Vote to Hire Interim Hospital CEO Unanimous

Tulare - Retired hospital administrator Bob Kelley was hired as interim chief executive officer for the Tulare Local HealthCare District in a unanimous vote, which seems to indicate board members are making a greater effort to work together.

Kelly, 63, who was CEO at Madera Community Hospital for 17 years until he retired in 2005, will serve as the interim chief while the board seeks a permanent replacement for Bob Montion, 50, who has retired for health reasons.

In a lengthy farewell address on March 28 that both scolded board members and spoke to their potential for doing great things, Montion urged them to put aside differences and work respectfully with each other to insure the hospital's future.

The board has been badly divided since the November election, producing split votes on such important decisions as the firing of the hospital's attorney, Baker Manock and Jensen of Fresno, and the hiring of the law firm of Dooley and Herr. Board members even argued over board meeting minutes.

The unanimous vote for Kelley pleased Board President Dr. Parmod Kumar, who said in an interview later that he will work hard to assure that the person selected to permanently replace Montion also is hired on a unanimous vote.

“If it's a 4-1 vote, it's not good enough for me, so I'll have to make an effort to involve everyone on the board,” Kumar said.

Board members Deanne Martin-Soares and Roger McPhetridge, who had said they were left out of the loop in the firing and hiring of the law firms, said the process to select a new interim CEO went better.

“I do think we've made some headway. I really do,” Martin-Soares said. “I definitely think the whole idea of process is something the board recognizes is going to be important.”

McPhetridge said he had an opportunity to talk with Kelley and people in Madera before the vote and thought he was a good choice “to get us through.”

Kumar praised Kelley's selection in a prepared statement that announced his hiring.

“He helps us to unite together,” Kumar said. “He is a neutral person. He is an honest broker and can help to bring everyone together. This man does not have an agenda. He is an honest man and he doesn't want the permanent job.”

Kelley said he believes board members will work out their differences for the good of the district.

“I think they want to work it out,” he said.

Prior to working at Madera, Kelley was chief operations officer at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills for four years. He also has worked at Mt. Carmel Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Atlantic City Medical Center and Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, Fla. All were top management positions.

With Kelly's hiring, Denise Perry, who has twice filled in as interim chief executive since January 2006, will return to her regular position as chief operations officer.

“The job she did was excellent,” Kumar said in the prepared statement. “I know it was not an easy time. But we need Denise back full time as COO to move forward on the design of the $100 million new wing. She is well-versed in the plans and works very well with the design staff.”

Her colleagues on the hospital staff also praised Perry's work through the difficult transition.

"Through very trying times Denise Perry has done an exceptional job in holding the hospital team together and moving forward,” said Rick Elkins, director of compliance and community relations. “We have many projects in the works that she has had to oversee, all the while dealing with a new board that at times has not functioned as one. She is to be commended and I am sure she will work just as hard with new interim CEO Bob Kelley to keep the hospital moving forward."

Prayer for Healing

During the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, held the day after Kelley's appointment, board member Dr. Prem Kamboj publicly acknowledged the divisiveness and hurtfulness that has plagued the board's interactions the past four months and prayed for the healing of wounds and for Kelley, Perry and all who work in the medical arena.

Kumar said he would like to hire a national firm to help the board find a replacement for Montion, something McPhetridge said he and Martin-Soares also want.

Kelley, who helped the Madera board find his replacement, said the process could take three to six months after board members decide what they want to see in their new administrator.

Other Tasks

The board has many other tasks ahead of it, including a multi-million dollar expansion and remodeling project that has not discussed in a regular session since the November election. Board members have mentioned the possibility of holding a special study session but have not set a date.

“I also think we need to focus on image, perception and definitely recruitment,” Martin-Soares said.

At the board's March 7 meeting, she read a two-page statement detailing four recent cases in which she had received either direct or indirect negative feedback about the quality of care at the hospital and urged the board to make it a priority to address the issues, set community goals and recruit more doctors.

Emergency Room

“I thought she was reading from my election material,” said Kamboj, who with Dr. Lonnie Smith was elected to the board in November after calling for the hospital to make structural and other improvements in the existing emergency room even while plans for a new state-of-the art ER are being drawn.

The two physicians reported their patients were asking to be hospitalized elsewhere in large part because of bad experiences they or family members had had in the ER, which they and Martin-Soares agree is the “face of the hospital” for most people.

As for recruitment, Kamboj said after that meeting he agrees there is “a desperate need to bring new physicians, new specialists to the community,” but this cannot be done while the hospital is in a “dysfunctional” state.

“Give us another month or two,” he said. “Hopefully things will calm down. It will be an aggressive recruitment, but systematically done. I've given my word to people and that's why I wanted to be on that [recruitment] committee.”

At its next meeting on March 28, the board discussed several issues under a “public relations” agenda item, including the role of security guards in the emergency room.

“They should not be interviewing the patient or the patient's mother,” Kamboj said.

