Tag Archives: doctor

U.S. Navy: Sick Call without going to Sick Call?

14FEB2018 (01:29 UTC-07 Tango 06)  25 Bahman 1396/28 Jumada l-Ula 1439/29 Ren-Yin 4715

“The Navy Care app was so easy to use. It saved me two hours in travel time for a follow-up visit with my doctor at Naval Hospital Jacksonville.”-Lieutenant Kurt Bogart

The U.S. navy is experimenting with a new way to go to Sick Call, without actually going to Sick Call.

It’s a computer application (App) called Navy Care.  It’s claimed to be secure and allows for real time doctor-patient communication.  Currently it’s being tested for follow-up visits, so initial Sick Call visits will still have to be done in person.

Department of Navy personnel can check out the program at https://navy.care.  Also check out www.med.navy.mil/sites/navalhospitaljax.

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Government Incompetence: Pocatello, Idaho, doctor & ISU faculty member failed at autopsies

The Idaho Board of Medicine is investigating complaints that Steve M. Skoumal screwed up at least ten autopsies. It was brought to the attention of the Board mainly because the local  police questioned the results.

In one case Skoumal, a faculty member at Idaho State University in Pocatello (in Bannock County), ruled three deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.  But, local Rexburg police (in Madison County) said that didn’t match with x-rays, or the fact a recently fired gun was found at the scene, or the fact that there were bullet holes in the victims.

Supporters of Skoumal say the police are just upset because he didn’t give them the answer they wanted to hear.

But this case brings up a good point; Idaho does not have standardized, dedicated, official local government coroner services.  In many cases families of the deceased have to pay for a pathologist to conduct an autopsy, as one Pocatello doctor/lawyer said: “…people who brought the bodies have to pay for the doctor to do more autopsy or less autopsy.”-Richard Hearns

There is a state code concerning coroners, but in some Idaho counties coroners are elected.  In other counties they are hired from local doctors.  Officials say the tax revenues are not enough to support a dedicated 24/7 coroner (although taxes are pretty high here).

Skoumal is connected to three high profile cases in eastern and southeastern Idaho: Unsolved Madison County deaths, the death of a Bingham County woman whose granddaughter was prosecuted for homicide, and the 2006 murder of Pocatello High School student Cassie Jo Stoddart (fortunate the murderers incriminated themselves with their own video).

Skoumal is accused of misreading toxicology reports, being unable to determine knife wounds and bullet wounds.  One of the complaints filed with the Board of Medicine accused him of not being a pathologist, he admitted he was not a certified pathologist.

It could be another year before the Idaho Board of Medicine holds an Administrative Hearing regarding the complaints.