As Estes Park Health (EPH) prepares for an affiliation or acquisition, nine former employees have come forward to the Estes Valley Voice to express concerns about internal management issues they say have affected staff morale at the hospital and clinic.
The situation these former employees tell is one of emotional abuse, working in a demeaning, hostile environment, being afraid to express professional opinions, and being verbally encouraged to quit.
Eight of the former employees are women and one is male. None are rookie health care
employees. All had worked at EPH for anywhere between five to 34 years; all fulfilled direct patient care positions; and all but one requested anonymity due to fear of being blacklisted from future employment in the medical field.
The Estes Valley Voice agreed to their requests prior to obtaining comments from the former employees. However, in an attempt to verify the veracity of the charges the former employees made, when one respected community member and former employee was asked, he rubbed his forehead, said “you cannot use my name,” and confirmed the individuals’ stories. “They’re not exaggerating,” he said.
Twelve-year Estes Park Health veteran employee Summer Twambly is the only former employee agreed to allow her name to be used. Twambly has a new position at a Loveland
hospital and after a discussion between her attorney and the medical center’s attorney at Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C. in Denver took place earlier this month, Twambly said she was “willing to put myself out there to advocate for the community.”
Twambly said she originally petitioned the Estes Park Health Board of Directors in June, asking that a third party be hired to review working conditions, disciplinary, and oversight methods used by supervisors and management personnel.
The stories recounted by Twambly and the other eight former employees include examples of experiences that resulted in them labelling EPH as a “toxic workplace” where they endured insults, verbal abuse, a culture of fear, targeted retaliation, and bullying.
In an interview with the Estes Valley Voice, Estes Park Health CEO Vern Carda and Pat Samples, Director of Nursing, initially were reluctant to address the charges because they involved personnel issues. However, Samples agreed the claims were not attributable to one specific individual and said, “Have we had bullying culture? Every organization has it. We work on it. We address it.”
The individuals who came forward to be interviewed for this story would not agree.
Some instances of excessive supervisory reaction cited by more than one former employee had nothing to do with patient care, but rather the use of the health care center’s internal email system.
Twambley recounted that after trying to organize a farewell party for a colleague through email she was “pulled into a supply closet and told “’that was not my role’.” She said she also was instructed that prior to sending any further emails, she had to obtain approval from management.
Another employee told of being harshly reprimanded in front of other employees, in violation of her privacy. Yet another talked of a supervisor threatening dismissal if she ever again told a coworker about her experiences in being disciplined.
Not speaking to cohorts about concerns was a common comment. “I was told I needed to be careful who I communicated with, as it might appear that I was trying to turn staff against administration,” one individual reported.
One employee reported to begin her shift for the day, but found her key card did not allow her entrance to her work area. When asking employees in the technology area to fix the problem, the response was, “Vern (Carda) told me you’d been fired.”
Being encouraged to resign was not uncommon. “My manager asked why I was still there,” one person said. Another reported, “My last manager threated to fire me, and asked why I wasn’t looking for another job.”
Wanting to discuss specific issues surrounding directives created explicit conflict between staff and management. “If I pushed back against the agenda, observing its cause and detrimental effect, I was treated as a threat,” one person said.
Several of the former employees talked of being presented with ever-changing procedural
instructions that if not complied with 100% of the time, resulted in reprimands.
Changes in the CEO, CNO (chief nursing officer) and multiple directors combined with
“implementation of new and changing standards, ultimately weeded out long-term employees,” said one former employee who voluntarily left EPH after working there for 6 years. “This shifted the culture into one of fear, targeting, retaliation in vulnerability, and lack of accountability.”
Having to change standards cannot be totally ascribed to leadership at Estes Park Health,
Samples said. In fact, she points out that the need for new standards can be directly attributed to recovery from the Covid pandemic that hit the nation in 2020.
“We lost ground in quality of care in the world. To try to catch back up with that, as a country and individual health systems, there has been a lot of work with a lot of oversight from our state health department and the CDC. When quality is impacted, that impacts everybody.” Samples explained.
“Our goal here is to encourage hiring people that have the ability and desire to be a professional. I expect that behavior every time you’re here—to be professional. That’s not up for discussion as far as I’m concerned,” Samples said.
The biggest stressor EPH has is “getting back in line with all the quality indicators,” she said. “The culture we’re looking for, and continuing to work on, is a culture of ownership and accountability. A culture where staff say, ‘can you help me?’ versus lying and hiding so that you take pride in what you do, and are accountable to practice standards.”
