Jennie Stuart Health has scheduled meetings on Monday, Oct. 14, with several community members and elected officials who want the Hopkinsville hospital to delay, and possibly abandon, plans to affiliate with Evansville, Indiana-based Deaconess Health.
Deaconess CEO Shawn McCoy will attend the meetings, according to a letter from Jennie Stuart board chair Leslie Carroll to Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam, Hopkinsville Mayor James R. Knight Jr. and Hopkinsville resident Theresa Nichol, who chairs the recently formed Save Jennie Stuart Inc.
Gilliam and Knight confirmed that they plan to attend a meeting at 11:30 a.m. at Jennie Stuart Medical Center. Nichol said she and three others working with Save Jennie Stuart — retired bank executive Darrell Gustafson, former mayor Dan Kemp and attorney Craig Richardson — were invited to a meeting at 9:30 a.m. Nichol, Gustafson and Kemp are all former hospital board members. Hoptown Chronicle asked to attend one of the sessions. The request was denied. Carroll said Jennie Stuart plans to have open sessions at a later date.
In Carroll’s letter, which she provided to Hoptown Chronicle, she said Jennie Stuart’s board is working with Deaconess to secure the local hospital’s future.
“Our organization has navigated many of the financial pressures facing hospital systems today, but our long-term success requires us to reflect and make thoughtful strategic decisions,” she wrote. “While JSH has the financial foundation needed to sustain our high standard of care for the near-term, we are limited in our ability to invest in the capabilities and technology required of a leading health system.”
Gilliam, Knight and Nichol previously attempted to sit down with Jennie Stuart board members in a meeting they scheduled on Wednesday, Oct. 9, in council chambers at the Hopkinsville Municipal Center. But only two of the 11 hospital board members — Carter Hendricks and DeeAnna Sova — attended the meeting. The other board members either declined or did not respond. A few said they were out of town on vacation for fall break.
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The hospital’s board members signed non-disclosure agreements with Deaconess several months ago, which prevents them from publicly discussing plans to affiliate with Deaconess. Based on their NDAs, Hendricks and Sova did not comment during the Oct. 9 meeting. They listened to concerns and questions raised by the elected officials and Save Jennie Stuart representatives.
The meeting focused on several issues, including:
- Lack of transparency with the community about the Jennie Stuart-Deaconess deal, and the impact of NDAs.
- Reports that Jennie Stuart has ongoing problems with electronic health records (known as EHRs) and billing software that affect its ability to collect revenue.
- Concerns that Deaconess would eventually reduce the number of medical specialists practicing in Hopkinsville, forcing patients to travel to Madisonville or Evansville for treatment they currently get locally.
- Questions about how a Deaconess affiliation might diminish connections between Jennie Stuart and Nashville medical providers.
- The possibility that Jennie Stuart’s workforce will be reduced, causing a negative impact on the local economy.
- Questions about whether Jennie Stuart, as a private, not-for-profit community hospital, is giving up ownership of a local asset that the community could never regain.
Gilliam said he wants the hospital board to slow down and consider allowing a neutral third-party to evaluate its options. He said he believes the deal is a “win-win” for the Evansville group and that Deaconess will not back out if Jennie Stuart takes more time.
“They are not going anywhere,” Gilliam said. “It sounds like a really good deal for them.”
Carroll, in her letter to the group, indicated the hospital board sought outside experts for advice.
“The Board, together with the support of independent Industry-leading financial and legal advisors that specialize in helping health systems navigate today’s challenges, considered potential partnership opportunities with more than a dozen organizations,” she wrote. “This was a thorough, Board-led review over many months, which culminated with our unanimous decision to move forward with Deaconess as the preferred partner for JSH.”
But questions persist about financial pressures related to EHRs and billing, said Bill Nichol, husband of Theresa Nichol and a supporter of the Save Jennie Stuart group.
“I get the bad feeling that there is a committee of the board of directors — call it a steering committee, call it a whatever committee — that is especially attuned to the short-comings of the [health records] system and that’s led to the tail wagging the dog, so to speak,” he said.
The most recent audit indicates the hospital is financially sound, so even if Jennie Stuart is currently experiencing loses related to billing problems, that does not justify “selling the hospital,” he said. “You cannot say that Jennie Stuart is in financial straits or anywhere close to it.”
Bill Nichol, who is retired as CEO of Kentucky Derby Hosiery, criticized the impact of NDAs on the hospital board’s ability to speak openly with the community.
“The NDA puts a big blanket of suspicion over this whole process. I’ve done mergers and acquisitions … including New York Stock Exchange transactions and used NDAs every time I could,” he said. “As the acquirer I wanted the NDA so no one could leak any information that would have been not in my best interest. But the NDAs were all for me, the buyer, and no benefit whatsoever to the seller.
“And that’s worked very, very well for Deaconess. In this case it kept a lid on this thing unbelievably well. That’s part of the suspicion and part of the really bad community feeling that has led to distrust of what’s going on and the lack of transparency. And that, too, can be fixed very easily,” he said.
Knight said that he and city council members are getting many calls from residents who want more information.
“As the mayor and as a citizen of Hopkinsville, I don’t want to lose a community hospital,” Knight said. “I’d hate to see that.”
Deaconess, also a not-for-profit operation, has 23 hospitals, including Deaconess Midtown Hospital in Evansville. In addition, it operates 12 urgent care centers, 46 clinics and 31 outpatient centers, according to its website. Two of its Kentucky facilities are Baptist Health Deaconess Hospital in Madisonville and Deaconess Henderson Hospital in Henderson.
Reports that Jennie Stuart’s board was negotiating a merger or sale began to widely circulate in mid-September, although the hospital’s CEO, Eric Lee, initially said those reports were “pure speculation.” Less than a week later, the board announced it had signed a letter of intent to join Deaconess. It is not known how quickly the board intends to complete a period of due diligence before approving a final deal. The board’s next meeting is Thursday, Oct. 17.
Jennie Stuart’s board members, in addition to Carroll, Hendricks and Sova, are secretary/treasurer Charles Turner, Dr. Tarek Toubia, Dr. Matthew Robinson, Marty Bozarth, Betsy Shelton, Steve Tribble, Hollis White and Dr. Alissa Young.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
