Healthcare is a huge profession, with millions of medical professionals serving hundreds of millions of people in every state, 24/7. It's a recipe for weird stories. We don't know what the new year will bring, but 2010 saw some jawdroppers.
In an effort to tap into a rich vein, we have cobbled together our second annual list of some of the weirdest stories in the healthcare realm over the past 12 months.
Some stories are funny. Some most definitely are not. Some, in fact, are tragic. And this list is by no means comprehensive. We feel it safe to say that no list of oddities in healthcare could be comprehensive. We're also not going to rank them, because we can't figure out criteria, other than weird, and that is highly subjective. So here they are, in no particular order.
1. Bodacious Babes Hired to Woo Bone Marrow Donors
UMass Memorial Health Care CEO John O'Brien issued an apology in late December for the hospital's practice of using professional models as lures to recruit potential bone marrow donors. In a memo to doctors and other members of the Worcester medical institution, O'Brien called the practice "an error in judgment' and said it had been discontinued. "Let me say right from the start that the use of professional models for marketing purposes here was not appropriate for an academic healthcare organization like ours, which holds itself to the highest standards,' O'Brien wrote. UMass Memorial has used the models, women dressed in short skirts and heels, to work booths at malls and public events in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island to solicit people to be tested for a potential life-saving bone marrow match. Investigators from Massachusetts and New Hampshire are looking into the practice, as well as whether UMass Memorial charged insurers high rates for testing the DNA samples and misled donors about the cost of DNA testing.
2. Hospital CEO Fired After Prostitution Sting
In another oddity from the Gopher State, David Cress, 60, was fired as president/CEO of North Memorial Health Care in Minneapolis after he was arrested on misdemeanor charges in September during a prostitution sting at a downtown hotel. Cress, a board member of the Minnesota Hospital Association, had been with the hospital since 1982 and became CEO in 2005. North Memorial Board Chairman Larry Taylow called the arrest "a troubling, personal situation."
3. DC Hospital Fires Nurses for Missing Work in Blizzard
Washington (DC) Hospital Center began termination procedures on 15 nurses for missing work because of a blizzard that had shut down the nation's capital. In a memo to hospital staff, Washington Hospital Center CEO Harrison J. Rider III said the hospital is dismissing 21 employees—15 nurses and six "essential" personnel members. Rider expressed displeasure in the employees who are being fired. "While I am very pleased that we found merit in some of the cases we reviewed, we have not found any redeeming circumstances in the behavior of the others, so we are proceeding with the dismissal of 21 total associates," Rider stated. Nurses United of the National Capital Region filed a grievance against the hospital.
4. Former Hospital CFO Pleads Guilty in Skid Row Kickback Scheme
The former CFO of Tustin Hospital and Medical Center in Los Angeles pleaded guilty in February to paying illegal kickbacks for patients recruited from the city's "Skid Row" area, the U.S. Attorneys Office in Los Angeles has announced. In a plea agreement filed in federal court, Vincent Rubio 49, of Los Angeles, admitted paying kickbacks to "marketers" who recruited homeless people and transported them to Tustin Hospital. The center recruited homeless people to receive unnecessary health services and others to refer homeless Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries to Tustin Hospital for in-patient hospital stays.
NBC News4 in Washington, DC, reported on a Maryland man who claimed he was assaulted by security guards when he tried to leave Prince George's Hospital in June after he was told he was scheduled for a surgery he didn't need. Joseph Wheeler is suing the hospital and its security contractor for $13 million. Wheeler was taken to PGH and admitted overnight for minor injuries sustained in a car accident. When he woke up the next day in his hospital bed he was told he was slated to have a cancerous mass removed from his chest.
Wheeler's wife told the nurse the ID bracelet the hospital put on her husband was for somebody else, but the nurse allegedly ignored her. Wheeler dressed, ripped the IV from his arm and started to leave, when the nurse called security guards who allegedly restrained, cursed and berated him. "He was taken to a hospital, which really should be a house of healing, and he got there and it turned into a house of horrors for him," Bryan Dugan, Wheeler's attorney, told News4.
