Gee Whizzz- What a sore head!   

Gee whiz?? It seems to me anonymous is right on target in reference to the hospital, people need to dig their collective head out of the sand and look at the hospital and the true patient/employee complaints!

I agree with you about Dr. Olsen - he is a good doctor. He's been my family's doctor for years. He went out of his way to help my mom and our family out when she was diagnosed with cancer. He's also helped me with my asthma throughout the many years and most likely saved my life on several occasions. I have no doubt he would be a good addition to the hospital board because of his experience in this community, his medical expertise and his goodwill toward every patient he has. I can't see how this malpractice claim or suspension would affect his role on a hospital board. It just seems to be someone's attempt to smear a good physician during election time.

I don't think anyone is saying that Dr. Olsen is not a good physician or a nice man.  I think the question is that Doctors should not be running for the board, it is a conflict of interest, and as they have stated they will negotiate contracts that benefit their patients.  what about all of the people in Tehachapi that have kaiser? 

If you know anything about hospital administration, your opinion would be different.  It has nothing to do with him being a good Doctor.  People need to be more informed, and of course as a Doctor he is going to show you his best, for you as the patient is his bread and butter.  If you listen to him talk about managing a hospital, it is scary..

In response to "anonymus" -  It seems, based on recent political ads in the the Tehachapi News, that there some people saying that Dr Olsen is not a good Doctor and therefore should not be on the Board.  As to Doctors running the hospital I almost agree with you.  I think that the hospital should be run by people with an assortment of talents.  I feel that business people have a place as do medical people on the board.  I believe that a board consisting of only frame of mind will not offer the most for the hospital or the community. 

Hi Robert;

I would like to try to answer your  question about GEMCare's relationship with Tehachapi Hospital.  The employees of Tehachapi Hospital have a full array of employee benefits including employer sponsored health insurance.  The current health insurance plan for employees is with Health Net of California.  It is an HMO plan that requires that TVHD employees choose a primary care physician.  Almost all of the physicians in Tehachapi are on the panel for Health Net through either 1 of 2 networks.  1 of the networks is GEMCare.  The other network is BFMC.  Drs. Olsen, Hall, Horowitz, Reyna and Pesche, in the local community are GEMCare physicians.  Drs. Riggs and Cribbs, located at Oak Tree Medical Center on South Mill Street are with BFMC.  Tehachapi Hospital employees may choose any of those doctors as their primary care physician.  Which doctor they choose, determines if the employee is assigned to GEMCare or BFMC.  Since Tehachapi Hospital currently does not contract with either GEMCare or BFMC, our employees are not covered under our own insurance to use our hospital, except for the emergency room which they legally cannot deny.  Interestingly enough this is not a new phenomenon.  Even when Tehachapi Hospital did have a contract with GEMCare and BFMC, both of these entities routinely referred our employees to Bakersfield for services that were contractually provided by our hospital.  We made the painful decision in 2004 to cancel those contracts because (1) they paid at a rate well under our costs to provide services and (2) they routinely referred patients to Bakersfield for services that we provided under contract to their members.

For the future, TVHD should consider switching its employee health insurance plan to a Health Plan that does contract with our hospital such as the new CIGNA agreement that will go into effect on November 1, 2006.

Thank you for clarifying that.. i did not know about the ads..

Anonymous
Why dont you go ahead and ask about the tons of writeoffs he gives to people that come in the hospital and complain. It's a good way to keep patients complaints hush hush. TVHD has to eat it whenever anyone complains about serices or patient care. Ray Hino is a Excellent PR person, but thats it. Of course the money has to be made up somehow. People open your eyes and dig a little further inside those walls. Now that we are getting a new CEO hopefully the hospital will run more professionally. If you ask me they seriously need to clean house.

Gee Whiz it looks like anonymous is supporting anonymous...to bad it is the same person..............Stop talking bad about the hospital get off your rear and do something about it........Oh wait thats right anonymous is running for Hosp board.....Ray got the Hosp back on track everyone says that, he made some people mad doing it but he did it....What CEO is loved by everyone?

You are sooo pathetically clueless, it's laughable.

You are the one that is clueless 'preggstcooper'! I work in and out of Tehachapi Hosp. everyday! Do you?

Nice commit preggstcooper. It makes me want to believe what the others are saying, NOT you! The hospital is 75% better now then 10 years ago. Do you want the Iran hostage guy back?

Yes,  as a matter of fact I did but, I decided to keep my dignity. It was the most unprofessional place I've ever experienced. The things that go on there would not fly at all in the real world. My experience was disgusting. I am not speaking of the hospital as a whole. And how could you say that Ray made people mad getting the hospital back on track? I dont know a single person that doesnt want the hospital to be better. No matter who wins the seats on the board, I just hope that they open their eyes and clean some house. Thats all I am saying. Sorry I offended you so much.

I want a better hospital, at my age I should. I do however know that putting a monopoly in charge of the hospital is a bad idea no matter what they want. Do not give 100% control to the doctors, or any group for that matter. Stop talking bad about everyone that does not feel the same as you. I have been going to this hospital for more then 30 years now. It is getting better every year. I like going to this hospital and waiting 30 minutes to an hour instead of the 2 to 6 hour waits at the Bakersfield hospitals. KMC wait time is from 4 to 12 hours every night. If you don't believe me go by and see. If your dieing you go right to the back. That's the same at Tehachapi or any other hospital. It's 1st come 1st served. Unless you are in need more then the others waiting. So if you go and wait for 2 hours or more then you may have needed to wait and seen your own doctor the next day or drove down to an urgent care. The Doctors that are running for the board have or still do work the ER. So if you hate the ER at Tehachapi then why vote for the guys that work there? We have piss poor doctors in Tehachapi in town and at the hospital. Hopefully a new hospital will bring in some better ones. Let the board that got this new hospital on the way, keep working to get it built on time. I wish Halaska and Tueland were back!

It's a free country, I can talk the way I want. You're opinion is that we have piss poor doctors in this town. Well your entitled to that, just like I am entitled to mine. You have no idea who I am voting for, but it seems you think you know. By your comments it seems as though you are not understanding what I am even talking about. I know the hospital has come a long way. I have lived her for 24 years. I am talking about internal hospital issues. I am talking about certain employees that treat the hospital like it's their own personal playground. I wish I could sit down and tell you my experience. My employment there, for lack of better words, was gross. I feel sad for my friends that have to work there cause they choose not to drive down the hill to work, just like you choose not to drive down the hill to wait for E.R care. Nothing has changed since I left. Your told if you dont like it leave, you can be replaced. Nothing gets resolved. It's business as usual. I remember Tueland. I liked him very much. That would be nice.