Audit report reveals major failings at USVI cancer centre
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| Published on Thursday, July 31, 2008 |
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By Susan Mann
Caribbean Net News USVI Correspondent
Email: susan@caribbeannetnews.com
ST THOMAS, USVI: A news story published by the Virgin Islands Daily News on Monday, along with a government audit report released the following day has revealed massive and widespread failings in the financial and medical operations at the new Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute on St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
Daily News reporters Joy Blackburn and Tim Fields spent months looking into scattered allegations that some cancer patients were having trouble accessing, or even receiving critical, life saving services at the new Schneider Regional Medical Center (SRMC) Facility.
Meanwhile, the Finance Committee of the USVI Legislature, chaired by Sen. Louis Hill, was awaiting the results of an extensive audit it had originally requested in July of 2006.
The findings of the two reporters seem to indicate that Kimelman’s front-line, medical providers; doctors and support staff, and even a pharmacist at a St Thomas K-Mart discount store, may possess greater awareness of patient ethics and responsibilities than former hospital President and CEO Rodney Miller, whom the hospital board of directors first hired in May 2002.
What follows regarding the corporate financial and medical management decisions Miller, as well as the Board of Directors of Schneider Regional Medical Center made during the years 2006-2007 after Kimelman first began receiving cancer patients, was gleaned from the documented and reported findings of Blackburn and Fields, and the results of the lengthy audit released by Government House late Tuesday.
When convicted criminal and former Schneider Regional Medical Center CEO Rodney Miller, who had falsified information about his military record on his original job application, was offered another signed contract by the SRMC Board on May 14, 2007, he became the most highly compensated public servant in US Virgin Islands history.
Miller had previously stood before a United States naval court-martial judge, then after a string of appeals regarding the punishment meted out to him, was dishonorably discharged from the US Navy for stealing and using a credit card belonging to another service man.
Adding to the severity of Miller’s punishment was an attempt to carry out an elaborate, but failed scheme that involved falsifying military record logs with the help of other service men to cover his tracks. Miller was then sentenced to serve time in the brig, the equivalent of a civilian jail, before leaving the US military in 2000.
Two years later Miller was hired as the President and CEO of what was then Schneider Regional Hospital, located on St Thomas. Board members say the hospital used an outside hiring agency to bring Miller to the territory.
In May 2007, when Miller signed what would later turn out to be his final contract with the re-named Schneider Regional Medical Center, he had been overseeing operations and services to cancer patients at Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute for approximately one year since the 18 million dollar treatment center for outpatient radiation and chemotherapy facility had begun treating cancer patients in May 2006.
The 2007 contract the President and CEO signed paid him an annual salary of $536,000, plus a considerable benefits package amounting to a total contract worth of about $750,000. At the time Miller signed the contract, attorney Amos Carty, who is currently the CEO, was not only supervised by Miller, but was also the hospital’s attorney.
During that same timeframe, word began to spread on-island that some cancer patients were literally turned away when they arrived for the treatment ordered by their physicians to treat their deadly, opportunistic disease.
While some were told they could not receive their treatment when they arrived for appointments, others were phoned and told not to come as scheduled; either because the hospital had not paid the bills associated with keeping the radiation therapy equipment properly maintained, or because the prescribed medication cancer patients needed for their treatments was not to be found at Kimelman.
These critical medical incidents created delays in the receiving of clinically-timed radiation therapy; medical treatments that must be strictly scheduled and adhered to, if patients are to receive full benefit, thus increasing their odds of being kept alive by the treatments.
Miller seemingly did not find these events of particular, catastrophic importance in the lives of the territory’s cancer patients and their families. For example, he instructed Kimelman Administrator Renee Adams to tell one dying cancer patient, who had called a local radio station about the problems she was having receiving her scheduled care, that if she didn’t stop talking with the media she would not be permitted to continue receiving treatment unless she paid her bill in full.