“I would argue with any clinician, you are not the best clinician you can be if you have a difficult attitude, if you don’t work well with others,” Samples said. “Half of being a high performing employee is having professional behavior, getting to work on time, not being impaired. All of those are just as important as how clinically proficient you are,” she added.
CEO Carda said, “so the allegation is that this is a hostile and toxic work environment by these people who are asked to leave. Well, you could see how they might be disgruntled.”
However, six of the nine former employees interviewed for this story, more than half–66%–voluntarily resigned their positions at EPH; only three were involuntarily released.
Carda says the 2024 nursing turnover rate at EPH is “just over” 19%, which is about the same as the average 2023 turnover rate for registered nurses working in hospitals across the United States.
If the current 19% loss rate Carda reported in late July holds, the medical center will have needed to replace 58 nurses by the end of the year. Nursing staff accounts for 65% of the total number of employees at Estes Park Health.
One of the most significant challenges in health care staffing today is the recruitment and retention of clinical staff due to the number of nurses and other clinicians who are no longer practicing, and one of the most significant costs hospitals and health clinics have is the cost of hiring locum tenens or traveling clinical staff who are often called “travelers.”
Nationally, on average, a locum tenens nurse can earn between $65 and $115 per hour on
average, which is often more than a similar full-time position. According to ZipRecruiter salaries for family medicine locum tenens in Colorado can range from $85,173 to $156,675.
On Aug. 19, the Estes Valley Voice was told that EPH staff were working to compile data on how much money has been budgeted for travelers’ expenses in 2024 and how much was spent in 2023.
The former employees interviewed for this story didn’t restrict their comments to personal affronts. They also showed great empathy for the community.
One former EPH nurse said one of the positive things about, and reasons for, working at EPH is the “reward of serving the community and making a difference in the lives of the community.”
On the other hand, another former EPH nurse said, “I don’t believe the community has any idea how they (individual leadership team members) are killing our small community hospital and how the services at EPH are being handled.”
It’s about time they were all exposed. I’ve worked there since 1990 and have never seen such predation of our staff. It’s been awful for a long time
It’s horrible! The radiology dept is the same. Very unsupportive of employees and once they think your a problem they get HR to add pressure. Just to bad.
This situation has existed since before I came to the hospital in 2001. There was a clique that ran the hospital and they did not like anyone questioning their actions. I had things stolen from me. My life was made miserable by the staff. I went above my supervisor to complain and all that happened was that person went back to my supervisor and told him what I had said. I was framed for something I had not done.
l left and went to work in the valley. I personally know of people being fired or run off after filing a worker’s comp claims. This is the kind of problem David Batey should be trying to fix instead of working to sell our hospital.
That hospital is toxic. I only deal with it when I have to. Please do not publish my name or email.
I had the worst experience ever there as an employee trying to be run off by Samples and a traveling director who had no clue what was going on. Completely bullied. I left before they could fire me. The management needs to be fired and the good hard working staff would stay. The leaders are not leaders, they are controlling bullies, who have no morals or standard, and have completely run our community hospital into the ground. But when the dictators are at the top, there is no choice but to leave. Glad some are standing up !!
There needs to be an employee survey. Compare it to 2019, before covid. The community should demand it. They avoid doing it because it gives them ability to deny knowing what is truely going on.
I had the WORST experience just going to the ER with my husband that had stage 4 cancer – a wife should not have to cry and beg for pain medicine for her husband. Dude in the ER was on a power trip and didn’t even have the cajones to come back into the room after finally checking with the oncologist – could have at least apologized for being such an A$$hole and admitted he was wrong. 100% would chance driving down the hill first in an emergency.
I’ve worked there for 8 years with a wonderful boss, however, I know this is not the case everywhere. Samples seems to be the head bully for sure. Need to clean house!
Haha they’re terrible! Carley, Pat and Mark are the worst humans alive. They ruined our families lives and they still manage to sleep at night.
Thank you so much for this well-researched article! I am so tired of the “happy talk” Trail Gazette that doesn’t investigate what is happening in EP. We have had two horrible experiences at EPH. We will never go back. The patient advocate never cared about our needs or concerns. She was all about defending the hospital and talking down to us as if we were uninformed. I have spoken with a long-time employee whose family members were “cared” for at EPH. She told me she was lied to about their care. This problem has been going on for too many years. I hope UCHealth comes in and makes this hospital what it should be — a valued resource that actually has the services we need and staff who care about the community. This hospital has proven it doesn’t have the leaders or commitment to the community to make this hospital a success. Any other hospital CEO who commented as Carda did in this article would be fired. Enough — time for a new era of hospital care in EP!