6.Disgraced Healthcare Exec Wins Florida Governor's Race
A whistleblower in the Columbia/HCA fraud case told the Naples (FL) News in August that Rick Scott should have known of billing practices at his hospitals that cheated the federal government out of millions of dollars. "He was a fairly hands-on CEO," said John Schilling, a former reimbursement supervisor in the Fort Myers division office. "He should have known being CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. He should have known what is on his balance sheet." Scott was forced to resign in 1997 shortly after the FBI began widespread raids of Columbia/HCA offices. Ultimately, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States paid a record $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud. In television ads and on the campaign trail, Scott repeatedly said he takes responsibility for what happened at the company and says he learned from it. A slim majority of voters apparently believed Scott, and elected him Florida governor in November.
7. Judges Give Golf Injury Suit the Hook
The Associated Press reports that a New York State appeals court in December tossed out a personal injury lawsuit filed by a physician who'd lost an eye when his physician-golfing buddy hit him with an errant golf ball. Physicians Anoop Kapoor and Azad Anand were playing on a nine-hole Long Island course in 2002 when Anand was hit in the head while looking for his ball on a fairway, blinding him in one eye. The seven judges on the state Court of Appeals, siding with lower courts, said Kapoor's failure to yell in advance of his errant shot from the rough did not amount to intentional or reckless conduct. "The manner in which Anand was injured — being hit without warning by a 'shanked' shot while one searches for one's own ball — reflects a commonly appreciated risk of golf," the judges wrote.
8. Discredited Doctor Deals Death Down Under
Weird medicine is practice all over the world. The Australian newspaper reported in November on the disappearance of a discredited Austrian doctor Hellfried Sartori, who used the industrial solvent DMSO to treat cancer. The bizarre therapy had been linked to at least five deaths, including that of a 42-year old breast cancer patient who'd travelled from New York for the treatments, and who'd vomited a green fluid before she was admitted to a hospital and died. Sartori reportedly is now acting as a consultant for a wellbeing retreat in Columbia.
9. Former USVI Hospital CEO Arrested Again for Fraud
Already convicting in 2009 for falsifying his government job application, Rodney E. Miller, the former CEO of the Roy Lester Schneider Medical Center in the US Virgin Islands was rearrested by federal authorities in March for allegedly presenting false evidence during that trial. Miller was charged with one count of Preparing False Evidence, one count of Offering False Documents in Evidence and one count of Attempted Fraudulent Claims Upon the Government. A Department of Justice investigation revealed that during his February 2009 trial on a charge of Filing Fraudulent Claims Upon the Government, Miller – who'd lied about his service in the U.S. Navy -- tried to present a fake military ID card as evidence.
10. EMTs Pay Real Money for Fake Certification
The Boston Globe reported in May that at least 200 emergency medical technicians and paramedics in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have been practicing without legitimate certification, paying for fake credentials, rather than receiving medical training. An ongoing investigation has so far determined that training companies illegally authorized state credentials for first responders in at least a dozen communities, state officials told the newspaper.
11. Mystery Lottery Winner Gives Hospital $10K Ticket
A generous Kansas Lottery player has given the Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation in Beloit, KS, the gift of a $10,000 winning Powerball ticket. The surprise gift arrived in the mail anonymously July 28 with this note: "Please accept this gift for the Mitchell County Regional Medical Foundation for the good work you do. God Bless!" The ticket arrived at the hospital, unsigned. The $10,000 winning ticket matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball in the July 17 Powerball drawing. The Lottery knows where and when the ticket was purchased but no one knows the identity of the player who purchased the ticket.
12. This is a Bust!
The Associated Press reported in December that police in Boise, ID, busted a woman for allegedly impersonating a plastic surgeon and conducting breast exams on at least two women in local bars. Kristina B. Ross, 37, was charged with unlicensed practice of medicine. Police were tipped off by employees of a licensed plastic surgeon who said they were calling to schedule appointments with Dr. Berlyn Aussieahshowna. But no doctor by that name worked at the office. Police contacted the women who had called and they identified Ross, who does not have a license to practice medicine.
13. Thank God it Wasn't 3D!
A pharmacy manager at a Wayne (PA) hospital was fired and slapped with an invasion of privacy charge after he admitted placing a hidden camera in the ceiling of a men's bathroom at St. Joseph's Hospital. Leonardo Zoppa, 34, was arrested in early November after he allegedly admitted to placing cameras in two other bathrooms, a Barnes and Noble, and a gym. Police said Zoppa allegedly told a co-worker: "I put that camera in the bathroom. I have a problem."
