THE LOCAL AREA WATCH

LOCAL GROUP TO INVESTIGATE MISCONDUCT OF MEDICAL EXAMINER OFFICE

A Grand Rapids non-profit organization, Families United for Justice, reports that it is investigating misfeasance in the filing of records by the Kent County medical examiner's office that has had the effect of preventing the disclosure of documents that are evidence of misconduct by that office.  Some of these errors include putting the wrong name and date on an autopsy report so that it is incorrectly filed.  As a result the report does not turn up when it is requested under the correct name and date.

This is a serious matter, because (as we have reported here and here) the current medical examiner, Dr. Stephen Cohle, has a conflict of interest between his duty to the public and his extensive private business ties with Spectrum Health Corporation, whom he is obligated to investigate when suspicious deaths occur in that company's various hospitals and healthcare facilities.  Moreover, Cohle's conflict is more than apparent.  He has exonerated his big client, Spectrum Health, from wrongdoing in suspicious deaths at one of its facilities based upon incomplete and erroneous autopsies (which because of these filing errors have not been available for public examination).  At least two members of the Kent County Board of Commissioners thought Cohle's conflict of interest was serious enough to vote against renewing his term as medical examiner.

Therefore, Phyllis Jennings, director of Families United for Justice, whose father was one of the people who died under those suspicious circumstances, has asked that anyone who knows about such misfiled records at either the Kent County medical examiner's office, Spectrum Health, Kent County Community Hospital (which Spectrum manages), or Cohle's private firm Laboratory Pathologists P.C. to assist her organization's investigation.  You can send information and documents to:

Families United for Justice, P.O. Box 140975, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49514-0975.

COHLE VOTE CLARIFICATION

Yesterday we posted an article that the Kent County Board of Commissioners re-appointed Dr. Stephen Cohle as medical examiner.  We noted that two of the commissioners questioned Cohle's conflicts of interest as the owner and operator of a pathology services firm.  We left the suggestion that was all they did.  Phyllis Jennings of Family United for Justice sent us this clarification: "Our families wanted to let L.A.W. know that two Kent County Commissioners (Dick Bulkowski and Paul Mayhue) voted no last week on the Kent County Medical Examiner's new contract and big pay increase. At least these two commissioners questioned this matter on behalf of the taxpayers."

Thanks, Phyllis.

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS O.K. CONFLICTED COHLE

Last week the Kenty County Board of Commissioners re-appointed Dr. Stephen Cohle as medical examiner for a four-year term.

As you will recall, we have reported Cohle's gross conflict of interest as both medical examiner and the owner of a pathology services firm.  The conflict puts Cohle in the position of passing official judgment on suspicious deaths involving clients of his firm.  Furthermore, in the cases of the Jennings and Sallie families at least, this conflict is more than just an appearance.  As medical examiner Cohle exonerated his largest business client, Spectrum Health Corporation, from any liability in the suspicious deaths of members of those families at Specturm facilities based upon shoddy and incomplete investigations by his office.

Two of the county commissioners, Paul Mayhue and Dick Bulkowski, had the wits to raise the obvious question of Cohle's conflict of interest.  Cohle dimissed the question with a shrug.  He said that the commissioners should just trust him.  The commissioners didn't press the issue except to say that it might make sense for Kent County to eliminate the conflict issue by hiring a medical examiner as a direct employee instead of contracting out the office to a private practitioner such as Cohle.

The county attorney Sherry Batzer argued that the county is allowed by state law to hire for the medical examiner's office a contractor like Cohle instead of a direct employee.  She claimed that this is no different than hiring other types of contractors to do work for the county.  Hmm.  Maybe we should then contract the sheriff's office to a private investigator and the prosecutor's office to a criminal defense firm.  What eludes Batzer is that the medical examiner's office is part of the justice system and so the citizens of Kent County are entitled, when it comes to the law, to the undivided loyalties of the person filling that post.

