Sloan does very important work. We want them to be our hero. We just want their moral compass to be calibrated correctly, their facilities (safety) anomalies to be held to a minimum, and addressed when appropriate.
The default mindset for places like Sloan when they seek to expand, or ask for something, ought to be to find out how much or what they want and then give them twice as much. Sadly, cancer is big business and the Translational (lab to clinic) facet results in places like Sloan acting like a Big Pharma or Biotech Company where one is apt to write penalties for transgressions off as a cost of doing business. As to the Facilities and Environmental Health and Safety issues, Sloan couldn't acknowledge problems as being systemic, as that would stand to impeach not only the credibility of reaction conditions of experiments, but stands to affect their IP intellectual property portfolio.
January 09, 2024, The Grift that Keeps on Giving! ... Cancer Care is Big Business ... Sloan received ~ 500 million cumulative pandemic relief and purchased ~ 500 million worth of high end NY real estate. weren't people prosecuted for buying real estate with covid relief monies? Sloan recently dispatched (laid off) ~ 300 employees. Weren't covid relief initiatives supposed to be used to retain employees?
A Chief Financial Officer [Gutnick, 2019 salary (available along with other MSKCC top earners on line at https://www.crainsnewyork.com/html-page/767716 ], 1.5 million] of MSKCC has stated (paraphrased): Sloan is … pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues. … this effort involves … policy decisions that seek to strike a … balance between providing service and squandering resources. One example of this is discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second opinions from the cancer center … the admission of such patients is counterproductive for a facility like Sloan-Kettering. https://onstealinghope.blogspot.com/
Sloan Kettering cancer patients sick over threat of losing medical coverage under insurer Cigna: 'My heart just stopped' ... https://nypost.com/2024/01/07/metro/sloan-kettering-cancer-patients-sick-over-threat-of-losing-medical-coverage-under-insurer-cigna/
Sloan does very important work. We want them to be our hero. We just want their moral compass to be calibrated correctly and their facilities (safety) anomalies to be held to a minimum
The default mindset for places like Sloan when they seek to expand, or ask for something, ought to be to find out how much or what they want and then give them twice as much. Sadly, cancer is big business and the Translational (lab to clinic) facet results in places like Sloan acting like a Big Pharma or Biotech Company where one is apt to write penalties for transgressions off as a cost of doing business. As to the Facilities and Environmental Health and Safety issues, Sloan couldn't acknowledge problems as being systemic, as that would stand to impeach not only the credibility of reaction conditions of experiments, but stands to affect their IP intellectual property portfolio.
We feel that with the new leadership (Professor Vickers) Sloan should be granted a fresh start and wish them well with their building initiative. the caveat is that Sloan has not been an honest player relative to environmental health and safety and bioethics / conflict of interest issues. when concerns are rightfully brought forth Sloan has a history of merely conjuring and synchronizing their cover stories. note that Sloan received almost $500 million in covid relief funds (cumulative 2020, 2021, 2022) and spent almost $500 million on prime NYC real estate purchases in 2022. They dispatched ~ 300 employees recently. Covid aid was supposed to allow organizations to avoid layoffs. Weren't people prosecuted for using Covid aid to purchase real estate? It is hoped that with Sloan's expansions that members of demographics who previously would only difficultly access high tiered cancer care might be able to do so more easily, and that Sloan's moral compass be calibrated correctly. Everyone wants Sloan to be our hero. We just don't want Sloan to cheat
cb8m.org
MSK Pavilion Task Force
Chairs, MSK Task Force
Anthony Cohn (Voting Reform Task
Force Co-Chair, Zoning and Development Committee Co-Chair)
and Felice Farber (Budget Committee
Co-Chair, Parks and Waterfront Committee Co-Chair), Co-Chairs
Marco Tamayo (Vendor Committee
Co-Chair) [Tamayo Architects, P.C.]
Adam Wald, [MAI Member’s Executive Vice President at Appraisers and Planners, Inc.]
