I established this site for the purpose of allowing UKy COM faculty and staff the opportunity to anonymously discuss or comment on controversial events happening in the College and hospital. With that in mind, if you wish to anonymously make comments simply sign in using an email address and user name that does not identify you.
The Paul Kearney Case
The Crime: When I joined the COM back in the early 1990s it was a growing, positive environment, and a great place to work. Unfortunately, in the past 5-10 years the hospital and College administration have implemented changes and a puppet governing system to where most employees feel scared and threatened. With the Dr. Paul Kearney case I feel the administration has drawn the "line in the sand", knowing that if they can twist the facts and truth to their advantage with a distinguished tenured faculty member like him, they can do it to virtually anyone they wish. They tried it earlier with Dr. Kaplan, but failed. Having learned from that experience it is clear that the ongoing situation with Dr. Kearney is much better planned. One would have to say that it is quite impressive that they (the hospital and College administration) were able to take a single unsubstantiated non-threatening event like the use of bad language while saving a life, to: a) declare the physician a threat to the entire UKy campus, b) take away his patient privileges, c) change the locks on the door to his office, d) bar him from entering the campus, e) bar him from conversing with any hospital employees, f) bar all hospital employees from talking with him, and g) bar him from his tenured faculty duties of teaching and service.
The Perpetrators: Now whom are these “administrators” leading this lynching? Heading this list is Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA). Why Dr. Todd hired him back in 2003 it is difficult to understand? His documented poor (http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/03/local/me-ucla3 ) or perhaps even criminal (https://pageonekentucky.com/2012/08/01/uk-medical-centers-problems-bubbling-to-the-top/) record at UCLA prior to coming here speaks to his inability to finish the job, and his recent embarrassing interviews on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/health/kentucky-heart-surgeries/) speaks to his arrogance. Next we have Dr. Bernard Boulanger the Chief Medical Officer appointed by Michael Karpf. He assembled the kangaroo court responsible for implementing the above actions. One can only assume Michael Karpf chose Dr. Boulanger simply because he too has a record of abuse to the people he works with. Finally there are the College Dean Dr. Fred deBeer and the Department Chair Dr. Jay Zwischenberger. These 2, although representatives of the academic arm of Dr. Kearney's appointment and supposedly reporting to the Provost, clearly take their orders from the EVPHA. I suspect with inflated salaries of over $850,000/yr I can understand their motivation here.
Motivations: So what might be the true motivation(s) for these drastic measures that are clearly a public embarrassment and a major expense for both the University and Dr. Kearney? I kind of favor the witnessed COM Faculty Council meeting in which Dr. Kearney suggested an audit of the KMSF funds. This resulted in Dr. Karpf verbally threatening Dr. Kearney at that meeting. So why would Dr. Karpf have a problem with an audit of the financial arm of the hospital? Well there is the Whistle Blower case filed by Dan Ross, a former adjunct professor of accounting and an auditor in UK's Internal Audit Department, who claimed UKy officials retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on "suspected mismanagement, waste, fraud, and possible violations of state law." One of the cases that Mr. Ross reported to his bosses and for which he subsequently lost his employment, was one that involved KMSF contributions to the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF), or “Bucks for Brains” program. In this program the state matched contributions to the University research programs made by unaffiliated corporations, which of course KMSF was not. In essence, the hospital was using its financial arm KMSF to illegally receive matching funds from the state. More information on this can be found in the Appeals Court ruling that, to the chagrin of the University, reversed much of the lower courts ruling in favor of the University: https://cases.justia.com/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2011-ca-000433-mr.pdf?ts=1388761332 . What happened to Mr. Ross and this case? As far as I can tell they both simply disappeared. My best guess is that it was settled out of court and hopefully Mr. Ross is sipping a Mai Tai in the Caribbean. Unfortunately I fear that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. While on Faculty Council I had the opportunity to attend several hospital “budget meetings”. One of my favorite memories is of Michael Karpf standing before us with his fingers interlaced above his head telling us “all of these pots of money are married together and should be thought as one”. The pots of money that he was referring to were research grant funding, state contributions to our education endeavors and hospital revenue. This really bothered me because as we all know, each of these pots of money were given to us for an expressed purpose, and thinking like this simply reeks of potential misuse of state and federal taxpayers money as well as hospital funds. It further bothered me because what he was in essence conveying was that he was in charge of both the hospital and the College. This of course as all of us have come to learn is exactly the current situation. So in summary, I can envision many reasons why Michael Karpf may not want KMSF or any of his financial practices audited. Michael Karpf’s obsession with finding the 500 million dollars necessary to finish off his legacy, the new hospital, is probably going to cost this University much more than money.
