“The biggest problem that we have at this hospital right now is the culture and the toxic workplace and dissatisfied employees, including physicians, who feel bullied, ignored and abused,” said Tom Leigh on Thursday during a candidate forum hosted by the Rotary Club of Estes Park during the organization’s weekly luncheon meeting. The meeting was held at the American Legion Post 119.
Leigh, an emergency room physician who retired from Estes Park Health last fall after working there for nine years, is one of the five candidates for the two open seats on the Park Hospital District board of directors. The special taxing district is more commonly known as EP Health.
“Nobody wants to work in that environment, and nobody wants to work where the turnover is terribly high,” said Leigh. “Our hospital faces serious challenges, both financial and administrative. We can meet these challenges, but we need to do a lot of things differently.”
After opening introductory statements, the candidates were asked a series of questions about why they wanted to serve on the special district board and what they saw as the most important issues facing EP Health, a 23-bed acute critical access hospital.
Tim Cashman, also a candidate for the board, affirmed Leigh’s view about the work environment at EP Health and added, “I don’t think unity is going to happen until this deal with UC Health is completed.” Cashman was the CFO of EPH from 2017 until he retired in July 2021.
Cashman addressed the problem of tenure and longevity among the clinical staff and suggested that it may be a leadership issue. He went on to question why the current board is not addressing the problem.
Janet Zeschin, who retired from EPH as the director of quality, patient safety, and risk management in 2020, was adamant that certain services discontinued by the hospital should not be brought back, such as obstetrics.
Zeschin argued that not enough births were taking place in Estes to maintain the service financially. During the last year that EP Health offered maternity care, there were fewer than two babies born per month.
Some of the demographic reasons for this include fewer moms of childbearing age in Estes Park, a need for specialized maternity services for older mothers and neonatal intensive care nursery services, in addition to the choice to have nurse midwives and other specialized OB services not offered at EP Health with a limited number of births.
Other hospital services that have been terminated over the past four years include the Estes Park Health Living Center, in-patient pediatrics, in-home hospice, and home health care. During the last year that pediatric care was offered in the hospital, there were fewer than nine total nights of in-patient care. In the last year of in-home hospice care, there were fewer than two in-home hospice deaths per month.
Cashman advocated that in a community with as large a percentage of people 60 years of age and older, in-home hospice services should be reinstated.
With a background in nonprofits, public health, and healthcare at the Veteran Administration, Ralph Strickland said he is not convinced that an affiliation with a larger hospital system is necessarily the right answer to the problems at EP Health at this time.
The voters of the Park Hospital District voted two years ago to give the board authorization to pursue some type of affiliation or merger, but other than being told in October that the CEO of the hospital had signed a letter of intent with UC Health, the community has not been given any details about what this might look like.
Strickland, who identifies himself as a nonconformist and free thinker, stressed the need for transparency in addressing the problems facing the hospital. Many members of the community have expressed concern about a lack of transparency and accountability with the board and administration.
Max Salfinger, a physician and retired professor of public health with a specialty in mycobacteriology, talked about how healthcare has become an industry where even non-profits are driven to make money.
Salfinger, who currently sits on the Estes Park Health Foundation board, advocated that when an employee leaves EP Health, they need to have an exit interview so that the hospital understands why the employee is leaving. “But it is even more important to talk to personnel so they are not leaving,” Salfinger said, stressing the word not.
The candidates for the hospital board will again meet on Monday, April 7 at 5:30 in the Town Hall in the Town Hall Board Room for a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Estes Park.
Additionally, candidates for the Estes Valley Fire Protection District and the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District will participate in a forum sponsored by the Estes Valley voice on Sunday, April 6, at 2:00 in the Town Hall Board Room.
Elections for the boards of the Park Hospital District/Estes Park Health, Estes Valley Fire Protection District, and Estes Valley Recreation and Park District will take place on Tuesday, May 6.
The election for the EVFPD will take place at the Dannels Fire Station, 901 N. St. Vrain Ave., on election day.
The election for the EVRPD will take place on election day in the lower level of the Community Center, 660 Community Dr.
Eligible voters will receive a ballot in the mail for the Park Hospital District. They will be able to return their ballot to a drop box in the EP Health lobby.
Prior to saying it wasn’t financially viable to maintain obstetrics at EPH, I stated the primary reason to not deliver babies was because there are risks associated to babies, Moms, staff and providers when there were so few deliveries. Patient safety first. The Estes Valley Voice did not include that info in the article.
Thank you to the Rotary Club for hosting this forum. It’s important for people to hear from these candidates and make the right decision for the EPH board. Our community cannot afford another bad choice, David Batey being term limited and Drew Webb finally recognizing he won’t be re-elected presents an important opportunity. There are a lot of questions about the contents of this UCHealth agreement and we need to know what is happening before commitments are made that we can’t undo. Tim Cashman and Tom Leigh know what the problems at EPH are, and they would be the best candidates to help create change. Vote for Tim and Tom.