Valley

Valley-Wide disputes allegations

Related story: Burnsides vow to block Valley-Wide

July 28, 2001

Valley-Wide Health Services CEO Marguerite Salazar challenges claims made by a local doctor and his wife opposed to seeing Valley-Wide operating a health clinic in Mancos.

After seeing faxed copies of letters made public by Allan Burnside, M.D., and Linda Burnside, P.A.C., she commented to The Mancos Times by e-mail on Friday, July 20, and later by phone.

Salazar wrote, "We could not force patients to come to a Valley-Wide clinic in any way, shape or form. People value freedom of choice and as long as the current Burnside patients are happy, why would they feel they have to change providers?"

Referring to the contention that hospital admissions would be sent to Durango, Salazar wrote, "Referrals would be made by the providers. ... Our policies would be to send patients to hospitals that the provider has a relationship with. ... If we hire Mike Guillette, he would be sending patients through his supervising physician."

Regarding the accusations about fraudulent data for the MUA and HPSA designations, Salazar stated, "Applications for designations such as a (MUA) or a (HPSA) require that we use specific data sources, so there is no way that any of the information can be fabricated."

Routine lab tests will be done at the clinic, according to Salazar, but X-ray capability is not envisioned in the near future.

Micah Jackson of Valley-Wide said she did the survey in support of the MUA designation, using a list provided by Guillette and listings in the yellow pages. When the failure to include the Burnsides and Wallington was brought to her attention, Jackson related, "We did update the application, we made all the corrections and it made no difference — it didn’t affect the designation."

Mike Guillette said Monday that he never saw the VWHS application for MUA status, calling the allegation that he signed off on part of it "absolutely false."

He faxed the Mancos Times copies of June 7, 1999, letters to Mancos Family Medicine patients, one from Guillette and his wife, Manda Sloan, one from Mercy Medical Center. The former letter thanks patients and co-workers for their support. The authors express regret that a "federally qualified Rural Health Clinic" could not have been established and end by "wishing success and stability to the clinic in this new venture."

The Mercy letter mentions earlier discussions with VWHS to establish a rural clinic, acknowledges that the advent of the Burnsides means "the new clinic will be staffed by a physician," and offers patients the option to keep their records at the same location or transfer them to a doctor of their choice.

Concerning their alleged loyalty to Mercy, Guillette and Sloan said via e-mail: "Our ‘loyalty’ is to our patients. If we need to refer a patient, we discuss the available options and let the patient participate in the decision."