OSF-AMT Relationship
OSF-AMT Relationship
On September 27, 2001, I wrote a letter to Keith Steffen, CEO at OSF-SFMC, stating that I thought the bed capacity at OSF was not sufficient for the number of patients we were seeing in the ER. We were just keeping people too long in the ER before getting them upstairs and in their hospital bed. I sent this letter to my ED colleagues and other administrators.
Dr. Hevesy suspended me from the ER the next day, put me on probation for 6 months, and banned me from the main ER at OSF for writing this letter.
In October, I had a meeting with Hevesy in his office. He had been appointed director of the ED on August 1. People warned me that Hevesy was meeting with Andrew Rand in his office, but that didn’t mean much to me at the time. Many people in the area had recently told me that Rand was paying Hevesy for his services and they thought this represented conflict of interest.
I waited outside Hevesy’s office for 15 minutes, until Rand came out. I asked Hevesy why he had me wait while he met with his business partner. Hevesy had no immediate answer.
Why Rand was even allowed on OSF’s campus was questionable. AMT, under his watch, the year before had been fined $2 million for Medicare fraud by the federal government. AMT had been “upcoding”, i.e. charging the patients too much and the taxpayer was footing the bill. But Rand retained his position as director of AMT. This news was downplayed in Peoria and the 3 medical centers in Peoria helped bail AMT out of this financial mess. OSF is the biggest supporter of AMT and has significant interactions with this not-for-profit agency.
AMT grossed over $7 million a few years ago. Several years ago, Rand’s salary was $183,000 and Hevesy’s annual income was over $400,000 per year. But the PFD, who responds to approximately 10,000 health related 911 calls per year collects nothing for their responses.
Unfortunately, in Peoria there is a long history of friction between AMT and the PFD. It’s simply about money.
On May 1, 1996 there was an interesting article in the PJS headlined: “Ambulance Plan Abandoned–Fire Department to Add Defibrillation Program”. The article seems like it could almost have been written yesterday. AMT was worried that the PFD would go into the ambulance and transport business. Rand was worried about AMT. Chief Ernie Russell stated, “When we first started looking at this we had to answer was the service being offered now at a quality that we wanted. We said “no”. We wanted quicker response and the defibrillation ability…”
So what this all meant from my sources was that the decison was made for the PFD to stay at basic level. They couldn’t even give basic drugs and had to wait for AMT to arrive if the PFD was at the scene first for AMT to give advanced drugs and shock the patient. But the firefighters bought their own defibrillators to shock hearts during a cardiac arrest in ‘96 or ‘97. In a PJS editorial that preceeded this article on February 18, 1996, the editors state, “What we have heard is a medical community speaking up in support of AMT…George Hevesy, emergency services director at St. Francis Medical Center, says he fears city-run service would lack the expertise, the funding and the medical supervision to provide a high quality of care.”
This was an amazing statement by Hevesy because he was in charge of all the emergency agencies in central Illinois including the PFD and if the PFD lacked the expertise or lacked the medical supervision, that was Hevesy’s responsibilty. The Journal Star did not report that Hevesy was on AMT’s payroll and that their was obvious conflict of interest.
Where were Hevesy’s statements encouraging the PFD and helping the PFD acquire the life saving defibrillators prior to 1996? The American Heart Association stated in 1992 that all basic units (like the PFD) should be shocking people at the scene of a cardiac arrest. AMT was doing this in 1992, why not the PFD? Patients were being defibrillated at the scene of a pre hospital cardiac arrest since 1967! Where was Hevesy and his boss Rick Miller regarding this in Peoria? Why do the administrators from all three Peoria hospitals come to the City Council meetings over the years when AMT is the topic?
The Journal Star stated everything was fine with the emergency medical services in Peoria in 1996 just like almost everyone is saying in 2005. It is not based on any statistics. It is just a “feeling”. And a fair amount of local business pressure to keep things as they are in Peoria.
What would the public and the PJS say if the PFD were slipping the doctor in charge of all ambulances in Peoria a nice salary? Would that be reported in the media?
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Comments in 2021--
1. I wrote the above post in March 2006.
2. I asked the question above why Rand would still be allowed on OSF's campus. Well, he was there boy all along. When Rand and AMT got into trouble with the Feds in the late 90's for Medicare fraud for upcoding, OSF and the other two hospitals in Peoria, paid 750,000 dollars a piece to the federal government for this crime. OSF was and is the main investor in AMT and if OSF wanted a CEO at AMT other than Andrew Rand, they would have got one by now.
