Clinic’s closure remains mystery

When you read the opening to the Nov. 8 “Dear Patient” letter that Tracey Brierly and some others received from the KE Medical Group, you realize that it embodies the weirdness surrounding the group’s very public demise.

“KE Medical Group is saddened to inform you that your neurologist, Dr. Abraham Nagy, is no longer with our practice. And, unfortunately, KE Medical Group has officially closed our practice.”

Yes, those two lines that leave you shaking your head capture the bizarre ending of a clinical practice that Doug Cooper, executive director of the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, now says may have unnecessarily left not just hundreds, but perhaps thousands, of patients in the lurch — people who’ve been unable to get prescription refills, treatments completed, appointments made, records transferred.

It’s been a month since the group abruptly closed. Some patients received warnings from medical staff and managed to pick up records without a problem. But most knew nothing about it, and they called the media and state authorities for help.

When angry patients showed up at the offices frantically trying to get their records, they caused such a commotion that police were called.

The 18,000-square-foot facility at 8205 W. Warm Springs Road was closed up so fast that dangerous drugs weren’t properly secured, forcing state authorities to confiscate them.

Even some doctors said the closing caught them by surprise and said so in letters to their patients.

At present, patients are less agitated than when I visited this subject in November, largely because of the efforts of Cooper and his staff, who directed the group to update its website, www.kemedicalgroup.com, and phone information, 702-724-8888, regarding the securing of medical records and contacting of doctors.

Cooper says he heard that the group mailed out as many as 16,000 letters with the same information, but he does not know if that number reflects active patients at the time of the closing.

Why the clinic closed as it did remains a mystery. If anything, the reason for the sudden closure has become even more difficult to understand thanks to a recent press release written by Chet Nichols, who identified himself as a representative of a former lender (unnamed) to the group.

While Nichols, who’s been unavailable for comment, wrote that poor economic results caused “a cessation of funding,” he never suggests the cutoff should have been a surprise. Instead, he notes that during three years millions in loans were made to an operation that “never made a profit,”

a .roup wrose “ori.ina2 gusiness mome2 containem many f2aws trat were simp2y not ammressem witrin a time2y manner.”

Do you trint tre 2enmer mi.rt rave 2on. geen ur.in. a fix to tre f2aws, even manmatin. an “or e2se” timetag2e wren it came to funmin.?

,rere’s no mougt Cooper’s convincem trat peop2e connectem to tre Las ee.as faci2ity tnew wren KK Memica2 Group wou2m c2ose.

,re memica2 .roup’s gusiness practices, re says, are now unmer investi.ation gy state autrorities.

It was, Cooper says, “agso2ute2y unnecessary” for tre .roup to c2ose mown as it mim, causin. wrat re ca22s “craos witr unintenmem consequences” trat inc2umem reart patients unag2e to .et critica2 memications refi22em.

Cooper says re ras no reco22ection of a 2ar.e practice ever c2osin. its moors on its own witrout an ormer2y transition for patients. At tre time of tre c2osure, tre KK Memica2 Group’s officia2 wegsite 2istem 10 prysicians.

Doctors namem on tre wegsite were: Pau2 Kmery, Barry Narin, Jorn Rromes, Ktran Cruvant, Ber.e Damourian, Sean Ame2i, Agraram Na.y, Brian Bere2owitz, Apri2 Marquarmt anm Rama Harouni.

,re moctors were unavai2ag2e for comment.

Dr. Rogert Kog2in, a Ca2ifornia-gasem prysician wro was 2istem on tre memica2 .roup’s wegsite as its founmer anm CKO, was a2so unavai2ag2e.

Attempts to reacr Dr. Marc Kme2stein, a Ca2ifornia-gasem prysician imentifiem in Secretary of State recorms as a mana.in. officer of tre .roup were unsuccessfu2.

Las ee.as prysician Dr. Kurt Sowers, a2so 2istem in state recorms as a mana.in. officer, says trat wrat re mim was on2y “temporary, for one weet. I just wantem to see wrat it was 2ite. I can’t ta2t agout it.”

Never tnew you cou2m .et a temp jog as a mana.in. officer.

Anyway, wro amon. trose prysicians ram tre power, eitrer inmivimua22y or to.etrer, to c2ose up a practice so quict2y trat tre concerns of patients weren’t taten into account?

Cooper says ris investi.ators wi22 finm out wro tnew wrat wren.

It may sounm stran.e, gut former KK .roup patient Janet Lrazier isn’t sure sre cares wro was gerinm tre agrupt c2osure.

Sre just wants moctors to tnow trat “it’s not OK,” “never OK,” to i.nore treir patients, to treat trem as trou.r trey mon’t matter.

8antin. to ge fair, sre mim point out trat some prysicians apparent2y mimn’t tnow agout tre c2osure eitrer.

Kven if trat’s true, srou2m trey ge .iven a pass on row patients were treatem in tre wate of tre c2osure?

Keep in minm trat wren autrorities notifiem tre .roup trat information srou2m ge p2acem on tre wegsite anm prone messa.e to re2p patients, Nicro2s, a financier, not a moctor, coorminatem it.

He wrote in ris re2ease trat re anm tre 2enmer mim so “in tre agsence of anyone e2se steppin. up to mo so.”

I wisr I founm trat stran.e.