Shasta Regional Medical Center

Shasta Regional Medical Center, formerly known as Redding Medical Center, is one of two major hospitals that are located in Redding, California. It opened in 1945 and currently has 246 beds with an acute care facility and has become a regional medical center serving far Northern California.^[1] It is also the first fully accredited accredited chest pain center in northern California.

History

It was purchased by Tenet Healthcare Corporation in 1976 and renamed Redding Medical Center. In 2002, amid a federal investigation of two cardiologists at the hospital, Drs. Chae Hyun Moon and Fidel Realyvasquez,^[2][3][4][5] and as part of a settlement with federal regulators, Tenet Healthcare Corporation was compelled to sell the hospital to Hospital Partners of America for $60 million USD in 2004.^[6] Hospital Partners of America then renamed the hospital to its current name of Shasta Regional Medical Center and took measures to insure that this incident would not occur in the future.^[7]

Hospital Partners of America went into bankruptcy in 2008, and the hospital operations were taken over by Prime Healthcare Services.

Unnecessary care and billing

At Redding, the early-2000s investigation, raid and litigation were prompted because "physicians undertook large volumes of inappropriate and unnecessary procedures on largely healthy patients".^[8] The investigation into Moon and Realyvasquez was the result of multiple whistleblower lawsuits filed under the Federal False Claims Act alleging unnecessary medical procedures.^[9] Catholic Priest John Corapi,^[10] Joseph Zerga and Redding physician Patrick Campbell split 15% of the total $62.55 million dollar settlement.^[11]

Tenet had already agreed to pay $54 million in 2003 to settle the federal case without admitting any wrongdoing but with an agreement for new oversight procedures for physicians and staff.^[12] In 2004, Tenet established a $395 million fund for 769 cardiac patients to settle civil suits relating to procedures performed by Moon and Realyvasquez.^[13][14]

There is also evidence that Prime Healthcare Services engages in upcoding elderly patients to malnutrition. At Shasta Regional Medical Center, Prime reported 16.1% of their Medicare patients suffered from kwashiorkor. The state of California average for Medicare patients is 0.2% suffering from kwashiorkor. Prime Healthcare Services is currently being investigated for Medicare fraud by United States Department of Health and Human Services and the California Department of Justice. ^[15]

References

1. ^ Shasta Medical Center Website
2. ^ New York Times 11/6/2002
3. ^ New York Times 11/16/2005
4. ^ New York Times 11/4/2002
5. ^ Washington Post 7/25/2005
6. ^ Tenet Healthcare Agrees to Sell Redding, Calif., Medical Center.
7. ^ Redding.com 10/30/2008
8. ^ Walshe K, Shortell SM (2004). "When things go wrong: how health care organizations deal with major failures.". Health Aff (Millwood) 23 (3): 103–11. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.23.3.103. PMID 15160808. 
9. ^ CBS News 7/17/2003
10. ^ SFGate.com 11/10/2002
11. ^ Department of Justice (November 15, 2005). "Redding Cardiologists Agree to Pay Millions in Settlement". http://mathiasconsulting.com/cases/2005/11/CA/redding. 
12. ^ Kaiser Health Policy Report (August 7, 2003). "Tenet to pay $54M to settle allegations that surgeons performed unnecessary procedures". http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=19246. 
13. ^ $117 Million: Victims of Unnecessary Heart Surgeries
14. ^ Kaiser Health Policy Report (December 22, 2004). "Tenet Healthcare Agrees to $395 million settlement of lawsuit filed over alleged unnecessary heart surgeries". http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=27373. 
15. ^ Williams, Lance; Christina Jewett, Stephen K. Doig (February 19, 2011). "Hospital chain, already under scrutiny, reports high malnutrition rates". California Watch. http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/hospital-chain-already-under-scrutiny-reports-high-malnutrition-rates-8786. 

Coordinates: 40°35′08″N 122°23′16″W / 40.58556°N 122.38778°W / 40.58556; -122.38778