accomplished, with your unsuspecting help, a partial report from a totally unknown Architect from OZ ( Las Vegas) and the clean sweep of any and all previous research , reports , surveys, approvals accomplished by ASAI and the previous board. 

      You all are in the mix of small town politics being administered by the good old boy Doctors. 

     Sad but true, that hospital would be almost up and running if they had not taken over

       That is not an opinion, that is a FACT  

 Latest comments from Jswift and mandolin on a lack of facts, specifics or accuracy from Mr. Evelguth are correct. His view of the TVHD board and call for replacement is only his opinion, which he is perfectly within his right to express. Simply put, on the original hospital design of 2006-2008, the boards tortured decision to drop it to save the community from a potentially very risky, high cost development, and what I believe is their sincere efforts since then to build with a more workable, lower risk/conventional design - have been summarily ignored by some in the community (who have other agendas). Part of the problem is that most (like Mr. Evelguth) never attend a TVHD board meeting to see what's really going on (or perhaps haven't  attended in years). My wife and I have rarely missed a TVHD board meeting since 2004. So if you are REALLY interested in the facts of what's been going on, both from my experience/knowledge as a project manager there and in my faithful attendance of meetings, - then just ask me. I can share a lot of information of what's been going on, and what the real obstacles are to completing this thing. And believe me, as a retired project manager with many years of practical experience, the new hospital development before us is not easy, even with the successful second bond just passed that finally makes the budget realistic to achieve the new facility. But even so, there are yet many obstacles and difficulties to pull this off - even with sufficient funds and a workable, conventional design. Unfunded state seismic demands and building standards are VERY hard to meet by the state's own admission, so ANY board/project manager/CEO would face a severe challenge with this situation!

Mandolin, thanks for your input. I think what we see here is opinion being presented as fact.And when I ask for facts to back up evelguth's opinions all I get is the same opinions presented as facts again.I have no problem with evelguth's opinions per se. But I would like to see evelguth back up his/her opinions with some facts. As often happens on this website, facts don't seem important to him/her.

Be careful what you ask for, Jswift!  I've asked evelguth for specifics on this very topic, and he/she tells me it's just "too complicated" to get into.  Better to bathe the blogs with inflammatory generalizations, I guess.

evelguth, you have made a bunch of generalisations about doctors here. Could you please give me some specifics? I am at a loss to see exactly what you are talking about.

      You certainly know a bunch of doctors that are different than most. The ones that I am familiar with spend their time making people well. They have a staff that makes appointments, does the billing, runs the office,keeps the books, and what ever else it takes. They also have CPA's to keep an eye on that bottom line to make sure the ROI is in order. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Having  them calling the shots is like having the players coach the team. The judgement calls may not always be the proper decision, or may not be in the best interest of all parties concerned. They may not be fair to all,?  are they based on the truth,? will it be beneficial to the community,? do they understand all that is needed to maintain and keep the place going?   Do they, or will they abide by the rules if things are not just as they might like? If they don't like something, good bad, or indifferent, they can make changes as they desire. Not the way to run a successful business. 

 Evelguth, thanks for your quick reply. I think you have brought up a very interesting point as to the definition of "Socialism". If everyone uses their own opinion of what "Socialism" is it makes it a very difficult subject for folks to discuss. You really can't debate opinions.I guess  the old saying bears some repeating "we have to define our terms" before we can have any sort of intelligent discussion on anything.That is, if we do want to have any kind of meaningful discussion of a topic.If we just want to rant about a topic, no definition is needed. Definitions are not important and facts are immaterial. In that case, It's just all raw emotion being expressed. Not that there is anything wrong with raw emotion.But let's label it for what it is.

  I fail to see any parrallel between "the fox is guarding henhouse" and "there are doctors on the hospital Board".I will say that all the doctors I have known that are in private practice are excellent administrators and business people. They have to be. Otherwise they don't survive in private practice.

 So I would love to hear why it is bad to have doctors on the Hospital Board.I really don't understand what you are trying to say here.

