A CASE STUDY  (Read the latest events in the case)

 

HEADLINE: January 27, 2000 Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission grants Dr. Smith a full medical license under whistle-blower protection provisions of state law. The Commission does not require Brigadier General Mack Hill’s signature. Hill continues to refuse to answer the letters from Quality Assurance Commission about Dr. Smith,  a physician who works for him.

                                                         

 

 

Why is this Army Doctor under reprisal for reporting JCAHO standards violations?

Who are the Army Medical Generals accused by Stephen Whitlock Smith, MD, of violating JCAHO standards?

Could Brigadier General Kevin Kiley influence Dr Smith's credentials and influence any investigations?

Who is the one Army Medical General who can resolve the situation?

What Dr. Stephen Whitlock Smith reported:

The Reported Reprisal Involved the following:

 

World Wide Web Report updated 14 February 2000 after presentation at 11:45 AM on 18 October 1999 at Madigan Army Medical Center to the following:

·         Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Physician Surveyor Dr. Charles Blewett for Dr Dennis O’Leary, President of JCAHO telephone (630) 792-5000, JCAHO Case #134, and

·         Department of Defense Inspector General Investigator Debby Gibson for Donald Mancuso, Acting Inspector General telephone (800) 424-9098 DODIG Case #67218/372088, via COL Peterson;

·         COL Peterson, Inspector General, I Corps and Fort Lewis, telephone (253) 967-5181 was consulted in person on Monday 18 October and requested to assure safe transfer of protected documents to the JCAHO Physician Surveyor Dr Charles Blewett, and to Department of Defense Inspector General Investigator Debby Gibson for Donald Mancuso. COL Peterson accepted the computer disk of protected documents and agreed to transfer it to DODIG.

 

 

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Current Situation

Investigations

Contact Information                                                  

E-mail address

stevewsmith@pol.net, stevewsmith@ephysician.md

Telephone

253-576-6746

 

Biographical Information

·          Stephen Whitlock Smith, MD, completed all of his medical training in the  Army, and served in Desert Storm in the Saudi desert near Kuwait

·          Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 1970 (Biology)

·          George Washington University School of Medicine 1980 (MD, Army Scholarship)

·          Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Internal Medicine Residency, 1983

·          Madigan Army Medical Center, Emergency Medicine Residency, 1987

·          Elected Fellow, American College of Physicians, 1994

·          Elected Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians, 1991

 

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JCAHO and DODIG Summary Letter to Dr Dennis O’Leary and Donald Mancuso

Attention: Dennis O’Leary, MD, and Donald Mancuso

 

Gentlemen:


My complaint is contained in this Web site, with confidential documents passed to you under separate cover on 18 October 1999, anticipatory of assistance from COL Peterson, Inspector General of I Corps and Fort Lewis. Because of the complexity of the case and the huge number of documents, I am writing this outline to point out the key problems and to signal the key documents.

 

My complaint (JCAHO #134 and DODIG #67218) can be divided up into several areas:

 

 

“Inspector General, Department of Defense, 400 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, VA 22202-2884

Honorable Strom Thurmond

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510-4001

Dear Senator Thurmond:

This is in response to your letter of June 22, 1999, regarding Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Stephen W. Smith, US Army Medical Corps (case number 372088.) LTC Smith alleged that he is continuing to suffer reprisals for his 1996 reports of mismanagement at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany.

 

“This office has reviewed a report of investigation from the Inspector General (IG), Department of the Army, regarding reprisal allegations made by LTC Smith. More recently, the Army IG has completed its investigation of the allegations of mismanagement at Landstuhl. Our review of these investigations determined that additional review and analysis is necessary before we can conclude that all issues raised by LTC Smith have been adequately addressed. In that regard, we have recently interviewed LTC Smith and anticipate interviewing other US Army Medical Corps personnel in the near future. The results of our review of this matter will be provided to you as soon as possible.

 

“Please accept our regrets for the delay in providing you with a more timely interim response. If we may be of further assistance, please contact me or Mr. John R. Crane, Office of Congressional Liaison, at (703) 604-8324.

 

“Sincerely,

Donald Mancuso

Acting Inspector General”

 

Finally, Gentlemen, I remind you that the allegations that I am making herein are extremely serious because they appear to involve deliberate violations of Army Regulations and Joint Commission guidelines at Landstuhl 1994-1996 by officers reporting to then COL Kevin Kiley, and reprisal against me and other witnesses at Madigan at the apparent direction of Brigadier General Mack Hill, a former close associate of Brigadier General Kevin Kiley. I do not dispute that I myself became delinquent in medical records in early September 1998, after the episode of reprisal detention which followed shortly after an episode of harassing behavior by BG Hill himself. I reported that I was falling behind in records and would need additional assistance in order to complete them. However, Brigadier General Mack Hill and his command utilized both the Impaired Provider Committee and the Credentials Committee in an apparent reprisal mode against a whistleblower, and not in the way that Army Regulation 40-68 and JCAHO guidelines stipulate. Various DOD Directives were also apparently disregarded:

  1. The Directive issued in February 1991 by DOD IG Susan J. Crawford to Army Medical Facilities (Madigan was named specifically) not to place adverse documentation unrelated to medical credentials into a provider’s credentials file, and
  2. DOD Directives protecting whistleblowers from retaliation (DOD directives 6490-4 and 6490-1 and their antecedents)

Furthermore, both JCAHO and the DOD IG have an opportunity to investigate irregularities not previously investigated by the responsible agencies. If uncompleted Army  investigations are  reactivated by your efforts, that will bring back respect to the organization that was lost when MG David Hale, an Assistant Army Inspector General, during the time my complaints were being investigated, was investigated for Court-Martial. Some of the criticisms of the Joint Commission that it is too lenient might be answered to the organization’s credit if the irregularities which I report do actually force Madigan to follow established due process Regulations and guidelines, especially in a whistleblower case.

 

I can provide whatever additional material which you require for your investigation.

 

My item-by-item appeal to you follows later in this document. (hyperlink to JCAHO/DOD IG appeal)