Tomasino has failed WGH and us | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To the editor: Last week Whidbey General Hospital gave 10 transcriptionists 60 days layoff notice. Some may say that their layoffs are just an unfortunate sign of our economic times. But at Whidbey General “unfortunate signs” are only for non-administrators.

September 15, 2011 10:42 am

To the editor:

Last week Whidbey General Hospital gave 10 transcriptionists 60 days layoff notice. Some may say that their layoffs are just an unfortunate sign of our economic times. But at Whidbey General “unfortunate signs” are only for non-administrators.

What would happen to administrators if released without cause?

The chief human resource officer, Carolyn Pape, chief operating officer Hank Hanigan, chief financial officer Joe Vessey, director of quality and patient safety Teresa Fulton and the chief nursing officer would receive a very nice package right out the taxpayers’ checkbooks. You and I would give them: nine months salary and benefits, (including medical, dental and vision coverage) and up to $10,000 in outplacement services to assist them in “employment opportunities.” Apparently CEO Tom Tomasino with his quarter-million-dollar plus annual package gets an even sweeter deal.

If austerity measures are required then they must be shared at the top. But at Whidbey General Hospital there is a “them,” the employees, who get dumped on the street — and there is an “us,” the administration, who gets the golden parachute.

One thing that doesn’t exist at WGH is a team. This administration is generous in feathering its own mattress, but is unwilling to pay employees for years of overtime underpayments. And why over the past six months have there been resignations from one administration position and six department managers? These are resignations with no good byes. They just packed up their paper clips and were out the door.

With a little over two years of Tom Tomasino’s “leadership,” the fabric of Whidbey General Hospital, a critical community asset, is unraveling. He has brought us labor law violations, Medicare billing infractions, a failed bond measure, a derailed ADP payroll system and an increase of administration positions from three to five. Now he is gutting the hospital’s managerial core, which on a day-to-day basis holds it all together.

It is time to end this failed on-the-job-trainee CEO experiment.

TOM LEAHY

Freeland