Dear Mr.. Moretta,
Thank you for contacting
the Office of the Patient Advocate regarding your current problems with
acquiring copies of your wife's medical records.
We contacted Department of
Managed Health Care (DMHC) to review what they advised you.
They directed you to file a grievance with Kaiser Member
Service s .
If your request is urgent you will need to request an urgent
grievance with
DMHC. The law
requires that you file a grievance with your
HMO member service first, unless its of urgent nature.
The HMO then has 30 days to respond. If they respond in less
time and you are unsatisfied with their response, then you can contact
DMHC's HMO Help Center at 1-888-466-2219 or go to their website to
download a complaint/grievance form to fill out and send to DMHC.
You indicated that you have
retained an attorney. This might be something your attorney
can acquire in a more timely process.
You may want to
contact one of our collaborates Disability Rights Legal Center
in Los Angeles at
1-213-736-1455 to inquire about their services.
They have a website at www.disabilityrightslegalcenter.org. They
are an advocacy organization that may be able to provide you with some
legal assistance.
Additionally, the
Independent Living Centers might be able to offer you and your wife
assistance or future assistance. Offices in your immediate
area are:
San
Bernardino - Rolling
Start, Inc.(RSI)
570 West 4th Street, Suite 103, San Bernardino, CA 92401
Phone: (909) 884-2129
FAX: (909) 386-7446
TDD: (909) 884-7396
Fran
Bates, Executive Director
Satellite
Centers
Victorville - Rolling
Start, Inc. (RSI)
15647 Village Dr., Suite A
Victorville, CA 92392
Phone/TDD: (760) 843-7959
Fax: (760) 241-8787
The
primary purpose of the Office of the Patient Advocate is to educate
consumers on their patient rights and responsibilities and to provide
jurisdictional resource information. Our office works in conjunction
with the Department of Managed Health Care, the state agency
responsible for licensing and regulating HMOs in the state of
California.
If
you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact our
office.
Sincerely,
Office of the Patient Advocate
From: Nick Moretta [mailto:nick.moretta@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 1:11 PM
To: Helpline; The Joint Commission
Cc:
California Consumer Health Care Council; Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger; Michael Moore; Christina Gonzalez; Charles Phillips
M.D.; Vickie Travis; Gloria Allred; Contact OPA; Consumers Union; John
Metz; Board of Registered Nursing
Subject:
Kaiser Permanente, a husband's cry for help!
To:
Department of Managed Health Care
California HMO Help Center
980 Ninth Street, Suite 500
Sacramento, CA 95814-2725
888-HMO-2219
The Joint Commission
One Renaissance Boulevard
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
800-994-6610
CC:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-445-2841
Office of the Patient Advocate
980 Ninth Street, Suite 500
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-324-6407
California
Consumer Health Care Council
P.O. Box 590307
San Francisco CA 94159-0307
415-666-0757
Consumers Union
1535 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-431-6747
Board of
Registered Nursing
P.O. Box 944210
Sacramento, CA 94244-2100
916-322-3350
Gloria Allred (Legal Expert)
Michael Moore (Film Producer)
Christina Gonzalez (Fox 11 News)
Jia-Rui Chong (Los Angeles Times)
Charles Phillips M.D . (Medical Expert)
John Metz (
Consumer
Health Care Expert)
Vickie Travis (KaiserPapers.org)
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Nick Moretta, and based on our prior experiences, I
seriously doubt the "Department of Managed Health Care" and or "The
Joint Commission" will do anything to help us. It's my belief
these two departments are either working with or have absolutely no
control over Kaiser Permanente and therefore such complaints are
pointless. That being said, this letter will serve as
evidence.
Our background:
In February 2002, my wife, Debra Moretta drove herself to Kaiser
Permanente and was eventually diagnosed with Acute Leukemia.
Unfortunately Debi contracted bacterial meningitis during her
hospitalization which went undiagnosed and resulted in a life altering
brain injury. Afterwards Kaiser claimed that Debi's injury
was the result of a highly unlikely toxic reaction. I've
turned to the DMHC for help several times since then, but to this day
Kaiser has never been held accountable for anything. For
additional information regarding Debi diagnoses and treatment, please
contact "Charles Phillips M.D. (559) 322-1446".
In December 2002,
Kaiser claimed our rehabilitation benefits were exhausted and I was
forced to bring Debi home to care for her myself. Not long
afterwards, Kaiser claimed that Debi was custodial and refused to
provide any home care. Again the DMHC did nothing.
