Woman accused of giving life support training without proper credentials
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EUGENE, Ore. - An Oregon hospital has to get more than two dozen employees re-trained in advanced cardiac life support after finding out the person who trained the employees lost her certification more than a year ago.
Harla Torres has been teaching American Heart Association life-saving classes even though she was told to stop.
Torres and her husband, Richard, run the All RescueOne CPR and First Aid Training Center in Eugene. Torres teaches doctors, nurses and paramedics to save people from heart attacks.
But the KATU On Your Side Investigators learned McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield says her training doesn't cut it. That’s because Torres is no longer endorsed by the American Heart Association.
McKenzie-Willamette now has to have 30 of their employees re-trained by an instructor certified by the American Heart Association.
“In summer of 2011, we learned that All RescueOne was operating without being aligned with an American Heart Association training center,” said Timothy Williams, the director of training center operations and quality for the American Heart Association.
Williams said the AHA sent Torres a certified cease-and-desist letter in June of last year. The letter ordered her to stop "teaching any and all American Heart Association-based courses.”
“She refused to sign for the letter,” Williams told KATU in an email. “We did not see any evidence that Harla Torres continued to teach American Heart Association-based courses through All RescueOne until just recently."
That evidence included Torres’ website, which still prominently advertised American Heart Association classes.
We recently went to All RescueOne to ask Torres why her website still featured the AHA endorsement.
‘No. It says 'not scheduling classes at this time,’” Torres said.
When asked if she thought it is misleading to have the American Heart Association classes on her website, she responded, “I was still American Heart Association certified, but I was not aligned with a training center.”
Torres is now teaching classes under another organization, called the American Safety and Health Institute (ASHI).
McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center as well as PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, both say they do not accept ASHI training for their employees.
When asked how many doctors, nurses or paramedics from hospitals across the state might need to be re-trained because she is not AHA certified, Torres said, "It's a very small percentage of my business."
Eugene Police Detective Steve Williams investigated the situation with All RescueOne. Williams said it is not a criminal case because advanced cardiac life support classes are not required by law.
Chuck Coleman, who is an American Heart Association certified instructor, said hospitals require the classes because lifesaving techniques change regularly.
“Standards – you have to have people always watching you,” said Coleman. “If you have people out there just doing things on their own, there's no credibility, accountability.”
“All RescueOne training has had no impact on patient care,” said Beth Kregenow, vice president of business development for McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. “We took prompt action to reschedule training to ensure our staff meets CPR certification requirements.”
In her own defense, Torres told KATU she's the victim of a smear campaign by other ACLS/CPR trainers who want to run her out of business because her classes are less expensive.
"It's a very lucrative business, very lucrative," she said.
Torres has now removed reference to American Heart Association classes from her website. She promises she will no longer teach classes under the American Heart Association name and said anyone who is unhappy with the training they received from All RescueOne can get a refund.
After KATU confronted Torres, she changed the name of her business to America's First Aid and CPR Center.
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It was repeatedly found that she did NOT teach classes to standards. She would do a 16 hour class in 4 hours; use outdated tests which had old standards; did not have the minimum equipment to practice with. For over 3 years, the AHA worked with her trying to remediate and change her teaching to meet standards. She did not - she issued fraudulent cards based on classes that were woefully inadequate and then blamed competition for her demise. She did it to herself - and unfortunately to patient safety and care.
 @maverick Thanks for sharing that information. I wonder why the KATU reporter didn't dig a little deeper on that score and report accordingly!
@BrowncoatWhit @maverick Because KATU is a sorry incompetant lot who can't write let alone, properly investigate their stories.
The question which I was left with was this:Â Why did this lady lose her AHA accreditation in the first place?
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My second question is: what (or who) in the blazes is this second organization she's now aligned with? And how do they compare to the American Heart Association in health care industry standards & practices? Are they a respected organization, or are they the equivilent of a crackjack box certification?
I was an Oregon Paramedic for 17 years. Part of renewing that certification every two years was providing proof that you held a curent cert in BLS, ACLS, PALS and ATLS. For doctors and nurses....that's an "uh oh" and it eventually gets fixed. For a Paramedic....it's their job. If your'e not certified, you don't work...period...end of story.Â
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Fortunately for us....our employer made sure our instructors were what they said they were....in other words...they checked references.....
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'nuff said
She meant well.
Why wouldn't the hospitals check to make sure they were using accredited trainers for their employees? I would think if the employers referred their employees to this training facility, they would have at least made sure it was properly licensed.
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But if the training she gave was accurate and up to date, why would you care about who she is aligned with? Aren't you supposed to be concerned that your employees got the correct information and know how to perform the needed procedures?
From my point of view, the salient question is: did she teach the procedures properly? If so, then I'm guessing that the KATU reporter has an ulterior motive, to confront and harass this woman. She was paid to teach a class - she taught a class. Her students were supposed to be learning advanced CPR - they learned advanced CPR. Sounds to me like a lot of fuss over whether she paid royalties to some umbrella organization - isn't the important thing, that the caregivers actually KNOW the procedures? Or is the actual care of patients assigned second place, behind "public appearance". And by the way, CPR is in the public domain - how can some organization send a "cease and desist" letter, telling someone they cannot teach CPR? In order to send a "cease and desist" demand, you first have to have the RIGHT to make such a demand. These national organizations often think they have exclusive rights to what actually belongs to the public.
 @Mick WagnerÂ
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I can show you from years of "seeing" it how to administer adrenaline to a patient. What I will show you is EXACTLY what needs to happen for it to be successful and to function just as it is supposed to.
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But I am nowhere near qualified to train anyone in that. My limit is basic CPR certified and I am not certified to teach anyone even that.
