Hutcheson Medical Center CEO Charles Stewart, under fire for months as the Fort Oglethorpe hospital struggled financially, resigned Monday night. The hospital's vice president of operations and interim CFO Gerald Faircloth also resigned, according to Hutcheson Medical Center Board of Directors Chairwoman Martha Attaway. Both resignations are effective immediately. Stewart has resigned to pursue other opportunities, according to a news release.
Hutcheson's board met during a called meeting Monday night.
“I appreciate the opportunity to have worked with the Hutcheson Medical Center Board of Directors and the support they have shown me during my tenure," Stewart said in the news release. "I feel the organization is facing a time where new leadership is needed.”
HMC’s Chief Nursing Officer Debbie Reeves will serve as the system’s interim CEO. During the leadership transition period, Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), of Plano, Texas, will provide management support, the news release stated. CHC was hired by HMC last year to help the hospital through a series of changes to the system that would ensure the future of quality, community-based health care to North Georgia residents.
Hutcheson, a 300-bed community hospital, has lost money in four of the last five years, records show. Unaudited financial statements show a 2010 loss of $7.1 million and a 2009 loss of $7.3 million. In recent months, the hospital has averaged just 30 to 40 patients a day.
Attaway said the board's "foremost concern for HMC is to provide quality care for our patients, while producing a stable environment for our employees to do their work. We believe the actions that have been taking place over the past several months will enable us to fully address those concerns.”
More in tomorrow's edition of the Times Free Press.
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It's about time. What took you two so long?
It's about time. It's disgusting when a CEO gets the salary and bonuses that he did and the employees who are from Catoosa,Dade,& Walker counties and other surrounding areas are laid off or hours cut back. Now maybe the doctors will come back.
Hopefully, the doctors will return to what was a excellent hospital. The previous administration took advantage of the hospital and its many employees who have served that area for a very long time. I was an dedicated employee many years ago and saw the administration from that era that served the hospital and its many communities with strong medical care, a very successful financial officer and excellent physicians. It would be wonderful to see that return once again. Hopefully, better decisions will be made for the future of Hutcheson and much success will follow very soon.
Why did Hutcheson reorganize into all these new Corporations? It was simple--The ruling board of Hutcheson could self perpetuate and not be subject to the commissioners of Walker,Dade or Catoosa Counties--The reorganization took the power from the Hospital Authority Board and gave it in perpetuity to this self serving board that ruled the hospital......and guess what....they ran a proud organization into the ground--You can thank the former board and their attorney Dennis Watson of Lafayette for "killing" Hutcheson---Yeah, they made plenty of money off of the demise, but we are left with a disgraced hospital by their hand--
I call again for a full, comprehensive criminal investigation of this disaster
Maybe there will now be accountability instead of playing games with the Hospital that was created to serve the area. It wasn't created to be a test bed for innovative management to find ways to plunder the system and take home unreal salaries. I hope they can't run fast enough or far enough to escape the investigation which should come soon.
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