Florida Mayor Accused of Ethics Violation by Patients' Rights Organization VP, who questions Bradenton HCA hospital $55 million renovation Project.

The Bradenton HCA hospital and nursing homes have been using expired fictitious names in business in Florida for years without any responsible control. Through Carol Stronstorff's complaint about healthcare provider occupational licensing to the City Council, SPCP discovered other questions of ethics in the mayor's financial disclosure statement used for his 2003 reelection. An ethics complaint was filed.

(PRWEB) February 18, 2004 --Carol Stronstorff [VP of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Patients, Inc.[SPCP] - a non-profit patients' rights organization] has filed an ethics violation complaint against the Mayor of the City of Bradenton, Wayne Poston. It appears the mayor did not file a proper financial disclosure for the 2003 election.
   
She discovered this after she had complained to the city about invalid or missing occupational licensing by city healthcare providers in September 2003. When no city action was taken by December, she asked to put the issue on the agenda. She was relegated to public comment only.
    
Her research into the council and their non-action into the vital area of health in the community led her to discover that Poston ran for reelection without ever having filed a valid 2002 financial disclosure statement.   

The city appears to have allowed OCCUPATIONAL LICENSE registrations without controlling the fictitious names of businesses within the city. In the area of healthcare, close scrutiny of the existing legal requirements is required.
   
Carol's mother died in Bradenton in 1999. It was her opinion that her mother was abused and used for profit of unscrupulous healthcare providers. Florida's Wrongful Death Clause , prevented her from getting any legal help. This law is the unspoken ZERO CAP and allows medical abuse to go unpunished. Poor people also have no chance to sue, since pro bono work never extends to malpractice issues. Accountability for medical negligence from the authorities is practically nonexistent. She founded SPCP to help others avoid the same nightmare experience and has contacts [victims] from all over the world.
   
The issue of fictitious names has plagued her attempts at self litigation. She points out the problem also exists for huge law firms, as in the Bradenton HCA ICU nurses' "whistleblower suit." Medicare bills were paid to different facilities than registered in both the city and state. Carol's lawsuit to obtain her mother's medical records failed in that they did not document Medicare reported diagnoses nor match records reportedly acquired by AHCA and insurance investigations.

An itemized bill as required by law was never received from either hospital or nursing home. The bankruptcy attorneys for IHS even said, there was no record of the patient. [IHS was not properly registered in the city at the time according to their records].
   
In the last Bradenton Council meeting, the city voted for the approval of the HCA hospital plans for the hospital at 2020 59th St. W, which is licensed as Blake Medical Center by the state. However, this hospital has no valid city occupational license. The proposed plans show an old expired fictitious name of a Tennessee company as the owner of the facility. However, the county records show it belonging to a subsidiary Florida corporation: HCA Health Services of Florida, Inc.. Carol asked the Council if it did not bother the city to be approving plans for an unlicensed hospital. Merv Hess from HCA was available to the Council to answer ownership questions. Unanimously, the City Council was silent and approved all plans- no questions asked.
   
Carol questions the $55 million dollar project and asked about the funding, which also did not interest the city council.   The approved plans remove eight surgery rooms and replace them w/ eight surgery "suites" = zero increase. The plan builds a new office building and demolishes the old = zero increase. It builds a five story garage across the street on the hospital daycare center lot [1000 new parking spaces]. No new beds are being added to the hospital nor was the huge existing parking lot ever full. Need? Value? The plan adds trees, which SPCP welcomes, but $55 million for a profit-oriented company like HCA? Why the false names?

Before the vote on the hospital plans, Councilwoman Barnebey disclosed that she owned 44 shares of HCA as a former employee at Blake. The mayor then said, he had 58. Neither mention this in their former disclosure statements. It appears to be over the $1000 required asset reporting.
   
Following the logic of the Ethics Commission in the recent travel affair of our legislators, Carol expects nothing to be found wrong. After all, politicians have filed false financial disclosures before. She hopes that the City will start following state law in the issue of fictitious name reporting. This was promised by Councilman Rev. Golden on Carol's fourth appearance before the city council in public comment.
   
The SPCP VP stated: "This would at least be one step in the direction of patient/consumer protection. Unfortunately, there are many more to make before fraud and abuse is completely eliminated. Secrecy is one of our worst enemies."

A visit to the www.SPCP4U.org web site may help people avoid many unpleasant medical and legal events. SPCP has tried continuously to impress upon the people, the true meaning of caps and the dangerous injustice of special privileges for healthcare providers. SPCP feels this is unconstitutional and damaging to responsible care. "Patients beware" is one of the early warnings.
   
A copy of the complaint as well as the history of the Council- Stronstorff issue is found at http://spcpi.homestead.com/bradentoncrusade.html

Donja Quijote, spokesperson - The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Patients is a non-profit patient's rights organization. Bradenton, FL 34209
Phone: 941-794-1634 [voice: 888-492-5856]
Fax: 775-257-6489 www.spcp4u.org and http://spcpi.homestead.com
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