MACHIAS, Maine — When Douglas Jones got the call a few weeks ago asking him to take the reins of the problem-plagued Down East Community Hospital, he said it took only 20 seconds for him to say yes.
“I wanted to do something fulfilling in the last 10 years of my career,” Jones said Monday. For months, as serious administrative problems unraveled at DECH, Jones said, “I felt like I was sitting in the bleachers. I saw the pain this community was going through.”
The Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Services notified DECH on June 26 that the hospital no longer qualified for reimbursements because it had not corrected a litany of problems and deficiencies identified over the past two years.
That same day, DECH placed CEO Wayne Dodwell on administrative leave.
The hospital then was placed into receivership by a federal court order with Brewer-based Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems set as its emergency operator.
The Machias hospital first came under scrutiny in January 2008, when Reid Emery, a former patient, checked out of the hospital and later was found dead in a nearby snowbank. Since then, other incidents led to state and federal investigations, including one earlier this year by CMS that found serious violations in emergency room and obstetric department procedures. Despite several chances to address deficiencies, DECH failed to come into full compliance with CMS rules.
Jones, the former CEO of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, said the first thing he did upon arriving in Machias was to create a code of conduct among staff.
“There was so much controversy, so much anger and fear. We needed to lay a foundation of respect for each other,” he said.
“The most important thing was to immediately create a culture of safety, not just for our patients, for each other as well. I would hope our patients and visitors are seeing that our behavior is much more respectful,” he said.
The CEO said many changes have taken place already at DECH.
Jones said there is a new inpatient nursing manager and a new obstetrics nursing manager. Changes in the leadership of the Down East Health Trust also have been made, and changes at the trustee level are under way.
“We are now reviewing the care of every single patient in obstetrics and the emergency department, since this is where the [CMS] center of concern was,” Jones said. But the reality, he said, is that the entire facility needed to be strengthened.
Task forces have been created to look into every area that CMS identified as weak or failing.
Jones’ ultimate goal is clear: “Leave this hospital better than I found it.” And the vehicle he intends to use to get there is listening.
“I’m spending a lot of my time listening,” Jones said Monday. “Not that I believe everything that I’m told, however. I still use my own judgment. I give a lot of weight to what people are saying and their perceptions.”
Jones said that goes for staff, patients and the communities the hospital serves.
He has set up two community forums to allow the public to meet him, ask questions and allow him to explain his plans for restructuring and elevating the hospital’s status.
The meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, at Elm Street Elementary School in East Machias and Thursday, Aug. 13, at Narraguagus High School in Harrington.
Key to the restructuring of the hospital, Jones said, is elevating the obstetrics department and the emergency department, as well as changing the makeup of the existing board of trustees.
The board of trustees became a lightning rod for criticism in recent months, including its approval of the purchase of the Machias Medical Associates building just one day before the hospital was placed in receivership in June.
An active investigation of the sale of that building is under way, according to Eastern Maine Health Care Systems.
“The fact that the sale happened the day before the receivership crystallized folks’ opinions that the processes here at the hospital were secret from the community,” Jones said. “The board needs to build in accountability. If not, people will begin to lose their hospital.”
Jones said that hospital staff has “really suffered” through this time. “The staff always has been focused on the community, but during this time they have felt cut off from the very community they wished to serve.”
“Accountability is my intent,” Jones said.
The next step in the recertification process is a surprise visit to DECH by CMS in September.
“It will be an unannounced visit,” Jones said. “But failure is not an option.”
Meanwhile, several lawsuits are still pending against either DECH or its staff, as well as several cases before the Maine Human Rights Commission. Some of these actions were taken by former staff doctors and patients.