There’s an old saying out there that goes something like this: If one person calls you a donkey, forgive and forget. If two people call you one, think twice. But if three people say the same thing, it’s time to turn around and look for a tail.
When it comes to a lack of transparency and eroding public trust, Whidbey General Hospital is a donkey. Private citizens, former employees, the newspaper, most recently the Island County sheriff and prosecutor, and now the state Auditor’s Office — they’re all asking the same question: “What is going on at that hospital?”
One can’t help but wonder how many have to voice the same question before the commissioners snap to and hear the chorus of people screaming in their faces. Well, here’s the wake-up call, commissioners. There’s a problem at the hospital, and everyone sees it but you.
Big institutions like the hospital, the largest government employer in Island County besides the U.S. Navy at nearly 700 workers, will always have a few people who, for whatever reasons, seem to have it out for the institution. Similarly, small community hospitals will always contend with a host of former patients who swear that doctors there are incompetent, that the cost of medical care is too much, etc.
While those complaints may have some merit, they’re not unusual at hospitals that serve small and isolated communities. Whidbey General has many fine nurses and physicians, but the facility will never offer the same level of service as its metropolitan counterparts — it’s not designed to. As for the price, everything is more expensive on the island, so why would health care be any different?
But there’s something going on beyond the expected moans and groans about Whidbey General Hospital.
Hospital leadership in recent years has been increasingly and alarmingly closed, from changing the commissioners’ regular meeting time to 7 a.m. to the newspapers’ seemingly constant struggle to get information, or for that matter to simply speak with top officials. To this effect, there seems to be a perspective among administrators that we “have it out” for the hospital.
That’s like saying we have it out for Island Transit. Neither is true. We’re just doing our jobs, explaining the facts and describing people’s concerns.
The hospital’s handling of the legal case involving Linda Gipson, chief nursing officer, has been deplorable. The sheriff questioned the hospital’s early defense of Gipson during the investigation, and the prosecutor is shaking his head over the lengths administrators went through to protect Gipson.
The conflicting testimony in court last week of hospital CEO Tom Tomasino and Teresa Fulton, chief quality officer, is further troubling. It’s a strong indication of mismanagement, or worse, and neither possibility improves the hospital’s already shaky public trust.
Now, Whidbey General has been included in a list of public agencies around Washington that failed in recent years to comply with a state law that requires local governments to file financial reports in a timely manner.
Where are the commissioners? Why aren’t they stepping in and demanding accountability? Why does it seem so clear that they are on the side of hospital administration, rather than the people who elected them to serve as their representatives? We urge the commissioners to ask themselves those same questions, and it couldn’t be more evident that we aren’t the only ones doing so.
But, if the message still isn’t clear, here it is again put in a different way.
Hee-hee, hee-haw. Hee-haw. Hee-haw.
