The battle for South County Hospital is heating up. Why two sides are throwing barbs

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – When nearly the entire team of hematology oncology providers abruptly resigned from South County Hospital last June, their departure was discreetly announced in a newsletter to the medical staff.

That may have been the end of it – except that patients and former medical staff started questioning the hospital’s version of events that a divergence of perspectives on how to handle the cancer center’s finances created a rift between the institution and the providers. Soon an opposition group formed, which claimed the blame lay with the hospital’s top administration.

The opposition group, dubbed Save South County Hospital, held public forums calling on the hospital’s top administrators to resign, sent letters to the hospital’s board and appealed to state authorities to intervene. It also set up a website to press forward with its public information campaign.

The hospital, for its part, launched an entire landing page on its website dedicated to “addressing the facts” – defending the hospital’s administration, explaining departures of physicians and the hospital finances. It also held news conferences, community forums, and question-and-answer sessions in response to Save South County Hospital’s efforts.

Now, more than half a year after it all started, the battle for South County Hospital is heating up.

On March 11, the hospital filed a lawsuit against Save South County Hospital and Claudia Swain, a former development executive who managed donor relationships.

The lawsuit claims Swain disclosed confidential information to Save South County Hospital to convince donors to stop financially supporting the hospital.

“Though [Save South County Hospital claims] to advocate for quality care, their actions threaten the very funding that enables us to maintain that standard. By targeting donor contributions, they risk creating the very lapses in care and quality they profess to oppose,” says a news release provided by Matt Moeller, director of marketing and communications at South County Health, the parent organization of South County Hospital.

Save South County Hospital’s Director Steven Fera, a former cardiologist at the hospital, denies that any disclosures of confidential information occurred and says that a list of the donors to the hospital are all on publicly available plaques in the hospital lobby.

He chalked off the lawsuit as an attempt to stifle opposition.

“This lawsuit is nothing short of a shameless, desperate stunt designed to choke off dissent and cover up the catastrophic fallout of gross mismanagement at South County Hospital,” Fera said.

In a separate news release sent to media Wednesday, Save South County Hospital announced it is convening a special meeting of members of South County Health’s endowment on April 3. At the meeting, which will be open to the public, members will seek to elect nine additional trustees to the hospital’s board to “right the hospital’s ship.”

But, in an email to the media Thursday, Moeller said the meeting did not meet the criteria to be considered a meeting of South County Health’s endowment.

“Any decisions or votes taken at this gathering hold no validity or authority to enact change at [South County Hosptial],” Moeller wrote.

Fera disagrees.

“The meeting has been thoroughly researched by lawyers and is legally able to be held to provide opportunities for new leadership at the hospital,” he said.

South County Hospital has an annual meeting scheduled for April 7, which will include the board of trustees, the health system’s executive leadership and members of South County Health’s corporations. It is not open to the public.

Tension between South County Hospital’s leadership and Save South County Hospital has been building since the beginning of the year. The group held a meeting on Jan. 28 at South Kingstown High School, where former patients, providers and stakeholders spoke. About 300 people attended the event, according to the group.

Earlier in January, a separate group of more than 60 donors, former trustees and staff sent a letter to South County Hospital’s Board of Trustees asking the hospital to rehire the hematology oncology providers who resigned, remove CEO Aaron Robinson and pursue a partnership with a larger health system. The letter was unaffiliated with Save South County Hospital, though Fera and Chris VanHemerlrijck, also one of the group’s directors, were among its signers.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: South County Hospital lawsuit against opposition group