Hospital staff spells it out

Editor’s Note: Since Eureka Springs Hospital became a Rural Emergency Hospital almost two years ago, it has received federal money to be primarily an emergency hospital with no inpatient care.

Some staff, whether due to the REH designation, management choices, commission decisions, financial or other difficulties, became exasperated and contacted us months ago to listen to their stories. Following are a few, and there are more.

We welcome a response from the commission, the board and the mayor. Of those contacted, we have heard only “No comment.” We also appreciate readers’ opinions.

For more than six months, present and former employees of the Eureka Springs Hospital have been contacting the Eureka Springs Independent about allegations of bullying, harassment and micromanagement by Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Cynthia Asbury and Human Resources (HR) Director Jodi Edmonson.

Employees met with Eureka Springs Hospital Commission Chair Kent Turner last week and spent nearly two hours detailing their problems with Asbury and Edmonson. It is not known what Turner told commissioners about that meeting when he called an emergency meeting on Friday, Nov. 1, to discuss personnel issues.

Commissioners voted unanimously to fire CEO Angie Shaw. After the meeting, Edmonson called police to escort Shaw off hospital grounds where she had worked for 17 years.

At a special meeting Monday, Nov. 4, the commission fired Chief Nursing Officer Jessica Petrino, put Asbury on a six-month employee improvement plan to be monitored by the commission, and elevated Edmonson to being interim CEO while a search is done for a permanent CEO.

Police in three cars escorted Petrino off the grounds before the commission came out of executive session and voted to fire Petrino. Another employee who walked out with Petrino, Reanna Seaman, was the hospital’s only respiratory therapist.

These actions were taken in closed executive sessions, so Shaw and Petrino were neither allowed to know what complaints were lodged against them nor given an opportunity to defend themselves. The commission gave no reason(s) for the firings. Turner declined to comment, and Asbury did not return calls asking for comment. Mayor Butch Berry also declined to comment, citing the city’s policy regarding personnel actions.

A number of present and former staff members said they were dismayed by what they saw as retaliation firings for bringing up consistent and serious problems with Asbury and Edmonson. They reported that Turner had been verbally abusive to them in hospital meetings when they detailed problems with Asbury and Edmonson, including Turner yelling at them and pounding his fists on the table. They told the Independent they had no confidence that the hospital commission understood what was going on.

The loss of two nursing managers raises concerns that at least outpatient services could be closed down due to lack of clinical staff. ER Manager Joy Kennedy has given her two-week notice.

After Shaw was fired, 12 staff members, including Medical Director Dr. Gary Parkhurst and Petrino, sent a letter to the ESH Commission that said, “This letter is to inform you that Eureka Springs Hospital is at a crossroads and action must be taken if we want to save our hometown hospital. For over a year, hospital staff have dealt with numerous issues related to our CFO, Cynthia Asbury, and our HR director, Jodi Edmonson.

“On Tuesday, October 29, several staff members staged an impromptu meeting as a last-ditch effort to have our voices heard. Ten staff members met in the cafeteria and asked Angie to join us. After a unified expression of the issue at hand, we felt the need to convey our experiences to Kent. Once he arrived, each person calmly expressed what had personally happened to them or what they had witnessed happen to others at the hands of Ms. Asbury and Ms. Edmondson. These were not frivolous complaints, rather they were complaints that should have been dealt with long ago and required exposure to the light.

“The meeting lasted over 90 minutes and Kent patiently listened as each spoke about many indiscretions we’d experienced. After each employee raised numerous concerns, Kent let us know that he would be calling a special meeting to discuss our requests. None of us felt certain he would accurately convey our grievances set forth in the meeting. He took very few notes and gave closing remarks that he would try to calm this down with Cynthia, but that he was also there to calm us down. Barbara Dicks [a long-time hospital commissioner] will not be included in this email, as she has shown bias towards Cynthia and talks to employees about their coworkers in demeaning ways.”

