In what was clearly a sham of a meeting, the San Juan Bautista School of Mendaciousness spoke for a long time and what it said tonight (13 October) amounted to absolute, unmitigated and barefaced lying. (Videos of the meeting on the SJB Students blog).
Where to begin? Okay, the injunction. Faced with the devastating and complete destruction of their medical school as an accredited institution, a legal action to at least stop, delay or overturn the LCME's decision (the accrediting body) is a necessity. For clarity, here's what an injunction is and does:
"An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts... This injunctive power to restore the status quo ante, that is, to make whole again someone whose rights have been violated, is essential to the concept of fairness (equity)."
Seeing as how 270+ students are now in medical school hell, and that the meeting is with their parents to help them cope with the situation, you'd think--you'd really think--that the SJBSOMendaciousness would be crystal clear on what it is doing to restore or prepare the way to restoring the status quo ante.
You'd think. And you'd be wrong.
Think about this: Ten full days have passed since the boom was lowered on the SJBSOMething's Fishy Here and so-called Stanford Who's Who Who Can't Answer Anything doesn't know exactly what the legal remedy they are taking is about, even though something had been tried before. And who did they have on hand to "bolster" their bullshit? A local lawyer who had even less information than Stanford What's Going On, Brugal.
And what did this scion of legal strategy suggest, with the backing of the SJBSlapping Lipstick On A Pig suggest be the students' and parents' strategy in the days ahead? Sue the LCME, with each class year going at the accreditation body in separate class-action suits.
What this means, when stripped of its pestiferous overtones, is: Don't sue the SJBullshit Factory; waste your time with the LCME!
The LCME's Report on which the removal of accreditation was based on is in the hands of the SJBullshit Farm. Unless legal action is taken, and despite several requests, including that of the trial lawyer present at the meeting (who knew the injunction case number that Stanford Who's Running Scared Brugal didn't "have at hand"), the Report can remain out of the public eye. In fact, the legal monkey capering at the meeting specifically pointed out that the injunction made it a point to request that documentation related to the case remain confidential.
Now let Me point out three vectors streaming from this overflowing outhouse of bullshit, each of which can be demolished with ease: (1) that the LCME is the true guilty party here; (2) that the Report has to remain confidential and (3) that the SJBullshit Fountain is working.
Bullshit Vector #1: That the LCME is the guilty party. I covered this before, but here's the shorter version. If the LCME acted outside of procedures, with a bias or incompetently, a legal remedy could have been found by any competent lawyer in a day, with time left over for golf. The LCME's procedures are posted on the website, downloadable by anyone. (Except, apparently, by nearly all SJBSOM students and their parents.) The previous post covered the overall Procedures, so here's the added quote, from the LCME's The Role of Students in the Accreditation of Medical Education Programs, page 5, Section 5, concerning loss of accreditation:
Because the quality of U.S. and Canadian medical education programs is uniformly high, the probability of any program losing its accreditation as a result of an accreditation survey is relatively low. If serious problems are identified, the LCME would, in most circumstances, give the program an opportunity to correct its problems before withdrawing accreditation.
For most medical education programs with relatively minor accreditation concerns, the LCME will ask the medical school dean to submit one or more written reports describing what the program staff has done to achieve or maintain full compliance with accreditation standards. If the accreditation issues identified by the LCME are serious or widespread, the LCME has several options for follow-up depending on the extent and nature of the problems, including a limited on-site survey to verify how the program has corrected its problems; shortening the term of accreditation; or placing the program on “warning of probation” status or “probation” status. Although probation is infrequent, it does occur. (Emphasis Mine.)
Now, given that this is the written, public and binding procedure the LCME has, what are the odds that they would bypass them and expose themselves to legal action?
Furthermore, as was brought up in the meeting, the LCME threatened to withdraw the accreditation of the Universidad del Caribe (UCC), then in Cayey, with a letter sent in October 1983 stating that accreditation would end June 30th, 1984. The UCC took legal action and, as stated in court documents, worked with the LCME to retain its accreditation.
Brugal and her mealy-mouthed mendacious artists are trying to equate the UCC situation 27 years ago with what the SJBullshit Forum is facing. They are not the same. What the LCME did in this case, on October 3rd, amounted to a death penalty, whereas in 1983-1984, what they did was issue a warning with a deadline. Whether the warning was discriminatory, biased or in some other way wrong was decided long ago. If anyone thinks the LCME, having "lost" that decision 27 years ago, would undertake an even more decisive action and leave any room for losing another lawsuit, then your brains are mush.
Bullshit Vector #2: That the Report has to remain confidential. No. No. And hell no. At the meeting, the SJBullshit Team indicated that the Report could not be made public because it supposedly contained confidential student information.
Lie.
From the LCME's Survey Report Guide, the manual for how the Report is to be compiled, here's the complete list, on page 20, of student-based data requested:
III. MEDICAL STUDENTS
Insert at least the following items from the medical education database and the independent student analysis in the Appendix:
· * Student enrollment by class year
· * Mean MCAT scores and premedical GPAs for past three entering classes (MS-5, MS-6)
· * Table of the number of students who left school, exhibited academic difficulty, or took a leave of absence
· * Sample Medical Student Performance Evaluation (“dean’s letter”)
· * Copy of the most recent LCME Part I-B Financial Aid Questionnaire (MS-24)
· * Narrative section of the independent student analysis and data from the student-administered survey (if not included previously)
This is public data, not confidential. As part of the survey, students answer questionnaires, anonymously, and the data is aggregated for a score that evaluates the medical school. And each class year has students meet directly with the survey report team, for interview sessions. Once again, from the LCME's The Role of Students in the Accreditation of Medical Education Programs, pages 9-10, here's what the Survey Report does with the student interviews that take place as part of the accreditation review process:
Under no circumstances are student comments at these sessions quoted directly or attributed to any individual either in the survey report of the team or in exit conferences with the medical school dean and university executive.
