A Cheatham County mother claims she has been trying to get her son’s medical records for months but the doctor’s office where her son was being treated for ADHD has not been cooperative.
The Medwest Family Practice where Donna Knox had been taking her 11-year-old son closed in early April.
Knox said she learned of the closure when she arrived for a scheduled appointment and there was a note on the door.
Knox is a mother of two who says she has called almost every day since early April to find out what is going on but the man who answers the phone doesn’t provide much help.
Knox says she is now seeing a new doctor, but until just recently, that doctor wouldn’t prescribe medicine for the child until the doctor received the boy’s medical records from Medwest.
Knox says she calls almost every day, and still the records are not sent.
In the meantime, Knox says her son is having trouble at school because of his ADHD.
“My son has a behavioral disorder, and he has been on medication since he started school but for the last two months I have been having trouble getting medical records. His teachers don’t want him at school.”
“Has he been acting out?” I ask.
“Bad,” she says.
“So you were treating his disorder with medicine?”
“Yes.”
“So why did you stop?”
“Because [the office] was closed. I went to the appointment, there was a note on the door, it said the office closed, and call the number. The answering service said they didn’t know when they would reopen. I changed doctors. I got medical release forms. [The new doctors] have sent forms three times.”
Knox says the man who answers the phone says the records were under five feet of water during the flood but Knox says the floods were on May 1 and she’s been calling since her appointment was cancelled in early April.
“They said they were under five feet of water, they won’t say how I get the records or send them in or anything. I have called every day, today and they won’t tell me anything, for the last two months, they won’t return calls, or return to the other doctor’s offices’ calls or anything.”
The State Department of Health confirms that Medwest Family Practice was run by Lance Gardiner. He is the same Brentwood business man being investigated by the TBI and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
TBI officials tell Messed Up the practice is being investigated for allegations of Tenn Care Fraud.
TDEC tells Messed Up Lance Gardiner is being investigated because of biohazard material found inside his Springfield mansion.
Messed Up also talks with a former nurse at the Medwest Family Practice.
Brandy Swanson was a nurse there for approximately six months. She says she finally left because of the way she says the practice was operated.
“I was the nurse from Oct 19 to December 4,” she says.
She confirms that Lance Gardiner owned the practice and acted as office manager.
I tell her about Mrs. Knox.
Swanson says she personally took many phone calls from patients requesting medical records.
“They would want their medical records, either to pick them up or have them faxed to their new doctors. If it was a patient from a previous clinic, we gave it to Mr. Gardiner. The patient would call for months at a time trying to get their records. I would apologize and say I left it with the office manager.”
“Why could he not supply the records?” I ask.
“[Gardiner] said they were in storage.”
I ask her how she feels about this on going case.
“It is embarrassing and I am ashamed and feel horrible for all the patients whose stuff is there.”
I ask her how she and the doctors at the Medwest facility stored the medical waste.
“I know that we had Sharps for all our needles and biohazard bags. Everything was disposed of as it should be but then our biohazard material was falling out, it had not been picked up in months. We called Gardiner and he said he would get it taken care of. We left one afternoon, and the next day it was gone. I never saw anyone pick it up.”
I asked her if she felt unsafe in the office having so much alleged waste and it taking so long to get it picked up.
“Yes, we complained to [Gardiner] to remove it. Yes sir. It took weeks and then one day it disappeared.”
I call the practice and ask to speak with Lance Gardiner. A man answers and takes my name and number. I ask this man about the records. On May 26, the unidentified man tells me that “the records will be sent, but they are delayed due to the floods.”
I ask when former patients can expect to get their records.
“There is no time table for getting the records out,” the man tells me before hanging up.
So far, Gardiner has never returned any of my calls.
After several weeks, we do have some good news to report.
Donna Knox says her new doctor just recently agreed to prescribe her son ADHD medicine despite not receiving any of his old medical records from Medwest.
Additionally, Messed Up has communicated with Tim S. Beddingfield, President of XMED Disposal in Huntsville, Alabama. His company handles medical waste.
Beddingfield writes, “Mr. Lance Gardiner contracted with XMED under the name Medwest Family Practice on Monday, May 3, 2010 for collection, transport, treatment and disposal services for regulated medical waste. Our contract lasts for three years. The contract calls for a monthly pick up at a physician’s office in Brentwood, Tennessee. XMED employees picked up two 32 gallon containers on May 3 after Mr. Gardiner signed the contract for Medwest Family Practice. We picked up an additional 10 containers of the same size on Tuesday May 18, 2010. This account is being billed this week. Our normal practice is to send the required certificate of destruction for the disposal of the medical waste with the invoice. We have not retrieved any medical waste from any other location under this contract. We are a fully compliant medical waste disposal company with all applicable permits and licenses to operate in the state of Tennessee. We follow all federal state and local regulations. We have no knowledge of where the waste we picked up from the offices in Brentwood might have been previously stored or for how long it might have been kept there. We have not been contacted by regulatory agency about the subject matter of your news story.”
