Ballard & the BobbleHeads
Circle the Wagons
by
Enrique Sanicky
Last Wednesday (January 26), a group of local concerned citizens presented
the results of an independent external audit of the hospital operations to
the Mendocino Coast District Hospital Board of Directors and CEO Bryan
Ballard. The community has been asking for such an audit for a year but the
Board and CEO have stonewalled, choosing to pay $25k for their own
self-audit which was completed a few weeks ago.
A group of four local professionals and concerned citizens funded the
audit out of their own pockets, probably in the five-figure range (based on
my estimate of the non-independent "Delta One" audit presented by
Ballard at a cost to our hospital of $25,000). These local citizens have
listened to the community and decided to hire professional consultants from
Rural Health Management in Nephi,
Utah -- an organization with
a world-wide reputation for excellence in the management of rural
healthcare -- to audit the hospital's management and finances.
CEO Ballard and the Board immediately went into public relations damage
control mode before the group of local concerned citizens had a
chance to present their recommendations. Ballard had whipped up a two-page
"rebuttal" to the audit report/presentation which he called a
"preliminary rebuttal," promising there would be more to come.
Ballard opened the meeting by giving an impromptu explanation, which was
not on the agenda, rambling on for at least 15 minutes
"rebutting" and attempting to discredit the recommendations of
the independent audit which no one had even seen yet. It's probably not a
Brown Act violation, but it is another Brown Bag Act. Already, Ballard's
smear campaign to discredit the independent audit has begun. It reminds me
of Washington DC.
Mr. Ballard is pretty arrogant. And his Board of Bobbleheads
just goes along with him -- just like last year. They have a "bunker
mentality," not an open mind in the bunch. They were totally on the
defensive, with zero creativity or new ideas. The attitude is to blame the
community for being smart enough not to pass Proposition R, the $99 per
parcel bond measure that didn't get close to the necessary two thirds vote
last year.
Local citizens continue to try to give input to management hoping for an
opportunity to be heard. But Ballard and his Board were all in
"rebuttal" mode.
After the presentation by the audit team one of Ballard's trustees (Jim
Hay) said he was very upset that the findings of the independent audit were
given to the community before the Board had seen them. It was then pointed
out that the chairperson of the board, Ms. Charlene McAllister, did
have the findings in her e-mail a week before the findings were
disseminated to the community. Hay was very upset and in strong words
requested that this presentation of the recommendations should not be given
to the community or media.
Note: The Fort
Bragg Advocate
reporter was present at her own personal little media desk provided for her
by the Board and CEO. Are they attempting to influence the way these
independent audit findings are reported, findings over which they have no
editing control? (Ballard and Co. had the luxury of "editing" the
previous $25k report.) Is this a violation of the Brown Act? Or
yet another brown bag job? Or is it just another attempt to
"censor" information that the community paid for and to which
they should have direct access?
Page 8 of the audit findings reports under "team observations"
of the financials of the hospital, "Unless those processes [the
hospital's financial accounting methods] support efforts to drill down
sufficiently to fully understand the anatomy of the outcome, the chances of
the loss repeating itself are greatly increased." I.e., unless they do
something different they'll continue to lose over a million dollars a year.
But taking this medical metaphor to its logical conclusion, maybe they
mean that the anatomy of the outcome is a prerequisite for the autopsy
of the outcome. We still do not know what kind of out-of-control beast
these hospital finances have become and the patient may die before anyone
knows what it is or how bad it is.
The community feels that the board and the "local press"
(i.e., the Advocate/Beacon) are all under novacaine, anesthesia, paralysis, or hypnotic
suggestion administered by Mr. Ballard who is responsible for the
hospital's losing millions of dollars in the years since he was hired at
his kingly salary.
From talking to the community, it is very clear that 100% of our
community loves this hospital. The Hospital is not the issue. We
want it fixed. We do not need "rebuttals" to this
independent audit, especially from the totally discredited board and the
CEO who have presided over the loss of over $1.1 million per year over six
years. This translates to $1064 for every man, woman, and child in Fort Bragg! ($1.1 million x 6 years =
$6.6 million divided by the population of Fort Bragg).
