Reason Number ONE – Heart care
There is no physician who would have cardiac catherization for himself or his/her family in a cath lab where there is no possibility to treat as well to diagnose. In other words, if you have coronary artery disease, there is no point in having diagnostic cardiac catheterization in a center not approved for angioplasty and stenting, because the procedure has to be repeated in a center where you can be treated. You will have twice the probability to develop complications, you will pay twice as much, and finally you will delay your needed treatment. And if you do not have coronary disease, why should you have the catheterization in the first place?
None the less, SOMC ads want you to believe that you need to have a cardiac cath done at SOMC, where they cannot do angioplasty and stenting, where they cannot treat coronary artery disease. They do not tell you that, if coronary artery disease is found, you need to have the same procedure repeated again at Grant’s in Columbus or in King’s Daughters in Kentucky or in similar centers where they have the option to treat you. SOMC ads do not tell you that performing twice the same procedure will double your complication risk and will double your cost. In other word, they do not tell you that stopping at SOMC to have cardiac catheterization is superfluous, expensive, and possibly dangerous.
If you go on the SOMC site [www.somc.org], you notice that there are cardiologists who have an office address at SOMC Campus. These are the cardiologists who actually work at SOMC, where they do NOT perform angioplasty or stenting or other advanced coronary treatment. Essentially, these are the cardiologists who perform catheterization at SOMC, but they cannot treat you if they found a narrowing in your coronary arteries.
You can also notice that some cardiologists are generically located at:
“SOMC Cardiac Cath Lab, 1805 27th Street, Portsmouth, Ohio 45662”
These are cardiologists based in major hospitals of Columbus. They rarely come to Portsmouth, eventually just for office consultations. They are essentially “names”. They are the ones to which SOMC refers outside SOMC, for the actual treatment of coronary disease. They are the second stage of the medical extortion that starts at SOMC. First, you pay for something superfluous at SOMC, and then you have to pay again SOMC outside associates, if you want something done.

Reason Number TWO – Vascular Care
There is no surgeon which is board certified in vascular surgery practicing at SOMC. You have to request a straight answer when you ask: “Do you have a surgeon certified by the American Board of Vascular Surgery at SOMC?” They will try to reply stating that they have surgeons specializing in vascular surgery, surgeons practicing advanced vascular surgery, physicians experts in endovascular techniques... but do they have a surgeon certified by the ABVS? Please, call the SOMC Heart and Vascular Center and ask just this question.
Would you trust a vascular center, which claims “excellence”, but tries to hide that they do not have a board certified specialist?

Reason Number Three – Gossips
Go to your primary care physician, if you trust him/her. He/She cannot deny that truth and rational support what I have said above. Now allow me some comments derived from my past experience at SOMC.
Dr.Richard Rooney... when I came to Portsmouth, Dr.K.Stewart told me that I was soon to be the only thoracic surgeon, because Rooney was psychotic and he should have been removed from SOMC staff. Dr.Khoury –previous partner of Dr.Rooney- told me that Dr.Rooney was stealing from him and from the practice. In the archives of Scioto Court you can still find several trials ‘Khoury vs Rooney’. You can also find many malpractice cases against Dr.Rooney. You can find Dr.Rooney in the Supreme Court of Ohio, for refusing to see a patient in the ER while he was on call, because the patient was HIV positive. Dr.Khoury reported that Dr.Rooney once threatened him at gunpoint.
Dr.Rooney finally left Portsmouth and went to practice in Waverly. But recently, after the “stage” in Waverly, Dr.Rooney is recycled at SOMC main campus as OUCOM professor, and as co-surgeon of the Heart and Vascular center, side by side with his ex-partner Dr.Khoury.
What is wrong with this picture?

Reason Number Fourth – Chronic liars
The Dever’s, a family of attorneys who has built power and wealth on mendacities, tightly controls SOMC.

Conclusion
If this is the truth about one of SOMC centers of excellence, what to say about the others? Would you rely on the SOMC Cancer Center? Or is it another questionable institution mystified behind brainwashing advertisement? In the past I presented evidence about poor care in the Emergency Department. And the rest?