Why is the Nye Regional Medical Center closing its doors?

I am writing to you about the recent statement about the Nye Regional Medical Center closing it doors if they don't get some help from the County or State. I enclosing a letter that explains why the state or county should allow it to close. There is serious mismanagement that has been going on for the last 4 years. Even through its the only health care facility's within a 100 plus miles still as a employee of the hospital I have witness many wrong doings and the placing of key personnel in positions that they would never be able to hold in any other hospital or clinic. Please read this letter and you be the judge about this issue. I have send a copy of this letter to the Nye County Commissioners and the State Health Board to have them investigate the business practices at the Nye Regional Medical Center and its personnel. Here is the letter

To Nye County Commissioners:
This Letter is in regards to the recent request from the Nye Regional Medical Center for funding in order to continue its current operations of providing healthcare to the citizens of Nye County and the surrounding areas. Yes the people of these areas must have healthcare due to the fact of location and that the next closes facilities are over a 100 plus miles away would have serious repercussions. But there are also other factors that must be taken into account that if the county approves funding could also have possibly even have worst repercussions to the citizens. As a hospital employee I know that for a fact the current system in place would misappropriate those funds for other projects other then providing the excellent healthcare and the best quality of service to the citizens of Nye County.
Unless you the County Commissioners are willing to investigate the true running of the Nye Regional Medical Center and look into how it conducts business then you would be doing a great injustice to those whom you sworn to speak for and represent to the great state of Nevada. I understand that if you don’t approve funding that the Nye Regional Medical Center will have to close its doors, but I also know if the current administration is left to run the daily operations then you would only be giving good money after bad money. I state this because the current administration has very poor fiscal management and would divert those funds to other projects under shell companies’ that Dr. Scoccia owns or has a major investment in.
Working here at the Nye Regional Medical Center I has seen business practices that in my many years of working in the healthcare industries are not normal business practices, (i.e.) Having under age personnel who have no formal education let alone a high school diploma to have full access to PHI (Patient Health Information) and other areas such as Payroll, Data Collections, Medical Records and Accounting but to my understanding these employees are from what is known around here as the Peterson Compound which I looked into and that they are members of the FLDS (Fundamental Latter Day Saints) no hospital would ever allow this to happen I mention this to a long time employee about allowing these employees to even work here with those positions, and was told that “They are Mercy and Marie family and that I better never said anything about them around them or you will be gone because they truly run the hospital and have for years”. I asked what about Dr. Scoccia concerns about these types of actions going on in his hospital; they said he knows all about it.
Now when I look at some of the key personnel working here at the hospital I have to wonder about patient care and the administrative management of this hospital case in point ‘I see that the Assistant Administrator is Mercy Peterson who comes to the hospital with no formal education no high school diploma but yet was basically in charge of the hospital until the new Chief of Operations and Chief Financial Officer took control I will speak about them later. Once again in my years in the medical field I never witnessed such types of dealings. I mean no hospital would ever allow someone to be in a key position without some type of degree from college at least an AA or BA in Healthcare Management or Business Management, least to say most hospitals would have an employee at that position attend school for training in that field to better serve the hospital and its patients. I don’t know if it true but to my understanding she was home schooled and does not process a High School Diploma never attend any private or public school, or any post-secondary training this alone is very scary. Now in the case of Marie Peterson who wears many titles in the hospital the main ones Director of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer has shown that she has grudges against some of the nursing staff because they are better nurses and more qualify and that they are far better educated then she is case in point” One staff member told me about a incident in E.R. where she was working with Dr.O and she couldn’t even put a IV in a patient correctly and couldn’t even help stabilize the patient. Dr.O told her to get out of her E.R. and get her a nurse that knew something about trauma care. After that Dr.O told Dr. Scoccia she will never work E.R. again with Marie because she knows nothing and is dumb” other Doctors refuse to work with Marie in E.R. Another incident happen where I was speaking with a employee and a patient was screaming I know there was one nurse in the room with the patient and Marie was standing less than 5 feet away from us and was doing nothing I mean she was not doing any paperwork or charting, The patient a female was crying and screaming for at least 1 and a half minutes while we could hear the nurse trying to calm her down Marie just stood there like she didn’t hear anything and proceeded to walk to her office, lucky another nurse came from down the hall from E.R. and enter the patient room and help the other nurse get the patient calmed down. This is something once again I never seen a nurse who has sworn to help those in pain or in need of medical attention just turn and walk away like nothing ever happen. But I now understand why Marie can’t work the floor most the nurses refuse to work with her because she truly has no knowledge of what she doing, and to top it off she been given all these titles, but she knows that she couldn’t work in other hospital and receive those titles. I have worked with nurses many years in medical field and I never known a nurse be to given the credentials’ of Director of Nursing without a least having a BSN (Bachelors of Nursing) or Chief Nursing Officer without a MSN (Masters of Nursing Science) in the medical field these credentials are taken very seriously but at the Nye Regional Medical Center they have shown me they mean nothing towards patient care and this shows the reputation of the hospital that allows