Concerned citizens, noted dignitaries and current employees of Jennie Stuart Health filled the Doctors Pavilion Cotthoff Learning Center Wednesday night for a town hall meeting — many gripped with interest and intent behind the inner-workings of a developing relationship between the hundred-year-old hospital and Deaconess Health System of Evansville.
Among those who spoke on behalf of the potential merger:
+ Leslie Carroll, Jennie Stuart’s chair for its Board of Trustees
+ Hollis White, Jennie Stuart’s vice chair for its Board of Trustees
+ Mark Laramee, the hospital’s chief financial officer
+ And Dr. Matthew Robinson, a general surgery physician who serves as medical staff president and Board of Trustees member
Carroll, who recently penned an op-ed on the board’s ultimate decision to seek outside ownership interest, said the hospital, its staff and its leadership has only been negotiating out a “position of strength,” and that Deaconess was one of 18 organizations — profit and non-profit alike — that were interested in pairing with the proud Hopkinsville health care unit.
Deaconess, she said, best aligned with Jennie Stuart’s mission statement.
Laramee, meanwhile, affirmed that while the hospital, its assets and its locally-led Jennie Stuart Foundation all remain in good standing, several concerns have arrived in the last decade.
Among them:
— Eight years of operating losses in the last 13, including this one;
— Stabilized, but dwindling, liquidity;
— And a credit rating of BBB-, far lower than the A+ for Deaconess.
Robinson noted that the hospital’s recent electronic health records provider, Altera Digital Health, “had not lived up” to delivering on its promises.
By joining up with Deaconess, he said Jennie Stuart could be outfitted with a full version of Epic’s vaunted EHR hardware and software profile in the next “six-to-nine months” — giving patients and their families unprecedented access to their biological readouts.
It’s the kind of measure, he added, that could cost “$40-to-$60 million” if done as an independent hospital.
White doubly assured that if the Board of Trustees went through with this merger, all employees “in good standing” would be retained in the process, and that in due diligence discussions, Deaconess has already assured new cash investments, as well as a $5 million full-control allotment to the Jennie Stuart Health Foundation.
He said recent conversations between Deaconess, as well as Christian County political leadership and Jennie Stuart Health officials, have proved productive.
Several questions, however, poured out from the audience — including many from the up-and-budding membership of non-profit “Save Jennie Stuart” and its chair, Darrell Gustafson.
Carroll and White said that over the last 18 months, the Jennie Stuart Board of Trustees did “get bids for selling the hospital,” and alongside Robinson ascertained that “doctors direct the care,” and that there would be “no change in care” options already provided. Furthermore, the current affiliation with Vanderbilt Medical Center “would remain,” while other long-term investments — though not yet detailed — have been promised.
Would the board remain local and have override? Carroll and White said the board “would remain local” with additional Deaconess representation, but a definitive agreement has not fully taken shape about override or other protections.
Several in the audience noted the hospital’s current net position, which reportedly stands north of $145 million. If Deaconess were to receive the equity in the deal, some said this “doesn’t seem logical at all.”
A round of applause came when someone in the audience blurted out that “somebody wasn’t doing their job in the first place” following the decision to accept Altera Digital Health — further exacerbating the stress on the system.
When asked whether or not the Jennie Stuart Health Foundation knew about these developments ahead of time, Carroll said they were alerted in due time.
Foundation Chairman Tracey Williams immediately followed, stating that “they did not know” about this movement prior to donor recognitions that were administered following the push for E.C. Green Cancer Center contributions. She said that would’ve been over the last year, when she and many others were out soliciting for the campaign.
Carroll confirmed that an ultimate decision on the non-binding letter of intent will be made by the full board in early December, and that another public meeting will likely occur prior to this decision being rendered.
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