Citing the need for stronger financial leadership, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems President Michelle Hood announced Wednesday that Blue Hill Memorial Hospital is under new management. Effective Wednesday, Dr. Erik Steele, chief medical officer for EMHS, will serve as interim chief executive officer of the 25-bed coastal hospital, taking over from former CEO Tim Garrity, who has served in the position for about five years.
Hood said the hospital has made “significant progress” under Garrity’s leadership, but the combination of delayed payments from Maine’s Medicaid program, changes in health care reimbursements, and the national economic crisis has taken its toll.
“I’m restructuring the leadership requirements,” Hood said. “The two of us [Hood and Garrity] agreed he didn’t have the skill set to take the hospital to the next level.”
Steele said that like most small, rural hospitals, Blue Hill Memorial has been struggling financially. Last year, he said, the institution made up a budget deficit of about $2 million by drawing funds from its endowment. Commending the Blue Hill community for its generous support of the endowment fund, Steele said using it to pay for routine operational costs is an unsustainable solution.
Steele, who also writes a column for the Bangor Daily News, said he did not know what steps he would take to improve the hospital’s financial status, but that it would include creating efficiencies in some programs and services and possibly eliminating others. Steele will continue to serve as CMO of EMHS, but the Blue Hill hospital will be his top priority, he said.
“This hospital’s survival is critical to the health care system on the Blue Hill peninsula,” he said. Steele, who performed his medical residency in obstetrics at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital from 1988 to 1991, said he looks forward to serving the hospital and the community.
Hood said there would be no search for Garrity’s permanent replacement until the hospital recovers its financial equilibrium. “We will not pursue a search until the hospital is on stable footing so we can adequately represent what the new CEO is coming into,” she said.
Hood said Garrity would support the transition while considering other career options, which might include a different position with EMHS. Efforts on Wednesday to reach Garrity at his home and through EMHS were unsuccessful.
On 12/4/08 at 8:34 AM,
jgordon wrote:
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Recently I had to have a series of blood tests for which I would have been charged around $1000 at Blue Hill. On a hunch I called EMMC and priced the same tests. At $800 they were 20% cheaper. When I wrote to Mr. Garriety about the large difference in charges he said Blue Hill charged more because it was associated with local healthcare facilities. The implication is that Blue Hill must subsidize these facilities.
On 12/4/08 at 1:35 PM,
bluehill96 wrote:
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I must say, pretty poorly written headline.
It gives the impression that Tim Garrity is the one who is ailing.
On 12/4/08 at 1:47 PM,
downbeat wrote:
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The article is confusing.. they said they had to let him go due to financial constraints, and that he made great strides and then they say he did not have the skill sets for the job? What skills does he need?/ collection of overdue Medicaid bills form Maine...??
On 12/4/08 at 1:53 PM,
anne_of_mdi wrote:
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I thought the headline was poorly written too. I met Tim Garrity. He is nice. That "skill set" quote is just code for "he's being fired for a reason we don't want to talk about."
On 12/4/08 at 8:23 PM,
SLM414 wrote:
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That's what happens when you sleep with the devil, Garrity. How does it feel now? The only significant progress Garrity made was to sell his and the Hospital's soul to EMHS and run BHMH into the ground. Bruce Cummings and Dr Dan Rissi read the writing on the wall and bailed. The only real news is that EMHS waited so long to make this move before putting a Bangor Daily News columnist at the helm. Was Kent Ward not available?
On 12/5/08 at 10:25 AM,
downfleeced wrote:
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SLM414..."selling the hospitals soul" to EMHS (as you call it) was directly responsible for keeping the lights on at Blue Hill because the hospital was running itself into the ground. You can only operate at a loss for so long burning through your endowment before there is nothing left. Simple economics. Call it what you may but without EMHS or some other healthcare system with deeper pockets Blue Hill would have been closed a while ago now. Which works better for you?
On 12/5/08 at 11:01 AM,
Bangorian wrote:
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Headline is terrible
On 12/5/08 at 12:04 PM,
Katofbangor wrote:
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downfleeced, you are absooutely correct. BHMH is only one small hospital that would cease to exsit without membership into EMHS.
On 12/5/08 at 4:20 PM,
jparker777 wrote:
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There ware a lot of soles sold since Garrity bacame CEO. The only thing I have to say Tim is "The Beatings Will Cease When The Morale Improves"
On 12/5/08 at 9:59 PM,
nickrb wrote:
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“Citing the need for stronger financial leadership” EMHS appoints an osteopathic ER doc to manage Blue Hill Memorial. Hmm, if a proctologist wasn’t available would we call Joe the Plumber? They are about as closely related. This PR release insult the intelligence of anyone that can balance a check.book
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