Twenty Mammoth Hospital employees have applied to voluntarily quit their jobs, following orders that 20 full time workers must go. Hospital Administrator Gary Boyd said he and others are in the process of evaluating the applications. Boyd also confirmed that right now officials have no plans for additional cuts in the face of problem finances.gary_boyd__7-8

Officials will approve termination applications based on staffing, seniority, and competency. If they do not approve 20 for voluntary termination, officials will forcibly lay-off the remainder. Boyd said he would like to have all of this done in the next week to ten days.

The announced lay-off of 20 employees generated a storm of emotion and complaints from workers who voiced those concerns at a meeting last week. Many pointed a finger at the hospital billing system failures. Others wanted to know why management would not take a hit to help the finances. When asked if he would make management cuts with employees gone, Administrator Boyd said it was premature to discuss this.

In the storm of flying criticisms, one employee, Rob Valentine, circulated an email that accused administrators and board members of mismanagement. He alleged that “millions of dollars have been wasted” and that there are “way too many people still really doing nothing here while getting paid.” Valentine said, “I will not spend the rest of my life being abused by my workplace while the current management scams what monies remain.” Beyond that he offered no specifics. It is believed he was placed on administrative leave. Administrator Boyd said he could not comment on personnel matters.

(Below – entire content of news release from Rob Valentine)

Press Release by Rob Valentine
July 8, 2009
Regarding: Mammoth Hospital, Mismanagement at Mammoth Hospital, and Violation of Whistle-blower Laws by Mammoth Hospital

It appears at Mammoth Hospital freedom is an inconvenience for some and necessity has many meanings for all of us.

Apparently, in general, the medical staffing levels at Mammoth Hospital are the main reason for Mammoth being in the financial red zone, and the economy is the main reason for cutting staff to protect for the future.

That being said, it can be concluded that a clinical assistant such as myself is the cost enemy at Mammoth Hospital. I am part of the big super costs that plague Mammoth Hospital. This is false, and so is blaming the economy as the main problem in the future.

Pointing the finger at folks like myself, so to speak, and then having the unprofessional audacity to not only drag out the cost cutting exercises but to, in the same breath, offer a “Success Sharing” program, is all part of the madness. It makes be afraid to speak out; I am afraid no longer. This “Success Sharing” program, and the staff cuts, seem to be partly or largely managed by Joe Bottom. He is one of the main reasons Mammoth Hospital is in this mess.

Off course we are overstaffed; but you don’t simply cut across the board and allow non-productive people to hang around. It’s offensive to hard workers. Off course we may have to cut even productive workers; a solid plan detailing why and how is what senior managers are paid to do; they have failed the community many times in this area.

If we had paid the senior management over the 4 years I have been at Mammoth Hospital, and including the last 14 months of Gary Boyd’s tenure as CEO (Chief Executive Officer), to simply sit around and play card games and eat cookies at ice cream socials, we could very easily be solvent. It is the mismanagement of Mammoth Hospital that has put us into such deep financial trouble. All the other factors: tourism as main source of income, too many Medi-Cal patients, especially those without real social security numbers, and the economy will always be natural challenges.

We are looking at maybe 30-50 million revenues over the next 12 months, then California and America could be in a serious depression. We cannot move forward with the incompetent management we have now and possibly collect those revenues in an efficient manner; thus, more waste and more layoffs.

The senior management and their staff could easily cost as much as the entire Orthopedic Staff, including the manager. Orthopedics accounts for total hospital revenues on any given day from 1% to 80%, based on clinical referral to surgery. This is not including Bishop volume surgeries, most of which go to NIH (separate Bishop hospital, not related to Mammoth Hospital in any form).

The revenue percentages stated are potential revenues, of course, because we all know Mammoth Hospital has grossly mismanaged collections. The senior management almost smirked at us when we requested they, too, take some form of compensation cut to help save the hospital. By the way, senior management does not generate any revenues and they can’t take your blood pressure.