Finally.
While Lance Gardiner won’t return my phone calls, he did write a letter to TDEC investigators on May 20, 2010 that includes the following:
“First, respectfully, the items found were not dumped ‘illegally.’ They were stored properly on property zoned for medical use and which was once used as a medical office. As I mentioned to you when we met at our offices in Ashland City, the medical waste was properly generated through the normal process of operating a medical practice. The waste was properly transported and stored in biohazard containers in a closet in a bathroom. The building was vandalized and as a result the medical waste was thrown and scattered on the floor and into the hallway. No medical waste was illegally dumped at the building. Second, there was no illegal transportation of medical waste.”
It concludes, “I trust this information will bring finality to this unpleasant and unfortunate episode.”
It is singed Lance Gardiner, former administrator of Millbrook Medical Center.
TDEC spokespeople say the agency is still actively verifying the information.
The TBI tells Messed Up its investigation into allegations of TennCare Fraud is still ongoing.
Her home flooded. Her husband’s prosthesis floated away. Her grandparent’s furniture was destroyed. Her children’s bedroom ruined.
“The Cumberland was in my back yard,” Crystal Jenkins says. “It was scary. It was very scary. I lost 20 years of my life out here.”
To add insult to injury, the woman was fired from her job because she says she took three days off from work to clean up from the floods. The mother of two says a team of volunteers was in her yard carrying things to the curb and she had to be there to coordinate the clean up effort.
“How come I have to get fired and lose my job? I am in a disaster, and they kick me on top of that.”
Crystal Jenkins says she kept her supervisors at ATT apprised of her situation. She says she even showed them pictures.
Jenkins was fired anyway.
“I need some justice?” Jenkins says standing in front of her belongings stacked all the way the front of her yard.
Why, I ask.
“Because I was fired from my job at ATT because of this,” she says waving her arms to the debris.
The temporary employee says she likes her job, having worked there for 6 months. The mother of two tells me that she was hoping to turn it into a full time career.
Jenkins says she was a good employee, winning awards in her division for good attendance and customer service.
We call ATT and after two days the corporate communication office can only come up with a one sentence response to this messed up story.
From Cathy Lewandowski
AT&T Corporate Communications
“AT&T does not comment on personnel matters.”
In the meantime; Crystal Jenkins says she has no flood insurance but she will rebuild all the same.
Jenkins says she needs a job. If you have a position that this woman might fill, feel free to contact us here at Messed Up and we’ll help coordinate that.
In February Messed Up investigated a state policy governing the transfer of automobile titles.
You’ll recall that, when a vehicle is sold in Tennessee, that sale is only registered with the state if a private citizen buys the car.
That means if you sell your vehicle to a dealership or one dealer sells to another dealer the state does not require the dealerships to notify them which usually means the transfer of title is not recorded in the state’s data base.
Hendersonville woman, Wanda Elliott found that out the hard way after she sold her car to a dealership. The title transfer was not recorded, and the car was later involved in a hit and run accident in Metro. The police and collection agencies started hounding Wanda Elliott for a crime involving a car she no longer owned.
Russell Aylsworth and his wife have a similar story.
After getting divorced, the couple’s 95 Ford Taurus is reposed. According to documents obtained by Messed Up, the lender, Ameri*credit takes possession of the car December 11th, 2009
On January 11th, 2010 - a month later - Ameri*Credit sells the car to a private party.
A month after that - on February 22nd, 2010 - that Ford Taurus - is parked illegally at the Metro Courthouse.
Sources in the Metro traffic office tell Messed Up: the officer wrote his citation using the Taurus’ vin number. When Metro clerks ran the vin number it came back as registered to Russell Aylsworth and his wife
After a number of aggressive letters from Metro’s traffic warrant division, claiming he owes 92 dollars, Aylsworth contacts That’s Messed Up.
“People are being held accountable for things they should not be and it is hard enough now to take care of your own responsibilities not to mention a stranger’s responsibility.”
Messed Up contacts Ameri*Credit. The corporation refuses to release any information on its titling policies or who bought the car from the Texas company.