Where's Our President: The next to last thing I would like to comment on is “where does our University President Dr. Capilouto stand on all of this?” I have written 4 emails to Dr. Capilouto concerning this matter with nothing more than an acknowledgement of receipt in return. Below I have pasted in my last email to Dr. Capilouto and I think it effectively expresses my concerns with respect to both our current president as well as with who is running this University. As suggested in this email, my voice here is simply one of many. In addition, open records have identified over 120 emails, from people both on campus and off campus, sent to Dr. Capilouto in support of Dr. Kearney. Dr. Capilouto continues to travel the safe road, and like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes simply say “I know nothing”. Why I don’t know. Perhaps he does not want to anger Dr. Karpf, or worse yet, perhaps he has drunk the Kool-Aid and believes there is an ounce of credibility in this lynching.
The Verdict: Well the Health Care Committee of the Board of Trustees met this morning and voted to suspend Dr. Kearney's clinical privileges. I guess in an effort to make it look like they were cognizant of the fact that this is an education facility and not a university exclusively run by Michael Karpf, they also voted to rescind the ban on his coming to campus and talking to colleagues, to restore his access to University email, to provide him with an office, and to affirm that he has all the rights that a tenured faculty member without clinical privileges has. One of our faculty Trustees, Bob Grossman, emailed me to state, "I did want you to know that the five members of the Health Care Committee, plus eight trustees who did not serve on the committee and did not have a vote in the matter, spent two hours discussing all aspects of this case. The discussion was thoughtful and serious. I will allow you to draw your own conclusions about the tenor of the discussion from the fact that the Health Care Committee modified the recommendation from the hearing panel to emphasize that Dr. Kearney retains all the rights of a tenured faculty member." Unfortunately this sounds too much like a company line to me, and an attempt to placate the masses. In reality this is a total miscarriage of justice and needs to be treated as such. Bob, if you were part of this 'serious and thoughtful discussion' let us know what was even debatable here. I personally see nothing that merits destroying 27 years of service to this university and the many lives Dr. Kearney has saved over that time period. I also entreat all of you out there that visit this blog site to express your concerns either anonymously here or publicly in perhaps a letter to the editor. Furthermore, if you know of anyone who has either benefited from Dr. Kearney's medical expertise or has been likewise manipulated by this hospital administration (especially those no longer working here) please pass on the info either here or to my gmail account (dnoonan48@gmail.com). Maybe it is time to start a letter writing campaign.
My 7/14/15 email to Dr. Capilouto
From: "Noonan, Daniel J" <dnoonan@email.uky.edu>
Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 11:24 AM
To: "Capilouto, Eli" <elic@uky.edu>
Subject: Concerns
Dear Dr. Capilouto,
I once again write to express my disappointment in your handling of the Dr. Paul Kearney situation. When you first arrived at this University I had great hopes that you would be a president for the students and faculty and not just another puppet of the “good ole boys” network. During your first 3 years I was probably one of your strongest supporters, often defending your decisions to my faculty colleagues stating that “your apparent unwillingness to take a stand or act on issues was simply a reflection of your patience and attempt to get the big picture before acting.” How unfortunately wrong I was. You have made it abundantly clear that you, like the EVPHA and many of your predecessors, view the buildings that form this university much more important than the people that occupy those buildings. Furthermore, you appear to view academics as a “business for profit” rather than an avenue for educating the youth of this state. I can see where this attitude might be a survival priority for private higher education facilities, but the University of Kentucky is a state university funded primarily through taxpayer dollars. Although it might have been the corporate executives that were primarily responsible for your hiring, it is really to these taxpayers that you owe allegiance and not the corporate executives.
