Former ER doctor's words speak volumes

I finished reporting and writing a story yesterday on a new health clinic that opened this week in downtown Amarillo on the campus of Park Central Retirement Community.
It is a staffed by a former emergency room doctor at Northwest Texas Hospital, Dr. John Turner, whom I spoke with for the story.
He didn’t offer many kind words to his former employer.
Turner came to Amarillo and Northwest through EmCare, a Dallas-based company that works to staff emergency departments for hospitals. Northwest turned to EmCare after its group of ER doctors bolted for Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital.
The move ruffled the feathers of Northwest brass and caused a stir in how Northwest staffs and runs its emergency room.
“They’re still dealing with their turmoil there,” Turner said very frankly.
Turner added physicians were promised things upon their arrival to Northwest that haven’t happened.
He said Northwest Chief Executive Kyle Sanders, who took control of the hospital this summer, has pinpointed Northwest’s ER as an area of improvement. Turner said Sanders has targeted certain ER doctors trying to force the physician’s hand.
“I was happy to leave,” Turner said.
Turner’s words point to at least one focus area for new Northwest boss Sanders; emergency care.
Sanders has also succeeded in ridding the hospital of an ambulance provider in his short tenure.
But if what Turner says is true, then Northwest is still feeling the effects of a move from its chief rival made nearly two years ago.

Funny story I wanted to pass along

Two nurse friends of mine at Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital were surfing the Internet early Saturday morning to catch the latest news on their boss, former Chief Executive John Hicks, who had suddenly left the hospital the day before.
A security guard, I’m told, approached the nurses and told them to leave the Web site of the Amarillo Globe-News, Amarillo.com.
The security guard had received orders to enforce the rule. The reader comments on the site were “too negative,” the nurses remembered being told.

Silence speaks volumes

A gentle voice answered the phone at Bob Schneider’s Wolflin home Monday night.
“He’s not home right now,” the woman answered when I asked for Bob, the chairman of the board of trustees for Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System.
As I left a message with her, I explained I was a reporter for the Globe-News and was hoping to speak with him for a story I'm pursing on BSA.
“I’m not sure he wants to do that,” she said, her naive honesty seeping through the phone.
Her words didn’t surprise me. I didn’t expect to hear from or speak to Schneider when I called. I believed trying to reach him at his home was important needing to give him an opportunity to speak.
Schneider, like every other board member or person direct knowledge regarding the recent leaving of BSA Chief Executive John Hicks, is as tight lipped as ever.
There are not many people who know first hand what happened to Hicks. While anybody can speculate or try to inquire on their own, only these few people will know why Hicks suddenly left after 13 years at BSA’s helm.
There was no indication this was coming for the man previously believed to be extremely secure in his job.
Schneider and every other board member, none have ever returned a call concerning any story, have every right to maintain silence on what boils down to a personnel matter.
But this is different. Hicks was not a rank-and-file nurse or staffer. He was the longtime chief with an annual compensation of roughly $1 million.
BSA is one of the largest employers in Amarillo and the largest hospital in nearly 120 miles. The leadership of BSA sets policy that impacts the health care of an entire region. When that leadership changes, questions should be answered.
Why? Why did Hicks leave? Was he really fired? If so, for what reason or reasons?
The first and only time I ever reached Schneider via phone it was nearly two years ago. He hung up on me.
“We have a spokeswoman to answer your questions,” he said referring to BSA spokeswoman Mary Barlow.
Click. He ended the conversation right then with no chance for me to explain myself.
Hicks’ leaving BSA is one of the biggest stories to come out of Amarillo’s medical community in recent months.
The public may never find answers to its questions if the philosophy of the board’s current leadership doesn’t change.

Baptist executive in Amarillo says he wasn't involved in hospital CEO's leaving

The chief executive of Baptist Community Services on Monday denied any notion of his involvement in the ousting of John Hicks, chief executive of Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System who suddenly left the hospital system last week with no reason given.
“If you asked me why he left, I could not tell you,” said Tim Holloway, who was CEO of High Plains Baptist Hospital from 1977 to 1996. “There was a wall built, and I asked for it.”
The board of Baptist Community Services, which owns half of BSA, appoints half of the 12-member BSA board of trustees. Catholic partner Christus Health, which owns the other half of the hospital system, also appoints six board members.
It was a meeting between Hicks and the executive committee of the BSA board, made of three BCS and three Christus appointees, that resulted in Hicks’ leaving. Neither Hicks, the hospital nor its board stated a reason for the separation.
Hicks was named BSA CEO after the 1996 merger of High Plains Baptist and St. Anthony’s hospitals.
Holloway said Monday he removed himself from discussions involving an important BSA matter when it came up a couple of weeks ago.
“It was suggested that I not be involved in any conversations involving BSA, and I agreed with that,” Holloway said. “When somebody said that, I said ‘Fine. That suits me.'"
Holloway said he couldn’t recall who pitched the suggestion or when exactly it came.
“I have no, nada, zero input into the operations of that organization,” Holloway said of BSA.
The issue Holloway referred to, which eventually led to Hicks’ leaving, involved closed-door meetings and phone calls from BCS Senior Vice President Steve Dalrymple. Dalrymple sits on the six-member executive committee that met with Hicks.
Holloway also said the failed sale of its half of BSA to its Catholic partner last year now means nothing to the BCS board who appoints the BSA board that hires and fires the hospital chief.
BCS pitched the idea of selling its 50 percent stake in the hospital system to Christus. BCS withdrew the offer late last year after widespread backlash against the sale.
“It is a dead issue, capital D-E-A-D,” he said of the possible sale.
Holloway said Hicks, who was outspokenly against the sale of the hospital, was just doing what he thought was best for BSA.
“I wasn’t his best friend. He wasn’t my best friend, but if I saw him today, I would shake his hand,” Holloway said. “People are trying to make something out of this.”

