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August 1, 2008 DEJONGH HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING ONGOING MATTERS AT SCHNEIDER REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
GOVERNOR JOHN P. DEJONGH: I have called this Press Conference because I feel it necessary to address the extremely serious matters concerning the Schneider Regional Medical Center that have been made public this past week and to announce what I believe are the necessary steps in response to these matters. I would also like to thank the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Health and Mr. Carmelo Rivera, Chairman of the Hospitals and Health Facilities Corporation’s Board of Directors, for their attendance this morning. It is my unfortunate duty today to acknowledge the public release of the Joint Audit of the Administrative Functions of the Schneider Regional Medical Center. This was a joint audit by our Virgin Islands Inspector General and the Federal Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Interior. The results of this audit cannot be minimized or deflected in any way. Its findings are beyond troubling, and indeed they have triggered the predictable, and required, criminal investigations which are now on-going in the V.I. Department of Justice. The final audit report found serious problems at the Schneider Regional Medical Center and made some very direct and unprecedented recommendations. These findings, as is always the case in such audits, came after the Medical Center’s leadership was given an opportunity to reply to a preliminary draft of the Audit. In its response to the draft of the audit’s findings that they received, the Medical Center’s leadership responded in a way that was very troubling to me in that it acknowledged the correctness of enough of the findings to establish that proper practices and procedures were not in place. This admission of the correctness of the Audit Report findings can only be seen as a failure to establish and maintain the standards of administration, oversight, and fiduciary duty that are minimally required of our public institutions. Moreover, the IGs’ allegations of recalcitrance, if not outright obstruction and delay, are wholly unacceptable to me and to this community which has properly demanded openness and transparency in government operations and in the spending of public money. My office also had an opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings prior to the release of the final Audit Report. I committed to taking certain corrective actions upon the presentation of the final Audit, and some of those actions are what I am announcing today. My response to the draft Audit was by letter to the Inspectors General dated July 10, 2008. A copy of it is in the final audit report. I stated in my reply that I would refer all matters relating to the contracts with the former CEO of the Hospital to the Attorney General “to determine whether in fact there was any collusion or bad faith involved,” and whether any recoupment of funds was possible, and I have done so. The findings of this Audit established that the actions and inactions of those charged with the oversight of the executives that they placed to run the Medical Center failed to meet the standard we must insist upon as a community. Additionally, the actions and inactions of those executives have been described in the Audit in ways which require a fuller investigation in order to take appropriate actions. As to the Members of the District Board, as I stated in my response to the Inspectors General, “there has been an abdication of fiduciary responsibility.” I have concluded that the collective actions and/or inaction of the Board which gave rise to the problems identified in the Audit resulted from the Board’s failure to maintain the minimal standards of performance required from boards of directors of public institutions. It is not necessary to inquire beyond the Audit findings and the Medical Center’s response to reach this conclusion. However, what troubles me even more than the specific items noted in the Audit, such as the lack of internal financial controls, policies and procedures governing credit card use or the reimbursement of expenses, or the lack of proper controls over executive payroll, or even the faults found with the insurance and billing systems was the absence of commitment on the part of this Board to my Administration’s goal of maximizing openness and transparency throughout our Government. When it comes to the spending of the people’s money we are, and can only be, one government. There can be no accountability without openness and transparency. And without account ability we cannot earn the public’s trust. Accordingly, I have asked for and received the resignations of each and all of the District Board members who were on the Board during the period of time when the actions and inactions described in the Audit occurred. I requested these resignations because I believe that we need to have a clean break from these past results and we need to begin to work with a clean slate in order to create a new future for the Schneider Hospital, Kimelman Cancer Center and the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center. With these resignations, we face two immediate questions: Who shall govern the Medical Center? and Who shall fill these vacancies? I would like to address the second question first, and then turn to the issues of governance and control of these healthcare institutions. I wish to announce that I have asked the following distinguished residents of St. Thomas and St. John to accept the challenge and serve on the District Board and I am pleased that they have agreed to serve our community in this capacity. I am grateful to each and every one of them for accepting this challenge at this time, a challenge which will demand their full attention, expertise, and much of their valuable time. Ms. Dilsa Capdeville: One of our strongest advocates for children and families and the founder of Kidscope; Attorney Maria Tankanson Hodge a respected lawyer and partner of the St. Thomas law firm of Hodge and Francois; Mr. Vincent Samuel, the current Vice President for Finance and Administration as well as CFO of the University of the Virgin Islands; Mr. Miles Stair, a long time resident, respected businessman and realtor from St. John; Mr. Cornel