Adams refused Miller’s directive. She also wrote detailed monthly reports, documenting and outlining her worries about the financial and treatment concerns for the SRMC board’s review. Miller then proceeded to alter those reports before the board saw them.
When he fired Adams at a later date, Miller told her she was not a team player and had not promoted the services of the cancer center to other Caribbean islands. Once again, however, Miller tried to cover his tracks. He offered the former cancer center administrator $80,000 to keep quiet about what she knew. Adams stated that she refused the generous “hush money” offer.
There were instances when Radiation Oncologist Dr Shimett Williamson paid for the medication cancer patients needed by charging them on her personal credit card. Support medical staff, in fear of losing their professional credentials and dismayed over the patient care dilemma quit their jobs.
One St Thomas mother of a terminally ill adolescent daughter took matters into her own hands. The determined mother worked out an emergency plan with the help of a pharmacist, in case the medication was not available at Kimelman when her dying daughter was scheduled to receive it. She would purchase it herself at a local K-Mart discount store pharmacy and take it to the hospital. This back-up plan, which she luckily never had to carry out, hinged on the concerned mother’s ability to give the pharmacist enough notice to be sure the medication would be in stock.
Former Kimelman administrator Adams has now also gone on the record, stating that she personally “believes some patients died sooner than they should have because of the problems.” Adams indicated that the biggest reason Kimelman faced the shortage of life-saving medications was because the hospital did not pay the suppliers, so the pharmaceutical companies would stop sending medication shipments until or when they were paid.
The official government audit commenced in December 2006 and was completed in October 2007. However; due to missing documents, the findings were incomplete.
In November 2007, Miller decided to resign from his CEO position with SRMC. He accepted a new professional position in the state of Florida.
However; the SRMC board chose to reward the Miller legacy with the title of Honorary CEO Emeritus. This indicates that board members hold Miller in such high esteem that he will permanently merit that position in the Territory.
In an early December 2007 speech, Gov. John deJongh expressed his dismay concerning the fact that SRMC administrators were trying to find ways to ignore a subpoena, a court order for the documents needed to complete the Attorney General’s audit.
On Tuesday of this week, the day after the news report about Kimelman appeared throughout the territory, the audit results were finally released. A total of seven court orders had been required to complete the job and, even then, auditors weren’t sure that they had had full had access to all needed documents.
The audit report verified that the top three SRMC officials were each drastically overpaid and had used official SRMC credit cards to purchase nearly $320,000 in personal items. The report accuses board members of attempting to help officials cover up a pattern of ongoing, misappropriation of funds.
When SRMC officials went to the Virgin Islands Legislature and asked for money during the years Miller was in charge, financial records presented during those hearings had been falsified. Auditors also said that based on their findings, a criminal investigation was warranted.
The board had contracted with an outside consulting firm more than once to get recommendations on how and what to pay Miller, and other administrative heads. They then ignored the recommendations, as well as a warning about the path they were on, and paid SRMC heads whatever they wanted to.
For instance, when the consulting firm told board members to offer Miller a nearly $600,000 compensation package per year, for a period of two years, the board members opted to give Miller $1.8 million if he opted to renew a third year. While Miller did not choose to renew the contract option, he still received nearly an extra half-a-million dollars.
Governor deJongh is soon expected to make an announcement to the territory regarding both the news report and the official audit. Government House sent out a press release late Tuesday stating in part, “Our resources are far too scarce and valuable to be squandered on corruption, waste or inefficiency, and I assure all in the Virgin Islands that I will not be satisfied until the operation of our hospitals is beyond reproach and providing the quality care that our residents demand and deserve."
Meanwhile, current SRMC President and CEO, attorney-at-law Amos Carty, has issued a press release stating that the Daily News report included “gross exaggerations”. At press time it was not known when the Governor would address the public on the patient care crisis at SRMC.
However; Caribbean Net News has received an unexpected invitation from an administrator at Kimelman to tour the facility. | | | | Reads : 143 |
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