However, one the administrators for Kent County did tell the commissioners that they will be studying next year whether to hire the medical examiner as a direct employee.  The rationale for doing so will be reduced cost.  With all that on table, the county commissioners approved Cohle's re-appointment.  So even if justice doesn't catch up with Cohle, maybe his price tag will.

COUNTY SILENCES COHLE CRITICS

During the past week L.A.W. has revisited the Cohle scandal.  Dr. Stephen Cohle is Kent County's chief medical examiner.  Unlike the county prosecutor or the sheriff, Cohle doesn't work just for us, the public.  He owns and operates a company, Laboratory Pathologists P.C., that provides medical examiner services to other counties and local hospitals.  While making money from other counties probably isn't a matter of great concern, making money from Kent County hospitals such as Spectrum Health is.

The reason is simple.  It creates a conflict of interest for Cohle between his duty to discern the truth for the public and his reliance upon a potential target of investigation for income.  This conflict reared its ugly head in the Jennings and Sallie cases.  Members of these families died while in the care of Spectrum Health.  These families had valid reasons to be concerned that death had not occurred naturally.  Laboratory Pathologists, on behalf of Spectrum Health, carried our medical examinations that concluded no wrongdoing.  However, these examinations were seriously flawed and incomplete.  Consequently, it was left to the Kent County medical examiner -- i.e., Cohle -- to get to the bottom of these deaths.

So Cohle was in the position of having officially determine whether or not his business, Laboratory Pathologists, had or had not failed to discover -- or worse, covered up -- wrongdoing by its customer Spectrum Health in the Jennings and Sallie deaths.  In light of this conflict of interest, Cohle's publicly declared penchant for high living (hence need for cash), and the good doctor's failure to be recertified by his professional association, perhaps none of us should be surprised that Cohle's slapdash review of his own company's work determined that everything was hunky-dory.  But it should surprise us that his employers, the Kent County Board of Commissioners not only refuses to exercise oversight of the medical examiner's office but has now silenced Cohle's critics.

In November and December of last year, Phyllis Jennings (whose father died at Spectrum) and Kristi Sallie (whose mother died there) brought Cohle's unprofessional conduct in the investigation of these deaths to the attention of the Kent County Board of Commissioners during a public hearing.  While some commissioners made noises about this being a serious matter, nothing in fact occurred.  Moreover, the minutes of the hearings failed to record what transpired.  (The county must've learned that trick from the city.)  In the end, the county commissioners praised Cohle and denounced his critics as troublemakers.  Finally at a public hearing in June of this year at which Ms. Sallie raised the problem with Cohle once again, the commissioners issued an edict muzzling her dissent.

So that's how your county commissioners resolved the problem of Cohle's conflict of interest between his public duties as medical examiner and his private receipt of income from parties he is charged with investigating.  They will not discuss it, and they have silenced anyone who insists that they should.  Worse yet, the public record of this scandal has vanished.  Ms. Jennings and Ms. Sallie are now non-persons according to the Kent County Board of Commissioners, because they had the gall to demand that they do the oversight of the medical examiner's office that the voter have entrusted them to do.

Meanwhile, folks, the good doctor Cohle continues to receive paychecks from you the taxpayers and from Spectrum Health.  Seeing that the county commissioners have rolled over, his paycheck from you is securely in his pocket.  All Cohle has to worry about now is making sure that Spectrum Health, the behemoth on the hill that has the clout to silence a TV station in Detroit, stays happy.  So who do you think he is really working for?

REVISITED: KENT COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER COMPROMISED

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This week we will publish an article on the failure to the Kent County Board of Commissioners to act upon Dr. Cohle's conflict of interest between his public duties as Chief Medical Examiner of Kent County and his private business relationship with Spectrum Health Corporation.  To fully understand the breach of public trust that has occurred, we thought it would be helpful to our readers to re-publish the previous articles on this issue.  This is the first article in the series.

