Complaint taken off of agenda
Officials: Doctor never was Hacienda employee
A complaint case against a doctor who worked at Hacienda HealthCare when an incapacitated patient there gave birth was removed from Monday’s Arizona Medical Board agenda.
Dr. Thanh Nguyen had been on the June 3 Arizona Medical Board agenda for a case, initiated by a complaint, that was set for dismissal.
Nguyen was named in a $45 million notice of claim against the state as the doctor who had cared for the 29-yearold patient for four months before she gave birth.
Board officials said they could not release any further details about the case or the complaint, nor could they release details about why the case was removed from the agenda.
Nguyen “no longer sees any patients at Hacienda and has not since January,” Hacienda officials said last month.
Nguyen was never a Hacienda employee, company officials said.
Doctor put patients ‘in danger,’ state says
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which is Arizona’s Medicaid program, in January suspended Nguyen’s provider agreement.
A Jan. 14 letter to Nguyen says the doctor “placed the health and welfare of AHCCCS members in danger.”
The letter, which also was sent to Hacienda HealthCare, says that AHCCCS determined “that the health or welfare of one or more AHCCCS members is endangered by leaving AHCCCS members in your care.”
A $45 million notice of claim against the state filed by the victim and her parents last month alleges Nguyen took over the role as primary care provider to the victim in September 2018 until she gave birth.
Nguyen ordered the patient’s feeding tube to be discontinued on Dec. 13, 2018, to promote weight loss, the claim says.
The patient, who is non-verbal and cannot walk on her own, gave birth to a boy on Dec. 29. A 911 call indicates staff did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth.
Hacienda staff first realized the victim was pregnant when a nurse went to change her and “saw a baby’s head in her briefs,” the claim says.
A subsequent physical exam indicated the victim had been repeatedly sexually assaulted, according to the claim.
Nathan Sutherland, 37, was later accused of the rape using DNA evidence. He was one of the patient’s caregivers and a former Hacienda HealthCare licensed practical nurse.
Sutherland pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault and vulnerable-adult abuse in February. He is being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $500,000 cash-only bail.
The patient who was raped is now 30. She was a longtime resident of Hacienda HealthCare’s 60-bed intermediate care facility for people with intellectual disabilities located at 1402 E. South Mountain Ave.
Hacienda HealthCare also operates a 74-bed skilled nursing facility on the same campus. Both facilities are still in operation.
Complaints against nurses dismissed
The Arizona State Board of Nursing on May 16 voted unanimously to dismiss complaints against former Hacienda HealthCare nurses Valerie Brehm, Kathryn Del Real and McKenzie Gillies.
Brehm was director of nursing, Del Real had been chief operating officer for clinical services, and Gillies was director of patient services.
The votes to dismiss the cases against the nurses were unanimous. Details about the board’s investigation is confidential, board officials said.
The three nurses left Hacienda HealthCare during a management exodus in March.
Terminations and resignations left state officials scrambling to ensure the health and safety of vulnerable patients.
Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law last month requiring intermediate-care facilities for people with intellectual disabilities in the state to be licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Those facilities had been exempt from state law since 1997.
The state granted Hacienda HealthCare’s intermediate-care facility its state license on April 26 after what officials said was a comprehensive survey.