Two administrative staff members at the Eureka Springs Hospital have been terminated, another has been put on an improvement plan, and a fourth has been promoted on a temporary basis.
All within four days. The hospital commission voted unanimously at a special meeting Friday, Nov. 1, to terminate chief executive officer Angie Shaw. The commission then voted, again unanimously, at a special meeting Monday, Nov. 4, to terminate director of nursing Jessica Petrino. Also at special meetings held Nov. 4, chief financial officer Cynthia Asbury was placed on a 60-day Performance Improvement Plan to be monitored by the commission and human resources director Jodi Edmondson was named acting CEO.
All decisions were made effective immediately and with no explanation from commissioners, who went into executive session to discuss each employee before returning to announce their decisions.
The special meetings and personnel changes come after a letter attributed to hospital commission chair Kent Turner was read during the Oct. 28 city council meeting.
“To Butch Berry and members of the city council and public, [the] commission desires to notify the city that we have received a draft of an article about the hospital to appear to appear in [the] Eureka Springs Independent soon,” says the letter, which was read by city clerk treasurer Ida Meyer. “The article is not completely accurate. However, we cannot comment on the article as we are conducting an investigation relating to potential personnel matters.
“We will be completing our investigation soon, at which time the commission will hold a special meeting for the purpose of making a decision on any actions to be taken.”
The letter came after the hospital commission held a regular meeting on Oct. 21 and then called a special meeting on Oct. 22, where they quickly voted to go into executive session to “discuss a personnel matter.”
After resuming the special meeting following the executive session, Turner said the commission was “not able to come to a conclusion about what we want to do as far as any disciplinary action.”
“We’re going to be looking at some other aspects of what we’ve heard and what we’ve talked about and will convene another meeting and have an executive session to make a final decision on what we are going to do,” Turner said at the Oct. 22 meeting.
It’s not clear what further “investigation” took place as indicated in the letter read at the council meeting, but no two or more members of the commission are allowed, under Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act, to have private conversations amongst one another concerning commission business, nor can any two or more members have any private conversations at the same time with anyone else regarding hospital business.
In addition, there was no mention during either the Oct. 21 meeting or the Oct. 22 special meeting of having a letter drafted on behalf of the commission by Turner, or any other commissioner.
CEO OUSTED
In the second of two special meetings on Nov. 1, the commission went into executive session “to consider firing, disciplining or demoting an employee.”
After the executive session, the commission voted to return to the special meeting, where commissioner Kate Dryer made a motion to “dismiss the chief executive officer.” Commissioner Barbara Dicks immediately followed, saying, “Angie Shaw,” and that she seconded the motion.
Commissioner Sandy Martin asked if it was an immediate termination and Dicks added “immediately” to the wording of her second.
A roll call vote went 5-0 with Dryer, Dicks, Martin and commissioners Brian Beyler and David Carlisle voting yes.
“All the commissioners are voting yes, the motion is carried,” Turner said without voicing a vote, before requesting a motion to adjourn the meeting.
The vote to fire Shaw came one week after she was featured on the hospital’s Facebook page in a “Staff Spotlight.”
“CEO Angie Shaw has worked at our hospital for the past 17 years,” said the post, which includes a photo of Shaw with her family. “She started as a CNA, then became an RN, then became ER director. She was interim CNO and CEO in 2020 before being named CEO in 2021. What’s her favorite thing about working at a rural hospital?”
Shaw is quoted as responding: “The people, the community. We take care of grandpa and the grandkids and the parents. We make a difference in the lives of our local families.”
The post points out Shaw’s positive thoughts on the hospital being the only facility in Carroll County with stroke and trauma certifications.
“I’ve always had strong connections with other families here,” Shaw is quoted to end the post. “Eureka Springs has always felt like home.”
THREE MORE MEETINGS, THREE MORE CHANGES Not long after the completion of the Nov. 1 special meeting, it was announced that two additional special meetings were scheduled for Nov. 4. A third special meeting for Nov. 4 was added to the lineup a little more than two hours before it started.