Williams, formerly of the University of the Virgin Islands and the VI Port Authority, and now President of International Capital and Management, an important St. Thomas - based business. These nominations will be immediately sent to the Legislature for confirmation. Given the importance of getting a properly constituted District Board in place without delay, I have spoken to the President of the Legislature, the Chairman of the Rules Committee, and the Chairman of the Committee with jurisdiction over the Medical Center. They all expressed their concerns to me. I have been assured of their full cooperation as we address these serious matters together. Indeed, given the extraordinary circumstances that presently exist, circumstances which we all fervently hope will never reoccur, I have asked the Legislature to move as expeditiously on these nominations as possible. I respectfully ask this because I believe that time is not our friend during this period of transition and so I believe that immediate action is warranted. It is my understanding that the Legislature will act without delay and I know that I and the Virgin Islands community will be grateful to them for such action. Now, as to the governance of the Hospital, Cancer Center and clinic, we should note that the governance of the government’s hospitals and medical facilities was placed under the authority of the Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation by the Legislature in 1994. This Corporation has a 15 member Board of Directors consisting of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Commissioner of Finance and one other member of my Cabinet, along with six members of each of the two district Governing Boards. These District Boards -- one for the St. Thomas-St. John District and one for the St. Croix District -- consist of nine members, not all of whom are designated to serve on the Corporation’s Board. The Corporation is charged by law to “manage, operate, superintend, control and maintain the hospitals and health facilities of the Government of the Virgin Islands in partnership with the Government …” The Corporation is also charged with the duty to “employ and remove through the District Governing Boards the Chief Executive Officers …” It has become apparent that the District Governing Board for St. Thomas and St. John may have operated in areas reserved for the Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation. Such a practice cannot be permitted and will not be permitted to continue. Additionally, as was recognized in the enabling legislation “as long as a significant portion of the health facilities budget is appropriated from public revenues, the Government must be represented in any health care management structure.” I have spoken before of this fact and will state, once again, that we are, of necessity, one government and we shall remain one government. I intend to be an active and full partner with the Hospital and Health Facilities Hospital Corporation and with the St. Thomas - St. John District Board when that Board is reconstituted. As the Chief Executive of the Territory and on behalf of our residents, I will not be a silent partner. The health care of our people is too important; honesty and transparency in government is too important; and the fiduciary care required when spending public money is too important. They all require no less than a full partnership with fully functioning and competent governing boards at both the level of the Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation and the District Board level. Thus I wish to announce that I have made clear to the Corporation’s Chairman that I have instructed the three members of my Cabinet who serve on the Corporation's Board to move the Corporation to take immediate steps to place the CEO and the CFO of the Hospital on leave pending a full, fair and comprehensive review of all of the issues and concerns raised by the Inspectors General Audit report as well as such other matters as may be deemed to be proper areas of inquiry and investigation. Let me assure all of the people of our Territory that there will be no disruption of services or lessening of the quality of care at the Hospital or Cancer Center on St. Thomas or the clinic on St. John. The dedicated and extraordinary care-givers at these medical institutions know what they are doing and they perform their jobs very well. But what they, and indeed everyone in this community, deserves - and what I demand - is that our hospitals and clinics must be free from corruption and waste, free from scandal, and that the executives of these facilities are also free from suspicion of such. When the investigations are completed these executives will either be returned to their positions with the full confidence of us all, or they will be replaced by others who will be charged to meet the high standards we require. Until that day, fairness requires the full cooperation of everyone involved with this process. This includes: The continued operations of our health care facilities; the efforts of their governing boards, and those charged with investigating the events of the past and our planning for the future. I am confident we will all do that which is required of us in this spirit of cooperation. Our health care system is simply of too great an importance to all the people of the Virgin Islands. In closing, I would like to say that there is one very important area of agreement that I share with the vast majority of people within our community and that is our deep respect and gratitude to the staff of the Roy Lester Schneider Hospital, the Kimelman Cancer Center, and the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center. They go to work every day, and every night, in service to us all, and for that service, we are all extremely grateful. But let us all remember this was not an audit of our nurses or aides or doctors or technicians working at our hospital and cancer center and clinic. Their work is ceaseless and often thankless. But we must pause today and thank them. And then -- with their help – we must move ahead together to fix our health care system. I know that their performance reflects the spirit of cooperation and hard work, which I am confident, will carry us through this difficult time of transition. I am now open to take your questions. |
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