The people who post anonymously on social media behind the façade of the inappropriately-named “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” abuse our First Amendment right by spreading lies and misinformation to harass and defame good people.
Stop and think about what is happening with Tulare’s public hospital. The political circus that has erupted from the escapades of a small handful of unhappy people has literally disgraced our community. For months now, the self-proclaimed “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” group has clouded social media with false news and fear tactics under the guise that they are ‘interested’ in saving TRMC. They routinely use deceitful cyberbullying tactics to falsely claim that HCCA is fleecing district funds. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Who are the leaders of this group? They are the very same people that ran the hospital into the ground years ago, leaving us (the district residents) to pick up the pieces. And their ugly vitriol is not just portrayed by a consistent stream of false facts and fantasies, but also by outright bigotry as when one of their leaders blurted “Heil Hitler” at a recent Board meeting. Those of us that are longtime residents of Tulare remember the turmoil of the past and there is no way that our community will allow this small group armed with misinformation to take us back there.
Thankfully in January 2014, HCCA came in, rescued the hospital from financial ruin and set the hospital on a path of now three years of profitability. In spite of the undocumented hubbub from hospital naysayers, those amazing accomplishments are verified and well supported by outside sources. More importantly, HCCA has brought quality to new levels never before seen at the hospital. Everything HCCA has done to date has unequivocally brought GOOD to our hospital.
Look carefully. HCCA has worked extremely hard these past three years to save the hospital and give it a viable chance at a prosperous future. Every step, decision and action that HCCA has taken and continues to take is carefully planned and executed. Because of HCCA Tulare’s hospital was relieved of over $20,000,000 in construction liabilities after the fiasco of the past. It is HCCA that unified the tower’s construction plans and completed its exterior without bond money—something that previous leaders were not able to accomplish with $85M of tax payer bond money. The enemies of the hospital keep talking about “taking” the hospital back”. What they mean is taking it back for themselves to ruin it yet again. Did you know that only approximately 2% of the hospital’s gross revenues come from the local tax revenues? HCCA has been responsible for the other 98%.
HCCA is hundreds of serious, resourceful, focused and hard-working people. Now that we may have found a path to borrow money to finish the 12-year project (a project that should have been funded properly in the beginning and completed in 2 years), we will, as in all that we do, proceed with careful planning and execution. At times, this may mean having to keep our strategy confidential during negotiations so that we can leverage better terms for the District. The screaming demands by those that seek to harm our public hospital will not cause HCCA to say or do anything that will rob the District from getting the best deal possible.
It is a true disappointment to watch the blatant unwarranted attacks on the hard working nurses, techs and staff of Team HCCA. Is this what Tulare has come to? Are we really a community that allows others to wrongly accuse HCCA and fellow Tulareans of deceiving the district stakeholders? Is this a new norm that our children and grandchildren need to become accustomed to? There are local Facebook pages and websites that actually have the facts, sites such as:
facebook.com/tulareregionalmedicalcenterHCCA/, facebook.com/saveourhospitaltrmc/ and TeamHCCA.com. Check these out for yourself.
It is without question that HCCA has finally succeeded – where others have consistently failed – in changing the trajectory of Tulare’s public hospital away from the decades of constant turmoil, false starts, and abysmal failures into one of consistent successes. PERIOD. Do not underestimate Team HCCA’s determination because it is truly vested in this community and believes in it. Team HCCA is working hard to build a successful integrated health care system because Tulare deserves it. To those bent on ruining our public hospital’s chance at a real future, take note. Rest assured that these ridiculous antics will not be allowed to continue unanswered. Stay tuned…
Kathleen Johnson is Vice-President of Marketing for Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, the company which manages operations at Tulare Regional Medical Center.
“It is a true disappointment to watch the blatant unwarranted attacks on the hard working nurses, techs and staff of Team HCCA.”
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t live in the hospital district. I do, however, read the VV carefully. I haven’t noticed attacks on doctors and nurses. I have seen criticism of the elected board (politicians all, by definition). That isn’t the same thing at all.
It’s been said time and time again about attacks of our care. I’m sick of it. Blantent negativity has been said, directly about our staff and it’s about time they posted a great article.
