Worker Admits To Stealing Millions From Hospital

Last November authorities arrested and charged an employee at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with stealing millions of dollars worth of printer toner from the hospital and selling it on the black market to fund his lavish lifestyle. Earlier this month Gumbs pleaded guilty to grand larceny.
Gumbs, who was fired after being caught, now faces between 2-1/2 to 7-1/2 years in the slammer for essentially stealing money from the Hospital. In addition to jail time, Gumbs is being forced to sell and return the proceeds to the pricey items he got with his ill-gotten gains. Items like his 2011 BMW X6, a diamond Rolex watch, myriad Louis Vuitton bags and more. Unfortunately he won’t be able to reimburse the hospital for other things he spent his stolen money on, like trips to Cancun and Las Vegas.
Over the course of his scam—in which the receiving clerk would order toner to the hospital for printers they didn’t even have, intercept them on the loading dock and then sell them for pure profit—Gumbs is said to have stolen well over $1 million dollars from the renowned hospital.

Prime Source assists our clients with setting up Par Levels and Budgets which can help prevent situations like the above. If your facility has other creative solutions, please share.

Considering that peanut butter is used daily on most Health Care Facilities menus either as a main dish or more commonly used as sandwiches or snacks, this will create a need to become creative.

Exactly how much more expensive is peanut butter going to be? Well, we’re not talking peanuts here. The estimate ranges between a 25 and 40 percent peanut butter price increase. Ouch.

The peanut shortage is traced back to last spring, according to Time, when farmers saw dollar signs in their fields… in the form of cotton. Cotton sold at record-high prices last spring, so many farmers decided to plant cotton instead of peanuts.

Add some bad luck to the mix — disease and drought in the peanut fields that existed — and we’re short on peanuts. The current economy isn’t helping, either, as peanut butter has become more popular in the past few years, thanks to the reasonably priced protein it provides.

So, Are there any alternatives to peanut butter?

Prime Source is working on solutions for this future problem and will post as they become available.

Mack Savid, b0ttom center, along with Hyman Martin, top center, and Ken Hornreich, exercise under the instruction of physical therapist Miriam Parness, left.

Would we –generation X and Yers – be comfortable living in the typical nursing home with their linoleum floors and industrial soap odor?

Dan Reingold, the 54-year-old C.E.O. of the Hebrew Home for Aged in Riverdale, has a plan to make sure that we will.

He has recently built a new state-of-the-art building, named after his father, which offers private rooms, internet access, a fitness center, massage rooms and kitchens in each dining area that will ensure fresher food.  He has also instituted the use of electronic medical records that eliminate the need for nursing stations, windows that face the Hudson River so residents can enjoy the beautiful view, and showers in each room to eliminate the indignities that go along with shared showers.

Is this a concept that will catch on with other facilities?

An electronic sign displays the day's activities inside a dining area.

Before getting a massage, Frances Stuart relaxes in a whirlpool tub while listening to music.

Photos by Monika Graff for The New York Times

What was your reaction when you heard the news this morning?

Within the plan is a 25-page chapter (click here for a PDF of it) on the possibilities for improving healthcare in general and specifically in remote areas. Some examples of how faster broadband can impact healthcare are the ability to store all medical records securely online, which are then accessible from anywhere, and the possibility for online remote video access to experts without having them physically on location.

According to the broadband plan “telehealth” alone can do away with the expenditures of moving patients from nursing homes (and correctional facilitates) to emergency departments and doctors’ offices and possibly result in $1.2 billion in yearly savings.

The Times has recently run a series of articles on various options for elder-care.  There is an article on when children should begin making plans for their parent or parents for full-time care and the advantages of assisted living facilitates. A follow up article discussed what to look out for when choosing a nursing home.

While most of the points mentioned should be fairly obvious to home administrators an article like serves as a good reminder to go through the recommended checklists and see where your facility ranks.

The cause of the deaths and injuries are from patients who are trying to climb out of the bed – who due to the increased height of their fall usually sustain more serious injuries than if they had no rails at all – and from those who get caught between the rail and the mattress and cannot breathe resulting in death by asphyxiation.

Paula Span, in her New York Times column, addresses the fact that despite government agencies’ warnings of the hazards of bed rails they are still used in many nursing homes.

One proposed solution is to establish manufacturing standards that would specify that there can be no gap at all between the mattress and the rail. Similar standards already exist for cribs.

What has your experience with bed rails been like in your facility and if you don’t use them how do you keep confused patients safely in their beds?

It is my pleasure to introduce you to PrimeSource, a New York-based company specializing in purchasing and serving the health care industry.  PrimeSource is our newest health care partner.  We will work together to improve the efficiency of ordering, tracking, billing and reduce the cost of:

• Food  
• Medical Supplies & Equipment
• Office Supplies & Equipment and
• Technology throughout the health care system.  

6 Reasons Why Prime Source

Specifically PrimeSource will complement our current Purchasing processes with:

• On-line order management & tracking
• Easy billing and reporting
• Vendor management  & contract negotiation
• Product reviews
• Audit reconciliation and most importantly,
• Price reduction through volume purchases and aggressive shopping

Why PrimeSource?  Why Now?

We conducted a comprehensive review of 5 companies offering a variety of purchasing solutions.  PrimeSource was the clear leader in both the breadth and depth of services and has the experience and client base to maximize our buying power.  This is extremely important, given the current economic challenges facing health care providers in New Yorker state. Additionally, building projects targeted for the near future will require additional resources for the procurement, tracking and distribution of Medical, Furniture, AV, and Technology equipment and supplies.  PrimeSource will support us throughout this multi-year, development project.