Based on the previous comparison, and the troubles with the largely Medi-Cal patients that Women’s Health, Dental, and Pediatrics see each day, the senior management over the last 14 months, and the previous management, has never proven to me or anyone in the hospital or the community their knowledge and understanding of the hospital – where revenues come from, and where costs occur (too many costs are not associated with revenue generation). Therefore, they don’t really know what’s going on.

We are not stupid. We know their pathetic game. We are stupid if we do nothing about it. Lack of confidence by the staff to take on the management is a disservice to the community.

Mismanagement has always been and will continue to be the heart of the hospital’s problems. Long before bean counters can execute financial plans, the CEO must fully understand the operations of the hospital. A Gary is a Gary and things have actually gotten worse since the tenure of the 14-month old CEO; Gary Boyd the new, Gary Myers the old.

Gary Boyd seemed to spend more energy hosting ice cream and pizza socials and training nursing and supervisor and managerial staff on the basics of business management. You can’t train people with little or no business management experience if they don’t have the right processes and systems in place to utilize the training.

As an example of the madness of Gary is a Gary, I first met Gary Boyd down at the Bishop Orthopedic Clinic. It was a Dr. Perry day, and we saw over 50 patients that day. Gary Boyd and Joe Bottom arrived at 1:15pm, peak beginning of afternoon clinic, to hand out oatmeal and raisin cookies in a woven basket like Little Red Riding Hood. It was very embarrassing, just like the old days at Mammoth Hospital.

Did he and Joe Bottom stay to observe our clinic? Did they attempt to understand the massive volume that little clinic does relative to staffing? Did they attempt to understand most of the money comes from local referrals right off the fax machine, and that these referrals help pay for them and the staff? No. They didn’t stay to help at all or at least help change over a table for the next patient. Pathetic. And this is the senior management that is supported by the Board of Directors. Pathetic.

Anyone with an MBA understands this basic business logic. So do floor sweepers and nurses. Like I said, if Gary is a Gary was paid to never show up, we would be better off.

It appears this CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is for real. However, if he approved this current path we are on, which including throwing the business plans developed by clinic managers, already busy enough, into the trash, so to speak, he should be terminated immediately along with the rest of the senior management.

I am done with the current senior management.
The BOD must be refreshed as soon as possible. A state auditor must be called in to supervise the retooling of Mammoth Hospital.

If the CFO is legitimate and was coerced into accepting the current plan, or was excluded in some way, the CFO, a state auditor, and a 3 person panel voted by only staff members (not doctors) and consisting of staff (non-physicians) could easily retool this hospital over the next 30 days, allowing the hospital to accept a new BOD and possible CEO. We could always hire an accountant if the CFO doesn’t work out.

Please understand I do not disregard the value of experienced and well-trained managers running things for us workers. “Experienced” and “well-trained” doesn’t seem to fit into the Mammoth Hospital business plan vocabulary.

A Chief Operating Officer, COO, is not needed at this time and may never be needed.

All supervisors must be turned into workers while retaining the few managers qualified to actually manage; and the “drinking coffee, walking around with a rosy smile” crowd at Mammoth Hospital must be terminated immediately or we will show them how to cleanup dirty bed pans and do something productive for once in their lives.

Yes, Taxpayers and Patients, you have helped fund great golden parachutes for incompetent executives, pizza and cake socials, and easily 20 staff members who do nothing. I am not exaggerating.

If the staff of Mammoth Hospital and the community finds a way to eliminate the continued mismanagement of the Hospital, then the real story here is Americans taking back America from pond scum who are scraping off money from the top and the bottom of the American workforce.

This story has state and national implications, for we all have a chance to be a micro-cosim of what is needed in the USA. Taking on corrupt and misguided and incompetent power controllers is the American way. Using words and the press is the peaceful side of the USA and we will march on.

I have been put on Administrative Leave for sending out an email that describes these things and more. This violates Whistle-blower laws and I will not tolerate this. Mammoth Hospital is using it’s old tactics of fear mongering and abuse. If the staff does not stand up and be heard and force out the incompetents, we lose, and I will never return to the “Company” and the “Plant”, as stated by the current CFO. So much for healthcare. Good luck, Mammoth. I hope someday somebody does something about the gross incompetence rampant in Mammoth.

This press release is approved by Rob Valentine.

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