Perry, who reported earlier that employees had seen a significant reduction in “the amount of drama” in the emergency room since a security guard has been placed there, said management would address this concern.

Martin-Soares and Kumar agreed visiting hours need to be enforced at the hospital for the sake of both patients and the nursing staff.

She fears the hospital will start to lose nurses if it does not do something about the situation, Martin-Soares said.

Kumar asked the hospital administration to report back with ideas on how to better to enforce the time limits.

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Daisy Joe Fung's Former Home Featured on Tour

Tulare - The public will have an opportunity April 28 to see what Ray and Jacque Lovelady have done with an 81-year-old Tudor Revival style home they snatched from the path of a wrecking ball nearly four years ago.

The Loveladys' North M Street home is one of four the Valley Oak Garden Club is featuring on its Fantasy of Flowers home tour 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 28.

This year's show will also feature the North Manor Drive garden of Bob and Francene Hill, as well as a stop for “nibbles” in the expansive North Oaks Street garden of Drs. Vinod Gupta and Parmod Kumar.

The Loveladys' home once belonged to their dear friend Daisy Joe Fung, the last surviving member of a pioneer Tulare family, who died in February 2002 at age 106.

For the last 25 years of Fung's life, the couple regularly visited and checked on her at her 333 South N St. home, taking her to medical and other appointments.

Dairyman's, now Land O'Lakes, had purchased Fung's home many years before she died with the understanding she could occupy the house until her death , after which the land would be used for parking.

Although they never intended to acquire the house, when no one else showed interest in saving the house, which was on the city's Historic Resources Inventory, they moved it to their vacant North M Street lot and spent more than a year renovating it.

“We had the right friends at the right time for this,” Jacque Lovelady said, explaining that friends from church and elsewhere made suggestions and helped them with the work.

Landscape architect Dan Venya suggested they re-orient the porch from the side to the front to give the house our more welcoming look.

Venya also designed their garden, which includes many flowering plants and which the Loveladys said has drawn thumbs-up from people passing by who appreciate their efforts.

Many other tasks needed to be done, including replacing the roof and all the windows except for the oval paneled window to the right of the new porch entry. They also refurbished the house's original oak wood flooring.

“They could only be done one more time,” Ray Lovelady said, explaining that the floor has worn very thin.

When they removed the linoleum in the kitchen, they were surprised to find a fir wood floor, which they also refurbished.

“It kind of gives it a farmhouse look,” Jacque Lovelady said.

The house is small by today's standards and the only reason it works for them is because of a swing down stairway in the hall which allows them to store out-of-season clothing and other items in the attic, she said.

Visitors will find photos, furniture and mementos that belonged to Fung throughout the house.

The other three homes open for the home tour will include:

· Roger and Leah Sanchez' 3,150-square-foot home, which was designed to reflect their Mexican heritage and includes art work acquired in Mexico.

· Fernando and Paloma Poo's Tuscan Mediterranean style home, featuring a hand designed and carved entry door and stone countertops.

· Jan Goucher's custom-built home, featuring a “mother's quarters” and a beautiful garden with a gazebo and plethora of plants and garden statuary.

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Conflict Investigation Over; No Charges

Tulare - The conflict-of-interest investigation of Dr. Parmod Kumar, chairman of the Tulare Local HealthCare District, is completed and no charges are pending.

“We did not file a case [against Kumar],” said Assistant Tulare County District Attorney Don Gallian, confirming a rumor that has circulated in the medical community for several weeks.

Kumar, who learned in early January that an investigation was under way, said Monday he has received no formal notification from the District Attorney's Office but was glad to hear the news.

“I said from the very beginning I have done nothing wrong,” he said. “I hope people who complained about me get behind the district for the good of the district.”

Several sources have said the investigation revolved around the issue of whether Kumar should have voted when the board set on-call pay rates for physicians, since he and his wife both practice medicine in Tulare.

Initially it was thought the investigation may have centered on allegations from a fellow board member that he opposed building an out-patient surgery center next to Evolutions because he had plans to build his own—a charge he repeatedly and vigorously denied.

Gallian said his office would not comment on the investigation other than to say it is completed and no charges were filed.

Another conflict-of-interest issue surfaced again after the board's 3-2 vote in early March to hire Dan Dooley as the hospital's attorney. Several people, speaking privately, said they thought Kumar should have abstained because he has financial interest in the Willow Plaza building in Visalia where the Dooley and Herr law practice is located.

Kumar said he discussed the matter with Dooley, who told him that as long as he reported his interest in the building on the financial statement required by law, he was fine.

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Downtown Hospital Idea Doesn't Fly with Bond Committee

Tulare - The idea of building a new Tulare District Hospital on an 11-acre downtown site did not fly with a committee charged with making sure money from an $85 million bond sale is spent as voters intended.

City Manager Darrel Pyle, Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift and others went to the bond oversight committee's March 25 meeting to discuss the possibility of the hospital moving, rather than building a multi-story tower at its current site.

