Bingham Memorial releases results of internal investigation

The internal investigation in a mismanagement of a local hospital is over, and as promised, members of the Bingham Memorial Hospital Board are making the findings public.

Local News 8 spent more than an hour with lawyers and board members Wednesday afternoon to heaqr the details of the in-house investigation.

The inquiry follows a series of stories Local News 8 has done this year.

Attorneys say they checked into seven areas, which were brought up in our previous stories:

Outdated medicines and supplies Improper billing to Saipan. The improper purchase and installation of computers by the Cyberdine company. Improper recording of phone conversations. Improper Medicare payments. Length-of-stay issues. Conflicts of interest on the part of administration and board members.

The lawyers for the board determined there was improper activity taken by Jack York, the IT director at the time, who was running a company called Cyberdine. They said he was buying equipment through the hospital and selling it outside the facility. According to the report, he resigned.

As for the recording of phone conversations, the laywers said that in their investigation, no senior administrators at the hospital recalled telling York to do so. York told the lawyers he gave the recordings to a senior administrator, but he doesn’t remember which one. The administrators said they don’t know anything about it.

The Cyberdine and phone-recording investigations are being looked into the State Attorney General’s Office.

The chief of staff, Dr. Clark Allen, made it clear to Local News 8 that the board is going to make hospital business more transparent, and it’s going to work to eliminate the feelings of hostility within the hospital.

A summary of the investigation can be found under “Related Content” to the left of the story. (Mobile users may have to switch to full-Web view.)

More stories on the Bingham Memorial investigation can be found at http://www.localnews8.com/bmh.