Over the past few months, we have received information from three different local families that reveal a conflict of interest involving the Chief Medical Examiner of Kent County, Dr. Stephen D. Cohle.  You may have heard of the name.  Cohle is a bit of media hound.  Last year the Grand Rapids Press ran a feature story on the man in which the good doctor bragged about the emotional boost his new Porsche gave him after his recent divorce.  Unfortunately, the issue at hand is not the trivial matter of Cohle’s personal priorities.

Each family has reported to us a similar story:  A close relative died while in the care of a Spectrum Health Corporation facility under suspicious circumstances.  The grieving family ordered a private independent autopsy from Laboratory Pathologists P.C. for $2,500.  The findings of the autopsy from Laboratory Pathologists exonerated Spectrum Health of any wrongdoing.  However, upon closer examination the autopsy was incomplete and failed to meet professional standards.

Come to find out, Laboratory Pathologists is not independent at all.  It has a big contract with Spectrum Health to provide its network with pathology services.  Moreover, nine of the thirteen physicians who own Laboratory Pathologists are on the staff of Spectrum Health.  In fact, one of the owners is a Spectrum Health medical director and two others are associate medical directors.  Obviously, Laboratory Pathologists know which side of its bread is buttered, and it isn’t the side providing purportedly independent autopsies to the families.

Of course, the families cheated by Laboratory Pathologists have recourse to the government right?  The Kent County medical examiner can and should investigate suspicious deaths, right?  You would think so, but think again when the county’s chief medical examiner is an owner and an officer of Laboratory Pathologists.  That’s right, folks.  Cohle, our chief medical examiner, owns and operates Laboratory Pathologists.  In fact, Cohle provides his services to Kent County through Laboratory Pathologists.  So, the chief medical examiner, unlike the chief prosecutor or the police chief or the fire chief, is not full-time government official but a part-time private freelancer.  The bottom line is that Cohle earns a substantial portion of his income from Spectrum Health, so he cannot make any disinterested judgment as to whether or not a death in a Spectrum Health facility is suspicious and merits the attention of the county’s medical examiner office.

The Kent County Board of Commissioners is well aware of this conflict of interest.  They have been advised of the actual problems that have arisen from this conflict and the distress it has caused at least three local families.  Yet they have done nothing about it.  This conflict is unacceptable.  We would not put up with a county prosecutor who was also a partner in a law firm providing criminal defense services.  Why is it OK to have a medical examiner who is a hireling of the local healthcare behemoth where legitimate questions routinely arise as to its culpability for deaths occurring in its facilities?  It’s not.  We are entitled to have all of our principal public safety officers serve as disinterested public servants whose judgments are not compromised by private business deals.

Give your support to these local families who got no justice from Cohle and his company.  Demand that the Kent County Board of Commissioners hire a chief medical examiner who works only for us.

[Originally published on January 9, 2006.]

CATHERINE'S CARE: ONE YEAR LATER

You may recall, dear readers, last year's story about how the management of St. Mary's Hospital pulled its support from Catherine's Care Center, the medical clinic behind the blue doors at St. Alphonsus serving the indigent and uninsured.  St. Mary's claimed that it did so because Catherine's Care was duplicative of other health care services in the Grand Rapids area.  Our survey of the area's clinics showed that this was false.

In fact, Catherine's Care is unique as an independent clinic free to set its own rules to serve as many of the needy as it can in our city.  It seems that the clinic's independence was the real reason for St. Mary's severing its support of it, as the hospital has, little by little, turned away from its Catholic mission as a charitable institution.  Apparently profit is the new idol at St. Mary's as it gets sucked down the maw of Advantage Health.

A year later we have the pleasure of reporting that Catherine's Care Center is still going strong under the leadership of Dr. John Walen.  One of the guiding lights of the clinic, Director Helen Lehman, reported that Catherine's Care keeps expanding its clientele and is able to add nine new patients a day.  Plus, through a lot of hard work the clinic now has new sources of funding to help handle the growing health care needs of northeast side residents.