I just went through this also, started in October and turned in an employee for bullying 3 times over a few months with documentation and it was never addressed until 2 or 3 months later and they said they didn’t find anything and i then had an emergency surgery needing done and they fired me ( in pur public breakroom) when I told them I had to take off for surgery. The CNO cussed our surgical department out and was the most unprofessional meeting I had ever been to. Never had a manager on site and had inadequate equipment to perform surgeries. I was shocked at how unprofessional the administration and management were. Fantastic staff minus the one bullying ( he bullied a few others there and was turned in by them as well). This is all very sad since this is such a small community, and this community needs a good hospital.
They treat their patients and community with the exact same disrespect. They think we exist to serve them. They discriminate against patients with special needs. They ignore comments, complaints and requests for review. They actually laugh at complaints because they believe they’re untouchable and can get away with that kind of abuse. They do their worst and get away with it because we live in a small community with limited services. They are condescending, superior, entitled, arrogant, and profoundly avaricious. Everything they’ve done is to enrich themselves. It would actually be nice to make different for everyone in Estes Park.
So many good and correct comments, from the people above. I worked there for 2013-2019. The place is toxic.
The ER and clinic seem to be some of the better departments..
The hospital has burned every bridge with past employees that live in EP. It comes to no surprise that they need to hire “travelers”, to fill positions.
Vern and Pat and some others need to go. This has always been a top down problem for too long, in my opinion.
My mother, wife and I can all corroborate this article. As a former maintenance tech I was ostracized, bullied and singled out on Almost every day in my department. After trying to expose the toxic work environment to upper management it was dismissed and never fully dealt with. They tried to pin multiple bogus write ups on me and I was able to overturn the first one, but the second attempt got me fired.
I was a great worker. I was reliable, always on time, and the first to volunteer for anyone that had an emergency or could not be on-call.
I was a hard worker. I out preformed the other two techs combined, in work orders completed.
I was well-loved by everyone outside my department, I always had a positive and upbeat attitude. I was caring and always willing to go the extra mile for our staff and patients. I truly cared about my job while others in my department would talk about our staff in very negative and explicit ways.
Trying to expose this is what I believe, truly got me fired.
I was called in one day for the other verbal warning, claiming I violated an unspoken procedure. That my conduct endangered the facility, and was selfish. However, prior instruction from highly regarded and reliable sources had permitted this procedure.
I passionately tried to defend myself. I never lost my temper though.
I was sent home shortly after and instructed not to return to work until they called. Two days later I was fired for losing my temper. It was a highly exaggerated lie that cost me my job and slandered my good name.
As for my wife, she was employed in the PFS Dept. When she put in her notice, she completed a majority of it, but requested early seperation and they agreed. She put down her former boss from EPH as a reference to a company she was returning to. As a formality, they asked for references. The person rehiring my wife knew her to be a reliable and highly talented worker – but her reference from EPH was quick to say she was not rehireable and falsely slandered her work ethic. She still got the job because of her known reputation, and was notified of the response from EPH and advised not to use them again as a reference. This was not only illegal but totally insane.
So everything in this article was if anything an understament. I am not just writing this as bitter response, but who could blame me if I was. I am writing this because people should know what really happend.
I hope that things get better there. But the only reason I would expect to return to that HELLspital, is because I am dying and need medical transport only. Should anyone read this and want to know more, we would be happy to feel you in with more details.
Special thanks to Estes Valley Voice for honest reporting and helping to expose this horrible work environment that is a stain on Estes Park.
Hi, Forest, I noticed your absence right away. You were always a pleasure to see. Always a smile, kind greeting and just as important you were always working. A true dedicated worker. I hope I didn’t get you into trouble—I am sorry if I did. You are highly respected, and yes EPH supervisors fire people who ARE BEING bullied. The real bullies co-exist harmoniously, and those of us who are BEING bullied are driven out or fired under false claims. I too was fired without due-process and I loved my job, and had great relationship except for a couple players, who hid behind people like you and I, and the belligerent bullies who openly showed their colors and aren’t touched. The EEOC would water at the mouth if they read this article and comments.
You are correct. You are a great employee and person. Anyone who hired you would be lucky to have you.
I was forced out as well. I worked with Forrest occasionally; I don’t think I have ever met a more happy-go-lucky, upbeat person. He was good at his job and legitimately cared about other people. He even helped staff with their needs outside of the hospital for free… that is the type of person he is/was.
