We are retired physicians who spent our entire careers in the Rogue Valley and have a long history with Asante. We wish to share a different perspective on the legal and reputation issues with Asante that came to light in the past few weeks.

Presumably, Asante and the individuals involved are constrained by ongoing litigation and/or agreements and cannot disclose mitigating information.

We are not under those constraints, but admittedly do not have all the facts either.

First, it says something good about Asante that the diversion of narcotics by a single employee was not uncovered and made public by an outside agency, but rather by internal surveillance. And after difficult medical sleuthing uncovered the facts, Asante chose to inform victims and their families.

Pull Quote

We ache for the hardworking professional nurses and doctors working at Asante who are now burdened with this reputational stain.

This was the right decision, both ethically and legally, but it exposed Asante to certain liability and reputational damage. One could imagine a less ethical organization trying to hide the issue. Asante was able to identify the culprit and remove future threat to more patients.

Regarding the billing issue with Dr. Carmeci, it is safe to say that there is more nuance in billing and more gray areas than the published articles seem to suggest; but none of us were present for the cases mentioned or their billing codes.

What we can say for certain is that Dr. Carmeci is a superb, skillful, hardworking cardiovascular surgeon. All of us would not hesitate to have our families under his care. At least two of us have family members who have had life-saving surgery by Dr. Carmeci.

We ache for the hardworking professional nurses and doctors working at Asante who are now burdened with this reputational stain. Trust is a key part of the healing process and now they may struggle to regain it.

It is even more disheartening in the aftermath of the pandemic when they worked exhaustively saving the lives of unvaccinated patients in the ICU while other anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers showed derision for the effort while protesting outside the hospital.

The past few years have been especially troubling to the health care community. During the pandemic and since, there has been a shortage of qualified nurses and other personnel. Asante is the biggest employer in the Rogue Valley, so despite good hiring practices and employee training and policies, an occasional troubled person can slip through the system.

Quality control systems and supervisors do a good job of monitoring, but no system is perfect. QA is a never-ending process. Yet not one of us would hesitate to put ourselves or our family in the hands of the vast number of dedicated professionals we know.

Let’s not forget that Asante has established a reputation for quality care that is in rare company in the nation.

Asante has been a top 15 health care system in the nation for 10 years in a row. Its cardiovascular department has one of the lowest mortality rates for heart attack management and coronary bypass surgery outcomes in the nation. We could cite other remarkable metrics, but space does not permit further detail.

We are confident that Asante will do everything possible to prevent future mishaps such as the fentanyl diversion and continue to make our health care systems even better.

It will take time and effort to rebuild community trust; but we remain hopeful and confident that the citizens of the Rogue Valley can entrust their care to Asante.