After seeing strong growth in two previous months, online ads for healthcare practitioners and technical workers were essentially flat in December, and rose by 1,600 listings to 557,000 nationwide for the month. Despite the end-of-the-year lull, vacancies for the skilled providers outnumber qualified job seekers by almost 3 to 1, a Conference Board report shows.
Lower skilled healthcare support vacancy listings rose by 3,700 listings to 115,900. There were 2.6 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy in healthcare support. The average wage advertised for healthcare practitioners and technical workers was $33.51 an hour, and the average wage for healthcare support occupations was $12.84 an hour, The Conference Board says.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will release its employment statistics for 2010, has shown that the healthcare sector is one of the few areas in the economy that has seen monthly job growth throughout the recession, although that growth has slowed considerably since 2009.
In the overall economy, online advertised vacancies fell in December by 9,400 listings to 4,447,800, following an increase of 47,400 in November, and 113,700 in October, The Conference Board reports.
"The year 2010 ended with a continuation of the lackluster labor demand we have seen throughout the last half of this year," says June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. "The strongest job demand was in the first quarter of the year, but the rest of the year failed to show that employers were significantly ramping up hiring across the economy. In the last half of 2010, advertised vacancies for workers in production, transportation, and construction and maintenance occupations increased, but demand for sales staff and workers in food preparation and serving, which rose in early 2010, moderated. After a promising start, 2010 ended with the overall job market relatively flat"
The nation's supply/demand rate stood at 3.39 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy in November (the last available unemployment data), down from a peak of 4.73 in October 2009. Nationally, there are 10.7 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies, The Conference Board reports.
Seven hospitals in six Southern states will pay the federal government a total of more than $6.3 million to settle Medicare false claims allegations stemming from the ongoing investigation of improper billing for spinal procedures, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
The settlements resolve whistleblower claims that the hospitals overcharged Medicare between 2000 and 2008 for inpatient kyphoplasties. The minimally invasive spinal procedure can often be performed as a less-costly out-patient procedure, but federal prosecutors said the hospitals unnecessarily performed the procedure on an in-patient basis to boost Medicare billings.
The settling hospitals are: Lakeland (FL) Regional Medical Center, $1.6 million; The Health Care Authority of Morgan County – Decatur General Hospital, Decatur, AL, $538,000; St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jackson, MS, $556,000; Seton Medical Center, Austin, TX, $1.2 million; Greenville (SC) Memorial Hospital, $1 million; Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, Charlotte, NC, $638,000; and The Health Care Authority of Lauderdale County, the City of Florence, AL, Coffee Health Group, and Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, $676,000.
The government reached similar settlements in 2009 and 2010 with 18 other hospitals for kyphoplasty-related Medicare claims, which were taken up after the government's 2008 whistleblower settlement with Medtronic Spine LLC, corporate successor to Kyphon Inc. Medtronic paid $75 million to resolve Medicare fraud allegations that it encouraged hospitals to perform kyphoplasties as revenue generating in-patient procedures.
All of the hospitals were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act in 2008 in federal district court in Buffalo, NY, by whistleblowers Craig Patrick and Charles Bates. Patrick of Hudson, WI, was a reimbursement manager for Kyphon. Bates was a regional sales manager for Kyphon in Birmingham, AL. They will share about $1.1 million of the settlement.
The Justice Department said it has used the False Claims Act to recover $4.2 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal healthcare programs.
Texas Health Resources has announced the acquisition of privately held MedicalEdge Healthcare Group, one of the largest independent physician practices in North Texas.
Arlington-based Texas Health also acquired PhyServe, the management services organization for the MedicalEdge physicians, which Texas Health will sell to MedSynergies Inc., the hospital-physician alignment consultants.
Financial terms of both deals were not disclosed.
“This enables Texas Health to become a ‘medical home’ for thousands of North Texas patients,” said Douglas D. Hawthorne, CEO of Texas Health Resources. “Immediately, more than 420 physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners will become part of our established and well-respected Texas Health Physicians Group, and the patients of MedicalEdge providers will have easy access to a hospital system dedicated to both quality and accountable medical treatment.”