3. Hevesy supported AMT through his statements of support at the Peoria Journal Star and when he communicated to the Peoria City Council. He did not support the Peoria Fire Department advancing their services for the people of Peoria.
4. Chief Ernie Russell had to trade defibrillation for upgrading the PFD from Basic Life Support to a higher level. This was incredible that he had to barter for this. Cardiac arrest victims were being shocked around the world for many years.
5. A few years after I was terminated at OSF, I went to Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, Diocesan Attorney Patricia Gibson, and Bishop Jenky about a church tribunal court against OSF for their affiliation with AMT and what I considered an "unholy" monoploy on Emergency Medical Services in Peoria. Rohlfs and Gibson told me that if I petitioned for this tribunal court, the Diocese would come out in the media against Haitian Hearts. And that is what they did.
Dr. Hevesy suspended me from the ER the next day, put me on probation for 6 months, and banned me from the main ER at OSF for writing this letter.
In October, I had a meeting with Hevesy in his office. He had been appointed director of the ED on August 1. People warned me that Hevesy was meeting with Andrew Rand in his office, but that didn’t mean much to me at the time. Many people in the area had recently told me that Rand was paying Hevesy for his services and they thought this represented conflict of interest.
I waited outside Hevesy’s office for 15 minutes, until Rand came out. I asked Hevesy why he had me wait while he met with his business partner. Hevesy had no immediate answer.
Why Rand was even allowed on OSF’s campus was questionable. AMT, under his watch, the year before had been fined $2 million for Medicare fraud by the federal government. AMT had been “upcoding”, i.e. charging the patients too much and the taxpayer was footing the bill. But Rand retained his position as director of AMT. This news was downplayed in Peoria and the 3 medical centers in Peoria helped bail AMT out of this financial mess. OSF is the biggest supporter of AMT and has significant interactions with this not-for-profit agency.
AMT grossed over $7 million a few years ago. Several years ago, Rand’s salary was $183,000 and Hevesy’s annual income was over $400,000 per year. But the PFD, who responds to approximately 10,000 health related 911 calls per year collects nothing for their responses.
Unfortunately, in Peoria there is a long history of friction between AMT and the PFD. It’s simply about money.
On May 1, 1996 there was an interesting article in the PJS headlined: “Ambulance Plan Abandoned–Fire Department to Add Defibrillation Program”. The article seems like it could almost have been written yesterday. AMT was worried that the PFD would go into the ambulance and transport business. Rand was worried about AMT. Chief Ernie Russell stated, “When we first started looking at this we had to answer was the service being offered now at a quality that we wanted. We said “no”. We wanted quicker response and the defibrillation ability…”
So what this all meant from my sources was that the decison was made for the PFD to stay at basic level. They couldn’t even give basic drugs and had to wait for AMT to arrive if the PFD was at the scene first for AMT to give advanced drugs and shock the patient. But the firefighters bought their own defibrillators to shock hearts during a cardiac arrest in ‘96 or ‘97. In a PJS editorial that preceeded this article on February 18, 1996, the editors state, “What we have heard is a medical community speaking up in support of AMT…George Hevesy, emergency services director at St. Francis Medical Center, says he fears city-run service would lack the expertise, the funding and the medical supervision to provide a high quality of care.”
This was an amazing statement by Hevesy because he was in charge of all the emergency agencies in central Illinois including the PFD and if the PFD lacked the expertise or lacked the medical supervision, that was Hevesy’s responsibilty. The Journal Star did not report that Hevesy was on AMT’s payroll and that their was obvious conflict of interest.
Where were Hevesy’s statements encouraging the PFD and helping the PFD acquire the life saving defibrillators prior to 1996? The American Heart Association stated in 1992 that all basic units (like the PFD) should be shocking people at the scene of a cardiac arrest. AMT was doing this in 1992, why not the PFD? Patients were being defibrillated at the scene of a pre hospital cardiac arrest since 1967! Where was Hevesy and his boss Rick Miller regarding this in Peoria? Why do the administrators from all three Peoria hospitals come to the City Council meetings over the years when AMT is the topic?
The Journal Star stated everything was fine with the emergency medical services in Peoria in 1996 just like almost everyone is saying in 2005. It is not based on any statistics. It is just a “feeling”. And a fair amount of local business pressure to keep things as they are in Peoria.
What would the public and the PJS say if the PFD were slipping the doctor in charge of all ambulances in Peoria a nice salary? Would that be reported in the media?
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