Sonoma West Medical Center/ Dan Smith Lawsuit

[nancypreb]

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/5...l-center-chief

[Dick]

We sure could use an investigative journalist right about now!

[Agent Winston Smith]

New SWT&N reporter [ Amie Windsor] has been all over this.

https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...0bda22341.html

Totally blown away by the article and the comments following. ...

[Dick]

Amie Windsor rocks!!!

[podfish]

Totally blown away by the article and the comments following. I hope Jonathan Greenberg or another investigative journalist is able to dig deep into this. Maybe the PD will take it on? There was just a hint there in the comments that the nurse herself might not have such clean hands. Very disappointing and discouraging to those of us who worked to bring this hospital into being if this is true.

I don't see anything yet that's all that outrageous. There may be more to it than appears on the surface, of course. But I've worked with buggy corporate software, and rollout problems like that are typical - as is the reaction of the unhappy employees who didn't get say in whether it was purchased or not. I also don't see anything wrong with Dan Smith pushing use of his software on the hospital. It's a stretch to think that his contributions to keeping this hospital open are motivated by his need for a place to test out his software. If he was in the ambulance business, I'd think it would be reasonable for the hospital to buy its ambulances from him (yeah, I know hospitals are unlikely to own ambulances... it's just a dumb example)

[Dick]

Nothing wrong with a private citizen taking over a public entity (for all intents and purposes) and using it for his own (potential) gain? The taxpayers in the West County are going to end up paying for this. Unfortunate that no regulatory agency, municipality or court stepped in to stop this before it came to this point. They're starting to turn on each other now and if you have any sense of the history of the district and the hospital you've seen this before and the writing is on the wall.

[homosapien]

I thought the hospital had closed again. Am I incorrect? I hope not.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/5...l-center-chief

[Dick]

Not yet. Give it a month or two unless they can figure a way to borrow more money for the taxpayers to absorb.

[Dick]

What we really need is Sonomaindependent to step up. Mr. Greenberg was all over it a few months ago! Where are you Jonathan?

[Sara S]

Gee, I just re-read this stuff, and realized that I'd wrongly "expressed gratitude" for a couple of your posts; I doubt that "Dick" is your real name, but I think it suits you.

What we really need is Sonomaindependent to step up. Mr. Greenberg was all over it a few months ago! Where are you Jonathan?

[Dustyg]

Dick: Roll up your sleeves and get to work!!! Sitting at the sidelines crticizing folks who have put them out for the sake of the community shows very poorly for your character. Take a break, go do some work.

Nothing wrong with a private citizen taking over a public entity (for all intents and purposes) and using it for his own (potential) gain? The taxpayers in the West County are going to end up paying for this. Unfortunate that no regulatory agency, municipality or court stepped in to stop this before it came to this point. They're starting to turn on each other now and if you have any sense of the history of the district and the hospital you've seen this before and the writing is on the wall.

[Barry]

Jonathan is working on other projects, including a story about Monsanto hijacking democracy in Hawaii. I hope to lure him back to do some other local investigative reporting. I'm wiling to pay him some. Anybody willing to chip in to fund some local investigative reporting about the hospital, affordable housing, or the CBD raid?

What we really need is Sonomaindependent to step up. Mr. Greenberg was all over it a few months ago! Where are you Jonathan?

[jbox]

I thought the hospital had closed again. Am I incorrect? I hope not.

There have been several articles in the PD about the money woes of the new and improved and re-named Palm Drive. Last I saw it lost $400,000 in one month. It can't find and keep staff. The former head of nursing has filed a big lawsuit. The River corridor community has successfully filed for detachment. It's on life support once again and the breaker keeps popping. Who woulda thunk?

[Goat Rock Ukulele]

Let me get this right. My brother Dan and sister inlaw Joan rescue our local hospital on more than one occasion, loaning, donating, forgiving the debt of millions and millions of dollars and put in thousnds and thousnds of hours and they are the villains? That's a world upside down. As my old friend Jakie Griffen use to say "no good deed shall go unpunished".

[sandoak]

I've used the hospital services twice in the last two months. I'm very grateful it's there, and hope people understand its value and keep it going.

I thought the hospital had closed again. Am I incorrect? I hope not.

[podfish]

Let me get this right. My brother Dan and sister inlaw Joan rescue our local hospital on more than one occasion, loaning, donating, forgiving the debt of millions and millions of dollars and put in thousnds and thousnds of hours and they are the villains? That's a world upside down. As my old friend Jakie Griffen use to say "no good deed shall go unpunished".

once money's involved people tend to misapply the "follow the money" line without remembering it's just from a movie. In political and economic discussions you see a lot of people failing to distinguish between legitimate expressions of self-interest and exploitive behavior.

[Bill95446]

I had occasion to use the emergency facilities last February, and was very impressed with the experience! I, too, am grateful that it's there.

I've used the hospital services twice in the last two months. I'm very grateful it's there, and hope people understand its value and keep it going.

[Peacetown Jonathan]

I did respond to this; with this commentary in the Sonoma Independent that places this lawsuit, and its irresponsible promotion by the Press Democrat, here:

Why Did Press Democrat Run Extortionist Claims Against Hospital on Front Page?

Newspaper Editors Refuse to Answer Questions or Run Letters About Journalistic Ethics of Providing Megaphone for Shakedown Lawsuit

August 14, 2016

In one of the worst breaches of journalistic ethics by a major California newspaper in recent years, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat last week used its front page to smear the Sonoma West hospital and its largest philanthropist based upon unsubstantiated, easily-disprovable allegations by a disgruntled former employee bringing a shakedown lawsuit.

The Press Democrat breached a fundamental rule of journalistic ethics by rushing to publish damaging allegations as front-page news. The headline, “Lawsuit: Hospital donor dishonest” was followed by the sub-head, ‘Ex official Goldfarb says Smith asked him to cook Sonoma West books.”

Neither the article by reporter Martin Espinoza nor the lawsuit itself provided a shred of evidence to support the article’s reckless headlines. Espinoza noted that neither hospital chair Dan Smith nor the hospital itself could comment on pending litigation. Indeed, as any journalist knows, when a person or a hospital is slapped with a lawsuit, their attorneys require them to not talk to the press until their legal response is filed.

Soon after the article appeared, Gail Thomas, president of the foundation assisting the Sonoma West Medical Center (SWMC), wrote to supporters, “It is disheartening that what we view as completely unsubstantiated allegations can be spread in the press because of the filing of a lawsuit and, since the allegations involve personnel matters, the hospital is prevented from readily and easily refuting all the allegations.”

Continues here in the Sonoma Independant