With Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital struggling financially, its governing board voted Wednesday to appeal directly to Gov. John deJongh Jr. to be spared from budget cuts.
"It is no secret OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Director Debra Gottlieb is asking for 25 percent cuts for all departments and agencies, the hospital included," board chair Valdemar Hill said at the board’s regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening.
"I think the time has come for us to formally make the governor aware of the conditions we are facing," he said. According to Hill, the letter would outline not only the financial condition of the hospital, but "what that would mean to the services provided by the hospital if we were obliged to cut 25 percent," he said.
The vote was unanimous with Hill, Jacqueline Heyliger, Imelda Dizon, Dr. Keri Biscoe, Wallace Phaire, Deepak Bansal and Kye Walker voting yea.
In a related move, the board voted to approve a proposal from the hospital to the V.I. Water and Power Authority to very slowly pay its back utilities. Juan Luis’s Chief Financial Officer Rosalie Javois said the hospital currently owes $2.8 million in back utility bills. Hill said he had already spoken with WAPA officials about possibly paying $250,000 a month—the amount needed to stay roughly current on its bills. Should WAPA agree, "in those instances when the WAPA bill is less than $250,000, the difference would go toward the arrearage," Hill said. The hospital paid $250,000 towards its arrearage at that meeting, he said. The board asked Hill to ask if WAPA could waive late fees as part of any deal too.
In other business, the board voted to arrange to hear from Brad Chandler of the Chandler Group Executive Search firm on that company’s proposed fees and terms for finding a new chief executive officer for the hospital. When former CEO Gregory Calliste resigned last summer to take a position in New York, the board promoted Darice Plaskett to acting chief executive and planned to do a thorough international search for a permanent new CEO.
In the fall, the board voted to authorize Carmelo Rivera, then chairman of the board, to negotiate with the headhunting firm Tyler and Company, which was already in the territory handling a similar search for Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas.
The board authorized spending up to $150,000 for the search. Subsequently, the board rescinded that decision and has been considering whether to try to save money by searching with an in-house team or to seek offers from a broader variety of headhunting firms. Tyler and Company has not been eliminated from competition, and the board is still gathering information, Hill said.
The vote to meet with the Chandler Group was unanimous.