Sources inside the traffic office say what is happening to Russell Aylsworth happens frequently, causing unnecessary stress on citizens and wasting tax payer dollars for Metro employees to chase down violators who are not responsible.
State Senator Jim Tracy is the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.
In February we brought Tracy this issue and he immediately realized that is Messed Up.
“Number one; it is technology. If you trade your car in, it should be known to the state. We need to make sure that it’s out of your name. And number 2: we need to penalize dealers who are not transferring titles in the particular time they should do it.”
Tracy mentions a possible 250-dollar fine for car dealers.
The state Senator also says the state has the technology to register the title transfer without causing great expense to the dealers.
I tell Tracy it seems like the Department of Revenue is dragging its feet on this issue.
“I am hoping not,” he says. “I am hoping they will move forward. I have let them know it is a problem, and you hear this every day. It is a liability issue. If the car is not in your name anymore it is not in your name any more.”
Tracy says he is working to change how and when the state is notified anytime a vehicle changes ownership, regardless of whether a dealer or private citizen buys the vehicle.
With spring comes yard work and with yard work come piles of brush and debris that Metro residents stack by the curb.
It’s been this way for decades.
Residents put out the debris and the city comes by, for free, and removes it.
But with cut backs, service has changed.
Metro Public Works comes by fewer times per year and with half the trucks and crews.
That means Metro residents need to be more aware of what they are placing at the curb, and when they are putting it there.
According to Metro Public Works PIO Gwen Hopkins, the Web site has all the answers, from when you should put out your debris to the do’s and don’ts of brush removal.
“Become familiar with the service as provided today. It is a route system and the county is divided into 12 routes. We run the trucks three times a year, instead of five,” she said.
Hopkins said budget cuts also forced the department to go from 20 trucks and crews to 10.
She suggests signing up for an email notification that will tell you when the trucks are coming to your neighborhood.
Today’s Messed Up Email of the Day comes from parents of a couple who experienced a common problem: sewage flooding a home after public works attempts to clear a clogged sewer line.
My son lives in a house that he rents in Decherd TN. The city of Decherd flooded his house with sewage when they tried to clear a clogged line. We talked to the head of the water dept and he talked with his employees. They first said they were not there the day the accident happened. I spoke with the mayor of Decherd asking her to investigate. She did and called me back saying that they were there and they did work on the line but they did not cause the flooding of his house. She said that she couldn’t do anymore for us. My son and his girlfriend are now homeless and noone wants to take responsibility. Can you please help them get compensated for the damages to their property and moving expenses.
Nashville is known around the world as Music City.
To promote that concept in a new and innovative way, the convention and visitors bureau challenged the city to come up with something that would cost the tax payers little while at the same time exposing each citizen to a highly recognizable and singularly Nashville brand.
Public Works PIO Gwen Hopkins explains the genesis of the project:
“4 years ago, Public Works Director Billy Lynch thought it would be a good idea to provide, some music at downtown locations. Since Nashville is Music City, we began working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the country music hall of fame to create music boxes. Traffic engineers rewired the signal boxes so music plays out o them and it is no cost to do it. We started with maybe 3 locations on Church Street, with the redevelopment project. The convention and visitors bureau wanted to add more locations, so we did. We recently, added the Deadrick Street boxes when we did the street scape project that we finished in October. The idea was to provide a more pleasant environment for workers, visitors, and to make the downtown atmosphere more inviting. We experimented with public service announcements to promote city events and welcome people here, and encourage them to use litter receptacles. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Early on, we did get some complaints from residents downtown and every time we did get a volume complaint we would adjust it so it is not distracting.”
According to Hopkins-Glascock, there are now 12 music boxes in the downtown corridor. Each box plays music relevant to the attraction it is near. Country Music plays at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Classical music plays at the Schermerhorn. Show tunes play around TPAC.
Regardless of where the music boxes are, for the next few weeks, all boxes are playing holiday music.
All the boxes are playing music except one. Until further notice, Box number 12, at the corner of Charlotte and 6th is silent.
Why?
Because state office workers in the Rachel Jackson Building complained repeatedly.
“The music has become such a distraction that we can no longer use the corner conference room for anything other than storage,” the administrative assistant reportedly writes city leaders
Hopkins says the box volume has been lowered several times, and each time officer workers complained.
To be a good neighbor, Hopkins-Glascock says the Public Works Department decided to turn the speaker off.
“We certainly don’t want to disrupt a business day for anyone. We thought we would change the time, and turn on the boxes only at night when the buildings were closed from 7-9pm, but constant complaints from same office came in so we unplugged that box.”
