Tuberculosis is a serious infection, usually of the lungs, caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacterium spreads by breathing in the air exhaled by an infected person.
TB was once a widespread disease. It was virtually wiped out with the help of antibiotics developed in the 1950s, but the disease has resurfaced in potent new forms — multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB. Today, these new and dangerous forms of the disease — resistant to some of the commonly used drug treatments — have created a public health crisis in many communities.
By Florida law when a Firefighter has a yearly physical they are given a TB test and are required follow protocol to have the test read within 48 hours.
Requested and anonymous verifiable documents show the following has happen at the Lehigh Acres Fire and Recuse District.
1) Not all Lehigh Acres Firefighters received a TB test during their physicals.
2) Not all Lehigh Acres Firefighters had their TB test read or the test was read after test window was closed.
3) Documents received by the district show that some tests have falsified signatures on who actually read the tests.
Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that TB is second only to HIV and AIDS as the greatest global killer.
Asking of Fire Chief John Wayne if he know about these issues, he said “YES”, and according to him they have addressed the issues.
But Fire Department records show that NO Firefighter from the district to date has been retested for TB this year, and No investigation was ever initiated into the falsified signatures on the TB test forms.
During Sept 29, 2015 at Lehigh Acres Fire Commission meeting, Commissioner Cathy Kruse tried to bring up this issue the board for discussion and both Board Chairman Larry Becker and Board Attorney Richard Pringle refused to allow Kruse to even talk about the TB tests citing HIPPA rules.
The purpose of the HIPPA law is to improve portability of health insurance coverage, reduce healthcare fraud and abuse and to protect individual privacy of personal health records.
We did not believe Kruse would have purposely violated HIPPA, but would ask similar questions as the Lehigh Acres Gazette is in the article.
Could there be a health risk in this community and the fire department?
Is there fraudulent behavior going with the medical provider in Naples that does all these physical exams?
Isn’t Chief Wayne responsible for want happens at the Fire Department for the safety of his firefighters? What does the Fire Chief really know?