I waited and waited for a sign that you were going to “take charge”, and thought perhaps the hiring of Dr. Reardon as provost was maybe it. Even she, although primarily a businessperson, was willing to listen to the faculty and respond to their concerns. Sadly I fear she may have seen the writing on the wall and like too many of the faculty we should be supporting we either ostracize or drive away. Dr. Kearney’s case, at least from my perspective, has finally defined your position as President of the University of Kentucky, as well as Chair of the University Senate. It is clear where your priorities lie, and they are not with the faculty of this University, nor with its students. The faculty and students have spoken on this issue. Following the ostracization of Dr. Kearney by the kangaroo court assembled by the EVPHA, Dr. Kearney’s professional colleagues in the College of Medicine elected him to represent them at the University HealthCare Colleges Council of the University Senate, Dr. Kearney’s faculty colleagues at the University of Kentucky elected him to represent them on the University Senate, and the 2015 class of Chief Surgical Resident students that Dr. Kearney taught awarded Dr. Kearney with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at their recent Chief Residents Dinner. I am sure you understand what is going on here. The faculty and students of this College and University knew the potential consequences of speaking out as individuals and therefore found avenues for doing so as a group. It is clear from your actions or lack thereof, that, although you have specific authorities in these matters, you have opted to side with the hospital administration and its kangaroo court rather than the faculty and students of this university.
So once again I wish to state my disappointment in your presidency and in my poor judge of character. The Egyptians clearly showed us that “you can’t take it with you”. When you get to be our age Dr. Capilouto it is the time to take a stand. Trust me, it feels good to do so.
Regards,
Dan Noonan
The Paul Kearney Case
The Crime: When I joined the COM back in the early 1990s it was a growing, positive environment, and a great place to work. Unfortunately, in the past 5-10 years the hospital and College administration have implemented changes and a puppet governing system to where most employees feel scared and threatened. With the Dr. Paul Kearney case I feel the administration has drawn the "line in the sand", knowing that if they can twist the facts and truth to their advantage with a distinguished tenured faculty member like him, they can do it to virtually anyone they wish. They tried it earlier with Dr. Kaplan, but failed. Having learned from that experience it is clear that the ongoing situation with Dr. Kearney is much better planned. One would have to say that it is quite impressive that they (the hospital and College administration) were able to take a single unsubstantiated non-threatening event like the use of bad language while saving a life, to: a) declare the physician a threat to the entire UKy campus, b) take away his patient privileges, c) change the locks on the door to his office, d) bar him from entering the campus, e) bar him from conversing with any hospital employees, f) bar all hospital employees from talking with him, and g) bar him from his tenured faculty duties of teaching and service.
The Perpetrators: Now whom are these “administrators” leading this lynching? Heading this list is Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA). Why Dr. Todd hired him back in 2003 it is difficult to understand? His documented poor (http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/03/local/me-ucla3 ) or perhaps even criminal (https://pageonekentucky.com/2012/08/01/uk-medical-centers-problems-bubbling-to-the-top/) record at UCLA prior to coming here speaks to his inability to finish the job, and his recent embarrassing interviews on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/health/kentucky-heart-surgeries/) speaks to his arrogance. Next we have Dr. Bernard Boulanger the Chief Medical Officer appointed by Michael Karpf. He assembled the kangaroo court responsible for implementing the above actions. One can only assume Michael Karpf chose Dr. Boulanger simply because he too has a record of abuse to the people he works with. Finally there are the College Dean Dr. Fred deBeer and the Department Chair Dr. Jay Zwischenberger. These 2, although representatives of the academic arm of Dr. Kearney's appointment and supposedly reporting to the Provost, clearly take their orders from the EVPHA. I suspect with inflated salaries of over $850,000/yr I can understand their motivation here.