The commission immediately went into executive session in the first special meeting on Nov. 4 for the “consideration of the discipline, demotion or termination” of Asbury, who has been the hospital’s CFO for two years.
After returning to the special meeting from executive session, Martin made a motion “to put Cynthia Asbury on a Performance Improvement Plan to be monitored by the commission for 60 days.”
After a second, Beyler, Carlisle, Dicks, Martin, Dryer and commissioner Sharon Deramus, who was absent at the Nov. 1 special meetings, all voted in favor.
It was not announced how the commission intends to monitor Asbury’s improvement plan or the reasons for initiating it.
After adjourning the first special meeting, the commission quickly began a second meeting and again voted to go into executive session, this time to consider the “discipline, demotion, or termination of Jessica Petrino.”
Upon returning from executive session to the special meeting, the commission voted 6-0 to “terminate Jessica Petrino effective immediately,” again with no public discussion on the issue.
Petrino hadn’t been in the role of chief nursing officer long.
In a June 6 post on the hospital’s Facebook page, Petrino was welcomed saying she had been on staff “for a few weeks, and she’s doing an amazing job.”
According to the Facebook post, Petrino started working as an LPN in 2013 and then received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing.
“Nursing is her passion,” the post reads.
Petrino is quoted in the post as saying, “You have to treat everybody like an equal. We are all part of a team, and we all have the same goal.”
“Her favorite thing about Eureka Springs Hospital?” the post reads. “It’s how closeknit we all are, of course.”
Petrino is quoted as responding: “This hospital is different from any hospital I’ve ever worked at, because I always worked at big facilities. It just seems like everyone really cares about the patient. It’s not a big corporation where it’s all about money. The patients are important here.”
The third special meeting Nov. 4 began without Turner present. Dicks, the commission vice chair, called the meeting “to consider the promotion of an employee to an acting CEO of the hospital.” The commission went into executive session without Turner to discuss the issue, but when it returned, Turner was present and led the remainder of the meeting.
Quickly after re-convening the special meeting Martin made a motion to “offer Jodi Edmondson temporary promotion as acting CEO while we embark on a search for a permanent CEO effective immediately.”
A unanimous vote followed before the commission quickly adjourned.
As HR director, Edmondson was highlighted in another staff spotlight post on the hospital’s Facebook page the morning of Nov. 1, the same day of the vote to terminate Shaw.
“… Edmondson has worked at our hospital for 33 years,” reads the post, which features a photo of Edmondson and her family. “She started her career when her mom was working at the hospital as a nurse.”
The post highlights Edmondson’s interest in the hospital’s physical and speech therapy departments.
“Her daughter is working on a doctorate in occupational therapy and did clinical rotations in our physical therapy department,” the post reads, later adding that “Jodi is also proud of our emergency department.”
“The hospital is open. We are a Rural Emergency Hospital,” Edmondson is quoted in the post. “Most of our patients do come through the emergency room, and we’re here for our community.”
There was no mention during the special meeting of any salary increase accompanying the temporary promotion.
NEW IT SERVICES AGREEMENT The first special meeting on Nov. 1 didn’t involve any personnel issue, but to ratify a master service agreement for “computer network managed services.”
“As we’ve talked about in several of our workshops, we have some real shortcomings in our IT department,” Turner told commissioners. “We just really don’t have the technicalities to handle everything we need to handle. We did lose an employee recently, which even made some things worse.”
The commission heard information from Martin regarding a proposal to use Little Rockbased Pinnacle IT for a month-to-month retainer fee of $6,974.11. Representatives from Pinnacle recently visited and did an assessment of the hospital, Martin said.
“They did a pretty comprehensive assessment and identified some cost savings for us…,” she said.
The hospital would have a local representative from Pinnacle in Lowell, commissioners were told.
“I will have to say, I think as far as responsive, the level of response that we’ve had over the last week has been nothing short of amazing from an IT company over emails to answering questions almost immediately and things like that,” Turner said.
The company would assist the hospital remotely, but would visit the hospital to assist in any additional needs, Martin said.
The proposal was approved unanimously.
