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.
Liz Collins has been an RN for 28 years with 27 years in leadership. She served as a supervisor, a director of nursing, a legal nurse consultant and a home health administrator for 22 years. She was hired as a compliance officer at the Eureka Springs Hospital in October 2021.
“I loved my job,” Collins said. “I loved my work. I loved the people. I was proud of the little hospital and we were making good strides. Then it went to hell. It became a toxic and hostile work environment when Cynthia Asbury became chief financial officer in 2022. Cynthia was abusive to me and other employees. Employees would come up to me and say, ‘What are we going to do?’ No one believed they could go to the hospital commission because Cynthia had cultivated close relationships with Kent Turner, the chair of the commission, Barbara Dicks, the vice chair and HR [Human Resources] Director Jodi Edmondson.”
Collins said things got worse when the hospital transitioned to become a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) in December 2023, which closed the in-patient care, and the hospital became primarily an emergency room. Along with other employees, as staff was reduced, Collins was asked to take on more duties.
She said she was asked to take on infection control and found out at a broadcast meeting that she was also now in charge of quality control. She was also put in charge of risk and safety and took on answering complaints from patients and staff.
Collins was then laid off as compliance officer after being told by CEO Angie Shaw and Edmonson that a compliance officer was no longer needed, and asked to be head of the IT [information technology] department—an area where she had no experience.
“I often said in meetings that I knew nothing about IT,” Collins said. “We were transitioning to a new EMR [Electronic Medical Records] system. The transition was supposed to take a year, but we were required to do it in nine months.”
At a special ESH commission meeting on Friday, Nov. 1, chair Kent Turner said, “We have some real shortcomings in the IT department for what needs to be done.” The commission unanimously approved hiring Pinnacle IT, which handles a lot of IT for other city departments, to help handle the hospital’s IT.
“There is hardly anyone left that I worked with and that is a tragedy,” Collins said. “At the time I left, I tracked employees’ Covid and flu shots which are required as part of infection control. I went through the employee list to remove people who no longer worked at the hospital. There were 93 employees removed from the list in 27 months. That averages over three a month. Some were physicians and some were PRN, part time employees. But that is still a lot of turnover and several of these people who quit were over important departments like medical records, collections and coding. They left because of Cynthia’s treatment.
“Anytime I didn’t take Cynthia’s crap, I would get called to a meeting under the guise of hospital operations. Everything I did added to my own demise. I pointed out where the hospital was not in compliance and spoke up. Jodi should be neutral, and understand both sides, but she supports Cynthia. And Angie is guilty of letting the bad behavior continue, but then she may not have had the support she needed.”
Collins said when they would have a meeting with Turner, he would turn red, holler and bang his fists on the table.
“It was just ridiculous,” Collins said. “He would get mad when we tried to talk about problems with Cynthia. I don’t know how much the other members of the commission know about what is going on. The only ones on the commission who meet with hospital employees are Kent and Barbara, and one commission member worked with marketing.”
Collins said the hospital primarily uses contract employee nurses and travel nurses now because so many nurses have left because of poor treatment.
Collins said the complaints telephone number in the lobby was taken down and the phone number for complaints discontinued. Now there is no formal way for patients, families of patients or employees to make complaints.
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to the hospital,” Collins said. “It breaks my heart what has happened to the hospital. I worked long and hard to have a good professional career to go out that way. I am 62 and haven’t been able to find another job using my management skills. Other employees left because of the hostile work environment.”
As a graduate with a master’s in healthcare and human services administration and as a well-qualified award-winning leader/mentor (possessing a doctoral in organizational leadership) with emphasis of Human Resources Administration, I am saddened by the events occurring at the local hospital. I am in view of several HIPPA violations (terminable or calling for commission removal offense), as well as, personally being told by the HR Director now acting CEO on a phone conversation when I applied several times for several positions because of a desire to love and serve Eureka Springs utilizing my skills and knowledge to serve the community, “You are over-qualified for a position.” That should not matter if I am qualified for even one of the positions, which I was. So, the questions must be asked, “Was it really that I was overqualified or was it the fact you have a community citizen who is trained in healthcare administration and you do not want them to join the staff for fear they may hold you accountable or find out you are violating standards, laws, and protocols which are a must for patient and staff safety and health safety?
As I have read several statements, it would behoove several to take action quickly, from one who is well-versed in healthcare administration, to prevent a lawsuit from ensuing. The more I read the comments from those employed, my heart goes out to them for a yearning for individuals who truly have a passion and background to lead and move the hospital forward, as it seems, there must be a time of love and healing, rather than the continual bullying, disrespect, harassment, and retaliatory behavior read and heard.
If retaining current leadership is the answer, then the city and hospital must prepare for a massive lawsuit as there is way too much evidence proving wrongful termination and so moved due to a desire to retaliate for individuals sharing the truth. It also seems evident that a performance improvement plan put in place for another employee also was violated after enforced, which a violation of performance due to continually creating a hostile work environment even towards an employee who has not spoke up or said anything, still is retaliation on all involved or who has reported the unethical behavior. This includes making decisions which prevents one from doing their job effectively, not communicating appropriately so one can perform and function effectively to fulfill their job, as well as, not giving the proper sources or funding to keep equipment up to state standards, which is a huge lawsuit when ventilators are not operational. Any action towards anyone after the performance plan which is hostile, bullying, or unethical is considered grounds for immediate termination because it is considered retaliatory behavior because the said violator is upset because they got caught.
As long as the cancer continues to be untreated, it will spread and destroy the whole. It is time to get involved and have an attorney or the state to go in an interview and investigate the entire staff and hospital, as well as, take into account the recent dismissals and those who are left within the past year, whether quitting or working out a notice. All need to submit their information concerning all the allegations involved, then a decision can be made, not a hasty decision when one or a group has not done all due diligence. It does not do any good when the whole commission does he said/she said things and does not consider all involved or if one commissioner acts inappropriate when called to a meeting or acts out of character or integrity only getting feedback then reporting with a he said/she said mentality when the feedback may be misrepresented by one individual. There must be a witness, such as an attorney or legal team, who can sign off on privacy information and thus be a credible source to getting to the bottom of it all, especially if commissioners cannot and are not allowed to be involved as per HIPPA laws. This cannot continue because lives are at stake.