If for some reason the LCME had violated student confidentiality in a way that the SJBullshit Posse considered egregious, the Procedures spell out how they can challenge it before the final Report is presented. From the LCME's Survey Report Guide, page 1:
If the dean of the medical education program involved disagrees with the tone of the report or the findings of the survey team, that disagreement should be communicated to the team secretary when the draft report is reviewed. If a disagreement persists after the team has had an opportunity to discuss the dean’s concerns, the dean may send a letter to the LCME Secretariat and, for Canadian programs, the CACMS Secretariat describing any objections and the rationale for disputing the team’s findings. That letter would then be included in the meeting agenda and considered along with the survey report when the LCME and the CACMS (for Canadian programs) evaluate the program’s accreditation status. (Emphasis Mine.)
If the LCME had been playing fast and loose with student information, there was a way to address and remedy that. If the LCME didn't fix it and ignored its Procedures, mistreating student information, the SJBullshit Pack would have a case Dr. Doolittle could win...even with a legal monkey. That Stanford Who's Lying Brugal claims that this is the reason for not releasing the Report is far from being anywhere near the Truth.
Now, let's say that the Report's financial information is confidential. Stands to reason. Makes sense. So why not release the Report minus the institution's financial information?
After all, the LCME's stated reason for using its guillotine was "inadequate clinical resources." Removing the financial information, in essence the data and maybe a few comments, would hardly impair reading the Report's findings concerning "inadequate clinical resources." And if it did, Brugal and the Feckless Fibbers would have a stronger position to seek the unity with students, parents and the medical community that they said they wanted to have. (A point I'll come back to in Bullshit Vector #3.)
No, the Report is not confidential because of student information, or even financial information. Like I said before: it is "confidential" because it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the SJBullshit Train Wreck, led by Stanford Choo Choo's Boo Hoo Brugal, absolutely deserved what it got.
Two reasons come to mind for the LCME's decision to pass probation on the way to go to hell: financial malfeasance and fraud, as in knowingly providing the LCME with false or falsified information. Most likely both, for the LCME took the decision to withdraw accreditation in one action knowing full well a legal challenge would be mounted, even by legal monkeys.
So why state "inadequate clinical resources" rather than financial skullduggery or blatant lying? Because insufficient clinical resources was clearly demonstrable and publicly defensible: the other two reasons, if they exist, are not, at least not to the extent the LCME can easily manage. By stating the obvious non-compliance, they make their case, for even though by their own Procedures, the single stated cause could have been dealt with under probation, the additional unmentioned causes forced the loss of accreditation.
And that explains quite well why Brugal's Procrastinating Prevaricators are earning their sobriquets.
Bullshit Vector #3: That the SJBullshit Fountain is working. Obviously not for the students. They are understandably upset, furious, confused and disheartened. Fellow med students feel their pain. The parents and loved ones of these students feel the same, while some, like Me, feel closer to murderous rage. The "delay, delay, delay" tactic is now blending with a "divide and conquer" tactic, but the whole package is teetering on the brink of collapse, a result that will only further exacerbate the criminal negligence shown so far.
The SJBullshit Blender needs allies to survive: it cannot win this fight alone. Its first ally is the Report; at this point, it is obviously out of the question. The second tier of allies were the students, but the repeated pattern of obfuscation, feigned ignorance and condescending incompetence has worn out a chance for massive student support. The parents were shredded today, with a performance so inept it made the legal monkey seem like Koko. The Hospital's bankruptcy, added to a lengthy habit of non-payment of employees, reduced services and piling debt, is not an ally, but an enemy.
Ah, yes, the Hospital. So very very important. The only hospital directly allied to a medical school campus. Center of clinical resources. Object of lust for the City of Caguas, the nearby HIMA medical group and the Puerto Rico Health Department. The Hospital, now in bankruptcy, so poor in services and safety conditions it appalled the Joint Commission (the accreditation body for hospitals and clinics), the local Health Department and eventually, the LCME. The same Health Department that the SJBullshit Bank claimed was the reason the Hospital was forced into bankruptcy, a claim rightly denied by the Secretary of Health, Lorenzo González.
And yet, despite this acrimony, this same Secretary of Health stepped up and said he would support and help the SJBullshit Lobby. Decent of him. Mighty white, I'd say. Big chief Lorenzo lending hand, Kemosabe. So when he requested a copy of the Report--as he had every right to do--the answer from the SJBullshit Herd and their Board of Trustees was: No way, José. They even got his name wrong...
Are you kidding Me? The strongest possible allies that Stanford Who Needs A Clue Brugal and her Distaff Dissemblers have--and need--are all being essentially told: Help us, but you got to trust us when we don't tell you jackshit (we tell you bullshit.)
Is this the kind of institution and administration that will straighten out the very fucking mess they made? Oh hell no.
So I'm asking you two final questions: do you think that the SJBullshit Bobbysoxers led by Brugal and her Executive Equivocators are lying?
And aren't you tired of Me writing "SJBullshit"? Now you're beginning to understand just how fed up I am with their SJBullshit.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
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