If you think it is a select few or people that are opposed to the tactics of Bennie, Kumar and company you are sadly mistaken. Keep believing that and we you will see after the recall of Kumar. He has a history of his dealings on the board and they are well known.
There’s 60,000+ people in this town. Not everyone feels that way. I feel “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” has created the hate/distrust.. that’s my honest opinion.
it’s only Kumar’s district that will be voting…..if it were the whole town he would definantly be out.
“Concerned” that’s your opinion
Bazinga!
Benzeevi could solve the hospital’s problem in a heart beat if he were willing to renegotiate a terribly one sided contract. A contract that pays him in excess of $3 million per year to serve as the hospital CEO, a contract that prohibits our elected Board from being on the premises of the hospital without HCCA permission. These are but two of the many provisions in the contract that were written to benefit Benzeevi and HCCA.
Kathleen… a few questions?
How long have you been a resident of Tulare? You say you are a longtime resident? How many years does a longtime resident count for?
I recently spoke to a staff member and she was given a disciplinary action for posting about a political opinion on her Facebook page but yet yourself and a few nurses do this and it is allowwed. Does the policy she was told to uphold not a policy for ALL employees of HCCA or do you and a few select employees get special privilage?
You say Everyone on the accountability page are the ones who drove the hospital into the ground? Is boluki one of those people or how about John Barbadian or many of the others that VP totaled that helped do that?
Please elaborate on these areas I am very interested in the answers or better yet gibe me a call and maybe I might answer it like the way that Benzeevi has still yet to answe mine after 3 mo this if trying to talk him… that’s right he is a coward to us normal citizens and won’t return phone calls made to his office
Because in the contract it states that anyone affiliated with HCCA shall not speak negatively about HCCA or they can face disciplinary action……..the nurses are fluffin’ it up.
Hello Robert,
I am a native of Hanford and have lived in Tulare for 19 years. Does that qualify as a longtime Tulare resident in your book? As such, your implication that I am not a vested member of our community is unwarranted.
As I have stated before, please contact me and I can assist with getting you in touch with Dr. Benzeevi. You declined the last time I reached out to you, but I again welcome you to contact me.
In regards to your question of hospital policy– I am the hospital spokesperson and anything I state in that capacity is on behalf of the hospital.
I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you.
Dave and Tulare taxpayer- where are you getting your facts from? Oh and why are you so afraid to say your real namemmm
Johm- if you,don’t live in the district, than stay out of the fight. Worry about your own back yard.
Too bad for you Lupe. I’ll shoot my mouth off about the government anytime I feel like it.
John- you said it perfectly. You do shoot your mouth off. No intelligent argument. You don’t live in Tulare so your opinion is irrelevant.
It doesn’t matter if you lived here 60 years or 60 months you’re still a valued Citizen of Tulare. As a Citizen I want that Tower done and in my opinion HCCA is doing exactly that.
After much research, I along with numerous others have come to the conclusion that
” Citizens for hospital accountability” is LYING telling FALSE STATEMENTS to the public.
HCCA has done more financially for Our public hospital then any group thus far. I agree with Mrs. Johnson the people behind “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” can’t even show their faces and for me there’s only one reason to hide and that’s because their not telling the truth.
omg……..read the minutes or attend a meeting! Ask them for the financials…….there’s been NO AUDIT FOR 3 YEARS…..and the paper they shove at you that they claim is an audit, states right across the bottom of the page, THIS IS NOT AN AUDIT.
Now if you think that them getting an $800,000 loan that Dr Kumar stated was a line of credit and the board will come back to the public before they spend any of it, and the evidence is, the bill was paid for 3-4 days previous to the meeting then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
By the way….UPS said those drugs where being filtered through Tulare District Hospital but taken to Southern Inyo Hospital…..what do you call that? Drug Smuggling is a crime.
Then lets go to the March 2016 loan to Southern Inyo Hospital that Benzeevi claims was not a secret….there is no mention in the board minutes for a loan….then lets have Linda Wilbourn read a statement that she obviously did not write, that stated a $250,000 loan was increased in July to $500,000. TDH was their personal banker.
Evidence is right there in the board meeting packet if you’d bother to look at it Kassandra.
