Hutcheson’s patient care ombudsman, the person responsible for making sure the bankrupt hospital is actually taking care of patients, says conditions there have “deteriorated.”

How badly have they deteriorated? She can’t say for sure because hospital leaders haven’t given her sufficient access since July – so she’s reported the hospital to the state licensing board.

In a court report filed Monday, she cited poor communication from hospital administrators regarding financial conditions and the sudden closure of outpatient services, and noted that several of Hutcheson’s remaining key doctors have quit due to not being paid in months. Now THAT’s Hutcheson quality.

Yet, as the ombudsman observed, through all of the job reductions and service shutdowns, none of the hospital’s “senior leadership” has been cut.

“I used to believe in [CEO] Farrell Hayes, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. I STILL believe in Santa.” -Hutcheson Employee

As conditions continue getting worse and debt piles higher, Hutcheson has buyers interested in several of its properties, but not (so far) the main hospital.

An outfit called “New Beginnings” is offering to pay $7 million for Parkside Nursing Home.

Walker County’s government is considering making a bid on the closed Chickamauga Family Practice property, hoping to lease it to Memorial Hospital – but multiple insiders at the Walker County Development Authority say that entity, at least, won’t be buying. (We have to save development money for completely idiotic ideas, not partially-baked ones.)

Hutcheson’s lawyers will be back in court this Friday for more talks, and could come home with orders to shut the place down entirely.

One bit of good news, at least for one doctor’s patients: Dr. Paul Ballinger, who worked at Chickamauga Family Practice until it shut down, is now practicing in LaFayette at Memorial-owned Professional Park.         

Straight Gut Rd shooting last week began with an “unsatisfying” sexual encounter between Nicole Carroll and Edrius Jamel Putman. That resulted in a fight where Putman struck Carroll with an object, then began to leave with two friends.

At that point Carroll’s stepfather Michael James Gobert and his wife came out of their own home with guns. After more confrontation (the degree of which varies depending on which eyewitness or neighbor it comes from), Putman’s friend JJ Montgomery was shot and killed.

(Some are trying to make the incident into a racial situation, but nobody is defending this shooting. Regardless of what happened before shots were fired or what race anyone is or was, there’s no justification for it to have happened. It wasn’t likely racially motivated, and if it was so what? He’s no less or more dead.)

Putman, who was shot but hardly injured, faces an assault charge for striking Ms. Carroll. Gobert is in jail for murder.   

Related: “An argument in the dark leads to Walker County homicide”

Michael James Gobert of Straight Gut Rd faces murder charges after shooting two men, one fatally, around 11 PM on October 19th. The two victims and another man who wasn’t hurt had attended a party held at Gobert’s adult daughter’s home near his own.

Some kind of conflict broke out in the party and the men began leaving. That’s when Gobert came outside brandishing a weapon. Per the Sheriff’s Office Gobert fired at least ten shots at the three men and the car they arrived in. JJ Montgomery, age 31 [depicted], ended up dead.

Mr. Gobert faces charges because you can defend your home against a break-in, but you cannot shoot somebody who’s running away already. His wife also fired a gun, but only into the ground, and won’t be charged.     

A bicycle accident on GA 193 at Prospect Rd. in Kensington claimed the life of a Chickamauga woman.

55-year-old Melinda Brewer died Tuesday afternoon shortly after being struck by a Jeep while bicycling near her home with a relative. GSP is investigating the accident.     

Wednesday in a Rome courtroom, convicted drug dealer/attorney Don Oliver spoke on behalf of Walker County and Hutcheson, accusing Erlanger of trying to put the hospital out of business. (Seems like they did that fine on their own.)

Erlanger and bankruptcy overseers objected to rules that exclude some interested parties from bidding and plans that would let Regions Bank decide which bidder “wins” the auction.

(If there’s dirty money involved in this whole thing, it’s going to come out of the auction process. This could be the most important part of liquidating the hospital.)

A bankruptcy trustee and the judge both said Hutcheson is “dead” and will be shut down by the month’s end if it doesn’t sell. Most agreed that the property is unlikely to find a buyer, and most of the discussion focused on what to do with 100 remaining nursing home patients. The number of patients staying in the main hospital has fallen below ten per day.

WQCH Radio, 10/20/15: “[Hospital bankruptcy trustee] MARTIN OCHS SAID THE HOSPITAL IS ‘ADMINISTRATIVELY INSOLVENT’ WITH PATIENT CENSUS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW OF JUST 10 IN-PATIENTS.

