I went over some of ECU Health’s federal non-compliance issues in Part 1 of this post as I pondered the title question: Did ECU Health Expand Its Empire on the Graves of D**d Patients?” This post was written based on some valid concerns.
Since 2014, ECU Health has expanded in a number of ways. They have:
- added a cancer center to their flagship facility in Greenville, NC;
- purchased the hospital in my local area, along with a number of local clinics;
- paid hundreds of millions to East Carolina University as they integrated with their Brody School of Medicine, hence their rebranding to ECU Health; and
- teamed up with Acadia Health to open a behavioral health facility this year in Greenville.
HERE IS WHERE THESE EXPANSIONS GET WICKED
Many of you guys already know what happened to my daughter in May 2014. If you’ve read Part 1, you know about ECU Health’s federal non-compliance issues in 2014 and 2015. But that cancer center I just mentioned? In May 2014, the same month Keisha was killed there, ECU Health announced plans for a new 6-story, 96-bed cancer facility.
Uh-huh. Yeah. And according to Wikipedia, they broke ground on that addition in 2015. Do you see it, now?
This means that ECU Health HAD the money to staff a nurse manager on the night shift when my daughter was there. They had it! But they chose not to do so. There was a nurse manager staffed on the day shift. Why not the night? Everyone who has ever worked a night shift, or who has ever worked at a facility operating 24/7 knows that night shift has the potential to be the slack shift: Some workers take naps, play on their phones, and do other things they dare not try during the day when there is heavy managerial oversight.
In the case of Keisha White, however, the charge nurse apparently took extensive breaks and no one took charge, because there was NO OVERSIGHT by ANYONE.
When DHHS interviewed personnel who were working the shift Keisha died on, those staff members said they could not make Linda Brixon do her job. They said they had no one to call. The cancer center expansion proves ECU Health made a deliberate choice to save money on payroll, investing in property, instead of providing night shift with the same level of oversight afforded to day shift.
AND GET THIS…
ECU Health’s safety grades also indicate that patient safety was not among their top priorities. According to hospitalsafetygrade.org, ECU Health scored a “D” in 2014. That’s not surprising since DHHS identified an “immediate jeopardy” to patient safety lasting from at least May to October 2014.
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Post-2014, ECU Health’s safety grades did improve, which is a good thing, but it is not a great thing. Their grade improved to a “C” for a number of grading periods. What? An “A” is too much for patients and families to expect? When did “C” become acceptable in patient care? Most of us would not even eat at a restaurant that scored a “C.”
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
Well, frankly, a healthcare system that boasts rapid expansions with revenue exceeding $2 billion annually, obviously did not invest enough in patient safety during the years indicated. One of ECU Health’s competitors for example, Nash General in Rocky Mount, NC, consistently scores A’s and B’s with more A’s than B’s. Major facilities in the Raleigh-Durham area does better than that; all A’s, baby. So, what is ECU Health’s excuse?
The fact that ECU Health is a teaching hospital is quite disturbing. What exactly have their interns and other medical trainees been taught? How to save a life? How to cut corners first, save a life second? Or possibly, how to get away with murder?
Remember the thought I left you with in Part 1 of this post? “A hospital that breaks laws creates an environment where its staff can break laws?” When ECU Health CHOSE, for example, to not staff a nursing manager on the night shift in 2014, they created an environment that enabled Linda Brixon to kill my daughter without oversight. That is why I focused on this particular aspect.
When ECU Health CHOSE to bypass the legal requirement to report Keisha White’s death to law enforcement, opting instead to communicate with “friendly” SBI agents, they sent a clear message to staff (or at least to a specific group) that their conduct will be protected from law enforcement. The same thing holds true when they later failed to make personnel available for interview during a joint GPD/SBI investigation. These were obstructions of justice, people.
What about when ECU Health lied and withheld information from the NC Board of Nursing? Wait… Did I not talk about that yet? If I haven’t, I will. But the point is the same… As long as ECU Health has, is, or continues to violate laws, obstruct justice, and file fraudulent reports to oversight bodies, their patients are at risk. We have laws and policies for a reason – to protect the PUBLIC.
Now let’s tie it all together. Over the years, ECU Health:
- Apparently made budget decisions at the expense of patient safety, contributing to the death of Keisha White and, likely, others.
- Expanded its empire with at least some money that could have been spent on better quality training of staff, complete staffing necessities, and proper oversight of employees.
- Violated legal reporting requirements, in essence, turning its facilities into lawless environments.
- Obstructed justice by covering up illegal conduct, aided and abetted by government entities.
ONE MORE THING BEFORE I GO
What I just said about ECU Health making decisions contributing to Keisha’s death? Can you believe the risk manager tried to blame Keisha for her own outcome? Huh? Gasp! Yes. Their plan was to shift responsibility to the patient who was deliberately abused and neglected to death over an 11-hour period, when it was THEIR failures that allowed it to happen.
I’m not going to ask you to comment. Most readers do not leave comments anyway. But I am asking you to show this post to someone who may need to see it. Take care. And watch yourselves and your people in these facilities. Bigger does not always mean, better.