Sarah Chu – (Social Justice
Committee Co-Chair)
Thursday, May 4th - Zoning and
Pavilion Architectural and Programmatic Needs
Thursday, May
18th – Environmental Impacts, City Environmental Quality Review Act (CEQR), and
all transportation-related issues; Thursday, June 15th – Construction plans and
schedule (cancelled, deferred to 06/29); Thursday, June 29th – Final
Discussions
info@cb8m.com; (212) 758-4340
Re: MSK Pavilion
Dear MSK Pavilion Task Force, c/o
Chairs Anthony Cohn and Felice Farber, Task Force Members Marco Tamayo, Adam
Wald, cb8M member Sarah Chu,
The author of this note worked at Sloan
Kettering for ~ 13 years firstly as a contingent (temporary) employee, and then
as an Editorial and Graphics Specialist.
He was also a C-14 Chemistry Laboratory Certificate of Fitness
Holder. He never missed a day of work
and acquitted himself with distinction. His
position as an Editorial and Graphics Specialist working with a high-profile
researcher, and certification as a C-14 Chemistry Laboratory Certificate of
Fitness holder afforded him knowledge of the machinations of the research
institute and its infrastructure. As the
proposed MSK Pavilion is adjacent to the RRL where he worked, and the initiative
is resurrected from the timeframe that he was affiliated with Sloan, he feels
comfortable commenting relative to the MSK Pavilion initiative, and feels that
it is appropriate to do so.
The author of this note first wrote
to cb8m relative to a Sloan expansion initiative in the early y2K_naughts at
the request of the then incumbent President (Varmus) who reached out to MSK
staff, attempting to rally support for a lab building initiative, given that
there was much known opposition to MSK’s endeavor. At the time he gave his candid assessment of
Sloan’s disingenuousness, and dishonesty, relative to Environmental Health and
Safety (EHS) concerns that he viewed first hand and that were reported to him by
colleagues who he trusted. At the time
he had requested that his comments be held in confidence, yet he was apprised by
a cb8m member via a phone call to his office at Sloan (who thanked him for his
candor) that his comments were seen by others.
Sloan does very
important work. The author of this note's parents' first child succumbed to complications from childhood leukemia following
treatment at Sloan, a disease that is often moderated (and survived) due to
research and treatment at places such as Sloan and other likeminded
institutions.
Given Sloan's nonpareil raison d'etre, the author
of this note would not object to the expansion of Sloan. The caveat is sadly
that Sloan has not been an
honest player relative to addressment of Environmental Health and Safety and Conflict
of Interest (COI) / Bioethics issues, and that the amount of "care"
(both figuratively and literally) Sloan provides is correlated with incumbent
and potential revenue streams. When bioethics / COI and EHS issues are
rightfully brought forth, Sloan has a history of merely conjuring and
synchronizing its thinly veiled cover stories, conducting its own
investigation(s) and dismissing legitimate concerns as being venial. Be w(e)ary and proceed carefully.
Sloan’s recently re-kindled MSK Pavilion
Initiative seeks to repurpose a space currently used for faculty housing as
operating room space.
That building is adjacent to the Rockefeller
Research Laboratories (RRL)
Is Turner, who presented at the
06/29 meeting, and who will lead the MSK Pavilion demolition and construction
project the same organization that built the flawed RRL? Will vibration sensitive NMRs in RRL be
secured appropriately to stave off quenching? Quenching
NMRs, Accidentally and On Purpose | Science | AAAS,
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/quenching-nmrs-accidentally-and-purpose
At RRL one lab was situated above an animal facility. MSKCC Facilities Management knowingly did not install ductwork controls in the building and there were chronic safety lapses relative to a cross contamination situation (including, but not limited to putrid smells that were not local to the floor, and circumspect, high caliber researchers complaining of odors in fume hoods of chemicals not being experimented with). Employees were chronically exposed to airborne exudates from the animal facility in addition to the putrid odors emanating from the floor below. When complaints were lodged, Facilities would send an engineer who would smirk at complainants while fidgeting with controls. Subsequently, it was learned (from an outside contractor) that ductwork controls were knowingly never installed properly in RRL and after that revelation (and querying MSK Safety relative to it) the smirks from Facilities employees segued to sneers when safety concerns were lodged, while evaluations of those who rightfully reported EHS issues segued from being a “very capable employee” to “not being a team player” or worse. The then incumbent head of MSK Facilities “retired” soon after MSK Safety was asked to check the efficacy of ductwork controls in RRL by C-14 Chemistry Laboratory Certificiate of Fitness Holder(s) and reported to Safety that an outside contractor had told us that the ductwork controls were never installed