this to happen. The Nye Regional Medical Center could be a great Hospital and give its patients the best quality of care possible, but I see that will never happen because of the hiring of personnel who shouldn’t be allow to even be near a hospital unless they are patients in it. Now the clinics as you commissioners are well aware of that the hospital closed down its clinics in Beatty and Round Mountain Cavers once again its comes down to poor management and the personnel placed over these clinics to run them had no prior experience in the medical profession” case in point Douglas Farinholt now I know many of you on the commission knows him personally and I am not trying to speak ill of him but facts are facts, since being here at the hospital and working also with clinic staff I asked about Doug background in medical and what clinic or clinics had he been in charge before coming here or what hospital did he work at I was told that he was a Dare Officer for Nye County and had no prior experience in running clinics. I was shocked that they would place a person over clinics that had no prior experience so I asked then he must have some sort of background in Business Administration and was told no and that he didn’t even attend any college or post-secondary training in medical administration he got the job because he was good friends with Dr. Scoccia.
Members of the Commission after reading just this letter I now hope you see my concerns about any funding to this hospital while its current personnel is in place, the only way this commission should help this hospital to move forward is to totally bring in new personnel and complete a full restructuring of the hospital from the bottom to the top. I known great doctors in my time and believe me when I say most good doctors with patients are bad in business sense and most doctors good in business ventures are bad in people skills rarely you find a doctor who is good in both. I like Doctor Scoccia I know he a good doctor but a bad judge of character just by who he has aligned himself with and placed in positions of power in the hospital and unfortunately thinks that he can run the hospital outside of standard operations protocols. It was said by a employee that the hospital is entangled in so many of Doctor Scoccia outside ventures that he tries to hide under the guise of being a 501c3 that the hospital will never ever make any profit as long as he is in charge and he keeps allowing others in the hospital to keep their positions that they truly couldn’t have at any other hospital or medical center, and at this point I must agree with them.
Because unless this commission looks into everything about PrimeCare Nevada dba Nye Regional Medical Center and Promethean Bellwether and Change The World With Love this commission would be throwing good money away to fund Dr. Scoccia other ventures and the citizens would in the end be the true losers after everything is said and done. Now here is what the commission should perform before allocating any funds to the Nye Regional Medical Center to protect the citizens of Nye County of becoming a joke to the rest of the state, that commission knowing would have given funds to irresponsible people to continue running the hospital even after having knowledge that there are key personnel that must be removed from the hospital because they truly do not the experience skills training needed to manage a healthcare facilities. Now the hospital will try to scam the county by saying it brought in new personnel naming Susan Hughes Chief Operations Officer, Denise Henneke Chief Financial Officer and Gavin Woods Legal Counsel they all are suppose to work under Promethean Bellwether which is one of Doctor Scoccia shell companies that is supposed to be a management company. So don’t be fooled in to thinking these people are here to help the citizens these are only here to help bleed the citizens dry. Also the commission must look at the salaries being paid I hope this commission heard about the rate increase at the clinics normal office visit used to be around 50.00 dollars Scoccia increase the visits to over 200.00 for the visit claiming the hospital hadn’t increase its rate in over 10 years and that patients insurance would cover it and that payment is due at the time of service. This means that the Nye Regional Medical Center has one of the most expensive office visits in the nation for normal clinic visit with the exception of specialty medical facilities (i.e.) cancer treatment, Plastic Surgeon office visits just to name a few.
Now I understand that Scoccia supports many areas of charity and that is good, but it can’t remove charging outrages clinic visits. Also is this commission ready to tell it citizens that they are helping to paid for Homes that Promethean Bellwether purchase in Texas and these are not cheap home they in one of the most exclusive county club type in Kerrville, TX also I learned that Doctor Scoccia is moving all accounting and legal to Kerrville, TX one employee said he trying to move all the money down there and other places so when he leaves the money leaves with him, plus there is a rumor that Dr. Scoccia just recently applied for and received his License to practice medicine in the State of Hawaii so what should that tell this commission if this turns out to be true, I witnessed this before at a facilities like the Nye Regional Medical Center where the Doctor and key Administrative personnel transfers all funds of the facilities into shell companies and closed its doors that when the employees came to work and the doors were locked with only the note on the front door” Closed for business indefinitely” Also the Nye Regional Medical Center lost its contract with Round Mountain Gold to perform lab tests, one employee stated that they were shocked it to so long for them fire us and that it’s a miracle they hadn’t demanded full payment of the loan they gave the hospital for 500,000 to help with the Electronic Health Records system we are currently installing, but over ¾ of those funds were possibly used to fund other ventures and not fully used as the Hospital claimed they would be used for.
This commission must look into these claims before approving any funding to the hospital. If you the commissioners don’t ask about these claims because alone the hospital must be paying out over 600,000 to 1 million dollars in salaries alone just to Doctor Scoccia, Susan Hughes, Denise Henneke and Gavin Woods and the 2 million we were told the hospital needs to remain in business would have to go towards paying these people. Here is what the commission should request from the Hospital before any vote on this matter.
1. All financial records of the hospital including those from Promethean Bellwether be included be audited to protect the citizens of Nye County from fraudulent use of any county funds and any other shell companies that Dr. Scoccia has a investment in.