See
http://www.DebraMoretta.com
Our most
resent problem:
On June 23rd, 2006, I drove
Debi to the emergency room for what I believed was a urinary tract
infection. It was later determined that Debi had
pneumonia. This condition would have been detected much
sooner by a home health professional, but because I lacked the skills
necessary to recognize her symptoms, Debi likely went without treatment
for weeks, which resulted in "loculated fluid" around her left lung and
required surgery.
Debi spent the following 5 weeks in the hospital, under the care of the
very same nurses station that I believe is responsible for her brain
injury in the first place. During this time at least one of
Debi's nurses falsified documents, stating that medications were given
when clearly they were not. I brought this to the attention
of two separate Kaiser supervisors, both of which promised to
investigate my complaint and get back to me. Unfortunately
they both responded by telling me the results of their investigations
were inconclusive. See attached.
That being the case, I filed a formal complaint with Kaiser's "Member
Services Department". After waiting the allotted 30 days,
Kaiser responded by saying the "results cannot be disclosed".
See attached.
Our
current situation:
I believe that Kaiser is the HMO equivalent to Enron. They do
what they want without any regard for patient rights. As for
filing complaints within their system, it's nothing but a big waste of
time, as they control Member Services, the Grievance Process and even
the Ombudsman. It may look good on paper, but patients
literally have no place to turn for help.
So here again, Kaiser clearly stated on two separate occasions that the
results of their investigations were inconclusive. The fact
that they are now refusing to disclose the results should not be
tolerated. As I mentioned above, such complaints are
pointless if nobody is held accountable. Clearly falsifying
medical documents is a very serious offence, so allowing Kaiser to
simply sweep this under the carpet is completely
unacceptable. Therefore I'm asking the "DMHC" and "The Joint
Commission" to stop letting Kaiser get away with these injustices and
force them into disclosing their results. A prompt response
would be greatly appreciated. See attached.
Thank
you,
Nick & Debi Moretta
16647 Ponca Street
Victorville, CA 92395
Home: 760-951-2825
Cell: 760-900-6950
Medical Number: 1027-52-28
Email:
nick.moretta@gmail.com
Web site:
http://www.DebraMoretta.com
**********************************************************************************
Letter to "The Joint
Commission" July 30th, 2006:
To Whom It May
Concern:
I found a full bag of "Vancomycin" hanging on my wife "Debra Moretta's"
IV tree on (Thursday 7-20-06), while preparing to move her to the
operating room. I immediately asked her nurse
"Mario" what he knew about it. He said it was
hanging there when he took over @ 7:00 A.M. He then
showed me the bag that he had given to Debi @ 1:00
P.M. He also said that he had looked at the med
sheet to see who had hung it, but all of Debi's meds were signed as if
they had been given. From there he went to the
refrigerator and found extra bags of Vancomycin with Debi's name on
them.
At that point Mario and I walked over to "Helen Newman's"
office. Helen is the Department Administrator, but
was unfortunately away from her desk. From there I
called "Linda Bodell". Linda is Helen's supervisor,
and she told me to give the bag to "Martha" (The Charge
Nurse). She also said she'd investigate the
situation and get back to
me.
A short time later I went back to Helen's office. I
asked Helen for a copy of the med sheet, but she said they were in the
middle of the investigation and would therefore not be willing to give
me a copy. I then asked if all the meds had been
signed for. She said that they had been, but that it
was "not uncommon" for a nurse to sign the drugs off before they were
actually given. She then told me to come back in the
morning (Friday 7-21-06) and she'd give me the results of her
investigation.
The following morning (Friday 7-21-06) I spoke with Helen Newman, but
she said they were still investigating our Vancomycin
mishap. She said they had one more nurse to
interview before she could give me an answer. I
asked her how many Vancomycin bags were found in the refrigerator with
Debi's name on them, and she said two. She also said
it was possible that the extra bags had been missing, or placed on
someone else's refrigerator shelf and therefore the nurse(s) may have
requested replacement bags from the pharmacy. Once
again she told me that it was "not uncommon" for nurses to sign the med
sheet before the drugs were actually
given.