properly. Multiple people on the floor experienced chronic breathing problems. There was a known cross-contamination phenomena minimally via fume hoods where researchers would smell chemicals that were not being worked on locally (possibly due to recirculation of previously expunged gases), on the floor, or in the lab. During a chemical spill and gas permeation event caused by MSK Facilities that warranted a building evacuation and FDNY response, MSK Safety accusingly stated “you didn’t call the fire department, did you”? [the FDNY response was due to an automatically triggered alarm] (they were more concerned with non addressment, than employee and community safety). An inaccurate assuagement statement understating the severity of the incident, signed by the head of Safety, but possibly ghost written by others was issued after the event. When the veracity of the inaccurate statement was rightfully challenged, a senior manager from MSKCC Facilities, warned that first hand witnesses to the event “upset a lot of people” when mentioning that OSHA would be contacted, and after continued leverage by MSK Facilities to not address safety concerns in RRL, safety concerns were eventually reported to and substantiated by OSHA … https://www.osha.gov/ords/i.... Between the first and second visits by OSHA, OSHA was notified specifically where our concerns were, but we were told OSHA had to check randomly upon its follow up visit. Curiously one of the labs where the cross contamination event occurred was inaccessible when OSHA returned. If not for the above the citations would have been more severe than they were. Researchers (e.g. postdoctorals) reported to the C-14 Laboratory Certificate of Fitness Holder many concerns, but could (and would) not make on the record complaints themselves because that might call into question the efficacy of their research results (the efficacy of the reaction conditions) and also jeopardize a hoped for otherwise earned mentor’s reference letter so that they may move on to the next stage in their career be it big pharma, academia, etc. There were intermittent, yet chronic water leaks through live electrical light fixtures [apparently through live fluorescent light ballasts] in drop ceilings. C-14 Chemistry laboratory Certificate of Fitness holder(s) were concerned about a spark, fire, or explosion hazard, yet when apprised by other researchers that this leak phenomena also occurred on other floors, given that, based on experience we could not trust the MSK Facilities team, it was realized that the leaks may have been coming from conduits that dispersed filtered water used somewhat ubiquitously for aqueous experiments. If that was true the credibility of filtered / purified water/aqueous reaction conditions, notwithstanding Bernoulli’s principle, would be compromised and possibly impeached, standing to affect Sloan’s Intellectual Property portfolio.
When intrepid cancer patients or their proxies
contacted the lab following the publication in the lay press (the WSJ or similar) information
relative to research conducted at Sloan on a then promising new drug
possibility, the author of this note (a junior but not direct report) was
instructed by a non-clinician Administrative Manager (AM) to withhold/embargo
known information relative to the availability of a clinical trial candidate
created by a (Big Pharma) competitor and being tested at Sloan. The clinical
trial on the in-house candidate had at that point not yet started at Sloan.
When the non-clinician was asked to clarify her bioethically challenged tack,
the non-clinician stated “ours are better than theirs”, a decision that was not
hers to make. When this was reported to a research colleague, the author of
this note was told that although the tack was morally wrong [reprehensible] it
was technically not illegal. However, because Sloan could lose its license to
conduct clinical trials the event would be swept under the rug (and that is what
Sloan did). Subsequently, the author of this note was told by another research
colleague that the PI (Principal Investigator, a non-clinician) attempted to
leverage a clinician overseeing the clinical trial for the by then commenced
in-house drug candidate clinical trial to continue enrolling patients, in
variance with the clinician’s intuition relative to drug candidate efficacy.
Large milestone dependent (upon completion vs cessation of a clinical trial
phase) royalty payments were in play at the time. The clinical trial overseeing
physician has since moved to another position, in another city. https://www.massgeneral.org....
The lab [whose non clinician AM attempted to
instruct a junior but not direct report coworker to embargo information of an
external competitor’s clinical trial conducted at Sloan] applied for and
received a special translational grant to help facilitate bringing the in-house
candidate forward to the level of palatability of a biotech or big pharma
partner. The NIH conduit for that grant was subsequently rewarded with Scientific
Advisory Board (SAB) status [a position, that may have been compensated
financially] with the biotech that picked up the in-house candidate. https://dtp.cancer.gov/time...
