Eureka Springs Hospital appears to be close to having a new CEO.
After a 35-minute executive session to discuss two finalists for the position at the end of the hospital commission’s monthly meeting on Monday, April 21, the commission voted unanimously to “extend an offer of unconditional employment to the candidate of choice.”
The candidate wasn’t named before the vote, but Sandy Martin, chair of the commission, later confirmed to the Times-Echo that Tiffany Means of Fayetteville is the commission’s choice for the role, which has been filled on an interim basis since early November by Jodi Edmondson, the hospital’s human resources director. The commission terminated the previous CEO, Angie Shaw, at the conclusion of a special meeting on Nov. 1. Shaw has since filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in Carroll County Circuit Court.
Attorney John Tull of Quattlebaum, Grooms and Tull in Little Rock said not identifying the candidate before the vote was a violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Tull represents the Arkansas Press Association and is widely recognized as an expert on Arkansas’ open-records law. Tull is also a member of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Task Force.
Tull said he discussed the issue with Robert Steinbuch, professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law and also a member of the FOI task force. Steinbuch agreed that not identifying the candidate was a FOIA violation, Tull said.
Contacted by the Times-Echo, Martin identified Means as the candidate, but later emailed to cite a question and answer from the Arkansas Freedom of Information handbook, which says: “Q. When the specific purpose of an executive session is announced in public (Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-106(c) (1)), must the individual public officer or employee be named? A. No.”
“This is from the FOIA handbook and this it what I followed,” Martin said in her email. “I’d appreciate if you would honor that.”
“That is for the discussion but if they have discussed and agreed to hire they have to announce it in my opinion,” Tull said by email. “To go in they were considering but if they picked that is different.”
Martin told the Times-Echo that while there was a vote to extend an offer to a candidate, no offer had been made as of Tuesday, April 22.
“No – she hasn’t been offered the position which is why we stated to proceed with an offer of conditional employment,” Martin wrote in an email. “As there has not been an offer made – we prefer she not be mentioned.”
Means’ resume, recently obtained by the Times-Echo through an open-records request, lists her current position as “Independent Healthcare Consultant” for Hollywood System, in Hollywood, Calif., and Quorum Health/ American Health Systems in Waukegan, Ill. She held the same role at Methodist Health System in Dallas from 2021 to 2023 and at Northwest Health System in Bentonville from 2023-2024.
According to the resume, Means’ employment background includes “Director of Emergency Service” from 2017 to 2021 and “Standalone Emergency Project Director” from 2019 to 2020 at Northwest Health Systems in Springdale, and “Nursing Director, Inpatient and Emergency Services,” from 2007 to 2017 at Mercy Health System in Rogers.
Means’ education includes a doctor of nursing practice degree from the University of Missouri, a master’s in health care administration from Missouri State University and a bachelor of science in nursing from Southwest Baptist University.
“That’s exciting that we’re pursuing a candidate,” Martin said at the meeting after the vote to extend an offer.
POSSIBLE DATE FOR JOINT MEETING
Martin told commissioners she was eyeing Thursday, May 22, as a possible date for a hospital financial workshop with members of the city council.
“The reason for that date is we asked the Arkansas Hospital Association to come up and give a state of the state of hospitals in Arkansas, and particularly rural, which could be educational for everybody, and that’s the date that they said they could come up from Little Rock,” Martin told commissioners. “… It’ll have to be a public meeting, so I’ll have to check on what time, because it’ll have to be here at The Aud, and I’ll invite city council as soon as I get those logistics squared away.
TELEHEALTH UPDATE
Martin told commissioners that she, along with hospital administration, recently met with UAMS and IDHI at the hospital regarding the facility’s addition of Telehealth service.
“They went through the facility, they measured, identified where the Telehealth room would be, and a community room as well,” Martin said. “We talked about also putting the second machine in the Huntsville clinic so that we could get there and then eventually go up to Holiday Island, which would be good, or vice versa…” Early June is now being anticipated as a timeframe for an open house at the hospital for the public to meet staff and learn about the new programs.
“They are very anxious to work with us on the open house,” Martin said of the UAMS group. “… They want to bring up their clinic partners and everything else as well. We’ll introduce the community to the staff that they haven’t met yet. 360 [Degree Medicine] will have Pinnacle there to answer any questions as well, and the intention is to invite our U.S. and our state representatives and senators. As you all know, Congressman [Steve] Womack is extremely supportive of the hospital and knows its importance, particularly as a tourist town. So, I’m sure he’ll show up. And (state Rep.) Harlan Breaux will and (state Sen.) Bryan King will as well.
“So that’s hopefully what we’re going to do and then launch the Telehealth. UAMS will bring a Telehealth cart up so there will be demonstrations and hopefully some educational material that we can start distributing at that time.”
