Florida Probes Tenet Hospital

Donna Cohen, a professor of aging and mental health at the University of South Florida, told the Herald that she considers such behavior to be "heartless and cruel." But a local attorney went a step further.

"If they were taking somebody from a nursing home knowing that they have no legal justification to do so, and they were doing it to make a profit, that's kidnapping," Howard Finkelstein, a public defender who represents psychiatric patients, told the Sun-Sentinel on Tuesday. "It's that simple."

Peter Young, a business consultant at HealthCare Strategic Issues, worries that the situation could grow even worse. He believes that other Tenet-owned hospitals may have referred patients to the psychiatric unit in order to maximize company profits. Thus, he sees the possibility of an "intentional organized scheme" that extends far beyond a single facility.

As a result, Young questions whether Tenet can really put its past behind it this time around.

"The situation leads one to conclude there is an apparent culture ethics crisis within Tenet that now, two years into a turnaround, the company finds itself again facing Medicare and Medicaid fraud issues and a new issue -- civil rights violations," Young said. "The board of directors needs to conduct a soul-searching analysis of what went wrong."

Assessing the Blame

The Tenet Shareholder Committee has already placed some blame. Earlier this month, the group singled out Don Steigman -- a senior vice president who has presided over the Florida region since 1995 -- for some harsh criticism. The group holds Steigman responsible for problems at multiple Florida facilities.

For starters, the committee says that the Florida region -- "once called the crown jewel" of the company -- now suffers from negative operating margins. Moreover, it says that many of the facilities have become targets of controversy.