Open hospital board meetings to the public

In light of the ongoing financial crisis at Springfield Hospital it is clear that Vermont’s hospitals must be more accountable to the public.

www.vtdigger.org

Richard Davis: Open hospital board meetings to the public By Commentary Dec 31 2018, 5:55 PM | 0 comments Editor’s note: This commentary is by Richard Davis, of Guilford, who is a columnist for the Brattleboro Reformer, where this piece was previously published. All of Vermont’s 14 hospitals are nonprofit institutions. They are given enormous tax breaks and they are often the largest employer in their community. They generally provide a high level of medical care to the residents in their area and they play an integral role in the life of the community. But when it comes to public accountability, most operate with the same corporate mentality of a multi-national corporation. They do not allow the public to attend board meetings where their policies are developed and where their planning takes place. They might make a case that they have members of the public on their boards, but those people tend to be members of the same social strata as the hospital administrators who live in the highest income world of Vermont. The average citizen does not have a say in how one the most important institutions in their community operates. If the hospital paid taxes like for-profit corporations the overall town tax rate would be lower, so that means that taxpayers are subsidizing hospitals. They should have a voice in the operation of the hospital. A bill has been floated in the Vermont Legislature for a number of years that would require hospital board meetings to be open to the public. It is a one paragraph bill with no financial implications, but it never makes it out of committee. A number of legislators serve on hospital boards and the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems has been effective at blocking movement of the bill. In light of the ongoing financial crisis at Springfield Hospital it is clear that Vermont’s hospitals must be more accountable to the public. According to VTDigger, “For the past year or so, doctors said they haven’t been able to get supplies needed to run their offices. Some say the hospital is months behind on health insurance payments. Several businesses in Springfield and doctors in the area have stopped doing business with the hospital. The head of Green Mountain Care Board, the main regulatory body overseeing Vermont’s hospitals, says the body is monitoring the situation but hasn’t seen any misconduct up to this point.” Springfield Hospital pathologist Tony Musak summed up the situation when he said, “The whole administration seems in their own little world. It’s very unnerving and very frustrating.” When a VTDigger reporter tried to call the hospital CEO and CFO they did not respond to requests for an interview. Both have resigned their positions. As things stand now there is no way to force administrators to tell the public the real story about their community hospital. In 2001,then state representative Daryl Pillsbury, a longtime Brattleboro Memorial Hospital employee and also a former Brattleboro Selectboard member told me he asked a BMH board member why he didn’t support the hospital board open meeting law. He told Pillsbury he would quit the board rather than have to have the public be present at board meetings. That is the kind of arrogance and chutzpah that we have to eliminate from hospital boards. VTDigger also reported that, “About 75 percent of the medical staff at Springfield Hospital recently signed a vote of “no confidence” in the hospital under now former CEO Tim Ford’s leadership. The petition was organized in part by Gerald Drabyn, one of the lead doctors at the hospital. Drabyn was hopeful that the situation could be fixed, but he said the administration will need to stop pointing fingers. When the Vermont Legislature convenes in January they should appreciate the urgency of passing the hospital board open meeting law. They must review the Springfield Hospital situation and do the right thing before this kind of disaster happens again.