One of the things that people have always done is to make agreements. A wise person once said "The root of all conflict can be traced to a broken agreement." Think about that in your own life. That is one of the reasons why lawyers were invented. Civilized people make contracts in many ways. Some contracts are written, some are implied, and some, perhaps most are spoken. When you tell your spouse "I'll be home at 8:00 honey..." in truth is a contract. Break it and conflict is most likely. I was contacted by STAFFCARE with a job offer to work for the United States Veteran's Administration hospital in Charleston South Carolina. STAFFCARE is a 'headhunter' organization specializing in placement of medical practitioners. I and my wife had filled a multi-paged application with STAFFCARE over 18 months before, via Jeff Jewell. The application provided them all the necessary facts to credential us as practitioners at that time. I initially hesitated to agree to take the job because we prefer to find placements where we can work together and the VA did not initially have two openings.
STAFFCARE's recruiter, Randy Richardson was anxious to fill his slot for his client (the VA) which is part of how he makes his living, and he promised to work overtime to find an opening for my wife too.
I agreed, and wrote an email to another employer declining their offer of a more lucrative offer employment to be with my wife.

I told Randy I accepted the job offer. The offer was understandably 'contingent on credentialing by the VA being acceptable' and a contract was made, in writing and by verbal agreement. The offer was 3 weeks before the starting date, and involved 'moving' though temporarily, to South Carolina for 4 months. Not an easy feat to accomplish in 3 weeks.

The timing was critical. The job offer was for work starting on November 1st. Applications and credential information for the VA was required, and I filled out the necessary web-based information. Licensing was not an issue, for even though the job was in the state of South Carolina, because it was a federal facility, the VA accepts any active state license, which I had with my Alaska license. Licensing is both expensive initially and to keep current, and I had licenses in 4 different states. Obtaining a state license is a complex, and necessarily thorough process, to protect the public.

To his credit, Randy came through with a second job at the same VA hospital for my wife, who was working in a far away at the time he made the offer, which was good news. Now I and my wife could work together in the same place. I arranged to save travel cost for STAFFCARE by having my wife's return trip paid directly to South Carolina instead of back to our home state.
We looked forward to spending a winter in the hospitality of the south, doing medicine for the VA. The government has had an upsurge in the need for Physician Assistants, due to the added stress on the VA system of thousands of seriously injured Iraq war veterans coming home. The need is real and continues to this day. Meanwhile, the ongoing needs of America's many other war veterans continues. This was a good placement and a chance to provide quality care to deserving clients.

Becca Andrus, another recruiter with STAFFCARE contacted me to ask details on my now 18 month old file regarding a long-settled malpractice case in Maine. In 1990 I had been named in a claim by a patient in a case the insurance company settled without allowing it to go to a trial. The insurance company did this because it was cheaper to settle, than defend, despite my innocence. He was also told that it would avoid negative publicity for the hospital where I worked E.R. The insurance company and the plaintiff's lawyer apparently decided that the application of a $60, 000 poultice to be spread amongst lawyers and plaintiff would salve the alleged pain and make the claim go away. After the three years I had spent in limbo, knowing I was innocent while this hung over my head like the sword of Damocles, it ended as quickly as it had started. I had no say in the matter, being represented by the insurance company of the hospital. It was over. Yet it did not go away, and must be declared on every application I will ever make for credentials. It is also included in the NPDB (National Practitioner Data Base) which is queried by medical privilege granting agencies, hospitals, licensing boards etc. I had included it on my STAFFCARE application 18 months before Nov. 1 2005.

Both My wife and I needed to take an 'ACLS' refresher course required by the VA. This course was available in Charleston, and I scheduled to take it for October 31st. $150 tuition each. He found an apartment within the agreed reimbursement range, paid a deposit, paid for a background security check, first and last month's rent, rented furniture, packed my pickup truck, the cat, computers and personal items and drove 1958 miles to Charleston. Nearly a week passed while STAFFCARE waffled on matters, eventually saying that if there had ever been a malpractice claim settled for more than $10, 000 that their malpractice coverage would not underwrite a policy. Despite having the information for a year and a half, it apparently had never been 'vetted' by STAFFCARE's credentialing personnel, or the original recruiter, Jeff Jewell who took the application. They clearly dropped the ball. They broke the agreement. There was no excuse for not letting I out of his contract but greed. The claim was for all named, and could not be apportioned.

I moved into the new apartment, scouted around to get his bearings in Charleston. Now apparently he did not have a job. STAFFCARE had broken an agreement, because the only provision had been upon satisfactory credentialing by the VA, which happened before the stated starting date of November 1, 2005.
I met my wife at the Charleston International Airport, and together we took the ACLS refresher course.
Both of us were on-site, ready to work on November 1, as agreed. (Remember the beginning of this narrative about contracts?) Now Randy Richardson told me, "no job sorry, " and my wife "would be starting Nov. 8" as well as the reimbursement for the housing would not start until Nov. 8.

Meanwhile, I had learned from the credentialing person at Charleston VA hospital that my credentials were completed and approved, and I only needed the malpractice coverage and he would be ready to start. I contacted Randy Richardson, and not only was Randy very upset, chastising me for contacting the 'client' directly, but denying me the right to work on my own, because of an "exclusivity" clause in the contract that did not allow working for a placement client for 2 years. I argued unsuccessfully that since STAFFCARE had broken its verbal contract job offer, and had not properly vetted my application, that essentially I had no contract. The STAFFCARE people however did not want to lose their commission for a placement, and had already secured the services of another Physician Assistant. Thus they confirmed the existence of a contract.
So to prevent me from working, they contacted the medical staff, and told them that they could not hire me, (which unfortunately is incorrect, the Federal Government is not bound by exclusivity clauses in employment contracts.) and I was told by the medical staff director, "sorry, you're not qualified." This is despite the fact that I had passed credentialing in the State of California, which included fingerprinting and a full field FBI background investigation, and that I had held 16 years of jobs at many respected medical institutions throughout the country.

Because of this, I had passed up a well paid placement in Alaska and had no work, We had incurred expenses that would not be reimbursed for housing, . I chose to stay with my wife in Charleston. I wrote, worked on the company web site, and found additional placements for the future. Attempts to obtain some remuneration from STAFFCARE were met with silence.
The only recourse is to publish the facts here, to recount the bad business practices of STAFFCARE encountered by me. These facts are documented thoroughly for any who dispute them.

I have a copy of a phonecall left on my answer machine, from Becca, congratulating me on having the placement also.