Editor, Times-Union: This is the time for families who have had members unnecessarily transported from Kosciusko Community Hospital to a Fort Wayne or Indianapolis hospital to speak up.
My involvement came about in March when my mother, Joy Fair, went by EMS to Kosciusko Community Hospital emergency at night because of acute pain in her hip, which could have potentially come from a spontaneous fracture. I was unable to accompany her: I told EMS and sent a note that I would be there later, and please call me with any information. The next thing I knew, KCH emergency room had given her morphine and sent her to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, in spite of their own X-ray showing no fracture. Being drugged, she was unable to give consent for the transfer and I was not contacted. Of course, there is more to the story, part of which I put in a letter to the editor in April.
The point of this letter is that I have heard from readers that they have had similar experiences. But no one is speaking up, partly because they do not know who to contact. Here is information about agencies concerned with such matters:
(1) Indiana State Department of Health, Attn. Complaint Department, 2 N Meridian St. 4-B, Indianapolis, IN 46204 or www.state.in.us/isdh/20173.htm
(2) Office of the Indiana Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, 302 W Washington St. 5th Floor, Indianapolis, IN 46204 www.IndianaConsumer.com
They are concerned with professional licensing and policies to protect the consumer/patient.
(3) If Medicare was involved, Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 233 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60601-5519.
I have contact information for other agencies, governmental and private, concerned with inappropriate medical procedures and would be glad to share that information. My work number at Selah Center is 269-3008.
