The next Hazel Hawkins Hospital Board meeting is expected to take place Thursday, March 28 at 5 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Great Room in the Support Services Building.
A memo reportedly written by Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital Board President Josie Sanchez and shared at the board’s Feb. 28 public meeting became a matter of serious contention. Board member Jeri Hernandez read the undated, unsigned correspondence (see PDF below) which claimed that board member Ariel Hurtado pressured Ken Underwood, the hospital’s CEO, to begin a search for a hospital management company. Hurtado told BenitoLink he strongly disagreed with the memo’s claim, calling it a lie.
Hurtado was out of town during the board meeting and so did not participate. Neither did Sanchez, who was receiving medical treatment.
BenitoLink was unable to confirm with Sanchez that she wrote the memo—she is still receiving medical treatment—but Hernandez said Sanchez did write it.
The written memo said that in December a majority of board members instructed Underwood to begin the search, and that in February, Sanchez told him to end the search, as Underwood stated that there were no responses to the Request for Proposals (RFP) that he had sent out.
Recently elected board member Mary Casillas told BenitoLink she did not know about the memo until the February board meeting. Hurtado was not aware of it until he was informed by BenitoLink.
In conflict with the memo was a March 5 letter (see PDF below) provided by Underwood that he sent to Teresa Mack, a California Nurses Association (CNA) representative, claiming the RFP was not agendized at any meeting and that he could conduct a search for a management company without the board’s authorization.
In January, upon hearing rumors that a management company was being sought, a group of Hazel Hawkins nurses met with Underwood to discuss it, according to registered nurse Diane Beck. Underwood told the nurses he was studying management companies because Hurtado wanted it done. About 25 nurses were at the February meeting to protest against the search.
On March 20, BenitoLink requested copies of the RFP (see PDF below) and names of the management companies it was sent to. The hospital complied with this request on March 25 (see PDFs below). The companies include Huron Healthcare, Navigant, Putnam Associates, Quorum Health Corporation, and WIPFLI.
‘A major decision’
Hurtado told BenitoLink that he asked the other board members for a meeting to discuss the possibility of hiring a management company, but then Sanchez became ill and the meeting did not take place. He said working with a board, he could not make such a study happen on his own. He said he doubted Sanchez had anything to do with the memo that Hernandez read at the Feb. 28 board meeting.
In addition, Hurtado said that Underwood cannot and should not undertake a search for new management without board approval.
“Anything that involves the overall direction of the hospital like this, which is a major decision, needs to go through the five board members,” he said. “A search like that shouldn’t be initiated by an employee of the hospital, which is what he is. It needs to come from up above. That’s the reason we have a board of directors, to provide checks and balances, and oversight for decisions like this.
“The board president doesn’t have any more authority than any other member of the board,” Hurtado said. The president’s position is, he continued, “just to run the meetings and break tie votes. They don’t have an executive function within the board. It wouldn’t be fair because we’re all voted in by districts, so one district does not have more power than another. This is why it is important to elect board members who have the qualifications to run a $100 million business.”
‘Not the way it works’
“I have absolutely no reason to lie or deceive the public, the nurses and my fellow board members with taking action by my Chairperson’s request,” Hernandez said when asked if the letter was really from Sanchez.
Hurtado said that after the meeting that he requested was canceled, he waited until Feb. 25 to announce that he would not be at the Feb. 28 meeting.
“Rumors started flying around the hospital that ‘Hurtado wants a management company and he’s bringing people to see the hospital,’” Hurtado said. “That’s a 100 percent lie. I never talked to anyone. That’s not the way it works.
“I don’t run the board by myself,” he continued. “There are five of us. My preference is to get a new CEO. I didn’t have enough support from the board to rework his contract and it was renewed automatically. I’ve been trying to work with the board to do things.”
Casillas, who was elected to the board in November and joined it in late December, told BenitoLink that she wasn’t aware of an ongoing search for a management company, and she did not see the memo before it was read at the Feb. 28 meeting.
She added that if there was no meeting to authorize the search, she didn’t blame Hurtado for being upset.
Hernandez insisted that Hurtado alone had ordered the search.
“This was a bad idea brought on by a board member who had requested that we look into a management group to oversee the direction that this individual felt our hospital was going in,” she said. “The CEO did his job by responding to a board member’s request. Yes, I fully agree with his decisions to act on requests from his board members whenever directed to do so.”
The Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital meeting schedule is posted on their website under the Board of Directors tab. The next public meeting is scheduled for March 28 at 5 p.m.
Other related BenitoLink articles:
Hazel Hawkins Hospital struggles to keep its doors open
As partnership talks collapse, Hazel Hawkins financial picture shows serious stress
No bailout yet for Hazel Hawkins Hospital
Salinas Valley turns down partnership with Hazel Hawkins Hospital
Pediatrix Medical Group to join Hazel Hawkins Hospital
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