HCCA’s end game is to purchase the hospital for pennies…..they will end up profit sharing at the rate of 95% with TDH getting only 5% after they take that loan of $76 + million and pay off the first bond…..it’s in their stinking contract that Sherrie Bell didn’t read as she stood crying at the doughnut shop.
The citizens of our town aren’t stupid.
Concerned: You and your group of people have failed!! I welcome HCCA to take over and make this hospital the hospital of choice for Tulare residents. I’m sick of all the tactics Citizens for Hospital Accountability has taken to try a run TRMC into the ground.
Citizens group… LIES!!! Not to mention you have no way of successfully running this hospital and you appear to have no clue as to what your doing.
read the contract Kassandra….everything I’ve said is true.
It doesn’t matter if you lived here 60 years or 60 months you’re still a valued Citizen of Tulare. As a Citizen I want that Tower done and in my opinion HCCA is doing exactly that.
After much research, I along with numerous others have come to the conclusion that
” Citizens for hospital accountability” is LYING telling FALSE STATEMENTS to the public. HCCA has done more financially for Our public hospital then any group thus far. I agree with Mrs. Johnson the people behind “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” can’t even show their faces and for me there’s only one reason to hide and that’s because their not telling the truth.
It really makes you stop and think that these FALSE HOODS of “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” have possibly brainwashed this tiny group of believers. Very Scary.
September 2015 Bob Montion spoke out at the board meeting as he was the CEO for quite some time.
Did you know the hospital had over $45 million to start the project in cash?
He got records FOIA from Green that showed $134,721,766 Construction in Progress.
$698,602 to Clinics, $1,351,112 Earlimart $68,585 Hospital $130,863,050 Tower 1 $1,740,417 Tower 2
Cash funding came from $23,000,000 accumulated in the prior ten years interest on the bonds and operational cash.
$85 million bond + $45 million cash = $130….now they want to add an additional $76 million!
So they want $215 million total to build our hospital.
We won’t be able to keep up on these payments!
Why did Sherrie Bell cancel a forensic audit when she came on board in Dec 2012? By hiring Benzeevi they keep everything ‘in house’….any other partner, which there were 3 other presentations, would have had to have a forensic audit.
Plus the fact that invoices were not signed by the right people for the amounts of them.
All you that accuse the hospital accountibility group of lying should be ashamed of yourselves…..our hospital and those in charge are fleecing us.
Bring out your evidence…….
Don’t even start with the Tower. Some of the main player for Citizens are the ones that sunk that ship. Looks like HCCA again had to rescue another sinking ship from bad past management.
Why don’t you all go back a few decades to see when this ship really started to sink. I think your group is harassing and tormenting HCCA and its employees and it needs to STOP!!
harassers
we voted in 2005…..tower didn’t start being built until 2009…..DMS was already off the board by that time. Why does Benzeevi keep bringing her up in meetings?
HCCA has now been in charge for 3 years…..why aren’t our ratings better? That has nothing to do with CFHA now does it…..
You can’t even put the blame where blame is due.
and the CMS report of Jan 2016 also not CFHA fault.
Too bad you missed court proceedings on the issue…..it’s a real eye opener.
sorry you’re not winning.
I hear that Dr. Kumar has a mistress and a love child. Is that true?
ASing that’s really not an issue that has a place in this discussion
ASing I heard you do too, Stop the ridiculous E rumors and grow up. Some of you people are disgusting.
Dr. Kumar is in a public office. His judgment, character and values are very pertinent to this issue.
Kass- are you sure you are not lying? Someone may have proof of him having a mistress and love child. Would you care to meet her?
We should ask Dr. Kumar to submit a testimony under oath of perjury about this matter. That will solve the issue.
ASing your pathetic and it shows .
Your attack on people show that you have low self-esteem.
I heard Kevin NorthCraft was unfaithful with a mistress , but you don’t see me spreading that all over. Have a little more class Asing.
It’s hearsay it’s unverified information gained from another and not part of one’s direct knowledge.
I think all politicians need to follow all the 10 Commandments, as well as other biblical edicts. They should all have to submit to lie detector tests, dna tests, and financial investigations. Only then will we know the TRUTH, just as God intended our representative government to be.
John- go worry about Visalia. You can’t vote in this recall, so no one cares about what you have to say. And as far as saying what you want about the government, go right ahead. Our Tulare board is not the government.