NASHVILLE -- Erlanger Health System officials today fired the four top administrators at the Southside and Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers and are dissolving a co-applicant agreement with the federal government that included community-based advisory boards at each center.
Erlanger CEO Kevin Spiegel said in a Times Free Press interview today the move came amid rising losses at the two centers, which treat uninsured or underinsured Chattanoogans. Moreover, there were issues with patient satisfaction, he said.
Spiegel stressed repeatedly in the interview that health services would continue to be provided without interruption. The physical structures are owned by Erlanger, a public hospital. Physicians, nurses, technicians and others are Erlanger employees, he said.
"Today, we have informed management at the health centers that we were going to replace them," Spiegel said.
The centers have a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration under an agreement regarding federally qualified health centers.
Erlanger this year put in an additional $1.5 million to shore up operations but the centers lost $800,000 beyond that, Spiegel said.
Erlanger Health Systems President & CEO, Kevin M. Spiegel, FACHE, speaks during a flag raising ceremony recognizing Donor Awareness Month in Chattanooga in this 2014 file photo."This year [in] the performance of the health centers, they lost an additional $2.3 million," Spiegel said. "Myself and my team have determined that that is unacceptable fiscal management and they have been removed effective today."
The four executives, whom Spiegel has not yet named, were Erlanger executives put in at the facility by the public hospital.
Erlanger executives, including Spiegel, were in Washington, D.C., last Friday speaking with federal HRSA officials.
"We met with the leadership of HRSA in Washington on Friday and we laid out a plan for them that dissolved the co-applicant agreement," Spiegel said. "It's a requirement under HRSA grant. And we let them know we were dissolving that [including community advisory boards] and we were going to reinstitute both the management of the health centers and eventually the governance of the health centers.
"We made clear to HRSA," Spiegel added. "None of this is going to hurt patient care."
He said as "part of that meeting with [HRSA] they extended the grant, understanding what we were going to do."
The grant will be extended through March 2016, Spiegel said.
The HRSA agreement includes having community advisory boards, which do not run the facilities but provide a means of community input.
Asked what would happen with federal funding once the current grant runs out next March, Spiegel said, "we're going to have to reapply." As for whether HRSA would approve a grant without the community advisory board, Spiegel said, "we're going to have to work with HRSA" on those issues.
Spiegel thanks the community advisory boards for their help and service.
He said Erlanger takes its mission seriously to the community and will continue to fund the centers and intends to make improvements. The centers include a dental clinic.