The battle for South County Hospital is heating up. Why two sides are throwing barbs

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – When astir the full squad of hematology oncology providers abruptly resigned from South County Hospital past June, their departure was discreetly announced successful a newsletter to the aesculapian staff.

That whitethorn person been the extremity of it – but that patients and erstwhile aesculapian unit started questioning the hospital’s mentation of events that a divergence of perspectives connected however to grip the crab center’s finances created a rift betwixt the instauration and the providers. Soon an absorption radical formed, which claimed the blasted laic with the hospital’s apical administration.

The absorption group, dubbed Save South County Hospital, held nationalist forums calling connected the hospital’s apical administrators to resign, sent letters to the hospital’s committee and appealed to authorities authorities to intervene. It besides acceptable up a website to property guardant with its nationalist accusation campaign.

The hospital, for its part, launched an full landing leafage connected its website dedicated to “addressing the facts” – defending the hospital’s administration, explaining departures of physicians and the infirmary finances. It besides held quality conferences, assemblage forums, and question-and-answer sessions successful effect to Save South County Hospital’s efforts.

Now, much than fractional a twelvemonth aft it each started, the conflict for South County Hospital is heating up.

On March 11, the infirmary filed a suit against Save South County Hospital and Claudia Swain, a erstwhile improvement enforcement who managed donor relationships.

The suit claims Swain disclosed confidential accusation to Save South County Hospital to person donors to halt financially supporting the hospital.

“Though [Save South County Hospital claims] to advocator for prime care, their actions endanger the precise backing that enables america to support that standard. By targeting donor contributions, they hazard creating the precise lapses successful attraction and prime they profess to oppose,” says a quality merchandise provided by Matt Moeller, manager of selling and communications astatine South County Health, the genitor enactment of South County Hospital.

Save South County Hospital’s Director Steven Fera, a erstwhile cardiologist astatine the hospital, denies that immoderate disclosures of confidential accusation occurred and says that a database of the donors to the infirmary are each connected publically disposable plaques successful the infirmary lobby.

He chalked disconnected the suit arsenic an effort to stifle opposition.

“This suit is thing abbreviated of a shameless, hopeless stunt designed to choke disconnected dissent and screen up the catastrophic fallout of gross mismanagement astatine South County Hospital,” Fera said.

In a abstracted quality merchandise sent to media Wednesday, Save South County Hospital announced it is convening a peculiar gathering of members of South County Health’s endowment connected April 3. At the meeting, which volition beryllium unfastened to the public, members volition question to elite 9 further trustees to the hospital’s committee to “right the hospital’s ship.”

But, successful an email to the media Thursday, Moeller said the gathering did not conscionable the criteria to beryllium considered a gathering of South County Health’s endowment.

“Any decisions oregon votes taken astatine this gathering clasp nary validity oregon authorization to enact alteration astatine [South County Hosptial],” Moeller wrote.

Fera disagrees.

“The gathering has been thoroughly researched by lawyers and is legally capable to beryllium held to supply opportunities for caller enactment astatine the hospital,” helium said.

South County Hospital has an yearly gathering scheduled for April 7, which volition see the committee of trustees, the wellness system’s enforcement enactment and members of South County Health’s corporations. It is not unfastened to the public.

Tension betwixt South County Hospital’s enactment and Save South County Hospital has been gathering since the opening of the year. The radical held a gathering connected Jan. 28 astatine South Kingstown High School, wherever erstwhile patients, providers and stakeholders spoke. About 300 radical attended the event, according to the group.

Earlier successful January, a abstracted radical of much than 60 donors, erstwhile trustees and unit sent a missive to South County Hospital’s Board of Trustees asking the infirmary to rehire the hematology oncology providers who resigned, region CEO Aaron Robinson and prosecute a concern with a larger wellness system. The missive was unaffiliated with Save South County Hospital, though Fera and Chris VanHemerlrijck, besides 1 of the group’s directors, were among its signers.

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected The Providence Journal: South County Hospital suit against absorption group