     Both of your questions are very interesting. KInd of like baiting the hook, and casting to see what you can catch.

     Not wanting  to get into a long study period of various matters,  concerning forms of governments and the interpretation of each, I'll let you you come to your own conclusion as to the socialism question. Like many things in life, we must all draw our own opinions, and learn from there.

     As for the question regarding the "DOCTORS" running the hospital it is very simple. "The inmates are running the prison" ,"The fox is guarding the chicken coop", and I guess I could go on, but I hope you get the idea. I repeat. "THEY ARE DOCTORS" not administrators 

So evelguth, what is your definition of socialism?And what is wrong with having doctors on the Hospital Board? Please let me know the answers to these questions.

       WOW, are some  of the voters coming to realize that we elect  those people on those BOD to do what is in the best interest of "OUR" community, and not for what they may think  will further their cause ,or is what THEY want. ?

      Look at what happened in our nation capital, we wanted, and needed change ,and came close to being blind sided into a socialistic  bunch of ANTI DEMOCRACY zealots  telling US what is best for US  .  They probably would have succeeded had they not tried to do it all at once. 

    It is so true that recalls are expensive, cumbersome, and nasty. Please note that I did not ask for a recall, I only posed a question to get the folks to take a good look at what is preventing the construction of the badly needed new Hospital, and replace the problem with fresh new qualified minds.

  I repeat "THEY ARE DOCTORS " 

Actually, there haven't been that many recall elections in relation to the number of elections/elected offices in tehachapi over the years, although a few. There has been a lot of hubub with the TUSD recall, as is the case with most any recall effort (due to the extreme passions), but in actuality few recalls have been implemented by voters. I do remember a recall of the hospital board in the late '90s (again, some very real  passionate issues), but other than that one, the current school district recall is the only one in recent times. I may just be overlooking some due to poor memory. However, if the percentage is, in reality, very low, it's probably not fair to chastise the public in this regard and imply every official suffers, or will suffer, such a fate. Usually, there is reason for a recall (it doesn't happen for no reason at all). If a recall is successful, the democratic process was served (whether any of us here agree or not); after all, each blogger is one member of the public and doesn't represent the public (we are just more outspoken here and energetic in our opinons). But, this is a very interesting topic.

 Let;s see. We have already completely trashed the school board and we are starting to do the same thing to the Hospital Board. I am sure that some other elected person or persons  will be next after we get through with the Hospital Board. So I would like to make a rather modest proposal to the voters. To save money on recall elections (they are rather expensive we have learned), let's just have one big recall election for all the elected ofiices in the Greater Tehachapi area.This will solve the problem of the expense and bother of a lot of individual recall elections. We know that every official around here sooner or later will subjected to a recall election so why not get it over with and just have one big recall election ? This will save us all a lot of time and money. The idea is so simple and logical that i don't know why we didn't think of it long ago. One big recall election for everybody!

The public is us so they (we) can do what they (we) want, irrespective of logic, rationale or anything else. The public can decide to one thing one time and the opposite another and the public requires no justification for its action. So, anything the "public" does it can do without any real question of merit. Now, the fact that the public has the "right" to do all this does not always make it "right". But, I guess the important thing is we live in a country where such a process exists (whether you or I agree or disagree with that action).

To the topic at hand, as regards the TVHCD I don't think it's an issue of the inabiilty of the board (composed mostly of doctors who perform at the hospital and are financially affected by its business operations--certainly have a vested special interest) but rather their special interest hindering basic objectivity. It would be nice if the health care district board were composed of one doctor for his/her insight into the medical aspects with the balance of the board containing other business or technical skills. That would be my druther, but that's hard to do in an election (where people "like" someone based on perception rather than on actual qualification).

Isn’t it odd that the public gets their shorts in a bunch over the perception of teachers running the school Board, but defend the factual (not perception) reality of doctors running the hospital Board? The public opinions are bi-polar.