Asheville – The nurses of Mission Hospital were once again protesting out on Biltmore Avenue, but this time several doctors were out there with them. Among the doctors present were Dr. Robert Kline, a former member of Mission Hospital’s Board of Directors before the purchase, and Dr. Michael Messino, founder of Messino Cancer Center.
Dr. Klein, speaking through a megaphone, spoke of the lack of support the hospital staff are getting, saying, “Nurses, physicians, allied health professionals, elected officials, and the citizens of Western North Carolina no longer accept the deterioration in our medical community, while we remain totally appreciative of all the staff who have persevered despite the adverse conditions. As your colleague, a member of this community, and at 72, a potential patient, I offer my sincere apology for taking so damn long to actively demonstrate my support. I join a multitude of physicians and citizens committed to the collective cause to restore our hospital system. You will not fight this alone anymore.”
This “multitude” of physicians, 50 in all, wrote a letter condemning HCA’s for-profit management style. This letter was presented to Gibbins Advisors, the independent monitor hired by Dogwood Health Trust to oversee HCA’s compliance with the terms of the 2019 sale of Mission Hospital. The letter stated, “Many of the for-profit-driven changes that HCA has wrought, despite advocacy and protests from multiple sectors, have gutted the heart and soul of our community healthcare system.”
Stein Takes Suit Against Mission
Attorney General Josh Stein took suit against HCA in December, stating, “For-profit HCA has broken its promise to the people of western North Carolina and to my office. Quality health care is too important—in some cases, a matter of life and death. But HCA apparently cares more about its profits than its patients. According to Stein’s website, “the North Carolina Department of Justice has heard from hundreds of North Carolinians about the issues at HCA and received more than 500 complaints. Patients specifically have raised concerns about emergency and trauma services and oncology services.”
NC State Treasurer Dale Folwell, who oversees the 750,000 state employees on the State Medical Plan, sees things differently. Treasurer Folwell said, “This is just the latest example of the onion that keeps making one cry since Attorney General Josh Stein approved the disastrous takeover of Mission Health by HCA. What’s happened to quality, access, and costs is not Democrat or Republican; it’s immoral. Even the often inept federal government realizes it.
The only answer is to take the trust money and buy the hospital back at 50 cents on the dollar. That’s how many billions it will take to put this disease called HCA into re-Mission for western NC.”
HCA/Mission Could Lose Medicare/Medicaid Funding
With so many complaints and lawsuits piling up, including one death, Stein and the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHSS) got involved. NCDHHS has been doing a 4-month-long, in-hospital investigation to assess the issues. The result of this investigation caused an “immediate jeopardy” designation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This immediate jeopardy designation represents the most severe and egregious threat to the health and safety of recipients, as well as carrying the most serious sanctions. The investigators stated that Mission failed on multiple fronts to care for and safely evaluate patients in the emergency department, specifically.
A letter obtained by the AVLWatchdog from CMS stated, “The hospital nursing staff failed to provide a safe environment for patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) by failing to accept patients on arrival, resulting in lack of or delays with triage, assessments, monitoring, and implementation of orders, including labs and telemetry. ED nursing staff failed to assess, monitor and evaluate patients to identify and respond to changes in patient conditions. The hospital staff failed to ensure qualified staff were available to provide care and treatment for patients who arrived in the ED. The cumulative effects of these practices resulted in an unsafe environment for ED patients.”
We reached out to Mission’s Director of PR, Nancy Lindell, who said, “Mission Hospital has received preliminary survey results from CMS regarding its emergency department. We have taken those results seriously, and there are no excuses for our patients receiving anything other than exceptional care. This is not the standard of care we expect, nor that our patients deserve, and we will work diligently to improve.”
“Mission Hospital already has taken action to address the preliminary findings shared during the survey process. Those actions include the deployment of additional resources and expertise learned from HCA Healthcare’s experience of more than 9 million emergency room patients annually. We expect to receive final survey results shortly and already are working with Mission Hospital to finalize a corrective action plan for CMS.”
The Nurses Are Not To Blame
Is it any wonder the nurses, and now doctors, are protesting the conditions at Mission? They are the ones listed in the CMS letter as being in the wrong, but how can they possibly do their jobs without enough staff or support from management and ownership? It makes their job “Mission Impossible.”
Hopefully, with the full might of Medicare and Medicaid threatening to deny federal funds, HCA will finally have no choice but to step up and do something to improve conditions for patients and hospital staff.