2. A total background check on all Administrative personnel(which in my view is a serious major issue)

3. Request of all personnel working at the hospital under the age of 18 or working without a least a GED or high school diploma (As stated earlier in this letter they are using under age kids and giving them full access to PHI and other materials that no hospital would ever do base on HIPPA and CMS guidelines and protocols) be terminated.

4. Check on personnel that has been terminated from the hospital due to so called budget cuts the commission will find that everyone terminated was on either Marie or Mercy hit list and I find it strange that no one from the Peterson compound has been terminated in the last 2 months not even the underage employees.

5. Being in the group of one the largest employer, why before terminating personnel why those in administration never took a salary decrease and asked those they have terminated if they were willing to take a salary

decrease while the hospital works thru these hard times. This never happen, one employee who was terminated told me they would have been willing to take a pay cut in order to keep their job and that there were others who would have done the same thing if it meant they would keep their jobs. Once again poor

management by those now in charge.

6. Ask the hospital were its stand with current investigation being conducted by OIG (Office of the Inspector General) for Fraud and misappropriation of funds from 2008-2012 I overheard some staff talking about it.

7. Allow an outside company to bid on the hospital and allow them to manage it with over sight from the county to ensure that all procedures are being followed and meet all County, State and Federal guidelines and protocols. After the hospital closes its doors and those currently running the hospital are terminated.

In closing if this commission decides to fund this hospital without first investigating and getting to the bottom of what truly goes on at the Nye Regional Medical Center then this would be a serious misrepresentation of it duty to serve and protect the vested interest of the citizens of Nye County. Because healthcare is a serious matter truly for those of us who chose to live in rural areas. And we look to you as our commissioners for guidance in this matter. And to ensure that you hopefully do the right thing I will send copies of this to the state and media outlets so that if you don’t do the right thing you will have to answer for your deeds on this matter and remember it’s a election year and I don’t think the citizen’s will be to happy to hear that you funded a hospital with so many problems and issues because some of you like those over at the Nye Regional Medical Center friendship is friendship, but business is business and friendship shouldn’t be a factor in your decision.
So yes let the hospital have to close its doors for now until a full investigation has been completed and its findings released to the public, and I know you can’t complete a investigation for at least 4-6 months because if you just try to do a blind eye investigation and come back in 1 month or less then the citizens will know you didn’t do a complete one and that once again they are the losers. For good healthcare professionals have come to work here at the Nye Regional Medical Center and have been Terminated, Fired or Quit because they seen how this hospital continues to do business and never spoken up about the misdealing that they know was going on. Many told me they liked Tonopah and that most of its citizens are kind decent hard working people who deserve to have better healthcare provide to them and it can happen, but not as long its under the control of Dr Scoccia and others who proven time and time again they only care about themselves and the paydays they can earn.
The old proverb is true “That if you continue to do the same old thing over and over again and expect different results then one is truly insane”

Concern Healthcare Professional
P.S. CHECK THE LABORATORY CURRENTLY THERE IS NO LABORATORY MANAGER OR LABORATORY DIRECTOR ONSITE, THEY PROMOTED A LAB TECH TO MANAGE THE LAB WHO CURRENTLY DOES NOT HOLD THE CREDENTIALS TO RUN THE LAB.