Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, St. John’s Health was thrown into a situation where it was challenged in a way no one ever expected. And it certainly rose to the occasion. In addition, the St. John’s Health Foundation, in coordination with the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, saw and addressed a need for mental health services that had been unprecedented (or perhaps underestimated). The burnout of our health care workers in an extended COVID environment, in addition to the enormous escalation in home values, presented an insurmountable challenge for so many individuals and families in our community.
When I left the board three years ago we had seen a stream of successes, with the hospital on its feet like never before. Under the leadership of two strong CEOs, Lou Hochheiser and Paul Beaupre, the hospital received five-star ratings from the centers for Medicaid and Medicare in both the Living Center and the hospital proper. The Quality Committee initiated processes that, though expensive and time consuming, changed the standard of care. This level of progress, executed by our amazing staff, also brought a level of patient satisfaction and employee pride that made St. John’s a premier rural hospital.
When I was on the board we completed the Wellness Center, bringing preventive well-care to our own employees and many in the community; we broke ground at Sage Living to provide desperately needed housing to our growing elderly community; and we grew and expanded outreach and health education to our rural communities.
Unfortunately, in the midst of COVID a new CEO search took place and a misfire ensued. There was a lot of concern within the hospital community as well as the broader community about the decisions being made during this time. I think what we were all looking for was not a hammer to pound the board but perhaps a better explanation of how this hire unfolded. We all learn from these experiences, and they are expensive. Not just in recruiter consulting fees and contract payouts but, more importantly, in employee morale.
As a health advocate and previous public relations executive I was taught to both anticipate and be proactive in representing the interest of patients, hospital employees — at all levels, from the people who disinfect our surgery suites, maybe the most important job, to our nursing staff all the way up to the C suite — and the broader community at large.
Being proactive and teaching patient literacy enables us to provide the best standard of care possible, because everyone is informed, knows what questions to ask and can ultimately, in conference with their family and health care professional, make the best decisions for their individual health care needs.
The Board of Trustees should function in the same fashion. And while acknowledging that during a drawn-out pandemic crisis it is difficult for anyone to see through the dust, there are decisions that feel like they are being made in a vacuum with very little input from outside the conference room. It is time once again to pull back the curtains, take a big breath of fresh air, open up the lines of communication and begin a dialogue from within the hospital and out to the larger community. This is a community hospital. It functions best when everyone participates and anticipates its needs now and into the future.
The hospital has asked for $25 million in specific purpose excise tax funding for housing. In addition, the hospital will need to raise from the community an estimated $50 million to $75 million to complete a large apartment building across from the street. While we all know that housing is an enormous issue in every sector of our community, $100 million is an enormous amount of money. If we had $100 million to spend on wages, an outpatient surgical center (where we make our income to provide all of our other services), expanded preventive care clinics and accessible and expanded payment systems, imagine what that would look like. Not to mention the costs to the hospital to become real estate managers and landlords. We are a health care institution.
These are questions I didn’t see even contemplated during the decision-making process, which also saw the sudden exit of the foundation president and, before that, most of his staff. Some questions I would have liked answered:
1. Is it more feasible and can we provide the kind of housing that will keep employees with growing families in the valley by participating in and advocating for housing in the Gill and Lockhart South Park community instead of spending close to $100 million on our own apartment building?
2. Will employees who we want to become entrenched and part of the culture of this community that we all hold so dear want to live in apartments all together across the street from their work?
3. As the community grows and real estate becomes more and more scarce, is using the property where the Hitching Post lies the most practical use for that site when there are other areas (South Park) much better situated and planned for community housing?
4. We are in desperate need of a behavioral health center that coordinates the services of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center, the Curran-Seeley Foundation and many of our invaluable behavioral health services. With mental health being the No. 1 concern in this community for several years counting and what we’ve garnered from the overwhelming cry for help when free counseling was offered during the COVID crisis, we could use property adjacent to the hospital to provide room for this and other invaluable services.
5. We know we are in desperate need of psychiatric beds. When people with mental health issues stay in jail for months at a time because they cannot get the evaluations and care they need, we are in real trouble.
Yes, housing is an issue. And yes, at the end of the day the hospital may have considered all of these factors. But where is it?
I’d like to see, in addition to the financials that say that without the added income from an outpatient surgical Center — which was supposedly lined up right after the completion of the Sage Living Center where the $5 million tunnel will now go — how we are supposed maintain the level of care and salaries we need and keep employees here for long careers in an apartment building.
Remember, during election season it’s “Your hospital. Your voice.”
Elizabeth Masek served on the board of trustees for St. John’s Health for six years and the hospital foundation for over 10 years. She is not a candidate in the upcoming election.
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