Hospital Board Chair Responds to Judge/Mayor’s Letter

In Tuesday’s newspaper we reported on the joint letter that Fayette County Judge Dan Mueller and La Grange mayor Jan Dockery sent to St. Mark’s Medical Center board chairman Dudley Piland urging the hospital board transfer control of the closed facility to Mississippi-based Progressive Health System, which has expressed interest in reopening the hospital.

Piland shared with The Record his response letter. We are sharing some of Piland’s response here: “On October 3rd Hospital Center of Excellence (HCOE) notified St. Mark’s that they had to “stand down” after the La Grange City Council tabled HCOE’s request to have the City of La Grange guarantee a loan HCOE needed to complete its financing strategy. The St. Mark’s Board had agreed to postpone the closure of the hospital to allow HCOE this last chance opportunity for the viability of their plan; however, if HCOE was unsuccessful, the delay would cause the timing of the closure of the hospital to be almost immediate, given the hospital’s diminishing financial resources. With HCOE’s October 3rd announcement, reasonable and necessary steps to prepare for the closure of the hospital were taken: state and federal licensing and certifying agencies and CMS were notified of the pending closure; employees were issued severance letters and given their last date of employment; a job fair was held and assistance provided for enrollment of unemployment benefits; and suppliers of vital services such as emergency room physician staffing were notified.

Late afternoon on October 11th, Progressive Health System (PHS) was first introduced to the Board by HCOE, a mere 18 hours before the scheduled closing of the hospital. After lengthy discussions which included a legal briefing and admonishments from medical professionals, no St. Mark’s Board member offered a motion to rescind the previous motion calling for the orderly shutdown of the hospital. While the efforts of HCOE and PHS are to be commended, their eleventh hour efforts left insufficient time to analyze any possibility of reversing the steps already taken; insufficient time to conduct any due diligence on what was verbally communicated in the emergency meeting; too much uncertainty and too many unanswered questions. Perhaps the La Grange City Council can relate to that. In my opinion the St. Mark’s Board acted prudently and met their fiduciary obligations.

The St. Mark’s Board continues to have numerous useful functions now. You correctly mentioned the duty of maintaining the shuttered facility. Another significant responsibility is to work with parties interested in the future of the hospital until such time that HUD holds the mortgage and decides how to treat the asset.

Subsequent to the closure of the hospital, numerous discussions have occurred at the local, state and federal levels to explore available paths forward for St. Mark’s. While it will probably be a challenge, there is optimism that there may be a path forward to reopen the hospital. A reopening will require support for the hospital from the local community, political entities and individuals that has not historically been seen, even during the building of the hospital. The future path will also require the approval of the mortgage holder, Lument, and HUD, the mortgage guarantor. That means that we need to have open communication, visible support and congenial collaboration to achieve whatever effort is beneficial to our community.

As I have shared with you and the mayor in the past, the interests of the St. Mark’s Board are aligned with those of Fayette and Lee Counties and the Cities of La Grange and Giddings in as much as we want the hospital to continue to serve the medical needs and continue to be an economic engine of our communities. If we work together, perhaps we can make that happen.”

St. Mark’s Board Updates

In Tuesday’s edition, we printed the names of the members of the St. Mark’s Medical Center Board of Directors. That information was obtained from the hospital’s website, which was partially out of date. Changes to the board include:

• Dr. K. Henderson is no longer on the board.

• Dr. Thomas Borgstedte has been added to the board.

• Jim Kendrick is the Community Hospital Corporation representative on the St. Mark’s Board.

The St. Mark’s website has since been updated to reflect these corrections.