This news release on the Androvett Legal Media and Marketing website doesn't give a lot of new information, but it does provide a little different perspective. I think Larry Gentilello is making a lot more headway and a lot more publicity than UT ever thought he would.
“This is a case of a doctor standing up for patients and being shot down by the medical community,” says Ms. Aldous. “Dr. Gentilello wanted to make sure that all patients at Parkland received the best treatment, but UT Southwestern and Parkland officials apparently have a different view of the practice of medicine.”
The UT Southwestern and Parkland Hospital blogger is not letting UT Southwestern up for air. This particular post offers some documentation to back up the allegations.
Does UT Southwestern submit fraudulent bills? Is it widespread?
UT Southwestern's own internal audit was recently leaked. It indicated that lack of compliance with federal regulations was "systemic." Multiple departments and department chairs were involved. This was very recent. The audit report is dated February, 2010.
Since the university would not discuss the list of candidates, the public still does not know if Chief Engells was selected from among a healthy pack of applicants or not. He certainly appears qualified.
Engells comes to UTMB with many years of police experience in academic health care settings. Since 2005, he served as assistant chief of police at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Engells also has extensive experience in commanding a large police and security operation.
The article linked below also discusses the fact that UTHSC Houston President Kaiser has beseeched the Texas Legislature for more money. This from a president who gets commuting costs back and forth to Pennsylvania. If I were sitting on a legislative finance committee, such an entreaty from Kaiser would fly about like the proverbial lead balloon. UTHSC Houston may well need more money; I don't know. I would still want the institution to clean its own house before cleaning out the state treasury.
LK: It was pretty obvious there was a lack of understanding in the community about our long name, which is still our name. A lot of people really didn't know what a health science center was. Rebranding us as UTHealth will better allow us to better establish an identity. A lot of people don't know that UT physicians are closely associated with Memorial Hermann Hospital — even something that basic is not well-known.
The whistleblower protection clause is one of the strongest protection clauses in federal law. It not only protects the relator but anyone who investigates, initiates, testifies in furtherance of, or assists in a case. In Section 3730(h), whistleblowers who have proven harassment are entitled to "all necessary relief necessary to make the employee whole" including "reinstatement with the same seniority status... two times the amount of back pay, interest on any back pay, and compensation for any special damages." This clause not only helps the relator keep their job if they are still employed while the case is proceeding, but also makes a company think twice about harassing any employees who cooperate with exposing the fraud. Unfortunately, this clause does not help subcontractors and independent contractors who want to cooperate with the investigation.
UTMB administrators have a history of trying to stay in the shadows when it comes to public scrutiny, which makes me a little nervous as the Galveston National Laboratory prepares to go hot. In fact, administrators tried to shield any aspect of the Biolab from public scrutiny if they chose to withhold that information from the public. Here is what the Galveston County Daily News had to say as UTMB was trying to push a change to the Texas Public Information Act through the legislature (click on the highlighted text above for the complete article):
Under the proposed law, if the newspaper heard a rumor about a suspected
leak of deadly germs, as it did just months ago, the university could
refuse to release any documents about the accident or alleged security
breach. That’s dangerous to you and your children.
Thankfully, no doubt due to an angry public, this bad bill, SB 2556, never reached the Governor's desk.
I believe the greatest threat to public safety is not the biolab, per se, or even the deadly pathogens that scientists work with there. It is the culture of secrecy at UTMB, whether refusing to provide information about a fired police chief or this. Even though the lab is going "hot," let us hope cooler heads prevail when it comes to sharing information with the public.
Through the tours, the medical branch, which owns and operates the laboratory funded by state and federal money, has sought to assure residents the facility is safe and secure.
Now those tours have ended as the medical branch prepares the facility to go “hot.”
For those who would like to see more about the Galveston National Laboratory, click on the highlighted text to see Dr. Stanley Lemon in a video titled "Inside the BSL-Four Lab" on the "State of Tomorrow" website. Dr. Lemon, who was the principal investigator for the Galveston National Laboratory, is neither inside the laboratory nor part of its tomorrow, as he decided to leave UTMB not too long ago. Sort of fills one with confidence, eh?
I'm not quite sure how a system passes a record budget and justifies personnel cuts by pointing at state appropriations reductions. The lion's share of this $3.3 billion budget will go to the College Station flagship campus, with the remaining campuses, including the Health Science Center, picking up the scraps.
The new building has more than a dozen rooms set up for different scenarios and students are already reaping the benefits.
"You only have a finite time as a student and I can't promise that every student will be at the hospital to see an asthma case or a heart attack, this way you may have gotten lots of patient time, but you never saw a heart attack. I can create one for you and you can practice," says Dr. Nancy Dickey, president of the Health Science Center.
I don't know if this decision extends to the Texas A&M Health Science Center or not. Maybe administrators should put some of that bureaucratic red tape in there instead or cut down on those high-cost airplane rides.
This is an interesting observation made by a commenter on the TexasJustice.org message board. The commenter does not say if UTMB or TDJC hired these people back, assuming what he or she says is accurate.
Hell almost all of our staff is going to High Security, what the hell, why get rid of our staff who is great, and send us someone elese. Yeah i already know, they fired them, then rehired them at a lower pay, some at a lower title, and then put them on a different unit, some a lot farther to drive to. We are getting high security staff, goree staff, huntsville staff, and one from el paso. lol.
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