"(The hospital's) legal action is, in our opinion, yet another attempt by the CEO and Board Chair to intimidate concerned citizens and to distract the public’s attention from their mismanagement."
Since the current CEO was appointed by the Board of Trustees
(BOT) in 2018, physicians and other providers including entire groups from
primary care, urology, oncology-hematology, cardiology, hospitalist medicine,
pulmonology and gynecology have left or are in the process of leaving their
practices at South County Hospital. Although hospital leadership claims that
this turnover rate is “within the national norm,” it is a marked departure from
the recent past when the resignation of a provider from South County Hospital
unrelated to personal issues was exceedingly rare.
EDITOR'S NOTE: According to the last filing (Aug. 14, 2024) by South County Health, CEO Aaron Robinson was paid $854,719 despite an operating loss of $6.5 million. Robinson was hired in 2020. The hospital reported his total compensation as $455,635. Despite continuing operating losses, Robinson continued to get large raises, almost double his pay in just four years. - Will Collette
The hospital leadership also falsely attributed the
departure of doctors, physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners and nurses to
the "challenging health care landscape” (a euphemism for suboptimal
compensation in Rhode Island). This could not be farther from the truth as
evidenced by the fact that most of those who have resigned continue to practice
in Rhode Island. As many of the individuals themselves have stated, they left
as a result of the adversarial relationship they encountered with the current leadership
and its negative impact on their ability to provide quality patient care.
South County Hospital leadership maintains this exodus of
providers has not affected the health of the community or patients. This, of
course, is also false. While they may have replaced some of the medical
providers with expensive “locum-tenens” on short term contracts, patients’
continuity of care and trust in their physicians, two essential tenets of
quality, have been severely compromised. In addition, the departure of the
providers from the community has led to delays in office visits and testing, other
critical components of care for sick and well patients alike.
Over the past several months, in public and behind the
scenes, under the auspices of the organization Save South County Hospital
(SSCH), a large number of healthcare providers, donors, concerned community
members, former Trustees (including multiple past Chairpersons) of South County
Hospital and elected officials have attempted to engage the leadership to bring
about the change in culture need to “right the ship”. Close to 2,000 (1995)
local community members have signed a petition and attended public forums
expressing their concern and dismay.
Unfortunately, the response of the CEO and current Chairman
of the Board has been to attack the motivation of these individuals, labeling
more than two thousand people, including these community leaders, as a small
group of disgruntled rabble rousers. We lament the continued adversarial
posture of the hospital leadership and are particularly discouraged by their
misguided decision to bring a lawsuit against Save South County Hospital that
was filed last week. In this lawsuit, the CEO and Board Chair allege that
members of Save South County Hospital have violated their duty to protect
confidential donor information, insinuating that their actions place “millions
of dollars” in donations at risk.
The allegation goes on to suggest that SSCH seeks to damage
the high quality of care that SCH has provided to our community over the past
century. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mission of SAVE South
County Hospital was and remains the preservation of quality care at South
County Hospital and many of the donors they refer to are involved in these
efforts.
This legal action is, in our opinion, yet another attempt by
the CEO and Board Chair to intimidate concerned citizens and to distract the
public’s attention from their mismanagement. By their leaders' own admission,
South County Hospital is already facing severe financial hardship. We believe
that undertaking this expensive and frivolous lawsuit is an abrogation of their
responsibility to safeguard precious funds that could be spent on patient care.
On Thursday, April 3rd at the South Kingstown High School
Auditorium at 6 pm, a special Members Meeting of the Endowment of South County
Health will be held. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss recent events
and to consider the election of new trustees to the board that can make the
hospital more attuned to the community and its concerns. This meeting is open
to the public and we strongly encourage anyone concerned about South County
Hospital and the future of healthcare in Southern Rhode Island to attend.
As cosigners of this letter, we make these claims as
individuals with no attribution to any organization or affiliation.
- Chris Van Hemelrijck, MD - Internal Medicine - Primary Care
- Steven Fera, MD - Cardiology
- Aaron Weisbord, MD - Cardiology
- Jamie Smythe, MD - Oncology