I am sad to hear this; Forrest you deserved better.
I worked for EPH. I was bullied harassed, singled out, and discriminated against. I work in PFS, the manager of scheduling and registration personally didn’t like me and made it very uncomfortable for me. I loved my job and was good at it. That didn’t matter. I wrote an email to the director who had a meeting with our department. We all had to say how we should treat each other. I was then retaliated against.
I am very sorry you experienced this. You are a good person and didn’t deserve this treatment.
First, I would like to thank those of you who have come forward to speak out about the toxicity. I am a current employee and have personally witnessed the high level of toxicity from upper level management that occurs every day. I can vouch for many of those who have also commented.
Samples states “every organization has bullying. We work on it. We address it.” Unfortunately many health care facilities in Colorado and around the country do have some level of toxicity. However, even after the bullying and toxicity by upper management has been formally addressed and reported, no accountability or changes have resulted.
Carda states, “these people [who commented] were asked to leave and are disgruntled.” Many employees have lived here for many years and have dedicated themselves and their families to the community. The next closest hospital is over 45 minutes away. Leaving Estes Park Health and working somewhere else simply may not be an option. A large percentage of current employees would agree that an exorbitant amount of toxicity exists at EPH and it is not addressed. I implore the board of directors to investigate these concerns as a testament of your commitment to EPH and the Estes Park community.
Finally, I would like to thank my coworkers for your excellent care and dedication to the Estes Park community and visitors. You are an amazing group of people. Keep fighting the good fight.
Thanks to Suzy Blackhurst for her courageous and forthright article. She has revealed the tip of the iceberg and the worst kept secret in Estes Park. David Batey has been aware of Vern Carda’s incompetence and Pat Sample’s malevolence for many years. The three of them are equally responsible for the corrosive working conditions and very high turnover rate of employees. A sharp decrease in quality at the hospital has been avoided by the professionalism and determination of healthcare workers generally but this hospital is on the brink of a more precipitous decline in it’s ability to care for our community.
Many services and superb employees have been lost. This administration and this hospital board have a caustic relationship with the hospital foundation, the public, hospital staff, physicians, nurses, and EMS. It is long past time for them to go. Their tone deaf, belligerent, noxious responses in Ms Blackhurst’s article prove it. Public release of hospital staff and medical staff satisfaction surveys will prove it beyond a doubt. This iteration of the Estes Park Hospital Board and this EPH administration have failed. They could not possibly be replaced soon enough.
The work climate is toxic. As a professional with many years of experience, my opinion meant nothing to anyone, especially my manager who had less experience. Others long-term professionals in my department feel/felt the same way. I walked on eggshells for months wondering, “what are they gonna find wrong today?” even though I know I provide excellent care.
The Estes Park Community was so appreciative of what I did and the services I provided!! I wish the management would have appreciated me too.
I worked in PFS at EPH in 2016 and this was the worst working experience of my life. I came from a very well known hospital in Texas that held healthcare to a high standard. When I got to EPH it was a night and day difference. I was never trained in my position and I was told by my boss “I don’t know how to do your job” so I was left to figure it out for myself. I also worked next a woman who was bullied by her boss on a daily basis it got so bad she broke out in shingles after she left her boss was then let go. Anytime I had questions my boss was difficult to get ahold of because she was usually walking the halls with her friend or planning her vacation on company time. I also worked in the ER doing registration and let me be the first to tell you these doctors do NOT care about you. They laughed and made fun of patients who came in with mental health issues or altitude sickness. They would make patients wait even though they were in the back doing nothing but watching Netflix or sleeping. They will only do the bare minimum because they lack education and mental capacity.
Now let’s move on to Bobbie Chambers.. I filed a complaint against Dr Daley when he “treated” me in the ER which lets me honest he did nothing for me. He treated me so badly that the Nurse kept apologizing for his behavior because of his actions. I wrote a honest review and Bobbie Chambers harassed me for days and in the end did nothing about the issue.
The only positive experience that EPH has is the coffee shop because Kim is amazing but. I wouldn’t recommend doing anything else there unless you want to risk your life.
Someone should do a story on the real reason Drew Webb is off the foundation board, before the next election. We need to elect more people like Bridgite Faust, she cannot do anything right now because she doesn’t have the votes. The hospital staff were very excited that she got elected to the board, you should have heard some of the talk in administration about trying to keep her from getting elected last year, after the way she was treated on staff they were panicked about her return
I left 8 years ago because I would not be a quiet insider against HR law. The idea of an elected board was destroying the hospital then. A critical access hospital is a delicate balance to keep alive by elected boards with little or no hospital management. These people are arrogant old school managers. They hire upper management yes people to do as they see fit. It is obvious that EPMC is dieing. Few cars are in the customer parking lot on week days and large sections of the hospital sit empty with no future.
