KUAM.com-KUAM News: On Air. Online. On Demand.Skilled Nursing Unit physician-director terminated

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - On the heels of a scathing exit survey by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the Skilled Nursing Unit in Barrigada, the physician-director was terminated.

Dr. John Steele doesn't believe there was a good reason to terminate him from his position - and now he's calling out hospital management.  

For the last 25 years, Dr. Steele has been the physician-director at the SNU. "I'm very proud of the job I do there and I'm very proud of the staff," he told KUAM News. "We have a wonderful morale and I think it's that morale that's reflected in the good patient care that we provide."

That all changed though on February 3 when he was terminated. "As a contract employee I am not entitled to any explanation, any due process, and I have no legal recourse at all," he noted. Steele was fired about a week after the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services conducted a survey of the SNU and noted multiple deficiencies, he says, specifically in nursing care. But the former physician-director contends that part of CMS' concerns were a result of management not keeping to the established rules of the Guam and Medicare policies and procedures.

"I try to keep to the guidelines that are set by Medicare they are overridden by either [Rey] Vega or [Dr. Larry] Lizama, so it's been constant interference," he said.

Steele claims that since the new GMH management was put in place last year, things have gotten personal, saying, "Both these people - Rey Vega and Lizama - have interfered constantly with my management and decision making out at Skilled Nursing. They've sabotaged the unit and me during the past year."

The termination also came a few weeks after Steele was counseled for a procedure he conducted on a SNU patient who suddenly had difficulty breathing. "To save his life, I did an emergency tracheotomy. You put a tube in so he could breathe, and I saved his life," he recalled.

During transport to the ambulance though, the tube came out and the patient passed away. Steele reported the incident to GMH management and claims that Dr. Lizama told him he had performed an unlawful and egregious procedure that would result in him losing his medical license and hospital privileges. The physician defends his actions, even though he was never interviewed or given an opportunity to do so by GMH management.

"I am so relieved to be out of that dreadful situation of having to deal with the GMH administration," said Steele.

But he's not ready to throw in the towel just yet.  In fact, he said, "The CEO? I'd love to run that hospital. I'd like to take over as a CEO - Vega's position - and I'd appoint another medical director, probably Dr. Leon Guerrero.

Dr. Steele hasn't officially applied for the permanent administrator position, but says if given the opportunity, he would merge GMH with Public Health and Mental Health, creating a single entity that would provide primary and secondary healthcare.

Vega, GMH's interim administrator, meanwhile confirms that Dr. Steele was terminated, but he can't disclose the reasons, saying it is a personnel matter. As for Steele's claims that Vega and medical director Lizama interfered and sabotaged his efforts at the SNU over the last year, Vega denied them and believed the claims were more directed to Lizama.