Eleanor Slater Hospital CEO removed as questions swirl

PROVIDENCE — In the first sign of a shakeup in the top ranks at the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital, Jennifer White has been removed as interim chief executive officer.

In response to a Journal inquiry, Linda Reilly, spokeswoman for the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, confirmed that: "Jen White is no longer the interim CEO of ESH."

White remains chief financial officer "assigned'' to BHDDH, the agency that runs the Eleanor Slater Hospital. 

Many questions remain unanswered, but this one has been answered: Why did White continue to perform in the CEO role - as evidenced by the hospital website - after the temporary assignment officially ended on February 10?

"At the request of [then Director Kathryn] Power, she continued in the role under the leadership of the Director and the hospital leadership,'' spokeswoman LInda Reilly told The Journal on Wednesday..

But another question has not been fully answered: Why was chief medical officer Brian Daly paid $400,551 last year, including $120,025 in what is listed as overtime, at the same time BHDDH embarked on a major cost-cutting drive that eventually included the layoff of frontline doctors? 

“It’s troubling when one highly-compensated administrator somehow earns an additional $100,000 in overtime while physicians and other staff are being laid off. That’s patently offensive to anyone involved with patient care at the Zambarano campus,'' said Cynthia Lussier, president of Local 5019 United Nurses & Allied Professionals.

Late in the day on Tuesday, Reilly told The Journal: Daly was not paid overtime, but he was paid extra for hours spent doing a different job. "That fiscal year ESH had a few psychiatrists out and he had on-call duty due to the shortage,'' she said..

There is no explanation yet for White's apparent demotion. It follows news on Monday that Attorney General Peter Neronha has launched an inquiry into the "ongoing situation" at the state hospital, "particularly as it pertains to patient care." 

Asked about the inquiry, Reilly said: "BHDDH turned over financial documents, patient-related documents, and policy documents."

White's promotion to interim CEO was announced in June, less than an hour before a highly critical deep dive by the House budget-writing committee into financial problems at the hospital.

It followed the resignation, without public explanation, of the hospital’s $251,473-a-year chief operating officer, Cynthia “Cindy” Huether.

BHDDH Director Kathryn Power, who stepped down last week, announced at the time of White's promotion, that White was taking the helm while the agency "explores options for restructuring the hospital and recruits a permanent CEO.“

Lawmakers voiced concern at that time over the seemingly top-heavy staffing: 751 hospital employees in June to care for 210 patients, at a cost of more than $500,000 per patient.

“There’s a disconnect somewhere,’’ Rep. Marvin Abney, the House Finance Committee chairman, said then of the numbers, including the number of consultants hired to do jobs that seemed to repeat those of people on staff.

“I am completely choking on these numbers ... absolutely flabbergasted,’’ added Rep. Camille Vella-Wilkinson as the chief House fiscal adviser, Sharon Reynolds Ferland, ran down the list of contractors BHDDH had hired in recent years without, in her view, any measurable improvements.

More recently, however, legislators' attention has focused on a downsizing plan devised by the consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal, which would effectively close the Eleanor Slater Hospital as it exists today.

The plan includes a smaller building on the Zambarano campus in Burrillville for patients who require the equivalent of long-term nursing-home care.

The only unit of the hospital still accepting admissions is the so-called "forensic unit'' for court-ordered patients. Under the "redesign,'' this would be relicensed as an "Institute for Mental Disease."

Long-held concerns about the state hospital, which has been financially and administratively troubled for years, were heightened last July when patients' family members received unsigned letters from BHDDH that said their loved ones no longer needed hospitalizations and would be discharged.

The letters said family members could appeal, state mental health advocate Megan Clingham told The Journal.

Zambarano’s retired physician administrator/medical director Normand L. Decelles Jr.  alleged that Slater administrators "mounted an increasing pressure campaign against ESH physicians," including "verbal intimidation," to get doctors at the hospital to sign discharge forms stating that patients "did not need continued care at Zambarano."

On Monday, Decelles confirmed: "An investigator contacted me.  He explained that the [attorney general] was looking into hospital operations but did not specify details."

As of March 18, eight state hospital staffers had been laid off, including at least two doctors, and possibly two more. Thirteen other layoffs dating back to December were described as pending.

That layoff list included telephone operators, janitors, a housekeeper, and an "adaptive equipment design and fabricator."

Power resigned, effective last Friday, citing a family member's health issue.

That same day, Gov. Dan McKee announced that he had asked state Health and Human Services Secretary Womazetta Jones to take charge of the embattled agency that runs the state hospital.on an interim basis.

Asked who is running the hospital, Reilly said: Jones, as the BHDDH interim director,  "has key personnel at [Eleanor Slater Hospital] reporting to her."