The answer may not be so simple

Why was John Hicks fired?
It’s been the million-dollar question all weekend from people I’ve spoken with.
The question makes the assumption that Hicks was fired and didn’t spontaneously resign after 13 years on the job.
It is still a burning question and a relevant one until someone in the know answers it directly.
I’ve heard almost a different answer from each person who dares offer one.
Hicks fraternized with female employees.
He won’t take a pay cut.
They’ve lost big contracts recently.
BSA was too frivolous with spending.
Public reaction to executive salaries was too negative after multiple rounds of lay offs.
Hicks’ relationship with the board turned sour after the failed attempt by Baptist Community Services to sale its half to its Catholic partner.
Charges on antitrust violations are coming from the state and the board wants to save face now.
The list goes on.
Here is my question to those who care to answer: Why can’t it be several of those things?
People keep asking for the one answer. Maybe it is listed above and maybe not.
But after nearly 14 years at the helm of the hospital, an eternity for an executive, why not say board members wanted a change in leadership while BSA continues to lose market share to Northwest Texas Healthcare System?
Until more information comes forth or until someone on BSA’s board of trustees speaks publicly, we may never know.
Rather than searching for one simple, clear-cut answer, why can’t the reason for Hicks’ leaving be a series of issues over time led to the board wanting to make a change?

ANALYSIS: What Northwest's leaving may mean for the future of HRMCI

The dispute between the Amarillo Area Foundation and the Harrington Regional Medical Center Inc. recently receiving great attention can be a bit hard to understand.
To summarize the issue, the AAF wants to take control of HRMCI’s land, money and authority after the medical center has decided to sale some of its undeveloped land. This was land donated to it when the medical center was created.
The AAF, who once controlled the medical center before creating HRMCI in the 1980s, is upset the group hasn’t donated the land to qualified nonprofit health providers and educational centers.
Wednesday afternoon brought significant news; Northwest Texas Healthcare System withdrew its HRMCI membership effective immediately.
When initial news broke last week that Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System withdrew from HRMCI, the medical center wrote it off as BSA thumbing its nose at the rest of town.
When the AAF wrote a harsh piece this week criticizing the HRMCI’s leadership and land deals, HRMCI wrote it off as a political gesture.
When Northwest announced Wednesday it would leave the group, HRMCI leaders were silent. The hospital said it backed the AAF in its efforts.
Northwest’s leaving proves the displeasures with HRMCI are more widespread. This is more than just political bickering of one hospital or outside organization.
The two largest hospitals in Amarillo have now left greatly hurting any future influence of the medical center.
It figures HRMCI now has to do something.

If members - powerful members - continue to leave, the medical center will have no members left and could essentially disappear. It may have no choice but to hand itself over to the AAF.
The medical center’s leaders say they will release a statement in the near future. We’ll see what they have to say.

Land dispute years in the making

I wrote this for this piece for the story in today’s paper on the whole Harrington Regional Medical Center-Amarillo Area Foundation dispute:

The issue of selling/donating land dates back to at least the early 1990s when High Plains Baptist Hospital, now called Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital, sought to buy the land along Wallace Boulevard across from itself and the Harrington Cancer Center.
“We couldn’t negotiate a price that was acceptable to us as best as I could remember,” said Steve Dalrymple, then senior vice president and general counsel for High Plains Baptist Hospital.
High Plains was looking for additional parking space, he said, but instead the hospital expanded its existing employee lot.
Steve Gens, president of the Harrington Regional Medical Center, remembered a different scenario. The hospital was looking for the land to be donated, but Gens said High Plains Baptist wouldn’t disclose how it would use it.
Later, High Plains would withdraw from the medical center, “but it was for a number of reasons, not just this land deal,” Dalrymple said. “We were looking to save some money,”
When High Plains merged with St. Anthony’s Hospital in the middle of last decade, BSA joined the organization only to withdraw last week.
“I think it’s been an ongoing issue since the medical center organization has chosen to sell property,” Dalrymple said. “I know some organizations had trouble with that.”

Still strong feelings after years

Me: With your new cancer center, there are now three on one-mile stretch of road that basically offer the same breast cancer services for patients. How can all three stay in business?
Glenna Henderson: “You realize that’s a politically charged question?”
Glenna was right. I asked her that question yesterday afternoon for a story that appeared in today’s Globe-News.
It was on Texas Oncology’s new Breast Center, a diagnostic imaging center for breast cancer screening and analysis. Glenna is the administrator at Texas Oncology.
Here’s why my question was politically charged:
Many of the physicians who make up Texas Oncology worked at Harrington Cancer Center before Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System bought it out. That move came in 1996, but still there is bad blood over the move.
Many doctors didn’t want to work for the hospital and didn’t agree with how it would handle many administrative decisions on treatment options.
So some oncologists formed their own practice in Texas Oncology. Their new Breast Center now competes directly with BSA’s Comprehensive Breast Center, which was run by Dr. John “Chip” Coscia for nearly four years. Coscia now runs Texas Oncology’s breast cancer unit.
Do you see what I’m getting at?
It’s been more than four years since talks began for BSA to take over Harrington, yet feelings are still strong.
Numerous doctors in Amarillo have strong opinions about the heavy-handed way in which BSA operates.
This Harrington buyout has been one case in which doctors not been afraid to speak out against BSA.
In a town in which political correctness reigns supreme, such open discussion is refreshing.