Nevertheless, Catherine's Care can always use your contributions.  (See here for how you can help.)  Also, if you can afford to pay, consider using Catherine's Care for your kid's physical exam to qualify for a school sports program or booster shots for the youngsters or other routine medical care for your family.  Every little bit helps to keep this unique health care resource thriving in our community.

SPECTRUM BULLIES TV STATION TO PULL NEWS STORY

You may recall the story we posted at the beginning of the year about the mysterious fates of Phyllis Jennings's father and Kristi Sallie's mother at Spectrum Health facilities.  Despite plain evidence to the contrary, such as unusual wounds and bruises on the body of the father Edwin Jennings, Spectrum's in-house pathologists declared that in neither case was there anything suspect in their deaths.  (We then also learned of a third unusual death fitting the same profile that was whitewashed by Spectrum officials.)  The Kent County Medical Examiner Stephen Cohle poohed-poohed the complaints of the Jennings and Sallie families and closed the matter with a report, that a professional if not a layman would immediately recognize as scandalously vague and incomplete.

Come to find out, Cohle was highly unlikely to ever critically examine the work of Spectrum's pathologists, because they are contractors provided to Spectrum Health by Laboratory Pathologists P.C., a medical services firm he owns!  In other words, despite the duties of his public office Cohle was not about to bite the hand that feeds him.  Meanwhile, taxpayers are paying good money to have the fox watch the henhouse, and the Kent County Board of Commissioners has been despicable in its refusal to take effective action to rid the public of this gross conflict of interest.  And justice continues to be denied the Jennings and Sallie families.

On top of all this, the Jennings family was shocked to discover that Spectrum Health removed Edwin's brain and arranged to have it delivered to the Transplantation Society.  However, Edwin was not an organ donor.  Moreover, neither Cohle's pathologists working for Spectrum nor Cohle as the medical examiner mentioned in their official reports that Edwin's brain had been removed from his body.  The Jennings only learned of this horror when they had Edwin's body exhumed four months after his burial for an independent, professional autopsy.  Afterwards, Spectrum Health without explanation returned Edwin's brain in a vat of formaldehyde.

As it happens there is a booming market in the U.S. for human body parts and tissues.  Unscrupulous funeral homes, hospitals, and medical labs remove pricey parts of the deceased, who are then soon buried, which pretty much eliminates the evidence of the crime.  Once again, your medical examiner Stephen Cohle has no interest in pursuing this matter.  In light of the direct conflict of interest with his company, Laboratory Pathologists, which was involved in the disappearance of Edwin's brain -- his inaction is unacceptable.

Although the local media has not done a good job of covering this important story, Detroit's ABC affiliate WXYZ TV7 did.  After recently airing the story of Edwin's stolen brain on the evening newscast, reporter Ray Sayah posted the story on WXYZ's website on May 7, 2006.  According to Sayah, Spectrum Health then leaned on WXYZ to delete the story and the station capitulated.  You now can no longer find the story about Edwin Jennings on its website.  WXYZ is an aggressive news organization, so it makes one wonder what kind of threat Spectrum could have made that intimidated the station.  Whatever it was, it worked.

So, remember, folks.  Spectrum Health protects itself, not the health of you and your loved ones.  For Stephen Cohle, the Kent County medical examiner, taking care of his private business affairs trumps his public duty to you.  Your elected officials, in particular the Kent County Board of Commissioners, simply don't give a damn about that conflict of interest.  And the media in Michigan, if not already in the bag for Spectrum (like Grand Rapids Press publisher Danny Gaydou) have feet of clay when comes to the big hospital on the hill.  Therefore, never forget you're on your own.

KENT COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER COMPROMISED

Over the past few months, we have received information from three different local families that reveal a conflict of interest involving the Chief Medical Examiner of Kent County, Dr. Stephen D. Cohle.  You may have heard of the name.  Cohle is a bit of media hound.  Last year the Grand Rapids Press ran a feature story on the man in which the good doctor bragged about the emotional boost his new Porsche gave him after his recent divorce.  Unfortunately, the issue at hand is not the trivial matter of Cohle’s personal priorities.