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Because "knowing" and "teaching" and have a certification are not all equivalent.
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Itâs the same as any education. You know basic math I assume, would you believe you could teach it? The substance of this is that people who teach don't just know, but know how to teach it. People who are certified to teach not only know how to teach, but have shown they know how to.
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Lawyers love people who know but are not certified. If something goes wrong, like Ralph said before, a lawyer will crucify the person performing the action without "proper" (trained and certified by someone trained in training and certified in that) training.  Now many âpeopleâ are protected by the âgood Samaritanâ laws. That means if you do what a reasonable person would do, you are OK. But people who claim certification have a significantly higher standard. They not only must prove what they did was reasonable, but the âstate of the artâ and then prove they could perform at such a level with⦠a certification.
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The cease and desist was the AMA telling her to stop saying she was AMA certified to train people as she no longer was according to them.
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This lady is an EMT basic. That is a BLS level. She is trying to teach ALS level classes. The classes she was teaching were ACLS and PALS. Both are required by MD's, RN's and RT's to work in a hospital setting and required by many paramedics.
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The issue here is that she was taking money from people and giving them a card but that card was not valid because she was not authorized, nor qualified, to teach the class. Rough estimates is that this lady cost other people and businesses about $75,000 to have to go back and get retrained and get a valid card.
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To her it's all about money and has nothing to do with teaching the classes.
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My question is why isn't this lady in jail? She took money under false pretenses knowing the card she was giving out was not valid.
 @RalphCramdenÂ
This on the surface looks like the potential to be a fraud case, but fraud is very hard to prove.
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The complainant (the people she defrauded), would have to prove that a reasonable person would assume she was certified and had permission to issue credentials under the accreditation she was assuming.
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There are three elements, was she indeed not accredited (as she claims she was at the time), and if she was not, was she aware of that fact? Finally if she was not accredited, and she was aware of it, did she make any attempts to demonstrate that to her client?
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I donât know the full evidence of this case, but cases like this were fraud is involved usually need a significant amount of evidence and need to be a large financial return to be worth the effort in perusing.
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That might be why she gets away with this.
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 @RepomanÂ
Police have declined to pursue it. Sad that she is going to get away with it.
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I have friends who got stung by her and they are considering legal action. I suggested small claims court where the costs would be small and more than likely they would win.
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They may never get a dime out of her but at least they would have a judgement.
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From what I understand state EMS is also investigating her.
Life training? Â Sounds like wisdom to me, didn't realize there was a degree attached to that, I guess my granddad was a college grad after all...
ASHI training is actually more comprehensive than AHA training. Maybe the hospital should change their standards to include ASHI, and then there's no problem.
 @TedomaticÂ
This may be true and hospitals can change over. The problem is called community standard of care.
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If one hospital decides to pick XYZ training for their staff then another hospital in the same area will have to pick that training to keep up with the local standards. If the second hospital doesn't keep up then they put themselves at risk for a lawsuit.
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I can see the attorney cross examining the administrator for the second hospital. "The other hospital in town has this training for all their staff but you don't. Would this training have saved Jane's life since this training teaches the staff to deal with these types of situations."
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The community standard of care may not be perfect but it does keep hospitals current and getting better through competition. If you look at small town hospitals they are far below the standards of big city hospitals. Many don't even require a certified emergency room doctor which is unheard of in a big city. The reason is that they are the are the only game in town and set the community standard which is mostly driven by funding.
 @RalphCramden  @Tedomatic Ralph-  I have read your posts for years.  I usually agree. I know you live in East County.  Wow, know I want to know what your background it.  I never saw this side of you before.  Impressive.
 @my2cents    @TedomaticÂ
I have been involved in all levels of emergency services for over 30 years but am retired.
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I study everything like law, psychology, economics, chemistry, physics, and many other things. Whatever interests me at the time I will study. Something I read could get me going and I will follow up on that till I am tired of it and move on to something else. I have a high IQ, or so the tell me, and can retain vast amounts of knowledge. I actually used to teach a class on how to use knowledge till I got bored with that.
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I also read all day long when I am not doing anything else. If I was running for public office and some reporter asked me what book was on my night stand I would tell the something like "Cisco manual for setting up a small business network" or something like that.
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Currently I am studying the affects of methylxanthine on the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase and why those having excessive parasympathetic stimulation have profound and prolonged bradycardias that is refractory to atropine. There may be a correlation to LQTS which may be related to the sudden death of kids playing sports and consuming large quantities of methylxanthine. It's just a hunch I have and want to pursue it.
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I am also studying the effects of ground cooling and how much heat can be absorbed by the ground before the ground starts to heat up and the effects of ground cooling are lost. To make this happen I am pumping 180ºF water into the ground through 1000 feet of pex at a depth of 6 feet to see if I can actually warm up the ground. The trench is 100 feet long and sand is buried around the pex to help with heat transfer. The water is heated by solar hot water panels and runs 8 hours per day. So far I have warmed up the ground 6ºF over a year and it appears to have stabilized and isn't getting any warmer.
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So that is my life. One big science project in search of truth and knowledge.
Sounds like someone didn't like this lady even though she is completely competent to teach the classes.. That side of the story could use a little investigating..
 @dougrpdxÂ
This really isn't about qualifications. It's about her teaching a class she was not authorized to teach and passing out cards that were not valid.
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It was all about $$$$$ for her.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to simply have the hospitals and clinics train their own people?
 @JamieÂ
Some hospitals do train their own people. Others hire it out. The cost is about the same per person.
 @Jamie The sad thing is there isn't enough money in it.  Most people have some life saving skills. To be updated on these skills would cost more money .
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