“‘GIVEN THE DEBTORS’ CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION, THE U.S. TRUSTEE DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT THE DEBTORS HAVE THE ABILITY TO REORGANIZE THEIR FINANCIAL AFFAIRS’, OCHS WROTE.”

Hutcheson’s employee count is down to 375 from the 800 it had a year ago and the hospital admits it might have trouble making payroll for the next few weeks – but insists funds will come in to cover that, somehow.     

Related: “Hutcheson Not Too Big To Fail”
Related: “Time to take Fort Oglethorpe hospital off life support”

At the same time, Hutcheson’s lying CEO Farrell Hayes insists the hospital’s huge job and service cuts are part of a plan to make the sinking ship profitable.

He claims Hutcheson is “second to no one” in the area and still provides quality care.
(Somebody should check if he’s abusing drugs.)

Meanwhile there’s nobody answering phones and 9/10ths of the hospital and its properties are dark.

Quality pays its employees for their work and its vendors for their products. Quality sends out accurate bills to its customers. Quality doesn’t have damaged equipment or leaking ceilings in patient rooms. Quality doesn’t shut down its satellite locations. Quality doesn’t lose patients to hospitals an hour further away. Quality doesn’t bleed cash and demand help from taxpayers time and time again. Quality doesn’t lie to its workers and patients or leave them struggling for answers. Quality doesn’t commit medicare fraud.

Times Free Press, 10/17/15: “‘[Hutcheson employees] think Farrell has lied to them. They think Farrell has manipulated things.'”

Hutcheson is the opposite of quality at this point, and Hayes is the opposite of a good CEO or an honest, ethical human being.     

Thursday afternoon a few minutes before the end of business, Hutcheson briskly fired a sizable percentage of its remaining employees and closed down its outpatient services, including Chickamauga Family Practice, cardiology, pulmonology, and some doctor’s offices.

Sources say the hospital also shuttered its surgical unit and what remained of the ICU, patient accounts, and admissions – leaving essentially nothing open on the main campus but the ER and a handful of patient rooms.

Many employees cut had served at Hutcheson more than a decade, some over thirty years. In recent years they’ve worked with broken equipment and inadequate supplies, dealt with poor morale, tolerated being ripped off on their employer-provided health insurance, and showed up at work every day as asked. Right up until they were coldly told their jobs were gone.

Hospital payroll, normally handled on Thursdays, was moved this week to Friday and those who lost their jobs were not paid. Those unfortunate people (at least 75 by most reports) were promised checks sometime next week. Not only do they not have jobs, they don’t get paid on time – if they get paid at all. They also get no severance pay beyond standard unemployment, and don’t qualify for COBRA insurance coverage because Hutcheson hasn’t paid employee health insurance dues in a year.

Some working off campus had been told for the last three weeks to write down their work hours instead of “clocking in” as normal, meaning their pay is based on paper records easily lost or changed. The chances of those healthcare workers ever getting paid anything are slim to none.

So far the hospital has refused to talk to media or issue a press release (there may be nobody left in the organization to do one), but there’s no doubt the cuts – both in jobs and in services – were massive.

Workers are left scrambling for new jobs and wondering how they’ll pay their bills. Patients are left with no clear direction to obtain records or find replacement doctors.

All thanks to Farrell Hayes, the Hospital Authority, Hutcheson’s various overlapping boards, and the county governments of Walker, Dade, and Catoosa.       

Commissioner Heiskell has on several occasions mentioned how much the county would benefit from having a casino, and at one point said on TV there is plenty of space for such a facility at her Mountain Cove Farms.

She’s figuratively gambled with your taxes for years, and lost money on every roll – so why not literally spend tax dollars to build a money-losing casino in the county? It’s not like SHE’s gonna lose anything personally.

Heiskell has talked up the casino idea on UCTV several times, but after this article ran in the Chattanooga paper she made a video for Facebook claiming she’s never said that at all.

Notice she doesn’t actually say she doesn’t want one, just says it’s not up to her and she doesn’t want one at the Farm.

Compare THAT scripted video made for one audience to this unscripted video from Heiskell’s UCTV show, meant for an entirely different set of viewers:

Two-faced much?

There’s no chance Walker County will ever actually GET a working, open casino. But there’s a very good chance we’ll spend a bunch of money building or buying one that never opens.

