Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Raye Kraft, at home with her dog Moxie, said she watched Drs. Dhiresh Joshi and Fadi El Salibi write notes in her now-deceased husband's medical records documenting examinations that she says, based on her observations and notes, they never performed.
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The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners has closed its case and will not discipline two doctors accused of billing for a patient they did not treat, according to correspondence with the woman who filed the complaint.
The Sun reported in March allegations by spouses of patients and employees at medical facilities against infectious disease specialists Dr. Dhiresh Joshi and his then-employee Dr. Fadi El Salibi. The physicians were accused of writing in patient charts and billing insurance companies and the government for examinations they did not perform.
One of the complaints was filed by Raye Kraft, who said the doctors wrote in her bedridden husband’s charts as if they had examined him, when they actually had not even entered the room. She kept detailed notes of incidents in May 2007 at HealthSouth Tenaya when the treatment — or alleged lack of treatment — took place.
A Sept. 9 letter to Kraft from Dr. Charles Held, chairman of the medical board’s investigative committee, said that “although a person may have a reasonable complaint against a physician,” Nevada law defines what matters are policed by the board. The investigative committee will close the case, “but there are other actions available that the (committee) may use to address an issue, and/or correct behavior,” Held added.
The medical board does not publicly comment on its investigations. It is primarily concerned with patient safety and the complaint in this case was more related to alleged fraud.
Kraft is not satisfied with the medical board’s response. She believes the doctors committed fraud.
“What more evidence does the medical board want?” Kraft said. “The doctors were not taking care of patients. They were taking care of lining their pockets, and I think that’s not safe for patients.”
Joshi did not respond to the Sun’s call for comment. El Salibi did not want to comment specifically about the case. Previously he told the Sun that he blamed Joshi for forcing him to see too many patients in a day, which caused him to have bad communication with patients, which led to the complaints.
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The California Nurses Association labor union filed a complaint in July with the National Labor Relations Board accusing MountainView Hospital administrators of intimidating employees and not allowing them to freely campaign for union representation.
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In a letter to the union, the National Labor Relations Board said its investigation found unfair labor practices, citing laws related to coercion, discrimination and interference.
Last week the hospital agreed to settle the complaints — thereby ending the investigation — by posting a notice to employees that promises that managers will not interfere with the union’s organizing attempts.
MountainView has about 425 nurses and is owned by the Tennessee-based chain Hospital Corporation of America. It is one of the few nonunion hospitals in Las Vegas.
MountainView administrators said in a statement that the settlement required no admission of guilt and that the allegations were not heard before a judge. The hospital denies any wrongdoing. Administrators claim the settlement is their way of speeding an election, where the nurses will reject the union.
“By agreeing to the posting … we prevented months of litigation that would have cost the nurses a lot of time waiting for a vote to throw the union out,” the hospital’s statement said.
Orsburn Stone, a nurse at the hospital, said the settlement shows that administrators went overboard in their fight with the union.
“They feel like they are above the law and don’t have to adhere to the legal rights of anyone,” Stone said.
Nurses are “elated” that they can finally campaign using the “true facts” about the hospital’s poor staffing levels and mistreatment of employees, he said.
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New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more than one in five Nevadans — about 548,000 people — went uninsured in 2008.
About 15.4 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2008, the bureau found.
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