Barager R Richard

While my husband was a patient at Tri-​City hospital I repeatedly reported to Dr. Baragar that they were not doing his dialysis correctly, and they were pulling to much fluid during the treatment. He would be fine before the treatment, but after the treatment he could not even move or talk. I tried to get access to his medical records, and they treated them as if they were a trade secret. After he died I was able to get my hands on the records. Indeed, the ACT were not taking his weight as ordered and fudging the numbers instead. The dialysis treatments were based on the fudged numbers, resulting in the patient literately having the life sucked out of him. At best, Dr. Barager failed to properly oversee the treatment even after I repeatedly reported that there was a problem. If he would have taken one second to review the medical records he would have seen that the numbers they put in the charts did not make any sense at all. I believe that the reality was actually quite worse. The hospital CEO at the time was quoted in the press stating that six sick patients whose care was not paid for by insurance cost the hospital a lot of money and cut into their profits (defending his raise and bonus that was based on the bottom line) and in a trade magazine stating that the dialysis patients were the most costly. He does not note that insurance companies will not reimburse when the reason that the patient needs care is due to the hospital and/​or doctors fault. My husband was left to sit in his waste until he developed bedsores — which are not covered by insurance. My husband developed MRSA in his mouth and they did not tell me or any of his visitors of this. The California Department of Public Health found and substantiated the improper dialysis treatments, and Barager’s failure to report the MRSA to me. We went to court and although the judge declared it indeed was a situation that rose to the punitive level, the settlement left Barager unscathed, where in my mind he should have lost his license. The hospital itself stepped up and took the blame. Ask around, Dr. Barager’s patients will tell you that he never listens to them, and he is dismissive when people express concerns. There was a point that he was the only game in town as far as dialysis goes, and we were falsely led to believe that he was the only one that took our insurance, but that was not true at all. Please look around and find a doctor who cares and is smart enough to give patients the care that they need and deserve. I am convinced Dr. Barager was engaged in a plan to kill expensive patients off in the name of profit. Think that this assertion is a bit extreme? I even questioned my own assertions at first but then I found our that the (now fired) CEO has a history of being engaged in threatening and intimidating doctors.
Dr. Fitzgibbons has a story to tell:
Cost of ESR patients:
Barager and his former partner were already on the bad side of the hospital after hospital equipment issue:
Blaming six sick patients:
I do not know how many of those other sick patients were killed off. I am convinced that my husband was killed off in the name of profit, and Dr. Barager was part of the process. At best he was completely negligent and failed to oversee the dialysis process. I personally believe that he was actively engaged in putting profit above patient care, ethical behavior, and the law.
If all that is not enough, I found this on my voicemail, but not until after my husband died. They gave him to much insulin and he was in an insulin reaction. Listen all the way to the end and turn it up. The nurse calling for Dr. Barager decided that she is not going to treat my husband and instead tells him to hurry up and die. There were many people in the room and nobody reported it.