MedicalEdge, based in Irving, has patient-access facilities in more than 250 locations in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Grayson, Johnson, Parker and Tarrant counties. MedicalEdge employs more than 280 physicians and more than 140 physician extenders and other mid-level health professionals, many of them involved in providing primary care.
“This is the right time for this to happen,” said Clay Heighten, MD, former president of MedicalEdge Healthcare Group. “Most people have probably never heard of MedicalEdge, but we have quietly built a medical group of more than 420 providers and other medical professionals. Now those doctors and their patients will benefit from the capabilities we now have as part of a comprehensive health system.”
Hawthorne said the deal with Texas Health also remains “a committed partner” with several hundred independent physicians on medical staffs in Texas Health hospitals.
“We have built Texas Health to be a ‘house with many rooms’ to align with all types of physicians,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to improve quality and outcomes through better coordination of care from prevention and wellness programs, to acute care, to long term and hospice care. This is the most significant step Texas Health has taken in our strategy to become an integrated provider and coordinator of care and transform the delivery of healthcare in North Texas.”
Texas Health MedSynergies, a joint venture between MedSynergies and Texas Health, will provide management services supporting Texas Health Physicians Group with the addition of PhyServe.
Acquisition of MedicalEdge and PhyServe will add more than 2,300 people to Texas Health. MedicalEdge brings several ancillary services to Texas Health, including sleep lab services, infusion services, diagnostic imaging and chiropractic services.
The Texas Health Board of Trustees approved the acquisition Nov. 16, and the transaction closed Dec. 31.
Texas Health Resources is one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health systems in the nation and includes 24 acute care and short-stay hospitals that are owned, operated, joint-ventured or affiliated with Texas Health Resources.
Detroit Medical Center has announced construction contracts totaling more than $60 million for architectural designs, engineering, and construction management, the first phase of a $300 million capital improvement initiative.
The projects were promised in the eight-hospital health system's $1.5 billion acquisition by private, for-profit Vanguard Health Systems, Inc.
"What better way to start the new year than by moving forward with eight DMC construction projects?" Michael Duggan, president/CEO of DMC system, says. "We promised our patients, our employees and the City of Detroit that we would aggressively move in the bulldozers and forklifts once the agreement was final. Today we start fulfilling that promise---and this is just the beginning."
Contracts totaling $50 million dollars went tothe DMC Children's Hospital of Michigan Specialty Center and to private room renovation at DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital.
Two architectural projects are the Cardiovascular Institute and Multispecialty Building, a five-story, 150,000-square-foot building, and the Sinai-Grace Hospital Emergency Department expansion, which will double the ED and add 46 ICU beds.
The five-story, 105,550-square-foot Children's Hospital expansion will house a pediatrics clinic, adolescent medicine, outpatient rehabilitation, specialty clinics, and 200 physician office suites for outpatient services. Children's Hospital served nearly a quarter of a million outpatient and emergency department patients in 2009. The center represents the first expansion of the DMC central campus in almost three decades.
The contracts for architectural work totaling $10 million are:
Central, unified lobby at Harper University Hospital, awarded to Neumann Smith. The $10.7 million dollar project starts this summer.
Surgical services renovation at Harper University Hospital, awarded to HKS. The $23 million dollar project starts this summer.
Unit renovations at Harper University Hospital, awarded to Stuckey Vitale. The $8 million dollar project starts this fall.
New operating and pre/post operating room at Detroit Receiving Hospital, awarded to Stuckey Vitale. The $8.4 million dollar project starts this fall.
Cardiovascular Institute and Multispecialty Building, awarded to Harley Ellis Devereaux. The $110 million dollar project starts in fall of 2011.
Sinai-Grace Hospital Emergency Department expansion, awarded to Smith Group. The $77 million dollar project starts in fall of 2011.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has issued a final rule to establish the permanent certification program for electronic health records, which includes new guidelines to boost their scope, transparency, reliability, and efficiency, the agency has announced.
"This final rule completes the two-phased approach ONC began with the proposed rule issued in Spring 2010 and includes several important improvements to our certification processes," said David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology. "Our goal is to make the transition to the permanent certification program as seamless as possible."
Meaningful use of "Certified EHR Technology" is a core requirement for healthcare providers who want incentive payments from the federal government.
