Never Forget Fridays: Beaufort County relinquishes its hospital for a song - a rather short one | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: new series on old posts; lest we forget. Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson is drawing the ire of the former UHS Cheerleaders, who demonstrated hard to give the former Beaufort County Hospital away for a pittance rather than realize the facilities intrinsic value. It appears that inside Hood believes that economic viability of Vidant Beaufort may cause them to cut services and limit jobs, and he is being quite vocal about it.

    The former UHS Cheerleaders, now Vidant Cheerleaders, are continuing to retort by, um ... cheerleading. Below is the post explaining the nexus of that one sided deal, which occurred, and then was chronicled, and originally published in Summer of 2011.

Beaufort County's board of commissioners voted 5-2 to lease and then sell Beaufort County's Medical Center for 10 million dollars, at the option of the purchaser for thirty years.

    Commissioner Jay McRoy, who served on the hospital board for over 10 years, read the four-page resolution that will convey the authority to operate as a medical center under the UHS management team. After Commissioner McRoy read the resolution, a motion by Commissioner McRoy was seconded by Commissioner Robert Cayton. No discussion or commentary was offered until Commissioner Hood Richardson read a detailed statement explaining why he would vote no.

   Commissioner Deatherage next read a broader statement as to why he would also vote no. Both statements are shown here below in the order that they were presented:

   Also shown below the statements is the link to the resolution that was later signed by Beaufort County Commissioner Chairman Jerry Langley.

    BEAUFORT COUNTY HOSPITAL (statement by Commissioner Richardson)

    The vote we are about to make on the future of our hospital is important. It is important for the future of health care in Beaufort County. It, however, is not earth-shattering, because we have a good provider within 25 miles. This vote is important because it signifies lost opportunity and failure.

    One lost opportunity is the ability to control and determine the future of health care by the citizens of Beaufort County. Another is financial. Our citizens will have no opportunity of future participation in the financial benefits of owning this hospital. I believe we are giving away 50 million dollars in real estate and business value. This hospital handles about 70 million dollars each year and should pay to the County a dividend of at least two million dollars each year in compensation for the investment the County has made in the property. This dividend would reduce taxes.

    Some have said "this is not about money." If this were your personal money, your would speak, believe and act to protect it. Every board member has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers of Beaufort County and 50 million is too much of their money to give away.

    The opportunity to have a say in the future of health care in Beaufort County is important simply because of present uncertainty in our socialized health care system. Over the next few years major strategic decisions will be made in the health care industry and the people of Beaufort County will not be at the table where those decisions are being made. And while many of you and others in the County may have faith in UHS, the fact of the matter is that we do not know who will be making our health care decisions over the next thirty years.

    Aside from giving away 50 million dollars in value we are accepting undetermined future liabilities that could run into the tens of millions of dollars. What makes this so bad is that we have no way of knowing what those liabilities may be.

    There are many things that contributed to this failure:

   1. The driving away of all suitors by less than 1% of the population of Beaufort County while favoring only one has resulted in a "take it or leave it" one sided deal.
   2. The failure of the Hospital Board to properly oversee the management of the business of the hospital
   3. The failure of the County Commissioners to demand (early on) that the Hospital Board perform its fiduciary duty.
   4. The decision of the County Commissioners to appoint an authority board which removed the management of the hospital from the direct control of the County Commissioners and thus made it unaccountable to the people.
   5. The failure of the Hospital Board to supervise day to day operations, particularly the collection of accounts and to know on a timely basis where the money was being lost.
   6. The decision of the Hospital Board to assume liabilities of medical practices with out an effective business plan to insure the fiscal viability of each practice.
   7. The failure of the Hospital Board to identify and take action on red flags from a variety of sources, including audit reports and complaints from the public, the staff and patients.
   8. The inability to obtain a majority vote of either the Hospital Board or the County Commissioners to seek bankruptcy court protection.

   This list is by no means complete and is intended only to indicate the magnitude of failure.

    The citizens of Beaufort County deserve to know precisely and completely how the hospital failure occurred. They have a right to the information that UHS and our hospital staff have generated. It is important that the County Commission assess what went wrong and what could have been done to prevent this catastrophe in order that it not happen in some other County function.

    I cannot vote to dispose of the ownership of our Hospital.

   Giving Away the Hospital (statement by Commissioner Deatherage)

    This sad state of affairs, regarding Beaufort County's Hospital, speaks to a variety of issues that have long been at the heart of why Beaufort County cannot make positive headway toward making any real progress in these modern times.

    The community of the one idea, irrespective of all the facts, seriously damaged the principle in how our hospital was managed, and, ultimately, how its very future was negotiated.

    The collective mentality of the "means justifies the end" did cast a poor light on this county, in the way that some, who may would have the upper hand, did do the county's business to effect the negotiation of this medical center's future in its sell to only UHS.

    To become a party to this behavior, which is so alien to the way I do business, would be untenable, and therefore, I will not lend credence to this process with my vote.

    I do pray, however, that this endeavor between Beaufort County and UHS will be successful, although at this time, I would prefer almost all alternatives.

   Resolution to Relinquish the Beaufort County Hospital