The Lies Continue. Wherein the former short time supervisor of The Arizona State Hospital, Cory "meathead" Nelson again refuses to acknowledge the simple fact that he is 100% responsible for a recent federal investigation that found ASH to be operating in irrefutable violation of state and federal law.

Herein the face and skin of reptile.

INTRODUCTION: CORY NELSON WAS HIRED BY THE ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH/BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES IN SUMMER 2012, IN ORDER TO OVERSEE THE OPERATION OF ARIZONA'S SOLE LONG TERM PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE FACILITY, THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL (ASH). WITHIN 3 MONTHS OF BEGINNING HIS STINT AT THE HELM OF THIS PUBLIC ENTITY/FACILITY, NELSON UNILATERALLY- AS IN, WITHOUT CONSULTING THE VAST MAJORITY OF ASH STAFF, MOST OF WHOM HAVE FAR MORE EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE THAN HE DOES-  ALTERED A RANGE OF LONGSTANDING POLICIES AT ASH THAT WERE TO THAT TIME SOMEWHAT FUNCTIONING CONSISTENT WITH STATE AND FEDERAL LAW. MOST SPECIFICALLY, AS ILLUSTRATED IN A NUMBER OF MAJOR MEDIA REPORTS, NELSON DRASTICALLY REDUCED SECURITY STAFF, AS WELL AS LOWER RANKING TECHNICIAN AND NURSING STAFF, AN ACTION THAT IMMEDIATELY ESCALATED THE PRESENCE AT ASH PATIENT ON PATIENT/PATIENT ON STAFF VIOLENCE, AND FURTHER LED TO A VERY DISTURBING REDUCTION OF DIRECT CARE STAFF WHO BY ARE LAW REQUIRED TO OVERSEE THOSE PATIENTS KNOWN TO BE OF GRAVE HARM (TO THEMSELVES AND OTHERS) ON A 24 HOUR/SEVEN DAY BASIS. THE LATTER OF THESE IMPACTS DID AS A MATTER OF PLAIN FACT DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE KNOWN DEATH OF AT LEAST ONE ASH PATIENT, A 22 YEAR OLD MAN NAMED CHRIS BLACKMAN. ON THE BASIS OF THESE ISSUES (AS THEY EMERGED IN THIS BLOG, AND LOCAL PHOENIX MEDIA REPORTS), A FORMAL 2013 INVESTIGATION OF THE ASH OPERATION CONCLUDED THAT NELSON'S ACTIONS IN THIS CONTEXT DID OCCUR IN VIOLATION OF STATE AND FEDERAL LAW, THEREIN REPRESENTING A GROSS VIOLATION OF PATIENT RIGHTS, TO THE  DETRIMENT OF THE OVERALL FLOW OF CARE SERVICES THAT ALL ASH PATIENT'S ARE DESERVING OF.  FOLLOWING THE FINDINGS OF THIS INVESTIGATION, SEVERAL FEDERAL AGENCIES- INCLUDING THE CENTER FOR MEDICAID AND MEDICAID SERVICES- DETERMINED THAT FACT THAT ASH WAS OPERATING IN CONTRADICTION TO THE TERMS OF THE FACILITIES CERTIFICATION AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CARE FACILITY, WHICH LED TO A VERY REAL THREAT OF ASH LOSING SAID CERTIFICATION, AND THE DEMAND THAT ASH SHAPE UP, OR SUFFER THIS EFFECT TO FULL EXTENT OF ALL APPLICABLE FEDERAL LAW. 

THREE DAYS AGO, THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED BY CAPITAL MEDIA SERVICES. NOTE THE FORMAL LANGUAGE OF ALL ADHS REPRESENTATIVES WHO COMMENTED IN RELATION TO THIS MATTER, AS IT HAS EVOLVED, FOR THEREIN LIE THE PATTERNS DESPICABLE IMMORALITY AND DECIET THAT I WITNESSED AND EXPERIENCED FIRST  HAND AS AN ASH PATIENT. CORY NELSON, FOR EXAMPLE, SAYS THIS HIMSELF: 

Cory Nelson, the health department's chief of behavioral health services, said he is pleased with the new findings. 'This is obviously the outcome we were all expecting...' Nelson said the report found no instances of abuse. What it did find, he said, were situations which affected 'a patient's ability to be in a safe environment....' 

