Monday, February 4, 2008

OSF Continues Dangerous Policy


I have a family member who has been very sick for the past 6 months.

This person is followed by an OSF physician who we have known and trusted for years. I sent this OSF physician an e mail the other day at his OSF e mail address.

This e mail contained an up to date medical problem list to keep him totally informed regarding the family member’s acute and chronic problems. It explained how she was regarding vital signs, oxygen level, blood tests, medications, diet, activity, etc. A very important e mail.

He did not receive my e mail at his OSF address. So I sent it again to his personal e mail address and he did receive it.

The OSF physician called me Sunday night (last night) to discuss at length each medical problem on the list. They are all important.

My wife was followed by an OSF provider as well. Her e mails went unanswered by the provider because he did not receive them.

My son, did not receive his surgery at OSF last summer. Time drug on as documented on a former post. So we took him out of state to a well known pediatric center where he was taken care of very quickly.

My e mails have been blocked by OSF which is of course obstructing medical communication with my family and their doctors.

In the meantime Haitian Hearts patients continue to suffer and die in Haiti due to OSF’s policy of rejecting all of my patients.

The founding Sisters of the Third Order of OSF would not be happy about how their hospital, founded on a philosophy of love, is actually functioning in 2008.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dr. Carroll,

You are so right about OSF. I was working at OSF St. Clare Home as a nurse. Because I refused to perform tasks that were outside my scope of practice, I became the target of a cruel and malicious setup and was fired almost a week after the "alleged" incident. I was accused of stealing to Vicodin tabs. The strange thing is, nobody thought about the fact that if I had stolen the drugs, why would I wait until my replacement came in the find the discrepancy? If I had taken the drugs, I would have signed them out at the time I took them so as to not appear guilty, right?! Anyway, I went immediately for drug teating. I had a rapid drug test and a collected urine sample was sent out. Both were NEGATIVE as I knew they would be. I continued to work at the facility, but the day after my weekend off, I was called on the telephone by the HR representative and told that I was being fired for the missing drugs. When I reminded her that I had two negative drug screens, she put me on hold and came back and said, "I guess we're firing you for excessive absences." I said, "You guess, you don't know?" She, then, stated, "Well it's other things too!" Then, she hung up in my face. The truth of the matter is, I had missed two days in a 90 day period, but this person who fired me had missed approximately 5 days per month for the time I was employed at the facility. I sent Keith Steffen 2 letters outling what I felt was an injustice. Eventually, he fired the DON who had actually taken the Vicodin and the Administrator for covering up. Meanwhile, I was left without a job or health benefits. When Keith finally replied to my letters (almost 2 months later), he wished me "good luck in future endeavors!" How sickening! I'm not finished with them, but they think I am. I'm just like you...I have it in me to see justice served. Thanks for your insight!!!