The letter including the following bullet points:

• Cynthia has demonstrated erratic behavior and physical intimidation of staff that have resulted in a fear of harassment and bodily harm which violates the zero tolerance for violence in the workplace policy.
• Staff have lost confidence in Jodi after repeated breaches of confidentiality.
• Staff have been repeatedly retaliated against by both Cynthia and Jodi.
• Staff do not receive communication from Cynthia Asbury and on the rare occasion when she does communicate, it is hostile, condescending, rude, accusatory, and demeaning.
• Dozens of staff have resigned and/or been terminated due solely to Cynthia’s treatment of them or through the wrath of her retaliation: Our physical therapist, who built the PT program from the ground up and was a pillar of this hospital, reported left in large part due to his department being disrespected by Cynthia and her restriction of his ability to schedule patients and micromanage by Cynthia and her restriction of his ability to scheduled patients and micromanagement and making unrealistic demands of his staff.
• In the last two weeks, two more directors have given their notice of resignation and others are looking for other jobs. This exhibition of uncollaborative, aggressive, hostile and elusive behavior to current and former employees has resulted in not only the loss of staff but it contributes to poor performance and revenues.
• Multiple providers have made it clear that they will avoid, when possible, sending their patients to ESH due to interactions with Cynthia.
• Jodi and Cynthia have violated multiple labor laws in order to punish staff. There has been an exclusion of payments to employees for time worked. See Fair Labor Standards Act.
• There has been a total lack of transparency from Cynthia regarding anything related to finances.
• Cynthia has been asked over 20 times for the charge master, a vital piece of information all directors need to run their departments, and has been ordered by Angie to send it to the department directors, and she continues to withhold it.
• Cynthia has video/audio recording eyeglasses that she uses to record interactions with staff including HIPAA sensitive information, violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
• Cynthia does not answer emails an estimated 90% of the time, does not answer her phone, and at times when you go to her doorway and start speaking, she continues to type on her computer and will not look up or acknowledge you.
• Cynthia refuses to allow anyone to enter service requests (SR) through Oracle when issues are discovered, yet also refuses to offer insight, help or solutions for said issues.
• Cynthia refuses to share policies that she cites and creates policies that have not been discussed with other MedStaff or members of the administrative team.
• Cynthia makes clinical decisions and ignores comments or concerns of clinical staff, acting as an authoritarian to which she has no background.
• Cynthia has cut billable costs such as labs, medications, supplies and other services and refuses to discuss his reasoning.
• Has demanded a staff member stay in their office without coming out all day except for their lunch. If the staff member is to leave for more than 15 minutes, they must inform Cynthia. This was an act of retaliation obvious for anyone.
• Jodi has stated in meetings that Cynthia is equal to Angie on the organizational chart, though this is not true.
• Cynthia has instructed central supply to no longer order crutches, slings, walking boots, splints, c-collars, and knee immobilizers which have resulted in more than one patient being discharged into a dangerous situation. This implementation of non-customary processes within the healthcare industry indicates a knowledge deficit which could most likely be contributing to the hospital’s financial losses.
• Placing blame for the hospital’s failing financial status on the nursing department and Oracle’s performance. Not realizing that routine business practice of healthcare industries utilizes an operation budget which does not exist and is the direct responsibility of the CFO.
• Jodi and Cynthia have created an institution of discrimination policies that exclude benefits to certain employees who provide the direct service that the hospital is recognized for within the community. Has cut schedules of hospital staff, not allowing overtime, but then allowing contracted nurse employees to earn overtime at an increased rate. Allowance of employee overnight accommodations to a particular staff group and disallowing of others the same opportunities.
• Behavior interpreted as unprofessional by implementing personal decisions that affect the service and reputation of the hospital to provide high quality service.
• Cynthia told the office manager for Dr. Bell (our general surgeon who provides endoscopy services each month generating charges in a single day of $54,000) that she would not be faxing an operational report (that only she had access to) as the patient was coming in for the follow-up visit within the hour. She claimed they had access to the same system which, even if they did, it would be professional to go ahead and fax it. It turns out his office did not have access to the said system. Dr. Bell threatened to stop offering his services at ESH because of that.
• All staff members, except Jodi and Cynthia, get along with and work with one another in a collaborative patient-focused team and pledge to continue doing so to save the hospital.
• Staff have zero faith that reconciliation can occur and would like to request the termination of the CFO and HR director while giving 100% support to CEO Angie Shaw.

The letter was signed by ESH Medical Director Gary Parkhurst, MD; Chief Nursing Officer Jessica Petrino, MSN, RN; ER Director Joy Kennedy, RN; Lab Director Tina Adams, Radiology Director Cassie Hale; Felicity Berner, central scheduling; Purchasing Director Leslie Waltz; ER nurse Dru Ellis, RN; Maintenance Director Becky Burt; Maintenance Assistant Terry Moore; Lee Harvill, speech therapist; and Samantha Jones, community educator and hospital marketer.

Berner, who had walked out with Shaw when she was escorted off hospital grounds by police on Friday, resigned after Petrino was fired on Monday.