Arizona State Hospital meets federal standards, will continue to receive millions in Medicaid funding

Posted: Friday, March 14, 2014 2:15 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

The Arizona State Hospital is finally meeting federal standards and will not lose its certification – and millions in federal dollars.

In a letter to state health officials, Rufus Arther of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services said his agency is scrapping its plans to terminate the certification of the mental health facility. He said the latest survey done by an independent inspection unit of the state Department of Health Services for the federal agency shows the hospital is now complying with all the requirements to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

A copy of the March 10 letter was obtained Friday by Capitol Media Services.
The move comes four months after Arther, manager of survey, certification and enforcement for the federal agency's non-long-term-care division, removed the hospital's status as a provider considered to be meeting the required standards.
Arther said a September inspection found violations of regulations dealing with patient rights and nursing services. He said that review found deficiencies that substantially limit the hospital's capacity to render adequate care to patients, or are of such a character as to adversely affect patient health and safety.

Failure to comply with CMS standards comes with a risk: Cutoff of federal dollars. That federal cash makes up about a fifth of the $30 million budget for the hospital's 120-bed civil commitment unit.

Cory Nelson, the health department's chief of behavioral health services, said he is pleased with the new findings.

“This is obviously the outcome we were all expecting,” he said. Nelson said
State Health Director Will Humble acknowledged last year that the inspectors, who are state health department employees but independent of the hospital, did find various instances where procedures were not followed and patients were injured.

But he also said that in some of the cases, procedures were actually followed. The problem, he said, was that hospital personnel had failed to document what they had done.

The investigation is an outgrowth of a report by the Phoenix ABC affiliate about a patient death in September. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office said the man died of complications from having swallowed multiple “foreign bodies.”

Nelson said the report found no instances of abuse. What it did find, he said, were situations which affected “a patient's ability to be in a safe environment.”
Nelson said the hospital works with people with serious mental illnesses, including some “who have very serious self-harm issues.”

He said protocols require that some of the people be monitored closely – one staffer to one patient – with direct visual contact and at a distance of no more than six feet. Nelson said investigators found six instances where that did not occur.

And in several of those, patients were able to harm themselves by doing things like swallowing foreign objects or using items – or even their own nails – to cut themselves.

Last year's inspection also found situations where there was not the level of staffing the hospital itself had said was necessary. Nelson said while some of that was lack of documentation, there also were situations where someone did not show up at work.

Nelson said CMS orders special inspections when they get complaints. But he said they serve a legitimate purpose.

“We appreciate the fact that outside entities come in and help us identify things that we may not see on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “The survey process is simply part of an overall quality process that health care facilities utilize.”

Arther said the last inspection was not entirely a clean bill of health, with some “standard level deficiencies” found.

For example, it said that that the hospital's own policies and procedures did not ensure that patients were provided the same level of care for urgent medical needs 24 hours a day. And it found situations where the hospital did not document evaluations of patients placed on a “sick call” log.

Arther said these violations are not sufficient to require the hospital to submit a plan of correction to maintain its eligibility for federal dollars.

Nelson said policies will be adjusted.

In the case of that question of 24/7 care, he said the practice until now had been if a patient complained of something like a headache at night, that would be noted and a doctor or physician's assistant would examine him or her in the morning. Now, he said, the patient will get the same attention that would otherwise be available during normal business hours.

The inspection was only of the civil commitment unit of the hospital. It houses 120 patients, virtually all of whom were sent there under court order because they were found to be a danger to themselves or others.

A separate 120-patient unit is reserved for those who essentially have been found “guilty but insane,” people who would otherwise be behind bars except for their mental condition. And a third unit, with between 80 and 90 patients, houses those who have served their time in prison for violent sexual offenses but are considered too dangerous to be back on the streets.

