Parish council blistered by public angry over hospital

A vote on a proposal to oust the members of the board that oversees Franklin Foundation Hospital will be taken up Wednesday when the St. Mary Parish Council meets in its final session of 2014.
The item that was on the council’s agenda this week read, “Discussion and action relative to the removal of the Hospital Service District No. 1 Board of Commissioners for gross misconduct while in office and disorderly operations of Franklin Foundation Hospital.”
It was placed there by Councilman David Hanagriff who also tabled the item.
“Other situations that are affecting the board … (are) being investigated,” Hanagriff said.
However, in public comment that was allowed to proceed the council heard from attorney Bill Bourgeois who represents Drs. Steven McPherson and Donna Tesi (see Thursday’s edition for more on Bourgeois) as well as others.
One person, Mimi Brooks, compared the situation to a schoolyard fight and told the council that it, as “the teacher on duty,” should break up the fight. “You are our voice. We choose you to speak on our behalf,” she said. “They’re all good doctors, they all can go practice medicine … they can go anywhere. A community is going to take them in and let them practice medicine.”
Conversely, she said, the board members serve at the leisure of the parish council.
“They don’t get a paycheck so their livelihood is not affected at all,” she said. She added that when the physicians leave, however, the ones to suffer will be the hospital employees left behind without jobs.
“So what I am asking you is … to stop the school fight and to act on our behalf to bring everybody together and diffuse the situation,” she concluded.
Later in meeting, when Brooks responded from the audience to remarks from Councilman Charles “Butch” Middleton, she was quieted by council chairman Steve Bierhorst.
“Everybody that has come up tonight has denigrated the hospital administrator and the board members,” Middleton said. “If we get rid of them board (members), who’s gonna take their place?” he asked. “Will they be independent thinkers, or will somebody else do the thinking for them?”
He added that the board members volunteer their time and have a stake in the community.
“I’ve heard stories on both sides and I think this has gotten far out of hand,” Middleton said and added that he thinks the situation could be settled without everyone “lawyering up.”
“Are we debating this tonight?” Hanagriff asked.
“No, we’re not debating this tonight,” Bierhorst said. “We’ll wait until next week to debate this.”
Brooks then disputed Middleton’s assertion that everyone had been critical of the administrator and hospital.
“I just want it to be on the record that my comments were about y’all acting,” she said during a verbal exchange with Bierhorst.
“Public comment is closed,” Bierhorst said as he rapped his gavel. “I’ll have to ask you to be removed from the courthouse, please.”
“I’ll remove myself,” she said as she left.
Prior to that the council also heard from pediatrician Dr. Sharad Gunda who said he chairs the hospital’s credentials and peer review committees and is active with medical staff’s bylaws committee.
“This whole saga for the last three months has been energy sapping,” he said. “What was thought to be a simple issue of communication (is to the point that) threats have been issued if anybody dares to criticize it.”
He added there have been numerous opportunities to resolve the issue that have only served to make the situation worse.
“It seems they have put their personal agenda above the hospital,” Gunda said. “As a result of these actions, a hostile environment has been created. Because of this we are at risk of losing three physicians at least.”
He said the three physicians are an asset to him when he needs to call on them from anything ranging from an emergency appendectomy on a 7-year-old by Tesi to various medical complications handled by McPherson.
He added that Osborne is the only orthopedic surgeon between Houma and Lafayette and without him children with broken bones would have to wait as long as two weeks to get an appointment to see another specialist.
“I can’t emphasize how lucky we are to have this service at Franklin Foundation Hospital,” he said. “The losses are enormous.”
He said the hospital has earned numerous awards for excellence in the past due to the hard work of the staff and past administration, but added, “Currently this hospital is wounded and bleeding. If nothing is done now, the future of our hospital would look bleak.”
He then asked the council to “act in good faith and save this great place.”
Franklin resident Kay Schwitz said the council should replace the board because the hospital chief executive officer Claudia Eisenmann mismanaged physician contracts, the board mismanaged public funds for the legal representation of Eisenmann and the board “created an atmosphere of extreme negativity that has a detrimental effect on hospital operations and community morale.”
She added that she thinks the Tesi and McPherson contracts were terminated in retaliation for the medical staff’s 8-1 vote of no confidence in Eisenmann.
Likewise, she said, she felt that a threatened lawsuit against Drs. Brent Allain and Randall Horton was retaliation for their outspokenness and the board retaliated against Allan Von Werder for disagreeing with the majority by removing him as chairman.
She added that nurses had been threatened with dismissal if they spoke out.
“Board members should build teams and develop a hospital culture of mutual respect for all employees, not create a vindictive atmosphere of fear and retaliation among hospital staff,” she said.
The council also heard from several patients of both Tesi and McPherson who praised the medical care they and family members have received from both. They included Heloise LeBlanc, Carolyn Cline, Mike Kirkland, Pam Heffner and George Baptiste.
Former parish president Oray Rogers asked the council to research the need for the hospital’s management group Quorum Health Resources.
Others said they would hold their comments until the issue is taken up at next week’s meeting.
Before closing on the issue the council heard from Russel Cremaldi, general legal counsel for the hospital.
“I just want it to be clear that an offer has been extended to redo these contracts,” he said. “We’ve offered them what we believe to be fair contracts.”
Negotiations with Bourgeois in behalf of McPherson and Tesi are ongoing, he said. “We’re trying to put these contracts back in place.”
He added that, “we’ve got to build some trust between the board and the medical staff,” and suggested that the medical staff may make recommendations to the board in that effort.
“The doctors ought to remain, the board ought to remain, everything ought to stay like it is, everybody just needs to be able to work together,” he said.