Motivations: So what might be the true motivation(s) for these drastic measures that are clearly a public embarrassment and a major expense for both the University and Dr. Kearney? I kind of favor the witnessed COM Faculty Council meeting in which Dr. Kearney suggested an audit of the KMSF funds. This resulted in Dr. Karpf verbally threatening Dr. Kearney at that meeting. So why would Dr. Karpf have a problem with an audit of the financial arm of the hospital? Well there is the Whistle Blower case filed by Dan Ross, a former adjunct professor of accounting and an auditor in UK's Internal Audit Department, who claimed UKy officials retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on "suspected mismanagement, waste, fraud, and possible violations of state law." One of the cases that Mr. Ross reported to his bosses and for which he subsequently lost his employment, was one that involved KMSF contributions to the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF), or “Bucks for Brains” program. In this program the state matched contributions to the University research programs made by unaffiliated corporations, which of course KMSF was not. In essence, the hospital was using its financial arm KMSF to illegally receive matching funds from the state. More information on this can be found in the Appeals Court ruling that, to the chagrin of the University, reversed much of the lower courts ruling in favor of the University: https://cases.justia.com/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2011-ca-000433-mr.pdf?ts=1388761332 . What happened to Mr. Ross and this case? As far as I can tell they both simply disappeared. My best guess is that it was settled out of court and hopefully Mr. Ross is sipping a Mai Tai in the Caribbean. Unfortunately I fear that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. While on Faculty Council I had the opportunity to attend several hospital “budget meetings”. One of my favorite memories is of Michael Karpf standing before us with his fingers interlaced above his head telling us “all of these pots of money are married together and should be thought as one”. The pots of money that he was referring to were research grant funding, state contributions to our education endeavors and hospital revenue. This really bothered me because as we all know, each of these pots of money were given to us for an expressed purpose, and thinking like this simply reeks of potential misuse of state and federal taxpayers money as well as hospital funds. It further bothered me because what he was in essence conveying was that he was in charge of both the hospital and the College. This of course as all of us have come to learn is exactly the current situation. So in summary, I can envision many reasons why Michael Karpf may not want KMSF or any of his financial practices audited. Michael Karpf’s obsession with finding the 500 million dollars necessary to finish off his legacy, the new hospital, is probably going to cost this University much more than money.
Where's Our President: The next to last thing I would like to comment on is “where does our University President Dr. Capilouto stand on all of this?” I have written 4 emails to Dr. Capilouto concerning this matter with nothing more than an acknowledgement of receipt in return. Below I have pasted in my last email to Dr. Capilouto and I think it effectively expresses my concerns with respect to both our current president as well as with who is running this University. As suggested in this email, my voice here is simply one of many. In addition, open records have identified over 120 emails, from people both on campus and off campus, sent to Dr. Capilouto in support of Dr. Kearney. Dr. Capilouto continues to travel the safe road, and like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes simply say “I know nothing”. Why I don’t know. Perhaps he does not want to anger Dr. Karpf, or worse yet, perhaps he has drunk the Kool-Aid and believes there is an ounce of credibility in this lynching.
