Hospital Board Selects
Interim Administrator
By W. Lee Brame
Published:
Claiborne
Progress
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Correspondent
Despite the best efforts of County Mayor Joe Tyler Duncan, the Claiborne
County Hospital Board decided to comply with the hospital's management
contract with St. Mary's (formerly Baptist Health Systems) and allow St
Mary's to select the new hospital administrator.
While the search continues, Jack Bryan will serve as an interim hospital
administrator.
Claiborne County Hospital's management contract with St. Mary's specifies
that the hospital board may vote to accept or reject a candidate proposed by
St. Mary's. As reported last week in the Progress, the county commission
decided to become involved in the selection of the hospital administrator's
position and voted to recommend that one of their own members, County
Commissioner Juanita Honeycutt (District 2) be chosen as the new hospital
chief.
While the county
commission's recommendation was unusual, word of the controversy had not
been contained. The hospital's conference room was filled to capacity and
extra chairs filled with familiar, and unfamiliar faces lined the walls.
Part of the controversy resulted from questions about St. Mary's preferred
candidate, David Southerland. Southerland was the former CEO for Woods
Memorial Hospital. Woods Memorial Hospital went through some difficult
financial times while Southerland was there.
Southerland and Honeycutt were two of the three candidates interviewed by
the hospital board during a Jan. 24 meeting.
During discussion of the vacant position and different candidate's
qualifications an executive representative from St. Mary's management team
continued to support Southerland and informed the hospital board that
Honeycutt was not an acceptable candidate for the position due to her lack
of experience, education, and training in hospital administration.
The hospital board's legal advisor - County Attorney James Estep III -
stated that if the hospital board decided to preempt the management contract
the St. Mary's could simply walk away from the contract.
An area physician who was considering practice at (and was being recruited
by) Claiborne County Hospital also stated that the hospital's decision to
hire a non-certified and inexperienced hospital administrator would affect
the hospital's ability to attract qualified staff. When pressed, the
physician stated that without an experienced hospital administrator at the
hospital, he would not come there to practice.
During each break in the passionate, but polite discussion, Duncan attempted
to solicit a motion to hire Honeycutt.
"This board needs to decide whether they will abide by the County
Commission's wishes," he said.
Protests by the public and the reluctance of the hospital board to act
without allowing full discussion eventually resulted in Duncan (who acts as
the Hospital Board Chairman) withdrawing his comments.
Eventually, a compromise was hammered out and board member John Russell made
the following three part motion: To reject St. Mary's candidate David
Southerland; to submit the county commission's recommendation of Juanita
Honeycutt to St. Mary's for their consideration, and to request that St.
Mary's appoint Jack Bryan as interim hospital administrator (with check
signing authority) for 30 days while St. Mary's continues their search for a
new administrator.
Bryan is a senior member of St. Mary's and an experienced hospital
administrator who is known to many hospital board members and staff. He is
currently St. Mary's CEO for their community hospital division and manages
St. Mary's support for three hospitals in addition to Claiborne County
Hospital.
The hospital board approved that motion with five members in favor and newly
appointed board member Robert Asbury abstaining.
In other business, the board reviewed and accepted the annual audit report.
Conducted by Burk, Pearlman, Nebben and Huggins (an independent accounting
firm from Chattanooga), Claiborne County Hospital is operating in a
financially responsible manner with no negative issues discovered during the
audit and no "financial deficiencies" or internal control materiel
weaknesses found.
The board congratulated Tim Brown for his final financially sound year
running the hospital. Brown gave credit to Jessica Justice for her years of
meticulous attention to detail and the hospital's finances.
Hal Jones provided the monthly financial report and noted that the financial
office was making good progress on correcting billing errors that resulted
from this last summer's changes in Medicare billing procedures. His report
and recommendations were also approved by the board.
Brown, in his final Administrator's report noted that both the Nursing Home
and Emergency medical Services departments had undergone successful state
surveys during the last 60 days. He concluded his report by thanking the
hospital board and staff for their support during his 15 year tenure at
Claiborne County Hospital.