The community room will be beneficial for certain populations, Lana Mills, director of nursing and clinical services told the commission.
“There’s a lot of different educational opportunities, like you mentioned, for a community room, for people who may not have access to Internet or a computer at home that they would be able to come in and use a community room to get that information,” Mills said. “So, if they have maybe newly diagnosed diseases or something that they need to learn about that they could come there and get that information. Also, with the Telehealth, they can get specialists that they could get information from there. We could log on to different doctors with UAMS.”
OTHER REPORTS
Edmondson and hospital CFO Cynthia Asbury were not at the meeting because they were meeting with accountants, Martin said.
In going over reports submitted by both, Martin reported that the hospital has “a little over $6 million” in the bank.
“We had been down on emergency room visits; however, it’s picking up in April,” Martin said. “We’ve had 83 already. It’s ticking up quite nicely on that.”
A backlog of invoices from Oracle was highlighted plus an expense of $280,000 for equipment to redo the hospital’s network.
“We had the anticipated hit this month, as you remember, from the backlog of Oracle invoices,” she said. “We had held those during the transition and the training because it wasn’t done appropriately. That’s been resolved. So we did catch up, and we are now current with Oracle. And they are now paying a little bit more attention.
“… And you remember we took about a $280,000 expense to buy all new equipment for Pinnacle to redo our network, make it more secure. The admin team is reviewing all areas for cost savings. There is a need for an increase in necessary stock of supplies in the ER. Clinical team is doing a review of supplies and discounts…” The hospital’s net loss was half of what it was the previous month, Martin confirmed.
“Month to date we had net revenue of $463,303 versus last year of $521,184, so you know we’re low and we know that, but we’re going to address that, we’re going to address that when we look at the budget as well with finances,” she said.
HEART ISSUE EXPLANATION
Mills explained guidelines to commissioners regarding ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Non- ST- E l e v a t i o n Myocardial Infarction when it comes to ER patients experiencing heart issues.
“Whenever we had the workshop or the commission had the workshop with the city council and at the latest city council [meeting], there were some comments made about the lab and the treatments of a couple of our patients,” Mills said. “And one comment that was made was that a [council] member said that they felt the commission has gaslit them. And it was about the N-STEMIs and STEMI treatment at the hospital.”
The issue arose after council member Harry Meyer recently said his cardiologist told him not to go to ESH if he experienced a possible heart attack due to the facility being on divert status for blood products.
Mills explained to commissioners that blood work is sometimes not necessary based on results from an EKG.
“Thank you for that clarification,” commissioner David Carlisle said. “It was a little disturbing to hear the comment from the council at the time that the comment was made, acting like we were idiots. Well, or the hospital was not functioning. It was something about complaining that a lab was necessary for the patient to get good care, but it was not that kind of care that was needed. The lab could come along later.”
Martin confirmed Tuesday, April 22, that the hospital is still on divert status for blood products.
“The lab is open and fully operating otherwise,” Martin said by email.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
The only public comment at the meeting, which was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. before being moved to 2 p.m. on the morning of the meeting, was from Heather Wilson, a member of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission who has been critical of the hospital commission in recent months.
“I’ve thought a lot about your recent workshop with the city council and a quote stood out: ‘principles over personalities’,” Wilson said. “The commission’s actions do not reflect this. They suggest otherwise. Your bylaws make you responsible for setting criteria for medical staff and outline what criteria to which you must adhere. CMS and Arkansas codes advise background checks.
“I’ve reviewed two of your management contracts which have conflicted with your bylaws. I’m awaiting the current one. Where were the due diligence requirements? Your bylaws also say the CEO, not the CFO, creates budgets. Have they changed? They’re not on any website for the public to easily access. This isn’t semantics. These are two very different roles.
“Principles are not attempting to block legal FOIA requests to the Municipal League. Principles aren’t blaming the press for doing their job. … Principles aren’t about creating the false impression that taxpayer money isn’t involved in hospital funding. It is via state and other taxes. Principles are about accountability, not deflection.”
Wilson told commissioners that she reviewed a stack of documents recently provided to city council members.
“I’ve read hundreds of the pages that you call ‘the other side.’ They don’t show employer branding, culture building, or commitment to a healthy work environment,” Wilson said. “They do show a pattern of years-long failure and toxicity. You keep saying: ‘Look at the other side.’… Have you looked at the other side? Really looked?
“Principles over personalities. I challenge you to live up to that statement, like making yourselves more accessible.”
Wilson then commented on the hospital’s logo, which includes a heart with what appears to be a heartbeat symbol before the line straightens out to a flat line.
“Please take a hard, long look at your hospital logo,” she said. “Please, some of you are nurses and doctors, I know you know what that means. Please don’t let that be indicative of what the hospital will become.”
