During their April 7 workshop the Eureka Springs Hospital commission discussed meeting with Dr. John House on a proposal to manage the hospital as well as hiring a new CEO and moving forward in regaining trust in the community.
During the city council and Hospital joint workshop, aldermen made clear that they wanted the hospital commission to look at the possibility of a management company to take over the hospital. Commissioners had contacted several nearby clinics and hospitals, such as Washington Regional, to see if there was interest. Chair Sandy Martin said that Washington Regional was not interested in taking over the hospital, but that Dr. House had sent in a second proposal for commissioners to review.
Martin asked commissioners if they’d prefer a workshop to discuss the proposal for hospital management or handle it at the commission’s next meeting on Monday, April 21. Martin mentioned that while council seemed ready to have a management company takeover that it would not “be an easy solution.”
She mentioned that the hospital would have to take steps to inform the state that they were having a management company take over. She also said that arrangements with previous management companies had not ended positively. She said that in her experience they don’t seem to care about Eureka Springs and that, “It’s a business model to them.”
Commissioners said they wanted to review the proposal and have it on the agenda of the April 21 meeting. They also spoke on the search for a new CEO. The commission is down to two candidates and commissioner David Carlisle said both candidates had “broad” experience in the general area and rescuing hospitals “on the way to disaster.” On the topic of regaining trust in the community both candidates cited that it would simply take time and that it may take up to two years to turn around the community view.
The commission also agreed that once a new marketing manager was hired that they’d be pushing that person to be “hitting the streets” and connecting with local media about what is happening at the hospital such as telehealth services offered through UAMS that are in process.
Commissioners also discussed an investigation into employee allegations, which Martin said they agreed to do once the hospital was cleared by the state on the state survey investigation. She said the hospital should have a separate entity conduct the investigation rather than someone associated with the hospital, and that the commission will release a press release once it is started.
Martin explained that Gabe Mallard, the commission’s attorney, had recommendations to assist with the new investigations and would research firms. She also explained she would provide the youtube videos of meetings where allegations were made and said she was not sure how far back the investigation would go on the allegations. Commissioners suggested several years, saying that some of the allegations were for actions allegedly done up to two years ago.
House’s Proposal
- House Health and Life Sciences Inc. would be retained by the ESH commission to manage the hospital in totality.
- Commission retains all legal rights to the operation of the hospital
- REH license remains in name of the commission.
- Commission retains credentialed status with all current payers and will be added to any future payers.
- All funds generated by clinical activity at ESH, as well as incentive money from government programs such as Medicare, continue to be deposited in the commission’s bank account.
- There is a flat monthly rate the hospital will pay of all clinical services revenue including incentive and any other payments. While the document FOIA’d by the Independent was redacted the commission did discuss the flat rate during the workshop that can be quoted at $650,000.
- HHLS will provide its own management team and provide all staffing, will ensure continuous operation of ER with diversion status no more than 5 percent of the time. Endeavor to expand clinical and outpatient services as needed, and provide regular, in-person updates to the commission on the status of hospital operation.
- Commission will be responsible for cost of maintaining exterior structure including the parking lot and exterior mechanical equipment.
- HHLS will be responsible for cost of remodeling and maintaining interior structure of the hospital including non-medical mechanical equipment. For the first three years of the agreement, the commission will pay the cost of any non-medical mechanical item replacement or repair more than $5,000 if that equipment has less than 20 percent of its expected service life remaining at the time of the agreement.
- The term of the agreement is five years with automatic renewal for additional five years if either party is not notified of non-renewal at least 12 months prior to renewal date.