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Pagosa Mountain Hospital in Critical Condition, Part Three |
Bill Hudson | 5/13/08
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In Part Two, I wrote about the numerous financial problems that appear to be facing the Upper San Juan Health Service District and the new Pagosa Mountain Hospital — a $12 million facility which was resoundingly approved by local voters, by a 10-to-1 vote in 2006.
The most difficult part of last Tuesday’s regular board meeting — the most emotional and contentious discussion — dealt with a proposal by board member Bob Scott to hire Durango consultant Brad Cochennet handle some CEO duties, and most importantly to help the USJHSD make its next crucial decision: Whether to hire an individual CEO to replace Dan Boatman who departed last month, or whether to hire a management company to run the hospital.
 Considering the serious difficulties the board had hiring its first CEO — with two candidates quitting before they even started, followed by the apparent disaster of Boatman’s tenure — the board was obviously having serious doubts, at this point, about its own ability to even choose a CEO.
Speaking out in support of Scott’s proposal to hire Cochennet was Pam Hopkins, who praised Cochennet for “turning Mercy Medical Center around,” when they were having their own financial difficulties several years ago.
The problem with Scott’s proposal, as far as some were concerned, was that USJHSD had just days ago appointed Chief Financial Officer Ken Johansen and Director of Nursing Linda Mozer as an interim administrative team — and charged them with getting the hospital's numerous financial problems fixed as quickly as possible.
Bringing Cochennet on board, so soon after the departure of CEO Dan Boatman at the end of April and the appointment of Johansen and Mozer days just days after that, might suggest a board that is trying to change horses in mid-stream twice a one month.
Both board member Dr. Jim Pruitt, and committee member J.R. Ford, both urged the board to continue with Johansen and Mozer as the interim administrative team while the CEO decision is being made.
“I think Brad {Cochennet] is a great guy,” Ford suggested, “but please don’t rush into this — we did that last time, and look what we got. Don’t do it again. We made a mistake. Pam, you were there, Jim, you were there. We had two people turn us down, we had to pick somebody. And I think we messed up. Please don’t get in a hurry about this.
“You just unleashed three or four new consultants two weeks ago, you knew it was going to take them 30, 40 days to get these things done, and now if we bring in another group right now — it’s going to slow everything back down.”
To add to the mix of options, Mercy Medical’s Chief Financial Officer George Sprinkel was at Tuesday’s meeting, to offer Mercy as a potential management company. As noted in earlier articles, many of the patients coming to PMH eventually get their treatment at Mercy.
“We think there is a lot of value to you folks being successful here, and as much as we can help to do that — it’s just a legality issue, we need to have a contract in place and that can happen pretty quickly.”
“Can I call you tomorrow morning?” Johansen asked Sprinkel, with a twinkle of humor in his voice, but obviously not joking.
Johansen also spoke out in favor of keeping Mozer and himself at the helm, and avoid the additional expense of bringing another consultant like Cochennet on board. Johansen seemed especially eager to stay at the helm if Mercy could become involved in a consulting capacity.
In the end, the board voted to invite Cochennet to a “long range strategic planning meeting” scheduled for last Saturday, May 10, and to ask him to make a proposal to the board. Only board member Jim Pruitt voted nay on the motion.
Board Chair Neal Townsend also told Sprinkel that he wants to set up a meeting between USJHSD and the Mercy Medical Board of Directors as soon as possible.
Johansen reminded the board that the next couple of months were going to be “very tight” as far as cash flow was concerned.
“We’re all about driving revenues right now, and limiting expenses,” noted Townsend. “Staff has to understand that. And that means, everybody [looking to increase expenses] gets a temporary ‘No.’ And we are doing this before the crisis hits, so there will be no crisis, if we have a successful execution of the plan.”
The overall sense I took away from Tuesday’s lengthy meeting: It’s reasonably do-able for a small-town volunteer board to build a new hospital; it is incredibly more difficult for a small-town volunteer board to operate one successfully. |
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