Chairman Bill Postlewaite and others said they were concerned a move to build a new hospital elsewhere would violate promises made to voters during the Measure D bond election in 2005.

“There's not much that can be done with that $85 million, other than what we told people,” Postlewaite said.

He also said he suspects constructing a new campus would cost between $300 million and $400 million and create a delay in spending the $85 million in hand. “With 5 percent inflation, we'd be losing over $4 million a year in buying power.”

On the other hand, he liked the idea of building an outpatient surgery center and medical offices downtown and said doing that would not violate promises made.

Linda Wilbourn, another committee member, called the city's idea “a complete dream” and said she could not understand why the hospital would want to leave its current site, which Chief Operatoins Officer Denise Perry said has the potential to grow to 15 acres, and move to another location that is smaller.

Building multi-story buildings could reduce the need for a larger footprint, Vandegrift said later. He also argued the hospital would have much better traffic circulation in the downtown, where several main arterial streets converge.

Ambulances would not be driving through a neighborhood to get to the hospital and the hospital would be more centrally located for people in west Tulare, he said.

Committee member Betty Morehead said she would like the city to talk with the hospital board about putting other services downtown.

“Why in the world are we putting a surgery center in the middle of a retail center?” she asked in reference to a proposal for the hospital to build medical offices and an outpatient surgery center adjacent to Evolutions. (The plan has not been discussed since the November election of two new board members who had expressed concerns about that idea.)

“The hospital's success is critical to the city's success,” Pyle told the committee, adding the city stands ready to work jointly with the hospital district as it has done with school districts.

“I still haven't digested this whole thing,” Vandegrift said after the meeting, adding he was “a little disappointed” the idea was not better received.

He also said he had heard that some members of the community were accusing the city of trying to tell the hospital district what to do, which he said was not the case.

“We were merely inviting these people to come down and talk about these things,” he said.

“It's OK to talk about options; it's OK to be open-minded; it's OK to concern ourselves with our community's healthcare system and it's OK to think about residents on the west side getting service,” he said.

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4-H Livestock Auction Needs Help

Tulare - Like meat? Organizers are hoping those who do will join with relatives or friends to purchase an animal at the annual 4-H Junior Livestock Auction at 10 a.m. May 5 at the Tulare County Fairgrounds, 215 East Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.

“The livestock auction is in serious need of help,” said Deene Souza, who is trying to get the word out to the community about the auction, which is part of the Tulare County 4-H Fair.

Low prices paid for the auctioned animals have discouraged youth from participating in the fair, organizers said.

“Every year the number of animals drops and the fair is getting smaller and smaller,” livestock coordinator Pat Mederos said. “I don't know the actual numbers, but it use to take us two hours to run through all the animals and last year the sale was done in 50 minutes.”

The situation has even spawned talk of getting rid of the auction, Mederos said, adding Tulare County has one of only two 4-H auctions held in the state.

“If the kids know the prices are there, then there would be more animals raised for that auction,” he said.

A youngster interested in showing at the fair will pay from $750 to $1,000 to purchase a 500 pound calf and then another $500 to get it to market weight, which is 1,200 pounds, he said.

“All these kids need is $1.25 a pound to break even, but they're only getting 80 to 90 cents a pound,” Mederos said.

The beef action has suffered the most in recent years, but “now it's getting to the point the hogs and sheep are not getting that [break-even] price,” he said.

Purchasing an animal at the fair is a bargain in terms of both price and quality and the auction allows for joint bids so two or three people can pool their money, organizers said.

A 1,200 pound calf will produce about 750 pounds of cut and wrapped meat, Mederos said.

“Even adding the cost of cutting and wrapping, they're still getting the animal for less than $2 a pound,” he said. “You're talking about $1,800 split three ways.”

The quality of the meat is excellent, Mederos said.

“You can't go into the store and buy meat as good as that,” he said. “These animals are lean and they are better than any feed lot animal. The feed might be the same but the care is different.”

Youngsters spend a lot of time caring for and training their animals, which are calmer and produce a better quality meat as result, he said.

David Macedo, owner of the Tulare Sales Yard, said his wife, Tina, raised, showed and sold animals through the 4-H livestock program as a youngster, as do their two children today. He considers it a very worthwhile program.

“It teaches responsibility,” Macedo said. “You're responsible for your own project … It's also a character-building experience.”

In addition to the livestock auction, the 4-H Fair—which is the culmination of the 4-H program's year—will include the following activities:

· Dog Achievement Day, 8:30 a.m. April 16.

· Shooting sports, rifle match, 8 a.m. April 21.

· Horse Achievement Day, 9 a.m. April 22.

· Rabbit, Cavy, Poultry and Pigmy Goat Show, 10 a.m. April 28

· Market Animals and Dairy Show 9 a.m. May 4.

· Indoor exhibits, 3 p.m. May 4.

Information: Leah Spalding, 4-H Youth Development Program Representative, 685-3309, Ext. 222.

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