Whidbey Watchdog

While no one broke a champagne bottle over the podium, there was a feeling at Monday’s board meeting that some welcome and meaningful changes are going to accompany the hiring of Ron Telles as CEO. The initial shocker came from the board, which had a few weeks ago announced its intent to make Telles the permanent CEO at this meeting. Instead, the Board voted to hire him for a year, at his current salary until July 1, and then at a rate of $330,000 per annum for the remainder of the year. President Wallin also indicated there would be no performance incentives in the Telles contract.  This seems prudent, as it will give the board time to assess his administrative talents, and it will allow ample time to conduct a nationwide search for a permanent CEO, should the board deem that advisable.  The next encouraging signal was that Telles almost immediately declared “We have to be accredited.” He indicated, however, that before going through that process, they neede...

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...