Sierra Vista Subsidiary of Tenet Health Caught In Cover-Up - Page 7
“My understanding is that Dr. Bolduc changed his name to Dr. Vandermark. When he was younger, his mother had married someone with the name ‘Bolduc,’ when that gentleman died – he wanted to change his name back to Vandermark, that’s what he had told me. It wasn’t really of any use to me; he was no longer affiliated with the Northern California franchisee that like I said closed as a result of mismanagement.” Herrera stated.
“We’ve been in business for 25 years. When our franchisees find a doctor, they check out the references and that’s it. Some of them go a bit further, but because of that one doctor it opened up our eyes to become a lot more thorough in terms of getting to know who they are. It can reflect very badly on us and our service and we’ve never had a complaint. It wasn’t until this whole PBS thing that had come out, we were surprised. Not just about Dr. Bolduc, but about other doctors out there.”
Herrera makes it his business to stress the importance of being aware and why it’s so important in today’s pathology business climate.
“Recently, I’ve been going out all over the country and talking about whether an autopsy is necessary and the responsibilities of funeral directors. Invariably, when something happens, the family wants to sue the funeral directors. I tell them that it’s in their best interests to conduct due diligence, but many times they don’t want to hear it because they don’t want to be told how to conduct their business. It’s for their protection; they need to make sure that the doctor is licensed to practice medicine in that particular state. Did they do a sufficient background check? Are there any complaints filed with the medical board? Is any criminal background? If that doctor has references, check them out and verify them.”
Herrera stresses the importance of the 1-800-Autospy motto –“The deceased must be protected and given a voice.”
“The public in the United States isn’t aware, but not only can a pathologist do an autopsy – a general practitioner, a podiatrist, a dermatologist, or a dentist can do an autopsy because they went to medical school. What you’re going to see a lot of and very soon are a lot of people out there doing autopsies, like registered nurses and chiropractors – it’s illegal and it’s unethical, and the public is unaware of it.”
Vandermark’s record as a pathologist is a long one – it’s been said that he has done more than 9,000 autopsies in his career. How many of those were on the up and up? How many of those have prevented people from being brought to justice? How many lives has his unethical behavior impacted?
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