Longtime local physician Dr. John House has withdrawn a proposal to take over management of Eureka Springs Hospital, citing a “lack of official response,” from the city’s hospital commission.
In a Feb. 19 email, House wrote: “This email will serve as official notice that my company is withdrawing the Letter of Intent dated 11/21/2024 to take over management of ESH. Your lack of official response to my offer has indicated that there does not seem to be any interest in the services, experience, and stability that I and my company offer. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
House had spoken at a commission meeting on Dec. 16, 2024, outlining the challenges facing the hospital and describing what he saw as three options for the facility: closing it, allowing it to “limp along,” — which he predicted would result in closure in “less than a year” — or allowing his or another management company to take over operations of the hospital.
House told the commission that he currently runs two clinics that he said are financially stable. A former chief of staff at Eureka Springs Hospital who at one time served as chair of the hospital commission, House told the commission that the hospital’s reputation has suffered significant damage, saying the vast majority of patients he interacts with “don’t want to have anything to do,” with Eureka Springs Hospital.
At that Dec. 16 meeting, then-commission chair Kent Turner told House that the commission wanted to “entertain” his proposal but first wanted to obtain approval for its plan to correct deficiencies noted in recent reports based on surveys conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The hospital has since been informed by the state Department of Health that its Medicare agreement is no longer in jeopardy of being terminated.
The Eureka Springs City Council voted 5-0 at its Jan. 27 meeting to remove Turner from the commission. At that same meeting, hospital commission chair Sandy Martin told the council that the commission had not made a decision to reject House’s proposal.
“We have stated publicly in commission meetings and directly to Dr. House that we have that on hold pending the state determination,” she said, referring to the state’s pending response to the hospital’s plan to correct the issues raised in the Medicare survey report. “After that determination, we will have a workshop with him, and we’ve told him that, to discuss his proposal.”
“I was surprised when the Mayor told me he had received an email from Dr. House withdrawing his proposal,” Martin told the Times-Echo by email on Wednesday, Feb. 26. “As we had stated to him several times and publicly, we were planning on having him at a workshop for more detail on his proposal after we got clear of the state survey process. We received the notice from the state that we were in full compliance on February 6th, and Dr. House’s withdrawal email was sent to the Mayor on February 19th. We would have workshopped it in April.”
