Becker's Hospital Review

65 65 CEO / STRATEGY Georgia hospital CEO asks for buyout amid physician firings backlash By Alyssa Rege T he CEO of Valdosta-based South Geor- gia Medical Center sent a letter to the hospital's governing body asking them to end his contract aer just 15 months, ac- cording to the Valdosta Daily Times. C. Ross Berry, CEO of SGMC, sent a letter to the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lown- des County, which governs the hospital. e letter, written by Mr. Berry's attorney and ob- tained by the Valdosta Daily Times from two different sources, states Mr. Berry's relation- ship with the hospital authority has become untenable and he is no longer able to do his job effectively. e letter asks the hospital authority to pay him three years' worth of his base salary and a lump sum bonus payout of $325,000 to end his contract. It also asks the authority to pay for Mr. Berry's attorney fees and include a nondisparagement agreement. Mr. Berry's attorney stated in the letter the hos- pital authority has until Aug. 17 to make a final decision on Mr. Berry's separation agreement. Mr. Berry and the hospital faced backlash and protests aer firing two of the hospital's lead- ing cardiothoracic surgeons Joe Johnson, MD, and Randall Brown, MD, in July. e surgeons worked at the SGMC CardioVascular Institute. While no reason behind the decision was is- sued at the time, Mr. Berry's letter to the hos- pital authority states, "Aer almost a year of at- tempting to enforce the contractual obligation of the CVI surgeons to abide by the physician by-laws and report to STS for quality monitor- ing as well as discovering non-FDA and IFU approved equipment and medical supplies in the operating room, the physicians were termi- nated without cause," the report stated. However, Mr. Berry and the hospital later re- scinded the decision, allowing the surgeons to work out new contracts during a 90-day period — a move Mr. Berry was allegedly "co- erced" into making, the letter stated. e hospital authority met Aug. 10 and ap- pointed Bill Forbes, assistant administrator at SGMC, interim CEO of the hospital, ac- cording to a second report by the Valdosta Daily Times. n Intermountain cuts 396 jobs, adds 107 in reorganization By Kelly Gooch S alt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare said its operation- al reorganization affected hundreds of positions, according to a Deseret News report. The 22-hospital system said it eliminated 396 positions in the reorga- nization that began late last year, but added 107 new ones. The elim- inated positions were mostly in management, Intermountain leaders told employees in a newsletter cited by Deseret News. Other employees in eliminated positions remained with the system as "part of 1,075 caregivers that now have redesigned jobs and job titles, which include new responsibilities and leadership opportuni- ties," the leaders said in the newsletter. The changes are separate from Intermountain's announcement Jan. 24 that it would transfer about 2,300 nonclinical employees to R1 RCM, according to the report. They are also separate from the health system's announcement in March that it would outsource 98 IT sys- tem employees as a result of a new partnership with Tysons, Va.- based IT services provider DXC Technology. Rob Allen, senior vice president and COO of Intermountain, told De- seret News no more layoffs are anticipated from the reorganization. People in eliminated positions who didn't find another job at Inter- mountain received assistance in their job search, Mr. Allen said. "Unless we address our costs, many people aren't going to be able to afford their healthcare," Intermountain CEO Marc Harrison, MD, said in the newsletter to employees. "And our premiums are going to keep going up, we won't be competitive, and it will be bad for everyone." n UnitedHealthcare's CMO out weeks after taking role By Morgan Haefner P eter Pronovost, MD, PhD, one of the nation's leading patient safety experts, left United- Healthcare weeks after being named CMO in summer 2018, according to the Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal. A spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, confirmed Dr. Pronovost's departure to the publication. The company did not provide any comment about why Dr. Pronovost left. In January, Dr. Pronovost left his posts at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore to become se- nior vice president for clinical strategy at United- Healthcare before becoming CMO. When he an- nounced the move via Twitter in December 2017, he said it would be a "great opportunity to help improve care for millions." Dr. Pronovost spent two decades at Johns Hop- kins in roles as senior vice president for patient safety and quality at John Hopkins Medicine and director of Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Pa- tient Safety and Quality. He is the developer of a checklist protocol to reduce infections associat- ed with central line catheters. n

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