Degeyter, McPherson receive ‘excellence in practice’ nod

Local physicians employed at Franklin Foundation Hospital were recently recognized at the monthly board meeting for the quality of healthcare their patients have received.
Two doctors, Roland Degeyter and Stephen McPherson, were singled out by Chief Nursing Officer Frank Corcoran at the FFH board meeting Thursday for excellence in the practice of medicine.
During FFH Chief of Staff McPherson’s medical staff report, he indicated that five applications for initial appointment of physicians were approved by the medical staff and were subsequently approved by the board. McPherson said the applications were for consulting emergency medicine, cardiology and general surgery.
“The applications were found to be in order and recommended for approval,” McPherson said.
In other business, FFH Chief Executive Officer Craig Cudworth, in a move he said had the potential to be controversial, said the hospital would be soon be addressing the appearance of FFH employees. Cudworth said the measure comes in response to the need to regulate what can and cannot be worn at the facility.
“We are in the process of putting together and implementing a dress code for our hospital employees,” Cudworth said.
The last order of business for the board was a brief discussion about a similar measure taken this week by the St. Mary Parish Council in regards to tax millage for 2016. The FFH board did not take any action on the measure.
“The tax millage thing was similar to what was discussed at the parish council meeting,” Board Chairman Eugene Foulcard said. “It comes up very year and we have to discuss it, but we didn’t take any action on that.”
The board also discussed two contracts for family practice physicians. Foulcard said the hospital is continuing to negotiate the terms of the contracts.
“We have two physicians that are in negotiations,” Foulcard said. “We authorized Craig (FFH CEO Craig Cudworth) to go ahead and continue to negotiate those two employee contracts for family physicians and then he will bring those back to the board next month.”