The temporary certification program, issued on June 24, 2010, will be in effect until it sunsets on Dec. 31, 2011, or until permanent certification program processes are completed. ONC said it will roll out implementation programs for the permanent certification program throughout 2011.
Under the permanent certification program:
Organizations must first be accredited to test and certify HIT;
Certification bodies authorized by the National Coordinator-Authorized Certification Bodies must conduct post-certification surveillance;
ONC-ACBs are permitted to perform "gap certification."
ONC said it will ask the National Institute of Standards and Technology and its National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program to develop a laboratory accreditation program to test HIT for permanent certification.
CVS Caremark said it will buy the Medicare Part D business of Rye Brook, NY-based Universal American for $1.25 billion in a deal that will more than double the size of CVS Caremark's Medicare Part D program.
Universal American's Part D business now serves 1.9 million Medicare Prescription Drug Plan members, while CVS Caremark serves 1.2 million Medicare PDP members. The membership does not include 2011 auto assignment or the results of the Annual Enrollment Period which ended Dec. 31.
"Today's transaction furthers CVS Caremark's position as a significant player in one of the nation's fastest growing segments of the Pharmacy Benefit Management industry. A growing portion of the country's population will receive their prescription drug coverage under Medicare plans, driven both by age demographics and the anticipated shift of retirees from employer-based coverage to Medicare that will likely result from health care reform," said Per Lofberg, president of Caremark Pharmacy Services, in a statement.
"The Medicare Part D program is integral to CVS Caremark's long-term growth strategy. We believe that bringing together these two businesses will strengthen our competitive offerings, enabling us to provide Medicare beneficiaries with expanded products and services and lower the cost of pharmacy care," Lofberg said.
When the deal is finalized Woonsocket, RI-based CVS Caremark will be one of the nation's largest providers of prescription drug services for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday launched an enhanced version of its Physician Compare online tool which provides detailed information about physicians and other healthcare workers.
The updated Physician Comparetool expands and updates CMS' Healthcare Provider Directory, which for more than one decade has helped Medicare beneficiaries find participating doctors online. The new tool expands the doctor-specific information into the suite of informational tools for Medicare beneficiaries and other consumers.
The CMS tool "begins to fill an important gap in our online tools by providing more information about physicians and other healthcare workers," said CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, in a statement. "This helps to pave the way for consumers to have similar information about their physicians as they have for nursing homes, home health agencies and health and drug plans."
Mandated by the Affordable Care Act, Physician Compare contains information about physicians enrolled in Medicare, which include doctors of medicine, osteopathy, optometry, podiatric medicine, and chiropractic. The site also contains information about other health professionals who routinely care for Medicare beneficiaries, including nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, registered dietitians, physical therapists, physician assistants, and occupational therapists.
The tool is designed to help all patients—whether on Medicare or not—locate health professionals in their communities. The information on the site includes contact and address information for offices, the professional's medical specialty, where the professional completed his or her degree as well as residency or other clinical training, whether the professional speaks a foreign language, and the professional's gender. The tool can also help Medicare beneficiaries identify which physicians participate in Medicare.
Physician Compare also shows consumers whether the practice reported certain data to CMS through the Physician Quality Reporting System. Currently, PQRI is voluntary and rewards physicians and other healthcare professionals for reporting data on quality measures related to Medicare beneficiaries. In 2009, more than 200,000 healthcare professionals reported data to CMS through the PQRI.
Later this year, CMS plans a second phase of the tool which will indicate whether professionals chose to participate in a voluntary effort to encourage doctors to prescribe medicines electronically. Eventually, Physician Compare will include information about the quality of care Medicare beneficiaries receive from physicians and the other healthcare professionals profiled on the site. The expansion will include information on quality of care and patient experience that can help consumers learn more about the care provided by Medicare-participating physicians. CMS is required by the Affordable Care Act to develop a plan to implement this expansion by 2013.
"Today's release of Physician Compare moves us closer towards CMS' goal to improve the quality of healthcare for people with Medicare in all the places where they receive care, including the doctor's office," Berwick said. "By using a considered, step-wise approach to spotlighting quality of care, we can create a tool that will help doctors and patients for decades to come."
If 2011 is anything like 2010, it will be another mean year for the business of healthcare.