I actually researched the possibilities to save critical access care while I was there, on my own time, and the basic answer always was. NO elected boards or cozy families rule. Sell to a system that obeys HR laws, and is not accepting of bully’s, especially at the top. No puppet’s. Well I let the CEO know the boards puppet in HR was incompetent and did not follow the law. Whoops. I got an early retirement, WITH PAY, until my set retirement date. Also I had to sign a non disclosure for a year. Oh the puppet made a big booboo about 6 months later and cost the hospital a fortune in protection of data on employees. It has taken several years but do not trust your medical care to a old school style of bully’s and boards. The people are often so stressed they can not give you the care you need.
Unfortunately the hospital is not the only major employer in town with a toxic work environment :(. There also needs to be an investigation into the Town of Estes Park Town Hall – the Town Clerk/Human Resources Manager is a horrible toxic degrading person who is a micromanager, shows favoritism, and has no respect for people. She should have been fired long ago.
Dear God!
These comments break my heart. Just look at the number of anonymous posts. I know it’s hard and I wish there was a way I could help.
The affiliation will come soon, and everything will change Be strong and wait for the change.
Larry Leaming
CEO, EPH, 2017 -2020
Larry, your voice is important. Thank you
You can help. Show up at the board meeting tomorrow. Speak your truth.
Will the affiliation happen when those leading the process will likely, lose their jobs? Mean while good Estes Park people are wrongly losing their livelihood, reputation and having their families torn apart? HR is not doing their due diligence, and is a puppet to untrained, unqualified junior leaders, or leaders acting out of bias.
I hate writing an anonymous post to this article, but I am not ready to end my career at EPH. All the things said about the work environment are true, so why do I stick around? Because I love my job and work with the most incredible and dedicated people I have ever been associated with. I refuse to let toxic/incompetent board and administration ruin my job. A big concern of mine is the attitude towards the community, all the board cares about is giving the hospital to a larger organization. The administration has no regard for the community, I have heard Pat Samples say that “this is not a community hospital” well the community owns this hospital and have voluntarily given its hard-earned tax money to support the hospital. In my view the administration is systematically destroying the hospital and has been on a campaign to eliminate any long-term employees that remember how good the hospital can be. Thank you, Suzy Blackhurst, for bringing this to light and I hope the public will have an awareness to what is going on at their hospital.
Truly disturbing, the optics to our community are awful. Have there been employee surveys and community needs assessments done? And if not why not? The comment from surgical staff “inadequate equipment ” for surgeries is terrifying. Hearing hospital staff saying nurses have been called lazy by the CNO, and another nurse called a f——g jerk by Carly is horrifying. And the administration is dismissive??!! Interview the rest of the staff and determine if they would want this administration to stay in place. Waiting for an affiliation with a larger entity seems to be unjust treatment of staff.
Vern Carda was advised by many not to hire Pat Samples when she was still an interim. He didn’t listen and this mess is on his shoulders now.
Vern Carda was advised to not hire Pat Samples by several employees when she was still an interim and he ignored this because it was “complicated” The current problems fall on his shoulders.
As a current employee I can confirm that EPH is a toxic work environment. With all of upper management coving up and only reporting some of the story attempting to mislead staff.
Wendy Rigby said in a email dated 08/30 only reported that “Carda pointed out that a professional third-party survey would cost $60,000 to $70,000 and is probably not the best investment at this time, with affiliation negotiations ongoing.” Failing to report that during the board meeting multiple doctors and board members actually suggested that it would be a good time. Or that a woman in attendance stated that it could be done cheaply. What Mr Carna fails to realize is that without satisfied employees he would not have a job.
Wendy also failed to acknowledge Pat Sample’s lies. Pat said that she had checked the number of traveling nurses the previous day and said that there were 3 in Emergency Room and 1 on Med/Surg. When actually there were 6 in Emergency and 2 on Med/Surg. This is just another example that Pat Samples can not be trusted.
I believe it would be in the best interest of the board to review the structure of the upper staff.
How does a Pharmacy tech become Director of Environmental Care?
How does a Dietician become a Director of Environmental Services?
Are they qualified or even needed?
It appears there are several directors in positions they are not qualified for and for a hospital this size, how many directors do we need?