We are not stating and have not stated that there
is or has been a systemic initiative at Sloan to enroll patients in clinical
trials of compounds whose efficacy is known to be suspect. We are and have
stated that there have been piecemeal instances where people who clearly know
better drop their guard and act in a cravenly self-serving manner.
Pat Skarulis and Ed Mahoney were involved in the
non addressment of appropriately reported bioethics and environmental health
and safety concerns at Sloan.
Claus Jensen [2019
salary 552,000], chief digital officer and head of technology, had a curiously
short tenure at Sloan before absconding. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/memorial-sloan-kettering-s-claus-jensen-moves-over-to-teladoc-to-lead-innovation-strategy Atti Razi, also had a curiously short tenure as CIO at Sloan https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/memorial-sloan-kettering-cio-leaves-for-hearst.html
It is noted that Jensen and Razi had curiously
short tenures as ctos (or whatever appellation the position was granted) post
Skarulis. Any attempts to expunge
forensically available incriminating digital evidence of EHS, or COI/Bioethics
anomalies and/or infractions would likely have been accomplished with the
knowledge of the cto.
Members of Sloan’s leadership have continued to
exhibit poor judgment relative to conflict of interest / bioethics issues (e.g.
Baselga, 2018 conflict of interest expose).
Memorial Sloan Kettering
Gave Top Doctor $1.5 Million After He Was Forced to Resign Over Conflicts of
Interest — ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/memorial-sloan-kettering-jose-baselga-severance-package
The Pathology chief … https://www.mskcc.org/cance... ... seemingly
attempted to leverage the entire cumulative pathology intellectual property of
Sloan in an ai company without input relative to sharing the earning potential
with incumbent or past Member (the institute’s equivalent of tenured faculty) pathologists. https://www.nytimes.com/201...
In fy 2021 MSKCC received ~ 235 million in covid relief from
the US govt [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding] (169,246,000
in fy 2020 and 74.3 million in fy 2022). ... https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/fitch-affirms-memorial-sloan-kettering-cancer-center-ny-revenue-bonds-at-aa-outlook-stable-15-04-2022 https://us-east-1.storage.lumen.com/dac-prod-bucket-dacbond-dynamic/0000bbc7/80/23/96/eb.pdf P21693620-P21303232-.pdf
(msrb.org) https://emma.msrb.org/P21693620-P21303232-.pdf
[~ 478 million total in
Covid relief] in
fy2022 MSKCC purchased ~ $500 million in NYC prime real estate, including in a building that formerly housed Madoff’s
iniquities. https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/memorial-sloan-kettering-drops-nearly-500m-office-acquisitions https://nypost.com/2022/09/06/memorial-sloan-kettering-scoops-up-piece-of-lipstick-building/ https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/09/13/sloan-kettering-pays-185m-for-ues-medical-center/ https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/09/06/memorial-sloan-kettering-leases-430k-sf-at-lipstick-building/
New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
saw a swing from a $235.1 million operating gain in 2021 [Sloan received ~ 235 million in covid aid in 2021]
to a 2022 operating loss
of $248.1 million [Sloan purchased $500 million in prime NYC real estate in
2022].
Memorial Sloan Kettering reports $483M slide in
operating income (beckershospitalreview.com)
https://emma.msrb.org/P21693620-P21303232-.pdf
Sloan
recently laid off ~ 300 employees. Wasn’t
Covid relief meant to bolster organizations so they could retain employees?
Memorial
Sloan Kettering lays off 337 employees (beckershospitalreview.com)
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/memorial-sloan-kettering-lays-off-337-employees.html
Was the
Covid relief a grant or loan? If a loan was it forgiven? Did the US gov’t and
our taxes help pay for Sloan’s NYC prime real estate purchases? Weren't Covid
aid abusers prosecuted for using Covid relief for luxury (and real estate)
purchases? https://www.justice.gov/opa... https://www.justice.gov/opa...
Sloan affiliates
have been privileged biotech / pharma insiders: https://ariadwindfall.blogspot.com
Ed Mahoney [2019
salary greater than 1 million] is the Senior VP, Facilities Management. It is
members of the Facilities Team that had attempted to leverage (threaten)
employees who rightfully bring forth Facilities and EHS shortcomings that stand
to effect and are likely effecting employee and community safety, and stand to
impeach the credibility of reaction conditions of experiments conducted at
Sloan.