(END OF ARTICLE)
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Cory "meathead" Nelson in a nutshell: "What it did find, (NELSON) said, were situations which affected 'a patient's ability to be in a safe environment.' "  This statement is only one more striking example of the manner in which this man, who is currently entrusted as the Deputy Director of Arizona's entire behavioral health care system, willfully twists the language/communication process anytime hard evidence emerges about the substandard conditions at ASH; he and his superiors- i.e. AHDS Director Will Humble engage in such miscommunication as a matter of standard operating procedure. They do this simply in order to preserve whatever semblance of reputation ASH may happen to have, putting the needs and rights of ASH patients well behind their own selfish and dimwitted ways in this sense; willfully deferring the fact that that ASH  staff have been engaging in violating the rights of all ASH patients to be provided with a reasonably safe environment that can serve to aid the needs these citizens as per the letter of law. Indeed, anything less is an abominable breach of the public trust, which I contend occurs due to gross abuses of power and authority. In no uncertain terms, with the above statement in mind,  Cory "meathead" Nelson more places the causal factors underlying substandard safety conditions on the "ability" (or lack thereof) of the ASH patients, all of whom are seriously mentally ill and disabled, and deserving as such of optimally safe conditions which only ASH staff are capable of ensuring.

Cory Nelson, deputy director for Behavioral Health

Herein, the face of the snake. As I have already reported, the patterns of these violations were identified in 2013, and largely came about in direct relation to Nelson's grossly inept mis-supervision of ASH in the 12 months that he served as the Hospital's chief executive officer, 2011-12. And as I have also stated, ADHS Director Will Humble chose to grant this bum a major promotion, with no consideration whatsoever for the fact that ASH is and still continues to operating at substandard level of health care that should be shocking to anyone of reasonable conscience. There are at least 5 other highly entrusted ADHS/BHS/ASH staff who were 100% complicit in furthering the issues that are now known to be of serious concern to a range of well intentioned authorities, including several Arizona lawmakers, members of ASH's Human Rights Right Committee, and citizens such as myself who know via extensive first hand experience. Likewise, the primary source of information that the federal government relied upon in order to initiate this investigation flowed from local Phoenix area media, most particularly ABC Ch. 15 executive investigative (Emmy award winning) reporter David Biscobing, and at that point in time when these media based reports emerged in early 2012-the present, Will Humble patently rejected the merits by characterizing these sources as unreliable.

As such, Cory "meathead" Nelson has proven himself time and time again to be utterly dishonest each whenever he has made public comments about the factual realities at ASH, including during that time when I was hospitalized on the "civil" side of the Hospital itself (2011-12), gross dishonesty and outright deception that has occurred to  such a degree that anybody well familiar with these issues is fairly well nauseated whenever this miscreant's voice arises, be it in news media, the official ADHS/BHS blog site, and so on. A fat faced patent liar, who left the state of South Dakota under a very disturbing cloud of suspicion and associated controversy specific to his position in that state's public services system. As I have sarcastically said before, where does a man like Cory Nelson go if his misconduct has been exposed in media (as did occur in South Dakota, circa spring 2011)? Arizona, apparently, where men like ADHS Director  Will Humble, , and women like ASH's current CEO Donna "You are sooo busted" Noriega (and on the list of such names goes, as per my records and associated knowledge base) willfully engage in breaching the public trust as a matter of standard practice. The presence of this criminality in the executive offices of ASH and and ADHS has a trickle down effect that has long served to further all elements of the substandard medical-mental health care practices within the walls and fence lines of the Hospital itself, including deeply unacceptable occurrences of graphic patient abuse, which I attest to having witnessed and experienced firsthand for the virtual entirety of my 13 long months at ASH.

Equally significant to my tone of my voice in this context, I will also a say again:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, FOR THE CITIZENS OF ARIZONA WILL NOT ACCEPT THE FACT THAT A BLATANTLY INCOMPETENT STATE OFFICIAL IN ONE THE POOREST STATES IN THE NATION (S.D.) CAN RELOCATE TO LAND A HIGH LEVEL POSITION IN OUR STATE'S PUBLIC SERVICES SYSTEM. THIS PROCESS IS FAR FROM OVER, AND I STILL FULLY INTEND TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SEE THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE UNDER THE LETTER OF LAW. 

paoloreed@gmail.com