The healthcare reform debate in Congress undoubtedly will reach new heights of vituperation this year as Republicans regain control of the U.S. House with what they claim is a mandate to repeal "Obamacare."Democrats are already firing back at the GOP, calling them liars and hypocrites for misrepresenting the effects of the reforms while failing come up with fiscally viable alternatives. Both sides will sow fear, confusion, and angst. The "death panel" rhetoric—perhaps the single most unfortunate rumor to arise from the healthcare reform debates in 2009 and 2010—apparently has been rekindled.
Lobbyists for doctors, hospitals, drug makers and the health insurance industry will cruise the halls of Congress to ensure that any changes made to the healthcare reforms will come at someone else's expense—more than likely, the consumer.
And we'll hear more in the coming months about how hospitals and the healthcare system continue to kill tens of thousands of Americans each year through HAIs and medication errors, other preventable mistakes—and frankly, incompetence.
On the healthcare business front, Community Health System's very public hostile takeover attempt of rival Tenet Healthcare Corp. provides us with a fascinating glimpse of C-Suite fisticuffs.
There will be more questions about conflict of interest for physicians who take money from drug makers or medical device companies. There will be turf wars between rival hospitals and healthcare systems. There will be more strikes, or threats to strike. Unions and management will try to discredit one another in the media. And, rival unions will try to discredit one another.
With our attention so focused on these divisive issues, it's easy to forget that healthcare is supposed to be about the noble science healing. So, before the mud starts flying, let's take a moment to remember the example of David Nichols, MD, who died Thursday after a months-long battle with liver cancer. He was 62.
Most regular readers know about Doc Nichols, who in December was named one of HealthLeaders Media's 20 People Who Make Medicine Better—2010. A primary care physician, Nichols for more than three decades served as the only healthcare provider for about 525 people on remote Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay. Once a week for 31 years Nichols would fly himself out to the island from his coastal Virginia home. He didn't have to. He could undoubtedly have found other far less inconvenient ways to make money. In fact, Nichols told HealthLeaders Media that his White Stone Family Practice in Hampton Roads, VA helped to subsidize much of the unreimbursed or low-cost care he provided on the island, which is inhabited by fishing families.
Nichols chose to make those predawn flights ever year for half of his life because he saw a need. He put the welfare of his patients above all else. He saw himself as a dying breed, a self-described "Dinosaur Doc," but he didn't resent what he saw as a different set of priorities for younger physicians.
"Giving up too much time for others; that's how it was in those days. It was the norm for medicine," he says. "I can understand why today younger doctors don't want to work the long hours; they want to go home to their families."
In August, the whole town and a slew of visiting dignitaries from across Virginia honored Nichols at a dedication ceremony for a new $1.5 million health clinic on the island, which was named the David B. Nichols Health Center.
"I've received way more than what I've given," Nichols told HealthLeaders Media, of his legacy on the island. "I hope people will remember, Dr. David Nichols tried his best to help people."
If Hollywood made a movie about Nichols' life—how in his final months the whole town turns out to shower him with love, to tell him how he changed their lives, to shake hands and embrace the babies he helped grow into adults—nobody would believe it really happened. But, it did.
Medicine lost a champion Thursday with the death of David Nichols, MD, a primary care physician who for more than three decades served as the only healthcare provider for remote Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay.
Nichols died Thursday morning, surrounded by his family at his home in coastal White Stone, VA, after a months-long battle with liver cancer, the Richmond Times Dispatchreported.
Once a week for 31 years, Nichols would pilot his own airplane or helicopter on the 15-minute flight to Tangier Island to treat the fishing village's 525 residents.
HealthLeaders magazine in December named Nichols one of "20 People Who Make Healthcare Better – 2010." He told the magazine in an audio interview that he first encountered the people of the remote island on a family trip, and began traveling back and forth in 1979 doing missionary work on the island —treating patients "like family." That's when he made the decision not to leave the islanders stranded without healthcare.
"Turns out the mission's in my backyard—which I think is the case for a lot of places in America—there can be a lot of room to help people without going to Africa or other places," he said.
In August, the whole town and a slew of visiting dignitaries from across Virginia honored Nichols at a dedication ceremony for a new $1.5 million health clinic on the island, which was named the David B. Nichols Health Center.
