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McKinley County threatens to terminate hospital lease

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RMCHCS Board has under one month to HIRE CEO

For months now, McKinley County citizens have been expressing their displeasure with the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services and more specifically the company that has been running the hospital for a year and a half now.

From down phone lines to an interim CEO that isn’t around as much as locals may like, citizens have been voicing their concerns about the hospital. The Community Health Action Group has held multiple town halls, protests, and community meetings to help citizens voice their concerns.

McKinley County has a lease with the Community Hospital Corporation, based out of Plano, TX, which runs the hospital. The county and CHC have been in the new lease for three months.

After listening to the community’s complaints for many months, the commissioners have held multiple closed sessions about the hospital lease and whether they should maintain it.

But during the March 14 Board of Commissioners meeting, commissioners finally came to the decision to begin the termination process for the lease.

In an interview with the Sun on March 15, county attorney Doug Decker explained that the company has 180 days to meet the commissioner’s conditions.

On March 17, McKinley County manager Anthony Dimas Jr. sent a letter to RMCHCS Board Chairman Steve McKernan listing out the county’s conditions.

The conditions the hospital needs to meet in order to avoid termination include hiring a new CEO, who should begin their new role no later than April 15; open and transparent communication with RMCHCS employees and the community; and finally, continued communication with county commissioners and county management.

In an email to the Sun, Dimas said he would be sitting down with McKernan in the near future to begin discussions about how the hospital plans on enacting the aforementioned terms.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Sun March 15, Commissioner Billy Moore talked about how difficult the termination decision was for commissioners.

“It was a very hard decision, because if they do decide to say, ‘heck with you guys, we’re gone’ then we’ve got to start all over. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to go forward,” Moore said.

Moore said he is hoping the hospital and the county can work things out.

Critics of hospital management see a bright spot in the commission’s recent decision.

Physician Connie Liu, spokesperson for the Community Health Action Group, expressed her gratitude towards the commissioners.

“We are grateful to the county commission for listening to the evidence that members have spent months gathering, and demonstrating that they are listening to the community,” Liu said.

CHAG has led the community’s effort to spur the hospital into making changes that will improve employee work conditions, patient care, and transparency. The group conducted surveys with current and former hospital employees about the problems they see with the hospital.

During a county commission meeting held on Oct. 18, CHC said that nurses and doctors were leaving the hospital for higher pay. In a March 15 press release, CHAG said based on their findings, that wasn’t true.

Out of 12 former RMCHCS nurses CHAG interviewed, only two said they left for financial reasons.

RMCHCS interim CEO Don Smithburg did not return calls for comment as of press time.

View CHAG’s results: www.rmchisourhospital.com

By Molly Ann Howell
Sun Correspondent

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