Chris Morris interviews the CEO

Since many readers evidently want to discuss the interview in the Tribune with the Hospital CEO, here is your opportunity. http://www.news-tribune.net/floydcounty/local_story_231190701.html?keyword=topstory

I believe Chris Morris attempted to ask good questions, but the CEO is very good at not giving the entire picture when answering questions. If Chris had a better understanding of how things really worked at the hospital, he could have asked several follow-up questions to really elucidate the rest of the story.

Question #1
The heart program is off to a good start, but he failed to mention that it was more than 3 months later than projected. In addition, the numbers are not where they were projected to be at this time in the year, but considering the late start, we are almost on track. This delay put the budget in jeopardy as we had counted on the revenue of these cases during the first 3 months.
The ER having growing pains is a huge understatement. Yes there are 42 beds, but what he failed to mention is that we are only utilizing about the same number of beds as in the old ER. There is not enough staff to cover the additional beds. So now, the real difference is that patients get to wait in a nicer area.

Question #2
We agree on this. The hospital has not gotten a bad rap. It has gotten what the CEO’s decisions have led to.

Question #3
Whether competition is needed will always be debatable, but we certainly disagree here. These other facilities will offer services more efficiently and effectively. Yes, if they are physician owned, there will be some revenue going to the investors. That does not make them inherently bad. Competition does equate to lower costs in virtually all aspects of the marketplace.

Question #4
The new hospital is supposed to have an Emergency Room and I believe he misspoke in answering this question. Floyd does take care of the indigent as a community hospital should. They are also not-for-profit and paying no taxes. Chris should have asked the CEO if he would be willing to give up the not-for-profit status and therefore be on a level playing field as he repeatedly complains about. The benefits of being not-for-profit are huge financially and they know it. They “want their cake and eat it too.”

Question #5
He pretty much avoided answering this question as he knows we have not done enough to recruit and retain nurses. We got started too late in the process to fill the needed positions even though the Board repeatedly questioned him on this issue. Currently, our nurses and staff are understaffed.
Diversion was very rarely ever because of staffing issues until the new addition opened up. Now that we do not have enough staff for the beds, we are seeing diversion for this issue as well. There is an overall shortage of beds as he admitted. Why we spent 65 million dollars and did not add any significant overall beds is still haunting us. This is more support for the need of another hospital and additional beds.

Question #6
This answer on the relationship between physicians and the CEO is just wrong. We have surveys that have shown major trust issues, we had a consultant spend nearly an entire day during a strategic planning retreat because this issue was a huge sticking point and was hindering any type of progress. That consultant was never asked to return after her initial phase was completed. Most of the doctors he refers to are not the ones who spend their time primarily at Floyd. They come in quickly, make rounds, eat and leave. They are not involved in any of the critical committees or governance.

Questions #7
Basically, his answer appears as if he has no clue about the future needs and until he hires the next consultant to come in and tell him what to do, he will not commit. Yes the community needs more beds. There will be increasing demand for all services and since physicians are reluctant to partner with the hospital, as long as he is the CEO, the hospital will not be expanding much off of the current campus. The shell space he refers to on the 3rd and 4th floors was something he was opposed to and the Board voted in favor of building it. I ask the architect and builder the question: “In all your years of building, if the facility had the capability of building additional floors after the initial project, how often did they do this.” The answer was almost never. You either build it at the start or it doesn’t get built.

Question #8
The physician number he refers to from 125 to 500 is very misleading. Yes there are about 500 physicians, but about 400 of these are consultants from Louisville who have privileges but rarely if ever step foot in the hospital. The amount of primary care doctors and surgeons has not grown substantially and we are still short in several areas. If you look at their website, you will see the following because we do not have enough primary care physicians.

Physician Practice Opportunities

Specialty physician opportunitites currently available at Floyd Memorial include:

o Family Practice o Cardiology o Interventional Cardiology o Internal Medicine o Pulmonary Medicine o Hospitalists

For more information on practice opportunities at Floyd Memorial, please contact:

Robert L. MackinVice President of Managed Care and Marketing
Phone: (812) 949-5596

The 500 number he quotes is very misleading. Some physicians have to maintain privileges at a hospital because one person in their group comes here or because certain insurances require it. It does not mean these physicians are actively participating in anything at Floyd.

As you can see, we could discuss each of the issues in great length.

There is a lot more than Chris was told and readers were led to believe.

Unfortunately, Chris didn’t ask him about the current financial situation, the freeze on hiring even though we are short-staffed, the failure of Joint Commission Accreditation, or the failure in partnering with the surgeons on the new outpatient surgical center.