Two alternative realities were present in Eureka Springs on President’s Day Feb. 17. At the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission meeting, commissioners were praising administrators interim CEO Jodi Edmondson and Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Asbury. It was the first time in several months the audience wasn’t filled with present and former employees who told stories about Edmondson and Asbury’s bullying, harassment, failure to communicate, wrongful termination and creating an atmosphere of workplace discord.
Three hospital commissioners heaped praise on the two administrators and expressed pleasure that the hospital is headed in the right direction.
For the past several months during public comments, limited to three minutes at hospital commission and city council meetings, more than 20 former and present employees have reported a fearful workplace. The town hall meeting was held so people could tell their stories without getting abruptly cut off after three minutes.
The hospital commission has done nothing publicly to investigate or respond to allegations. It fired CEO Angie Shaw and Chief Nursing Officer Jessica Petrino in early November, and then allowed Asbury and Edmondson to fire others, including long-term employees who signed a letter sent to the commission after Shaw’s firing detailing multiple concerns about the behavior of Asbury and Edmondson.
Asbury and Edmondson abruptly, with no notice, blocked Chief of Staff Gary Parkhurst, MD, from entering the building Jan. 26 when they terminated the contract with the Emergency Staffing Solution group he worked for. On Jan. 23, they fired maintenance director Becky Burt, who had been at ESH for 15 years and had no prior write-ups for poor job performance.
Burt spoke at the town hall providing details of how she was blocked from doing her work. Burt said locks had been changed in areas where she needed access to measure temperatures and humidity.
“They did it behind our backs,” Burt said. “I was cut off from areas where I was supposed to go to measure temperature and humidity. These were things that the state said needed to be done.”
Burt also said Asbury and Edmondson refused to answer emails and fabricated reasons for firing her.
“So, then they fired me for having an insecure/unsafe building, which is completely untrue,” Burt said.
Burt said the mistreatment of ESH employees needs to stop. “The commission never comes to talk to employees other than Cynthia, Jody and Lana [Lana Mills, new director of nursing and clinical services],” Burt said. “Cynthia and Jodi are on a power trip. As long as the hospital commission lets them get away with it, it will continue.”
Burt said that in late January, the ER was only seeing three patients per day. The hospital didn’t have a fully functioning laboratory after the resignation of longtime lab director Tina Adams, who has spoken at length about the workplace environment. In December and January, the hospital was on trauma divert with ambulances taking most patients to other hospitals.
The hospital has gone from primarily having local employees to most of the staff being travel workers, which is far more expensive.
At the Feb. 17 meeting, former medical records clerk Samantha Webb gave details of how she was bullied and harassed by Edmondson and Asbury prior to being fired in September 2023. Webb said she was fired for attempting to fill a records request for a widow of a patient who later died. She said Asbury chastised her for trying to fill the request, saying “this could get us in a lot of trouble” and that the mayor was afraid of a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Then Asbury and Edmondson took Webb into an office with only one chair (so Webb had to sit while the other two women stood over her) to tell her she was terminated. Webb said previously she had never been written up for poor job performance.
Webb cried as she talked about how proud she had been to work at the hospital, where her husband, Richard, was also employed working in housekeeping.
Initially the hospital denied Samantha Webb’s request for unemployment insurance. She won an appeal. The hospital appealed and Webb also won that appeal. But with that black mark on her record, she has been unable to find another job as a medical records clerk.
Webb said she was fired for doing her job, and that both she and her husband —who said he quit his job at the hospital after being bullied by Asbury — meant they had to decimate their retirement savings just to buy groceries.
Both said ESH used to be a great place to work. Staff was very friendly with smiles, high fives and friendly conversation. The atmosphere was positive. Richard Webb said that all changed when Asbury became CFO two years ago.
“We have been fighting since 2023 and will keep fighting until there is justice,” said Webb. “My wife didn’t deserve what happened to her and they did it with malice. I always went above and beyond to do my job. It seems like Cynthia and Jody enjoy being mean to people. Something needs to happen. They are hurting good people.”
One former employee who had not spoken out publicly before, Justice Trent, who worked in coding/billing, cried when recounting bullying from Edmondson. Trent, who has seizures, had asked to have breaks because getting overloaded could trigger seizures.
“Jody yelled that either I could do my job or leave,” said Trent. “I was happy to be there. I loved my job, but I started being scared to go to work. I felt sick to my stomach. I needed a larger desk but was turned down. I bought a desk myself, but they made Terry (a maintenance employee) put it outside in the rain. Terry apologized to me but there was nothing he could do.”
City council aldermen have expressed concern about the reported problems but have been told that the only action that can be taken by council is to remove commissioners or close the hospital. Council removed former Chair Kent Turner, who responded to employee complaints by backing the alleged bullies. Turner and Dicks also illegally met with hospital employees and communicated with each other on email about hospital business in violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Former commissioner Barbara Dicks—also accused of bullying, HIPAA and FOIA violations—was asked to resign by Mayor Butch Berry.