Related: Place Your Bets On If Walker County Gets A Casino   

An accident Monday night around 8 shut down Highway 27 north of town for over an hour and sent three people to the hospital.

According to The Messenger, a red Ford F-350 leaving Swanson Drive in Noble pulled in front of a Mazda. The Ford rolled over on its top and was struck again by a Chevrolet Impala.

The occupants of the Ford, Kayla Godwin and Larry Steele, were the most seriously injured. Godwin was LifeForce’d to Erlanger and at last update was still in critical condition. Steele was also sent to the hospital, along with the driver of the Mazda. They’re both said to be OK. One occupant of the Chevrolet received medical treatment on the scene.

It’s not clear which occupant of the truck, Steele or Godwin, was actually driving. GSP is investigating the accident.           

On September 2nd Hutcheson’s corrupt CEO Farrell Hayes said, under oath, that the hospital would have a buyer within a week.

Now six weeks later the hospital’s latest bankruptcy trustee says there’s no buyer and it must be auctioned off to keep debt from piling up higher.

(That’s another six weeks Hayes has been paid a huge amount for doing his job poorly, where he would have been gone in September if the bankruptcy sale motion hadn’t been dropped because of his lies.)

Auction proceeds will go to pay the latest creditors, while Walker County is left holding the bag for previous creditors, owing them tens of millions. The recent Development Authority deal means Walker County county has no more assets to sell or leverage for a loan, so the only option will be another huge tax increase – probably one that will make the ones from this year and last look tiny by comparison.   

Pear Pine trailer park has been vacated by its last resident, freeing the city to begin “cleaning it up” (ie, tearing it down) without evicting anyone.

The ghetto trailer park, which sits at the city’s northern gateway on the corner of 27 and the bypass, has been without running water since late July.   

A Catoosa County car theft turned into a kidnapping yesterday when a car with two children in back was stolen from a grandmother’s driveway.

The thief, the vehicle, a second stolen car, and the kids – ages 5 and 7- were recovered in Tennessee. Authorities suggest drugs were involved.   

Friday night around 11:15, LPD officers pursued a DUI suspect from the bypass down Warthen St to North Main.

Instead of turning ONTO North Main, the allegedly intoxicated driver crossed the three-lane highway and smacked into the side of Ivy Cottage Restaurant.

No details on the chase, damages, or suspect’s name/condition have been released.   

Over the weekend a woman from Columbus, GA fell to her death from Pigeon Mountain’s Rocktown area.

Per the Sheriff’s Office the woman was a 40-year-old police officer from Columbus, and she died with her children present. Her name has not been released to the public.

Tragic situation.   

A downtown wreck Friday afternoon involved three cars and eight people. Two victims were sent to the hospital.

Another accident with no details announced, but it seems like this could only have happened if someone was a) driving too fast and b) failed to stop at the red light.   

Kris Sperry, Georgia’s Chief Medical Examiner, retired in a hurry days after Atlanta media uncovered major fraud in his office.

An investigation last week found Sperry making questionable statements in court while being paid to serve as a professional witness. He was also billing the state for services not done while out of town doing work in the private sector.

“Without hesitation, the chief medical examiner testified that Henry Glover died from a bullet to the back, fired by a high-powered rifle. ‘Any competent forensic pathologist,’ Sperry said, would see the evidence the same way.

“But Sperry hadn’t examined Glover’s body. He hadn’t studied the bullet, because none was found. And his opinion, like a surprising number of others he presents in court, was far from unanimous.

“Sperry wasn’t even testifying in Georgia. On Aug. 29, 2013, he was in New Orleans, appearing as an expert witness against a former police officer accused of murder after Hurricane Katrina. For stating his opinion that day, Sperry earned a fee of $5,000.”

This week he said he’s retiring November 1st, cleaned out his office, and took the rest of the month off. Retired or not, he may face charges for double billing the state. But his other inappropriate actions will probably never be punished.

Sperry’s sloppiness, dishonesty, and unprofessional behavior have been a problem on many occasions, most notably while he was in Walker County mishandling the Tri-State Crematory investigation.

Sperry came here for the crematory case but spent much of his time off-site sexing up another GBI worker at the Key West Inn. He left evidence collection up to local officials (most notably coroner DeWayne Wilson) whose many conflicts of interest corrupted the entire investigation and prosecution of its perpetrators.

If he had done his job correctly in THAT situation, a lot of the remains that were never identified (and some never recovered) would have gotten names and proper burials – and more who were guilty of abuse and fraud might have been punished.