Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board:

In our effort to assist the Board and the hospital we have a number of suggestions and observations. We hope that you will accept these in the spirit of working together for the good of our hospital and our community.

In our opinion, the most urgent task facing the Board is identifying and evaluating management company candidates. We would like to actively help with this task. We have developed many contacts in the last several months and are reaching out to them for suggestions and opinions on management firms. We believe our involvement could directly assist the search and qualifying efforts and also help to get the community at large to support this initiative of the Board.

To accomplish this, Mike, who is on the Planning Committee, is willing to further volunteer his time as a member of a Board appointed Ad Hoc Committee to evaluate management companies. Mike would then be the liaison between the Hospital Resource Council and the Ad Hoc committee.

The Board has created an opening with the public by its decision to change management. We believe this presents a real opportunity to involve the community and begin to build trust that their inputs and concerns are truly wanted by the Board. The issue of the moment is the choice of a management company. Welcoming public discussion in a circular forum that includes Board members and the public on equal terms could result in a lot of healing and attract support for the Board’s direction. Hopefully, you will be able to get someone from a management company to come and be present at the meeting.

Again it seems to us that the hiring of a management company makes the affiliation issue moot. We would very much like to know if the Board agrees with us on this and, if not, why not. In line with this, we feel work performed by the affiliation consultant should be immediately halted and no further phases be authorized. We believe it is imperative to conserve every possible dollar to be available for meeting future payrolls and vendor payments. Twenty-five thousand dollars represents 2.5% of the uncommitted amount in funded depreciation. In the hospital’s current financial situation, it just does not make sense to us to spend 2.5% of its last reserves on a low-priority item. It’s possible that halting the contract at this time could be used to emphasize the Board’s commitment to avoiding all unnecessary expenditures. This would send a powerful message to the employees, managers and suppliers that the Board has joined with them in the cost-saving effort, and will hopefully begin to raise morale.

Since every consultant with whom we have talked has said that getting Critical Access Hospital status is absolutely essential to turning the hospital around, we would very much like to know the Board’s current position on applying for this status. Sending in the papers now does not commit the hospital to CAH status, but it begins the clock on what may take a long time to complete. Every month of time gained could save the hospital $100,000. Sending in the CAH application can also be another signal to the community, the employees, and the staff that the Board is moving ahead quickly. We ask you to immediately send in the paperwork to apply for Critical Access Hospital status.

The employees of the hospital are on the front lines while all of the administrative work which affects their lives goes on around them. We also now know for certain, from Deb Hendricks and others, that there is fear amongst their ranks. We also know that a CEO is capable of hiding information from the Board concerning employee morale. An oversight committee is essential for providing the employees with a safe healthy working environment. We suggest a Board appointed committee designated as the Human Resources Committee which will provide human resource information to the Board in the same way the Finance Committee provides financial information and the Planning Committee provides planning information. We suggest appointing Dr. Richard Miller to this committee. Again, we express our gratitude for taking action on Thursday. By doing so you have created the opportunity to dramatically change the prospects for saving our hospital and enhancing the healthcare of our community.

Sincerely,

The Hospital Resource Council

Tom Birdsell
Mike Dell’Ara
Dr. Richard Miller, M.A., Ph.D.
Vince Taylor, Ph.D.