Peoria's Medical Mafia

 

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Peoria's Medical Mafia

(This was my first post on my blog called "Peoria's Medical Mafia.")

Medical mafia—I have never forgotten when a well-known Peoria physician used this term to describe for me how the medical system operates here in River City. Physicians and institutions in central Illinois sometimes make decisions based on what is best for their bottom line rather than the patient’s health. Greed motivates this situation and fear—fear of job loss and other financial punishments, fear of ostracization by a close knit community—keeps it in place. The term medical mafia perfectly explains much of the four-year saga I have been on since being fired from OSF St. Francis Medical Center in 2001.

In the hopes that constructive changes can be made regarding some dangerous situations, I want to share my experiences with as many people as possible. After years of attempting to work within the confines of OSF and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, I finally realized that there is no adequate checks and balances within either system. Silence and denial are integral components to stifle ideas. Although not ideal by any means, a weblog (blog) seems the best way to disseminate this information.

My objectives are to detail serious problems related to OSF, Emergency Medical Services in Peoria, The Catholic Diocese of Peoria, and Haitian Hearts. I will show how the problems involving all four entities are linked. I will discuss how powerful men and women can hurt the not-so-powerful people in central Illinois as well as sick Haitian children needing heart surgery.

The first step toward change is an awareness of the problem. I want to educate people as to how these organizations really operate. I have 4 years of letters, articles, and notes of conversations that I have used in this blog. These sources will provide evidence for the events I will describe. I will include names at times and will leave other names out to protect people from injury.

The blog is divided into 3 main sections: OSF, Haitian Hearts, and Emergency Medical Services in Peoria. All are written in as much of a chronologic order as I could to keep 4 years of material as understandable as possible.

It is possible this site will anger powerful people and institutions. If I am told to “cease and desist” from further writing, I will let you know and take appropriate action. If changes occur in systems that our failing us now, I will also let you know.

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