Each family has reported to us a similar story:  A close relative died while in the care of a Spectrum Health Corporation facility under suspicious circumstances.  The grieving family ordered a private independent autopsy from Laboratory Pathologists P.C. for $2,500.  The findings of the autopsy from Laboratory Pathologists exonerated Spectrum Health of any wrongdoing.  However, upon closer examination the autopsy was incomplete and failed to meet professional standards.

Come to find out, Laboratory Pathologists is not independent at all.  It has a big contract with Spectrum Health to provide its network with pathology services.  Moreover, nine of the thirteen physicians who own Laboratory Pathologists are on the staff of Spectrum Health.  In fact, one of the owners is a Spectrum Health medical director and two others are associate medical directors.  Obviously, Laboratory Pathologists know which side of its bread is buttered, and it isn’t the side providing purportedly independent autopsies to the families.

Of course, the families cheated by Laboratory Pathologists have recourse to the government right?  The Kent County medical examiner can and should investigate suspicious deaths, right?  You would think so, but think again when the county’s chief medical examiner is an owner and an officer of Laboratory Pathologists.  That’s right, folks.  Cohle, our chief medical examiner, owns and operates Laboratory Pathologists.  In fact, Cohle provides his services to Kent County through Laboratory Pathologists.  So, the chief medical examiner, unlike the chief prosecutor or the police chief or the fire chief, is not full-time government official but a part-time private freelancer.  The bottom line is that Cohle earns a substantial portion of his income from Spectrum Health, so he cannot make any disinterested judgment as to whether or not a death in a Spectrum Health facility is suspicious and merits the attention of the county’s medical examiner office.

The Kent County Board of Commissioners is well aware of this conflict of interest.  They have been advised of the actual problems that have arisen from this conflict and the distress it has caused at least three local families.  Yet they have done nothing about it.  This conflict is unacceptable.  We would not put up with a county prosecutor who was also a partner in a law firm providing criminal defense services.  Why is it OK to have a medical examiner who is a hireling of the local healthcare behemoth where legitimate questions routinely arise as to its culpability for deaths occurring in its facilities?  It’s not.  We are entitled to have all of our principal public safety officers serve as disinterested public servants whose judgments are not compromised by private business deals.

Give your support to these local families who got no justice from Cohle and his company.  Demand that the Kent County Board of Commissioners hire a chief medical examiner who works only for us.

NOTE:  Also read about other developments, how Spectrum cowed the reporting of WXYZ-TV news and how the City of Grand Rapids erased the record of this issue from the City Commission minutes, here and here.

FOLLOW-UP: IS THE MEDICAL EXAMINER IN SPECTRUM'S POCKET?

Two weeks ago we posted a note that we are researching a story about a conflict of interest which may have the effect of suppressing autopsy information indicative of malpractice by Spectrum Health.  There appear to be three problems out there.  First is whether malpractice resulting in the death of patients at Spectrum is more widespread than the public knows.  Second is the cheating of families who request an independent autopsy after a family member dies at Spectrum.  Third is the relationship of the Kent County medical examiner's office with an independent contractor named Dr. Steven Cohle.

We continue to receive more information about these problems and want to assure our readers that we will be reporting on this deadly serious matter in full.  In the meantime, we encourage those of you who have experienced any of these problems to contact us by phone or e-mail.

IS THE MEDICAL EXAMINER IN SPECTRUM'S POCKET?

I want to report to you that we have now received information from different sources that the Kent County medical examiner has not been carrying out autopsies requested by the families of patients who have died while in the care of Spectrum Hospital.  It appears that the medical examiner farms out these requests out to an independent contractor who has conflicts of interest with Spectrum.  The suspicion is that this contractor sits on autopsy requests that might reveal medical malpractice by Spectrum.  We'll have more to say about this once we've collected more information.