EMHC has been losing clinicians and administrators recently. The place is falling apart. Even some M.D. psychiatrists are contractual part-time workers now. One can't help but wonder whether well-intended career professionals are jumping ship because they just want honest jobs. But the new guys might not really know the ropes as well as the regular IDHS employees.
Robert Sharpe, M.D., is one such contracted, part-time psychiatrist. He recently threatened a client of mine. My guy (Gus) is somewhat of a nuisance at EMHC, because he complains when staff violate rules and boundaries. Gus frequently writes his complaints down, and sends them to the proper authorities. That occasionally means somebody has to investigate, and maybe somebody (like Suzie Knaus, or the K Unit nurse Victoria, or Michelle Bogle, or Erica Ware; or one infamous, unmentionable social worker who nobody -!!- ever suspected -!!- was having actual -!!- sex with patients -!!- a few years ago) has to be moved to a different unit, or sent home for awhile. It's not even unheard of that maybe somebody has to go to jail.
So Robert Sharpe had a conversation with my guy on Wednesday, January 11, 2023, at about 9:40AM in the K&L conference room. Dr. Meyers the psychologist was also there, and Robert Sharpe told Gus he'd better stop writing complaints, or it will take him a lot longer to get out of EMHC. Sharp actually said to Gus (more or less these exact words): "We can just write negative things about you, from the concern forms other patients have written. We can send those concern forms to Administration. We can write in the chart whenever we want, and the court will believe us, not you. So you'll never het a conditional release, and you'll Thiem out in te 2030's."
But the official line is that patients are free or even encouraged to make complaints about abuse and neglect. That's what Peter Neumer's OIG investigators are supposed to be there for, to investigate complaints about staff who break rules and violate boundaries, and to protect Illinois' most vulnerable citizens. So a lot of people apparently figure if patients aren't threatened by the likes of part-time psychiatrist Robert Sharpe against writing too many complaints, OIG might actually do its job instead of just classifying every complaint that comes in as unfounded. Lots of people get on board against a guy like Gus, they turn up the pressure any way they can.
In fact, even patients get recruited by staff to complain about each other and deflect issues of staff misbehavior. Several guys on K Unit, who have frequently been given special favors by Suzie Knaus according to Gus's written reports, have ganged up on Gus in retribution. These guys ostentatiously waved to Victoria the nurse, as she was transferred over to L for the unprofessional conduct (actually, the assaultive conduct) of throwing a paper cup across the room at Gus. They called out, "Don't worry Victoria, we'll fight for you." Victoria was switched with a nurse named June, who came to K from L. Fighting for Victoria simply meant writing lots of complaint forms about Gus, so Dr. Robert Sharpe could make them available to Administration and get everybody to pathologize Gus for writing legitimate, truthful complaints which cause inconvenient traffic for staff. It becomes a coordinated campaign.
Another example is Cedric Sterling, an STA-II (2022 salary $95,500) who was quickly transferred between clinical units not long ago, when he reportedly was sexually "inappropriate" with male patients. I haven't had the chance to ask Gus about Cedric, but Cedric definitely knew about the sexual relationship between Mickey and Michelle Bogle. Of course he never reported anything. There will be defendants and deposition witnesses like Cedric and Suzie Knaus and nurse Victoria, in federal lawsuits coming down the pike soon. These are low-level, idiot suck-ups, who just don't follow OIG Rule 50 because they are stuck in the plantation mentally, the culture of slavery. They think the staff own the patients because the patients are mentally ill. And Peter Neumer's OIG just lets them all get away with it every day.
But a guy like Robert Sharpe is no low-level, idiot suck-up: he's a doctor, one of the elite. He's a better target than Cedric Sterling or Suzie Knaus. When he threatens my guy Gus so plainly with patently illegal false charting and retribution, he puts any professional reputation he hopes he has right on the line. He's in the wrong place at EMHC, if he actually wants his private practice in Maywood to remain unscathed.
Then there's also Faiza Kareemi, the K Unit psychiatrist who has been sued. According to the nurse June, Dr. Kareemi signed an inappropriate order to have Gus chained the other day. How that was set up is anybody's guess; Kareemi hasn't even been on Gus' treatment team, she's really had nothing to do with him. But when a patient is targeted for retribution, shit happens, and everybody helps, everybody gets roped into it. The plantation is well organized to keep the slaves in line, that's critical.
There are so many names of idiots and criminals, it's hard for me to remember who is where and who told me what. But I'll do my best to be accurate and mention somebody new, somebody who is trying to punish my clients, anybody who is trying to hide or protect the real wrongdoers, with each blog article....
To paraphrase Kevin from Home Alone: "Happy New Year you filthy animals!"
How do you throw a paper cup across a room???
ReplyDeleteHOW DO YOU THROW A PAPER CUP ACROSS A ROOM
ReplyDeleteGood question, and I should follow up on it.
DeleteSo here's the answer.
DeleteWhen a patient gets PRN meds (in this case it was ibuprofen for Gus's migraine), he/she goes to the window at the nurse's station on the unit. A styrofoam cup of water and a small plastic cup with the meds in it are then handed through an opening, and the window is closed. The patient takes the meds and returns the cups.
On this particular day, Victoria handed Gus the two cups, and did not wait for him to give them back after taking his ibuprofen. She had already had some problem with Gus that day, or he knew she didn't want to talk to him, so rather than knocking or calling to her after she had walked away from the window, he left the two empty cups, the smaller plastic one placed inside the larger styrofoam one, on the window sill outside the small glass door through which they had been handed to him, and through which they were also supposed to be returned to Victoria.
When Victoria came back to the window, she opened it up and backhanded the two cups off the window sill, onto the day room floor. They only flew a couple feet through the air, and then rolled a bit further. However this was dramatic enough, or unusual enough, that it was noticed by several witnesses. It was at best unprofessional, as if Victoria was trying to say something like, "You have to wait obediently for me to come back to this window! So now pick them up off the floor, slave!" Gus had a migraine, so he did not bend down to pick up the cups.
I created a misimpression in this original post, that a paper cup had been thrown all the way across the room at Gus. Therefore, this clarification. Obviously, a light paper cup is unlikely to carry very far, or to be so threatening as to constitute an assault. Thanks to the anonymous commentor, for the opportunity to correct.