Enloe shake-up

In the end, Dan Neumeister had no choice but to resign.

The resolution of the conflict that had plunged Enloe Medical Center into one of its worst crises ever came in the form of press releases issued Tuesday afternoon by the Enloe PR department. They said that Neumeister, Enloe’s chief executive officer since January and chief operating officer for nine years before that, would resign effective July 31. They also announced that the chairwoman and vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees, Betty Dean and Mark Spelts, were also leaving their positions, effective immediately.

Such a dramatic conclusion to the controversy, which began with concerns about anesthesiology services but escalated to outright warfare between the hospital’s board and its doctors, could mean only one thing: There was no other recourse.

In mid-May, the hospital’s medical staff resoundingly voted no confidence in Neumeister, and since then the doctors, led by chief of staff Dan Thomas, had not wavered in their opposition to him and even had signaled their willingness eventually to take the Board of Trustees to court. It was clear they weren’t backing down.

Many in the hospital, especially at leadership levels, strongly supported Neumeister and were saddened when they learned of his resignation, Lori Aldrete, the hospital’s spokeswoman, said Wednesday morning. “I was in the room when he announced [his resignation to the hospital’s leadership group],” she said, “and they’re devastated. … A lot of people are very sad, and they’re angry.”

In his resignation statement, Neumeister said he understood “some of the decisions we have made over the years have not been popular ones, but they have always been made with the best interests of the patients, hospital and community at heart.”

Dean praised Neumeister for his willingness to step down for the sake of the hospital: “I am grateful for Dan’s leadership and the role he has played … in insuring Enloe remains a financially sound and premier medical center.”

Dean and Spelts resigned, Aldrete said, because they believed “it was the best thing for the hospital for them to step aside and allow new leadership to come forward.” Darby Makel has been appointed interim chairman and Judy Sitton interim vice-chairwoman.

Neumeister is credited with taking a facility that had only 11 days’ worth of cash on hand when he arrived and, at a time when the financial pressures on hospitals are immense and constantly changing, building reserves up to 130 days and establishing financial stability. He also developed a new strategic plan for the hospital, led development and construction of a new Cancer Center, expanded MRI/CT, endoscopy and radiation oncology services, and led the effort to design and implement the Century Project, the hospital’s huge expansion effort whose construction is just beginning.

In a resolution passed Monday, the Board of Trustees praised Neumeister’s leadership, saying he’d received unanimous support from the executive management team and signatures of more than 70 directors, managers and coordinators in support of his character and integrity.

For whatever reasons, however, he is disliked not only by most of the doctors, but also many nurses and service employees. Some of the unpopularity could be the result of his playing hardball in his efforts to forestall their unionization efforts, but others say it’s a matter of management style. In public, they say, Neumeister is charming and suave, but in private he can be arrogant, even abusive, and because of this is not well liked. They cite numerous specific incidents, but they’re anecdotal, and few if any have been substantiated.

Neumeister’s downfall began in the spring, when negotiations between the administration and the hospital’s anesthesiologists broke down. Four of the 16 doctors resigned, and then eight more quit when Neumeister began negotiating with a small breakaway group of anesthesiologists led by Dr. Duane Menefee. Menefee began bringing in temporary anesthesiologists to take up the slack, but some of them reportedly had questionable skill levels, and the rest of the medical staff became concerned about patient care.

That conflict between the doctors and Neumeister, which got worse over time, was his undoing. For the doctors, it became an opportunity to voice long-standing grievances, and as time went by, their opposition hardened. Something had to give, and in the end it was Neumeister.

If upper management is saddened by Neumeister’s resignation, others at the hospital are taking it as a morale booster and an opportunity for healing.

In a press release, the SEIU Healthcare Workers-West union, which has been locked in a bitter unionization battle with Enloe for three years, said that “while we feel this is a positive move and a step in the right direction for improving the situation at Enloe, we hope it means the rest of the Board [of Trustees] is paying attention to the problems that led to the resignations in the first place.”

In addition to calling on the trustees to acknowledge the services workers’ right to organize and to renegotiate the anesthesiologists’ contract “in good faith,” the union called on the board to “make fundamental changes to the structure of the [board] to increase accountability and ensure the current situation never repeats itself.”

Speaking for the medical staff, Thomas said his group agreed with the resolution of the situation. “This was an important and necessary step for the hospital and the community,” he said.

Dr. Diane Gill, one of the anesthesiologists who left because of the negotiations breakdown, said the first thing her 10-year-old son did when he heard Neumeister had resigned was run into the front yard of their home and pull up the “for sale” sign there. She and her husband, Jerry, an emergency room doctor, had been planning to leave Chico if the situation had not been resolved, but their children hated the idea.

“I feel like we came so close to having the hospital go down the tubes,” she said. “I think morale is going to improve tremendously.”