Whidbey Watchdog

Why would someone like me spend time documenting and publishing a list of twelve blunders or problems that have beset Whidbey Health in just the last 18 months? Two reasons: one is of immediate importance, and one is aimed at the longer term. Reason 1: To convince potential candidates that we need new people on the hospital board if we are to reverse WH's financial downturn. In case you don’t know, Whidbey Health is overseen by five board members, or commissioners. For almost 12 years now, there has not been one commissioner who thinks any differently than the others. There has been a complete lack of oversight of the hospital administrators. The commissioners throughout this time have refused to conduct their business openly and transparently – as a result, few people know how mismanaged our hospital has been over the last almost a dozen years. My previous posting (May 10) is meant to verify that current and recent commissioners, and the two CEOs they’ve selected, ...

In the words of the hospital’s CFO, who’s about to become the permanent CEO, 2018 was a “rough year,“ financially, for WhidbeyHealth. That’s a huge understatement. Below are some of the items that have come to light over the past 18 months. Construction Cost Overruns of $3 Million When WhidbeyHealth’s new in-patient wing opened to great fanfare in the Fall of 2017, little was said at the time about cost overruns. Subsequently, however, WhidbeyHealth administrators and board members conceded that they failed to plan for possible construction budget overruns. It belatedly came out in early 2018, however, that overruns on the nearly $50 million project were “projected” to be around $3 million – the precise amount has never been revealed, though the new wing opened over a year and a half ago. Rather than showing concern for the disappointing news, hospital officials patted themselves on the back when it looked like the project was going to wind up only about six percent over bud...