There was absolutely no secret loan. This is just more of the same crazy talk. In fact, the terms of the loan were announced in an open public meeting. It is not unusual for one district hospital to assist another public healthcare district. In fact, long before HCCA ever came on the scene, Tulare had entered into similar transactions with other public healthcare districts (although with nowhere near the same positive results.)
The loan did not require Board approval. We only bring to the Board matters that are of a material nature or for which Board approval is expressly required. Neither situation applied here. In addition to helping the Southern Inyo District, this transaction benefitted the Tulare District. It allowed the Tulare District to earn substantially more than it could by simply depositing the money with a bank or financial institution. Moreover, there was no risk to the Tulare District because the loan was fully guaranteed by HCCA (and the Tulare District owed substantial sums to HCCA against which any unpaid guaranteed amounts could be offset). The loan has been now fully repaid to the Tulare District with interest.
The more important question that we would raise to you is, why are we discussing this instead of the critical issues that have faced and continue to face the Tulare hospital for years – critical issues that instead of being addressed and reconciled, are constantly avoided by a constant stream of manufactured “crises”? The issues that we as a community need to be discussing include:
- Why is any praise being heaped upon former TRMC physicians who were members of a rogue Medical Executive Committee (MEC), who openly boycotted the hospital and who openly stated their goal of seeing the hospital close. Why is this small group of physicians who controlled the old MEC and remained in power effectively by terrorizing the other physicians so anxious to come back to TRMC when they don’t even refer their patients to TRMC, have not done so in about 5 years now, and then abandoned the hospital when they were removed from control by the hardworking doctors of Tulare’s hospital? What has been paid or promised to these old MEC physicians by Kaweah hospital, where they have been sending their patients for these nearly 5 years?
- By contrast, why has a company that saved the hospital from bankruptcy, is keeping it fully and completely in public hands, turning a loss of over $1M per month into now 33 continuous monthly profits, and having saved over 500 local jobs, being castigated? Is the community so filled with hatred that it wants to destroy any good that comes its way? The risks of managing our public hospital – decrepit and in financial ruins – were enormous, and ultimately the amount paid to the management company pales by comparison to how much money the hospital made and saved. Not to mention that we still have a hospital. Could it be that the same people who were responsible for the financial catastrophes of the past now want to reap for themselves the benefits of what the new management company has created for the public, which, if history repeats itself, will result in the hospital going down the same road to financial ruin as before?
- And in speaking of history repeating itself, why do we as a community allow constant manufactured turmoil (over decades) driven by elements with their own selfish economic interests to continue to unfairly harm our community by repeated misinformation and outright lies?
Sadly, the same tactic of feeding misinformation to the media continues as it has for the past 15 years. But now, the community has spoken. And we hear them loud and clear. They want the ugly of the past two decades laid bare before them before we can move forward with a future for our hospital. But they have been misguided as to why the problems of the past arose and who was in fact responsible. The good guys have been turned into the bad guys. We look to this journal to see through this latest ruse and assist the public to learn the truth. So, we will soon be releasing to the public extensive documented details of the on-goings here over the past two decades. We will soon see who are the true guardians of Tulare’s public hospital.