The gross mismanagement over this period makes me wonder why the Board
didn't simply fire Ballard long ago. Is the Board governing the hospital,
or is the Ballard governing the Board -- as he governs the coastal media --
with his "smoothness" (as reported in the independent audit)?
The feeling in the community is that the Board and Ballard are trying to
punish the community for not passing their bail-out, er,
parcel tax. They are cutting needed operational services to show (punish)
the community they need more money, coercing the residents to support
another parcel tax. I do not know where this feeling comes from, but maybe
it is the arrogance of the Board and Ballard, or it could be mismanagement,
or maybe it is just that the Board and Ballard are in over their heads.
Example: They have seriously proposed cutting the ambulance service,
saying that it is not profitable!
I ask for the 16th time to clean up the internal timecard accounting
mess. You see, the EMT's
have 97% "idle time." During this "idle time" the EMT's are doing tasks inside the hospital that nurses
should be doing. The EMT's could/should charge
time to the hospital when they are performing Emergency Room tasks and
charge the time to the ambulance when they are working with the ambulance.
This still is not fixed. This alone may well save the ambulance, but the
Board and Ballard are not taking action on it. The audit shows that the
accounting of the EMTs is a mess at best. By not
fixing this accounting mess they may think they're adding to their threat
to cut the ambulance, putting more pressure on the community to pass
another parcel tax.
To add insult to injury, and further showing their arrogance, Ballard
reported that the only hospital department that is "profitable"
this month is the Emergency Room! No surprise! The ER is 97% subsidized by
ambulance paramedics and EMTs whose time the
hospital does not account for. I have personally experienced this.
The issue has been brought up to the Board/Ballard by me many times, as
well as by nurses and EMTs themselves -- but nothing
has been done. WHY NOT? One is forced to conclude that they are punishing
the community by threatening to terminate the ambulance to get a parcel tax
passed.
The independent audit found that Ballard and his Board act with a
homogenous mentality with zero diversity in their thinking. All of them,
when interviewed individually by the auditors, said, in effect, "The
fact that the hospital is failing is the community's fault."
The auditors recommend that at least two board members -- "it
really does not matter which two" -- be replaced. The community says
YES -- we need "fresh blood."
The community needs to know why Ballard wasn't fired fours years ago.
Ballard is still here, being paid well over six-figures plus his annual
salary increases, bringing his total compensation to well over $150k/year
(plus undisclosed perks). This does not help to engender trust in the
community. The independent audit disclosed that "salary increases at
the Hospital were 9% in 2005? We, as well as the auditors, are confused.
The nurses and doctors took a hit of 20% decrease and/or a salary freeze --
some of them are still frozen. So who got the increases that produced an
overall 9+% increase in hospital salaries?
In conclusion, based on their own numbers, Ballard and his Board have
mismanaged this hospital for too long. We do not need any more self-serving
rebuttals and windy explanations from Ballard and his Board. Their dismal
performance speaks for itself.
If they support this hospital they should all resign, turn in
their credit cards and expense accounts, and let the community start
rebuilding this hospital to something like the condition before Ballard
& Co. took over. It is time for them to go.
We acknowledge the Board's long hours of work and dedication with no
pay. In my heart, I believe the Board means well. But in the end, they have
failed this community.
These legitimate hospital management experts have reported, "The
hospital board is not doing their job! Management must be held accountable.
(I know these are strong statements.) The board needs to be educated in
order to do their job correctly -- or be replaced. Such drastic board
changes will take time and must be started soon in order to save the
hospital. I still think you can turn the hospital around however,
it will take some real effort. Time is short. If another year passes
without change, I'm not sure you will be able to save the hospital.
The Hospital Resource Council which commissioned the independent audit
will make a formal presentation of their recommendations on Thursday,
February 9 at Fort
Bragg's Town Hall.
(Or possibly at the Hospital Conference Room, the location is still being
disputed. Call the Hospital to confirm.) Anyone who cares about the future
of our hospital should be there and show their support for an honest
appraisal and forthright approaches to the hospital's many financial
problems.
|
Get all twelve pages of the paper, delivered to
your home every week!
|
|