The Verdict: Well the Health Care Committee of the Board of Trustees met this morning and voted to suspend Dr. Kearney's clinical privileges. I guess in an effort to make it look like they were cognizant of the fact that this is an education facility and not a university exclusively run by Michael Karpf, they also voted to rescind the ban on his coming to campus and talking to colleagues, to restore his access to University email, to provide him with an office, and to affirm that he has all the rights that a tenured faculty member without clinical privileges has. One of our faculty Trustees, Bob Grossman, emailed me to state, "I did want you to know that the five members of the Health Care Committee, plus eight trustees who did not serve on the committee and did not have a vote in the matter, spent two hours discussing all aspects of this case. The discussion was thoughtful and serious. I will allow you to draw your own conclusions about the tenor of the discussion from the fact that the Health Care Committee modified the recommendation from the hearing panel to emphasize that Dr. Kearney retains all the rights of a tenured faculty member." Unfortunately this sounds too much like a company line to me, and an attempt to placate the masses. In reality this is a total miscarriage of justice and needs to be treated as such. Bob, if you were part of this 'serious and thoughtful discussion' let us know what was even debatable here. I personally see nothing that merits destroying 27 years of service to this university and the many lives Dr. Kearney has saved over that time period. I also entreat all of you out there that visit this blog site to express your concerns either anonymously here or publicly in perhaps a letter to the editor. Furthermore, if you know of anyone who has either benefited from Dr. Kearney's medical expertise or has been likewise manipulated by this hospital administration (especially those no longer working here) please pass on the info either here or to my gmail account (dnoonan48@gmail.com). Maybe it is time to start a letter writing campaign.
My 7/14/15 email to Dr. Capilouto
From: "Noonan, Daniel J" <dnoonan@email.uky.edu>
Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 11:24 AM
To: "Capilouto, Eli" <elic@uky.edu>
Subject: Concerns
Dear Dr. Capilouto,
I once again write to express my disappointment in your handling of the Dr. Paul Kearney situation. When you first arrived at this University I had great hopes that you would be a president for the students and faculty and not just another puppet of the “good ole boys” network. During your first 3 years I was probably one of your strongest supporters, often defending your decisions to my faculty colleagues stating that “your apparent unwillingness to take a stand or act on issues was simply a reflection of your patience and attempt to get the big picture before acting.” How unfortunately wrong I was. You have made it abundantly clear that you, like the EVPHA and many of your predecessors, view the buildings that form this university much more important than the people that occupy those buildings. Furthermore, you appear to view academics as a “business for profit” rather than an avenue for educating the youth of this state. I can see where this attitude might be a survival priority for private higher education facilities, but the University of Kentucky is a state university funded primarily through taxpayer dollars. Although it might have been the corporate executives that were primarily responsible for your hiring, it is really to these taxpayers that you owe allegiance and not the corporate executives.
I waited and waited for a sign that you were going to “take charge”, and thought perhaps the hiring of Dr. Reardon as provost was maybe it. Even she, although primarily a businessperson, was willing to listen to the faculty and respond to their concerns. Sadly I fear she may have seen the writing on the wall and like too many of the faculty we should be supporting we either ostracize or drive away. Dr. Kearney’s case, at least from my perspective, has finally defined your position as President of the University of Kentucky, as well as Chair of the University Senate. It is clear where your priorities lie, and they are not with the faculty of this University, nor with its students. The faculty and students have spoken on this issue. Following the ostracization of Dr. Kearney by the kangaroo court assembled by the EVPHA, Dr. Kearney’s professional colleagues in the College of Medicine elected him to represent them at the University HealthCare Colleges Council of the University Senate, Dr. Kearney’s faculty colleagues at the University of Kentucky elected him to represent them on the University Senate, and the 2015 class of Chief Surgical Resident students that Dr. Kearney taught awarded Dr. Kearney with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at their recent Chief Residents Dinner. I am sure you understand what is going on here. The faculty and students of this College and University knew the potential consequences of speaking out as individuals and therefore found avenues for doing so as a group. It is clear from your actions or lack thereof, that, although you have specific authorities in these matters, you have opted to side with the hospital administration and its kangaroo court rather than the faculty and students of this university.
So once again I wish to state my disappointment in your presidency and in my poor judge of character. The Egyptians clearly showed us that “you can’t take it with you”. When you get to be our age Dr. Capilouto it is the time to take a stand. Trust me, it feels good to do so.
Regards,
Dan Noonan