I waited for Helen Newman's answer until (Thursday
7-27-06). At that point I went back to her
office. Helen had the bag that I found on Debi's IV
tree in a plastic zip-lock type bag. She told me
that she had questioned all of Debi's nurses, but every one of them
claimed they had given Debi her Vancomycin. She also
said she spoke to the pharmacy, but was told they do not keep records
for Vancomycin. In other words, if a nurse requested
a replacement bag from the pharmacy, the pharmacy would simply replace
it without any type of record showing the request or
replacement. Once again during our conversation,
Helen acknowledged telling me that it was "not uncommon" for nurses to
sign the med sheet before the drugs were actually given.
At that point I thanked Helen for her efforts, but felt it was
necessary for me to file a formal complaint with "Member
Services". I also told her that I was going to speak
with her supervisor "Linda Bodell" & contact "The Joint
Commission".
From there I met with Member Services "Laurie Walsh" and filed a formal
complaint. Afterwards I called "Linda
Bodell". I told Linda what Helen had said with
regards to nurses signing for drugs before they were actually
given. I also told her I was going to contact "The
Joint Commission". Linda said she would investigate
the situation herself and asked me to wait until she had finished
before calling "The Joint Commission"…I
agreed.
The following day (Friday 7-28-06), Linda came to Debi's room to give
us the results of her investigation. She said that
all of Debi's nurses had been questioned, but each of them had said
they gave Debi her Vancomycin. She also said that
she contacted the pharmacy, but was told that no additional labels had
been printed for Debi. Therefore no replacement
Vancomycin had ever been ordered for her. As to
Helen Newman's comment regarding nurses signing for drugs before they
were actually given. Linda said that Helen denied
ever telling me that. Linda did however acknowledged
that there were extra bags, but said she did not know why.
Here's our dilemma: Debi was scheduled to receive Vancomycin @ 1:00
P.M. & 1:00 A.M. daily for treatment of "Staphylococcus
Aureus". Given the fact that "Mario" gave Debi her
1:00 P.M. dose, there should have only been one bag left in the
refrigerator, but "Helen Newman" said there were
two. That coupled with the one hanging on her IV
tree means there were two bags that Kaiser cannot account for.
As part of the Vancomycin complaint, it's important to note that I
found the bag on (Thursday 7-20-06), yet the bag was spiked with tubing
that was labeled in green "Change by Tuesday". Given
the fact that the tubing is only good for four days, the bag was
clearly spiked with outdated tubing. It's also
important to note that the tubing was not connected to Debi's
IV. It looked as though someone had hung it, but
forgot to finish the job. See attached
photo.
My second complaint is that during Debi's five-week stay at Kaiser
Fontana, the vast majority of her nurses were not using the
"Identi-Hide" labels. These labels are supposed to
be affixed over the top of the patient's IV label before
discarding. I personally witnessed nearly all of
Debi's nurses simply tossing her infused IV bags in the trash without
using these labels. At one point I actually removed
a bag from the trash and asked her nurse why she would throw it away
without covering Debi's medical information. She
said she had done it because there were no labels in her
room. I asked her to please get some and make sure
they were used in the future. It's important to note
that I spoke to both Linda Bodell & Helen Newman about these
labels and the nurse's failure to use them. I also
included it as part of my complaint with Member
Services. See attached photo.
I'd also like to mention that Debi suffered a horrific brain injury
resulting from bacterial meningitis she contracted while undergoing
chemotherapy for acute leukemia in March 2002. At
that time Debi was under the care of the very same nurses station that
cannot account of the extra Vancomycin we
discovered. Also "Sunil J Patel M.D." was Debi's
oncologist at that time. He is currently serving a
seven-year probation period for the death of two patients, yet he is
also in charge of the Fontana Kaiser Oncology Department…why?
As a side note, the Fontana Kaiser Neonatal Ward was closed in March
2002 as a result of "Staphylococcus Aureus". Debi
contracted bacterial meningitis at the very same
time.
http://www.DebraMoretta.com
Contact
information:
Linda J. Bodell, RN, MSN
Clinical Director
Medical/Surgical Services
9961 Sierra Avenue
Fontana, CA 92335
909-427-4156
Helen Newman, RN
Department Administrator
Oncology
9961 Sierra Avenue
Fontana, CA 92335
909-427-6158
Laurie Walsh
Member Services
9961 Sierra Avenue
Fontana, CA 92335
909-427-5823
Please help us get some more conclusive answers to these very troubling
questions.
Thank
you,
Nick & Debi Moretta
16647 Ponca Street
Victorville, CA 92395
Home: 760-951-2825
Cell: 760-900-6950
Medical Number: 1027-52-28
Email:
nick.moretta@gmail.com
Web site:
http://www.DebraMoretta.com
