The Learning Curve--September 2006

September 3, 2006

When I think of what has happened in the last five years, I realize what a remarkable learning experience this has been. The learning curve has been very steep and I would not trade this experience for anything. 

I am in Haiti now and 28 Haitian children and young adults, all Haitian Hearts patients, need to come to the United States for heart surgery. OSF-SFMC has refused to accept any patients from this list, even patients that were operated at OSF in the past. They have even refused full charges for care. 

Not long before I was fired from OSF, Paul Kramer, Executive Director of Children’s Hospital of Illinois (CHOI), told me in his office that Haitian Hearts was becoming “too competitive for CHOI”. We were in the midst of raising 1.1 million dollars that we donated to CHOI for the care of Haitian Hearts patients. We were not becoming too competitive in my opinion. But Mr. Kramer seemed quite concerned that we were.

In 2001, OSF-SFMC's CEO Keith Steffen was saying behind the scenes that all funding for Haitian children was going to be cut. Interestingly, the Caterpillar Foundation was donating the same amount of money to Haitian Hearts, which went directly to CHOI, as the Foundation was donating to OSF. According to the Caterpillar Foundation secretary, who I spoke to on the phone, Caterpillar donated $30,000 to OSF on April 15, 2001. The OSF Foundation computer sheet showed that Caterpillar Foundation donated a mere $500 dollars to Haitian Hearts on May 1, 2001, even though the secretary said that Caterpillar made only one donation on April 15, 2001. Caterpillar Foundation had been donating $10,000 dollars per year to Haitian Hearts in previous years, which went directly to CHOI. According to the Caterpillar Foundation secretary, Caterpillar only made one donation to OSF in 2001, and that was on April 15, 2001. So where did Haitian Hearts remaining $9,500 from Caterpillar Foundation go? Did Caterpillar Foundation actually donate MORE than $10,000 to Haitian Hearts in 2001? Did CHOI divert any Caterpillar money dedicated to Haitian Hearts in 2001, so in 2006 OSF could begin with their 234 million dollar campus expansion? If OSF diverted Caterpillar’s generous donation away from Haitian Hearts to their CHOI fund, that would be bad news. It would be really bad news if you are a Haitian child that is dying from heart disease in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in a hot and filthy dirty shack. It would be bad news if you are any of the 28 kids waiting as mentioned above. Even after I was fired, Henry Holling, Director of the Caterpillar Foundation, called me and said that Caterpillar still wanted to donate to Haitian Hearts. I have known Mr. Holling since I was a little kid in West Peoria. I knew his grandparents and grew up on the corner of Heading Avenue and Holling Drive. Do you really think that Mr. Holling, representing a multibillion-dollar corporation, and one of the most powerful corporations on the face of the earth, was going to offer Haitian Hearts $500 dollars for the year after Caterpillar had been donating $10,000 each year for Haitian Hearts, that all went to CHOI in Peoria? After I picketed OSF in January 2003, OSF had Dr. Rick Pearl announce to the press that Haitian Hearts did not owe OSF any money for Haitian Hearts patients. Do you think this was done out of the goodness of OSF’s heart? Were they following their mission statements? Or do you think they did not want anyone going through their books regarding the above? Do you think that OSF WANTED the public to know that we had donated at least 1.1 million dollars to OSF-CHOI? Do you think OSF wanted you to know that OSF had cut away ALL funding of Haitian Hearts in the middle of 2002 like Mr. Steffen was predicting months before? Do you think that OSF wanted anyone to see the itemized bills on kids from Haiti that may have a financial mistake or two? Do you think that OSF wanted the public to see what they charge for heart surgery and what Caterpillar has to pay and what the government and other third-party payers are asked to pay? They did not want any of us to know these inside details. 

As I have said before, it does not appear that the Haitian kids broke the hospital as OSF starts the biggest expansion project in Peoria’s history. 

What I have learned also, is the impotence of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis and the Catholic Bishop of Peoria. They have watched all of this happen and looked the other way. A lot of people advised me that they (the Sisters and the Diocese) would not help. My family and I refused to believe this but we believe them now…all part of the learning curve.

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State approves Saint Francis expansion plans---

Tuesday, September 12, 2006 

By DAYNA R. BROWN of the Journal Star

SPRINGFIELD - OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria received approval today to begin the largest private building project in the city's history. The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board approved plans for a $234 million expansion to the hospital's Downtown campus. Construction will begin next spring on an eight-story, 440,000-square-foot building that will include a new Children's Hospital of Illinois. OSF officials said the expansion was needed because it was out of space, often having to divert patients to other facilities because no beds were available. The new building will be north of the hospital's main facility on the site of Medi-Park 1, which will be torn down when a $33 million parking deck is completed this year.