Messed UP tries to get the office worker’s side of the story, but a representative tells us that nobody in the office will discuss the matter.
While video taping a box across from the Country Music Hall of Fame, I encounter a man named Sean Grayowl. The man originally from South Dakota tells me he is in town visiting his daughter.
Grayowl tells me that Nashville is Music City. When informed of the pressure to mute the music, he tells me this:
“What you are talking about is crazy. When you are on the corner, what better way to experience music. It is crazy they are turning it down.”
We pause for a moment letting a Christmas song fill the air.
He smiles.
“It makes me feel good. It gives me a good Christmas spirit. For me personally, I love the music and wish it would be on the corners. It’s a lot better than buses and trucks.
I asked if the box might be turned back on. Hopkins-Glascock says if enough tax payers wanted it, it would be considered.
A South Nashville senior citizen goes on vacation to India. When she returns, 2 weeks later, there are steep stairs in front of her house that she is afraid to use.
Alice Klingshirn says she can’t get her mail, or easily get to the street where her car is parked.
She says she calls the city to complain, but when she feels the city is dragging its feet, she calls Messed Up.
The 72 years old former ex-ray tech went to India in late October. In the two weeks she was gone, city crews tore up the street and put in new storm sewer drains.
Alice says the street needed it, but not at the cost of her being trapped in her front yard.
Officials with metro public works tell me that engineers tried to contact Alice prior to installing the stairs, but because she was out of the country, they were unable to, so they did what they felt was right.
Officials with the Metro Water Department tell me that crews try and leave a community the same or better than the way they found it.
Officials say normally the city tries to communicate with residents prior to construction, should there be a dramatic change to their property.
After Messed Up’s involvement, crews returned to Alice’s home and began tearing down the steps. The plan is to make a gradual ramp that the woman can easily navigate.
Today’s Messed Up Email of the Day comes from a viewer in Lafayette who says the city won’t change their water billing date.
Andy I am a senior on a small fixed income. I have repetedly asked the city to change my water billing date from the middle of the month to the first and have not only met resistance but also a totally uncaring and rude attitude from our city officials. Is there anything you can do to help me with this as I’m sure that I’m not the only one in this city with this problem. Thank you Earl
Whose fault is it? That’s a question being asked by a Nashville couple whose basement flooded with raw sewage.
It all begins Saturday September 12th.
That’s the day the commode in the Percy Priest Lake residence of Arnold and Tina Bailey begins bubbling over with raw sewage.
The Bailey’s show me pictures of a basement mud room that is blackened by the disgusting mess.
On the day Messed Up arrives, Mrs. Bailey is packing her trunk with suit cases. The woman tells me she has respiratory problems and the on going environmental disaster is forcing her to stay with relatives in Kentucky.
Her husband, Arnold stays behind to manage the hideous mess.
The retired military pilot says dealing with metro has been messed up, so much so, he wrote this letter to Mayor Karl Dean.
My name is Arnold Bailey. I live Clearlake Dr west. On Saturday public works was cleaning sewer lines next to my house at the sewage pumping station and back flushed raw sewer water into my home. They started cleanup late Saturday night, ran blowers and drying equipment, and tore out walls and contaminated items and were going to remove contaminated tiles and clean the air ducts. This afternoon they pulled out the workers and said they were still investigating who was at fault for this problem. This was and is a very serious health problem. They told me to contact my insurance company for repairs. It was a metro pump truck that was blowing the lines at their pumping station. My wife has acute asthma and could not be in the house so we slept in our Motor home. The motor home went for maintenance today so she left to stay with relatives until work is complete. I am staying in the house but am not comfortable with it. Metro caused this problem and they need to take care of it. This pumping station has been a problem for the 25 years that I have lived here with spills, overflows, smells, noise and chemical sanitation blocks hanging next to my pool and patio. I am requesting your help in solving this problem as I have run into a solid wall and they are treating me poorly and seem to think that it is my problem not theirs.
When he gets nowhere with the city, Arnold Bailey calls That’s Messed Up.
I call his Councilwoman, Vivian Wilhoite who tells me she has all ready been investigating the matter. She tells me that Metro should be more responsive to her constituent’s needs.
“They are trying to tell me that this is an act of God. Don’t ever tell me that it is an act of God for him to put poop in a man’s house.”
Wilhoite tells me she tells water department officials to handle this matter now, because she doesn’t want to see it show up on her council desk later, with much heftier price tag.
“This better not end up on my desk. Approve his claim. Take care of this now. It’s only right. I’m not so sure Metro isn’t at fault. That goes along with running Metro Water. If Mr. Arnold was in his yard and did something to the line, that is one thing. But in this situation, he was in his house, and poop comes back up the line.”
