Friday, July 26, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Nine
Friday, July 26, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Nine
Senate panel begins
city youth home probe
Center 'staff' questionable
By JEFF DAY
special To The Daily
WASHINGTON - The federal
agency which is paying the.
medical costs for about two-
thirds of the patients at the
University Center is cutting off
all funding to the facility within
a month, it was announced yes-
terday.
The announcement came from
the director of the controversial
Ann Arbor facility, Dr. Arnold
Kambly during testimony before
a Senate subcommittee investi-
gating the Civilian Health Medi-
cal Programs of the Uniformed
Services (CHAMPUS).
CHAMPUS is a Department
of Defense program which pays
for the medical expenses of de-
pendants of military personnel
if they require treatment not
available at a local military
hospital. The center treats emo-
tionally disturbed adolescent
males.
The announcement came as
Senate investigators revealed
the results of their probe which
cited .the University Center for
deceptive billing techniques,
punitive treatment, and failure
to control illegal drug use among
patients.
Committee investigator David
Vienna charged that the Univer-
sity Center had billed patients:
-$87,000 in residential fees
for some 200 days during which,
the patients were not there;
-$21,000 for personal therapy
sessions for patients who were
not there when the treatment
was supposed to have occurred.
-$16,000 for treatment Kam-
bly was supposed to have per-
formed at the center on dates
when his records show he was
out of the state.
KAMBLY vigorously denied
the charges saying that fees
were' collected for patients' en-
tire stays at the center-whether
or not they were in attendence
the entire time. The patients he
said, were informed of this in
advance.
He also denied the discrep-
ancies in billings and said the
allegations were the result of a
bookkeeping system w h i c h
charged students on basis of
scheduled meetings. If the meet-
ing was missed, the student
was billed and the meeting was
re-scheduled.
Kambly denied he had charg-
ed patients for services per-
formed when he was out-of-
state, again citing his bookkeep-
ing system. He claimed that
during his travels he had flown
back once a week, to conduct
therapy sessions.
IN SWORN testimony before
the committee, Samuel Davis,
executive director of the Mich-
igan Association for Emotion-
ally Disturbed Children- charged
that the use of seculsion rooms
for patients at Kambly's institu-
tion was punitive.
"Especially punitive, harmful
and foolish is the use of seclu-
sion units," he said.
"On the day of our visit there
were four children in these
rooms. One boy was in his room
for three months. The notion of
putting a child away for a
couple of months seems to me
to be grossly improper."
KAMBLY claimed the criti-
cism of the program was due
to the misunderstanding of the
word "seclusion."
He indicated that since nurses
and visitors were allowed in the
rooms which he says are well-
furnished and carpeted. The
child is never really isolated,
Kambly said.
"We have found that the lim-
ited use of our seclusion unit
appears to be more humane and
effective as a treatment than
the heavy use of tranquilizers,
leatherarestraints, shock therapy
or other methods," he said.
Hut Kambly did not deny re-
ports by investigatorstthat there
was an 8' x 8' x 8' unfurnished
room in the facility's unventi-
lated basement which was al-
legedly used for punishment.
One patient was reportedly
locked in the room for 16 hours
and forced to urinate on the
floor because no one would let
him out to use the bathroom.
Kambly also denied charges
of rampant drug use saying:
"We feel drug abuse is a symp-
tom of some underlying path-
ology. If we were to discharge
every patient who became in-
volved in drug usage it would
be equivalent to discharging a
patient from a hospital because
he had a broken leg."
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(Continued fron Page 11
criteria for determining consult-
ing appointments, but added "I
would be shocked if a consul-
tant was not aware of that
status."
DR. FRANK Riter, who works
at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital,
saidthe has treated severaltof
the center's residents in the last
five years and that he was ask-
ed by letter to serve on a "con-
sulting basis" for the facility.
"I had forgotten all about
it," Ritter said. In retrospect,
that procedure seemed "very
peculiar," he added.
Two of the physicians who
Kambly claims are staff con-
sultants could not be located
because they apparently do not
practice medicine in the Wash-
tenaw County area.
Generally, the doctors were
very emphatic in denying any
sort of involvement with either
Kambly or the center. Several
of them claimed they did not
even know where the facility
is located.
ONE DOCTOR, who wished to
remain anonymous because he
did not- want his name in any
way mentioned in connection.
with the institution, claims he
has never seen Kambly on a
professional basis and that their
only contact has. been at a
"couple social gatherings."
"What's the University Cen-
ter? The center for the perform-
ing arts?" he replied when ask-
ed about his alleged connection
with the facility.
"'Oh, you mean the place
that's been in the newspapers,"
he said. "I've seen maybe one
or two of Kambly's patients in
my office during the last couple
years and they've never come
back for repeat visits."
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