Who are we?
We're PWHS employees, past and present. We believe that the Prince William Health System should remain a non-profit, locally controlled organization. Everything in this blog is our opinion, opinion based on years of PWHS service and a great deal of current inside knowledge.
We believe PWHS does not need to be sold or "partnered" or "merged" with another outside organization and only needs stronger leadership.
We believe the current PWHS leadership has had no big-picture plan for the organization for nearly ten years other than to sell.
We believe PWHS can be as successful as our local, independent sister non-profit health systems: Fauquier, INOVA, Medicorp & Potomac. We believe the only reason that PWHS does not shine as brightly is due to weak, ineffectual leadership.
You may have read about us in the local news. We made a bit of a splash last month when we emailed a few of our coworkers with our opinions and the word began to spread. You can read that entire email and about the initial bit of buzz it created, here on the first local blog to pick up on our story and cause:
We believe that the community can make a difference and keep their hospital under local control and ownership.
We believe the fact that the hospital has chosen to address the issues we've raised in a week-long series of employee forums legitimizes our concerns.
We believe that the hospital leadership scapegoating us for employees feeling uneasy and creating pro-union sentiment is a pathetic attempt at trying to discredit us. We are anti-union and do not feel one is needed at PWHS, as a union would only make the chaotic current state of fear, paranoia, mistrust and confusion even worse. The employees of PWHS and the surrounding community have all the power they need to make a difference.
No "Bounty"?
In a recent Washington Post article, PWHS CEO Mike Schwartz has claimed there is "no finder's fee or bounty" for selling the hospital.
We believe an employment agreement that stipulates that he will receive a year's worth of his half million dollar salary plus benefits in the event of losing his position due to a sale or merger constitutes quite a bounty. As far as his "no finder's fee" comment is concerned, our belief is that the sum activity of his near-decade long PWHS career has been looking for a "partner" (BUYER) for the organization. The MILLIONS of dollars he's made from PWHS are nothing more than his cumulative finder's fee because it has been his focus for his entire tenure. We believe he's been an absentee landlord to the organization, and to our knowledge and observation he has had little or no involvement with policies, patient care and anything that goes into actually RUNNING a hospital and not just trying to SELL one.
It must be nice to have a job where you get to have ONE project to accomplish that you can spend almost 10 years on, a project that you can fail at (the unsuccessful merger with INOVA) and still seemingly have zero accountability, still keep making an exuberant salary (FYI: as a non-profit organization that files IRS 990 forms, the executive salaries are public record, call PWHS CFO Robert Riley at 703-369-8000 if you want a copy of a PWHS 990 for your own information).
As far as these severance agreements (search Google News for Circuit City and AIG for more on similar disgusting displays of corporate greed) and 'Stay Bonuses' (a special article on these, coming soon) being a "standard practice," which according to Schwartz in the Post are needed in order for "stability in senior management," we can only scoff. It's just another example of those responsible for creating a problem getting paid to sit back and let someone else come in and fix it. Even more reprehensible is the fact that so far, none of the employees that these leadership executives KNOW will also lose their jobs are being taken care of in an appropriate fashion or being told the truth about what a sale will mean to them.
No severance for you, just semantics...
One of the most disturbing things occurring right now is people connected to the front lines of non-clinical departments that DO NOT traditionally survive healthcare industry sales/mergers are reporting that they are still being lied to by leadership, being told their jobs are safe and to look forward to growth, meaning that these "leaders" are either truly as clueless and incompetent as we fear OR as immoral and dishonest as we fear. It's a no-win situation for the PWHS employee.
YES, a buyer with deep pockets will one day mean growth for the new incarnation of what was formerly known as Prince William Hospital, but not for non-clinical, corporate positions that will no longer be needed. Telling someone who works for a corporate or accounting department to expect growth is twisting the truth around, playing word games, playing games with employees' very lives.
This is the worst American economy since the Great Depression. Execs who will walk away with lucrative severances openly misleading the hardworking people who will lose their jobs is a crime. These people should be preparing to seek new employment and put away the money they'll need in case they need to pay for 100% of their health insurance out of their own pockets (unlike the execs whose severance agreements entitle them to employee-rates for their benefits, not the full-priced COBRA rates the rank and file will be subject to), not be given a false sense of security.
What now?
Now we wait till the prospective PWHS "partner" (BUYER) organization is announced and make sure they're made aware of our feelings and the truth about what's been happening at PWHS for the past 10 years. We will also facilitate the means for you to contact them so you can do the same.
Look for the following upcoming articles here on the Save PWHS blog:
- Is that laughter? Must be a PWHS exec on their way to the bank: A closer look at Severance Packages and Stay Bonuses
- We Gotta Go Now: An examination of departments that are traditionally made redundant and eliminated when a large healthcare organization buys a smaller one.
- Community at Risk: What happens when the focus of a hospital's leadership turns from patient care and satisfaction to merely selling off the organization?
- Are We REALLY in the Red?: How much time, effort and money is spent on spin control instead of simply being honest?
- Where are they Now?: an article focusing on the Save PWHS commitment to the PWHS employee and how there will be accountability.
Spread the word...
Links to the aforementioned Washington Post story and other PWHS articles in the news... be sure to check out the 'comments' sections for more information that the powers-that-be at PWHS refuse to address and don't want you reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031303941.html
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/hospital_system_board_searching_for_partners/30853/
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/prince_william_hospital_opens_center_in_woodbridge/31783/
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/prince_william_hospital_babies_smoke_detectors/31469/
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/manassas_hospital_named_best_orthopedic_surgery_hospital_in_dc/32330/
the.real.save.pwhs@gmail.comwrite us, ask questions, take a stand and stay tuned.
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