In writing this series about corruption at San Bernardino County’s only county-operated hospital, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), there was one thing I could never understand about the situation and that is why does ARMC contract out over $28 million in services every other year but is not required to go through the RFP process even though many of these contracts are for a million dollars or more, well above the statutory limit for no-bid contracts.  So I asked an expert and here is his answer:

Contracting for Physician Services

There are two ways for a county hospital to contract for professional services.  The one that most academic-oriented hospitals such as ARMC uses is as follows: Continue reading →

Dr. GnanaDev,

Rumor has it that you claim you do not understand why you are being attacked.  Well let me tell you all about it from my personal perspective.

I have discussed the issues with some of your colleagues but I also worked at Arrowhead Regional Medical  Center (ARMC) for just over a year.  Much of what I write about I witnessed first hand.

ARMC is a county-operated public hospital.  As such, its primary function in the community is to serve as a safety-net for those who would otherwise have no health care.  Its purpose is not to line your pockets. Continue reading →

Life must be tough these days for a medical director.  Let’s see, we have the Attorney General’s office investigating Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) for who knows which of the many accusations of patient abuse,  Medi-Cal/Medicare fraud, gifts of public funds, conflicts of interest, and a host of other concerns.   Then we know a formal complaint has been filed with the San Bernardino County Grand Jury.  And a complaint was filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) because ARMC Medical Director Dr.  Dev GnanadDev didn’t consider reporting millions of dollars in real property to be important.  And now we find out there have been at least two more complaints filed. Continue reading →

We have the possibility of a very interesting San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting this morning.  Two weeks ago, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center doctors, Dr. John Steinmann, an orthopedic spine surgeon, and Dr. Keyvan Safdari, an anesthesiologist, both spoke of heavy handedness and retaliation by Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) Medical Director, Dr. Dev Gnanadev.

The following was posted under an ARMC comment a few days ago and with other knowledge we have, suggests we could see a showdown today:

Tuesday’s Board meeting should be very interesting in that while there will be several people there commenting on the fact that: 4 administrative assistants, 3 Anesthesia Techs, about 6 Medical Billers, 2 Nurse Practitioners, 10 Certified Nurse Anesthetists, and 6 Anesthesiologists will lose their jobs on June 30th.

In addition, according to the Medical Staff by Laws those employees who hold clinical privileges to provide care to patients at ARMC will automatically lose these privileges because of the termination of their employer Inland Anesthesia Medical Group Inc.’s contract to provide these services as an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTED CORPORATION.

More importantly the notification of the non renewal of the contract was officially announced at such a late date that these dedicated health care providers and workers will not have sufficient time to seek employment elsewhere. Even more tragic,is that they have not been told who the new corporation that the Medical Director (without following appropriate County standards) has contracted with.

Thus, they do not know what positions will be available to them and most importantly will not have sufficient time to negotiate fair working conditions, salaries and benefits.

This has happened simply because their boss who, acting in his role as the independent contracted corporate appointed Associate Medical Director of Peri-Operative Services and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management simply recommended that several incidents of patient care should be reviewed in accordance with standards established by CMS and other accrediting agencies.

At the same time their will be other contracted staff members, employees and their families dressed in white to show support for the current Medical Director and HIS administration just to insure that this does not happen to them.

When will the Board of Supervisors acting in their role as the Board of Trustees at ARMC finally say enough and end this reign of tyranny by a self centered individual who acts only in his own interests without concern for the consequences.

That’s right Dr. Dev these people work for the corporation not for you and you have put them out of work and in many instances have put them at risk of being unable to support their families.

Is this revenge enough for you?

That comment was made by Frank Comunale, M.D., former Medical Director for San Bernardino County Hospital and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, for the 18 years prior to Dr. Dev GnanaDev being appointed to replace him.  Dr. Comunale did not recommend that GnanaDev replace him but instead recommended that a nation-wide search take place, which did not happen.  Now the taxpayers and employees of San Bernardino County are paying the price. Continue reading →