The councilwoman indicates that Metro Water was pulling out its crews and limiting the city’s financial responsibility in the matter. She says she told them to reevaluate.
“I asked they open this back up. This makes no sense. It makes no sense. Look back at this and provide me a reason why he should not be compensated. I better not see this a year from now when it could have been resolved on the front end.”
I talk with Sonia Harvat who represents the Metro Water Department.
Harvat says the Bailey’s troubles begin when a sewage pipe is blocked in the neighborhood.
Harvat says the pipe is blocked with house hold materials including grease, which neighbors have been dumping down their drains over time.
According to Harvat, Metro crews pumped the line clean, and when they did, there was a sudden surge that forces its way through the pipe, that pressure rushed to the lowest point, which just happened to be the commode in Arnold Bailey’s home.
“Metro Water Services is paying for the initial clean up,” Harvat says. “Our priority is health and safety. Our system was not malfunctioning, our system was not broken. It was nothing inside our sewer system causing the back up it was grease! Metro will look to see if there was negligence on the part of metro water services. Did we break something that caused the over flow, but there was no negligence and that is what claims will look at it to see who pays for it.”
Bailey says the city did initially hire a company to clean up the filth. But after a few days, the city pulls the plug and the cleaning stops. Thanks to Messed Up and Councilwoman Wilhoite, the city has reconsidered its position.
An attorney for Metro Legal tells Messed Up, the city will pay for the clean up as long as it is deemed reasonable.
A water department official tells Messed Up “We don’t want to build the Taj Majal, but we will pay for the mess.”
Arnold and Tina Bailey say that’s the least the city can do for what they have been through.
by
“They said they were under five feet of water, they won’t say how I get the records or send them in or anything. I have called every day, today and they won’t tell me anything, for the last two months, they won’t return calls, or return to the other doctor’s offices’ calls or anything.”
“I was the nurse from Oct 19 to December 4,” she says.
So far, Gardiner has never returned any of my calls.
Beddingfield writes, “Mr. Lance Gardiner contracted with XMED under the name Medwest Family Practice on Monday, May 3, 2010 for collection, transport, treatment and disposal services for regulated medical waste. Our contract lasts for three years. The contract calls for a monthly pick up at a physician’s office in Brentwood, Tennessee. XMED employees picked up two 32 gallon containers on May 3 after Mr. Gardiner signed the contract for Medwest Family Practice. We picked up an additional 10 containers of the same size on Tuesday May 18, 2010. This account is being billed this week. Our normal practice is to send the required certificate of destruction for the disposal of the medical waste with the invoice. We have not retrieved any medical waste from any other location under this contract. We are a fully compliant medical waste disposal company with all applicable permits and licenses to operate in the state of Tennessee. We follow all federal state and local regulations. We have no knowledge of where the waste we picked up from the offices in Brentwood might have been previously stored or for how long it might have been kept there. We have not been contacted by regulatory agency about the subject matter of your news story.”
“First, respectfully, the items found were not dumped ‘illegally.’ They were stored properly on property zoned for medical use and which was once used as a medical office. As I mentioned to you when we met at our offices in Ashland City, the medical waste was properly generated through the normal process of operating a medical practice. The waste was properly transported and stored in biohazard containers in a closet in a bathroom. The building was vandalized and as a result the medical waste was thrown and scattered on the floor and into the hallway. No medical waste was illegally dumped at the building. Second, there was no illegal transportation of medical waste.”
Her home flooded. Her husband’s prosthesis floated away. Her grandparent’s furniture was destroyed. Her children’s bedroom ruined. 
You’ll recall that, when a vehicle is sold in Tennessee, that sale is only registered with the state if a private citizen buys the car. 
After getting divorced, the couple’s 95 Ford Taurus is reposed. According to documents obtained by Messed Up, the lender, Ameri*credit takes possession of the car December 11th, 2009
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With spring comes yard work and with yard work come piles of brush and debris that Metro residents stack by the curb.
Visit 
Officials with metro public works tell me that engineers tried to contact Alice prior to installing the stairs, but because she was out of the country, they were unable to, so they did what they felt was right.
On the day Messed Up arrives, Mrs. Bailey is packing her trunk with suit cases. The woman tells me she has respiratory problems and the on going environmental disaster is forcing her to stay with relatives in Kentucky.
Wilhoite tells me she tells water department officials to handle this matter now, because she doesn’t want to see it show up on her council desk later, with much heftier price tag.