A Chief Financial
Officer [Gutnick, 2019 salary (available along with other MSKCC top earners on
line at https://www.crainsnewyork.com/html-page/767716 ], 1.5 million] of MSKCC has stated (paraphrased): Sloan is …
pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues. …
this effort involves … policy decisions that seek to strike a … balance between
providing service and squandering resources. One example of this is
discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second
opinions from the cancer center … the admission of such patients is
counterproductive for a facility like Sloan-Kettering. https://onstealinghope.blogspot.com/
Memorial Sloan
Kettering paid $1.4 million in severance to three former execs in 2020. The
largest payment went to Patricia Skarulis [2019 salary, greater than 1
million], MSK's longtime chief information officer, who the tax form says left
in 2019. Avice Meehan [2019 salary 595,000], the system's former chief
communication officer, also got a payout. https://www.modernhealthcare.com/finance/memorial-sloan-kettering-paid-14-million-severance-three-former-execs-2020
One supervisor at Sloan stole over one million
dollars via a toner cartridge purchase scheme.
That person’s post prison job field is listed as being relative to fire
safety. Worker Admits To Stealing
Millions From Cancer Hospital - Gothamist … https://gothamist.com/news/worker-admits-to-stealing-millions-from-cancer-hospital ; Toner Thief Got $1.5M in
Potato Chip Bags - ABC News ; https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/05/toner-thief-got-1-5m-in-potato-chip-bags
Employees have been caught dealing pain medication “in the
basement” of Sloan. MSKCC’s General Stores
where many hospital supplies including medicines are stored are “in the
basement”. Were the “General Stores” or patient
safety compromised? Hospital insiders said custodial staff and security guards who work in the basement
ran the scheme. Sloan-Kettering says it did an internal investigation. A
spokeswoman acknowledged that the hospital did not contact the NYPD.
STATE PROBES HOSP
‘DRUG-DEALING’ RING (nypost.com) … https://nypost.com/2006/02/26/state-probes-hosp-drug-dealing-ring/
Sloan recently announced … https://www.mskcc.org/profi... ... that Anaeze
Offodile II, MD, MPH, would assume the position of new Chief Strategy Officer
(Effective 5/1/2023)
We welcome Dr. Offodile and wish him well. We
trust Dr. Vickers to lead from the front, and wish him well. It is hoped that
with Sloan's expansions that members of demographics who previously would only
difficultly access high tiered cancer care might be able to do so more easily,
and that Sloan's moral compass is calibrated correctly.
Sloan’s slogan has been: MSKCC, The Best Cancer Care Anywhere … apparently, as long as it’s consistent with Sloan’s revenue stream and/or the potential stock portfolio of powerful employees.
With this note, the author of this note apprises Cb8 and the MSK Pavilion committee chairs of these concerns, which are also noted here ... https://onstealinghope.blog.... We are not suggesting that the MSK Pavilion not move forward, in fact we feel the new leadership [parsing the don't hold a child accountable for a father's sins/the apple doesn't fall far from the tree conundrum in favor of the former] ought to be granted a fresh start and best wishes. We are stating that you should proceed with caution, and finish by quoting a salient NYT reader comment following the 2018 MSK conflict of interest expose:
Sloan Kettering has
non-profit tax status, but it’s not like Bellevue. It gets to pick its patients based on their
ability to pay. The research Sloan
Kettering does is heavily funded by the drug industry and creates all kind of
ethical conflicts. Do some patients
really benefit from the clinical trials their doctors convinced them to join?
We should call out places like Sloan Kettering when they primarily exist to
line the pockets of senior doctors and administrators. Yes, some of its doctors are experts who
provide excellent care. But most New
Yorkers would view the overall Institution as a phony charity with a big PR
machine.
Sincerely,
Former
Editorial and
Graphics Specialist,
Sloan-Kettering
Institute
Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
C-14 Chemistry
Laboratory Certificate of Fitness Holder
Institutions with likeminded
missions to Sloan will gladly accept donations
Donate to Dana-Farber and help fight cancer |
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (jimmyfund.org)
Donate MD Anderson Cancer Center
https://www.stjude.org/promotion/impact-giving-pm.html
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