Sunday, November 27, 2011

George is Out

Dr. George Hevesy was voted out as Chairman of the Emergency Department at OSF in Peoria.

There are about thirty attending physicians who work in the ED now and their vote several months ago was not even close. Dr. Dick Frederick became the new Chairman.

Dr. Hevesy is still the Director of the Emergency Department. This is an appointed position by OSF Administration. So Keith Steffen, CEO at OSF, still supports George even though George's fellow colleagues overwhelmingly do not. This vote of no confidence in George was a long time coming. However, as I have documented many times in this blog and in Peoria's Medical Mafia, fear plays a big role in how things are done at OSF.

There were many reasons why George fell from his position. The Sisters have been protected from knowing too much about their own hospital, which is a shame. I think OSF Administration knows much about the concept of "plausible deniability" and understands how to use it effectively to keep the Sisters in the dark.

Dr. Hevesy is no longer EMS Director at OSF, but due to the fact that he is still Director of the ED, he controls the physician who is EMS Medical Director in his department. Peoria Area EMS, based at OSF, has about 60 agencies which they control. Advanced Medical Transport (AMT) is one of these agencies. And AMT is the only paramedic/transport agency in Peoria. Dr. Hevesy still receives a handsome salary from AMT and from OSF.

It won't be long before Dr. Hevesy is no longer Director of the ED at OSF. His utility at OSF is diminishing.

Keith Steffen, CEO at OSF, doesn't have much time left at OSF either. Keith, my unsolicited advice for you is to ditch George as Emergency Department Director while you still have the chance. No one will think worse of you...

In my opinion if Peorians knew the real details at our Catholic hospital both men would have been gone long ago.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you're right...

Anonymous said...

How Peoria's OSF has managed to maintain any type of nursing staff is puzzling. OSF has apparently been a rotting corporate structure for some time. Rot that runs so deeply cannot possibly be the work of 2 nor will eliminating just those 2 solve the systemic problems that permeate more space than just the ER.

With respect to the Sisters being kept in the dark, that has been their choosing. There are no brownie points for that failed mission. Such a rotten core could have been easily averted if they were focused less on the recitation of the Lord's Prayer with the patient and more on assessing the quality of care being provided that individual under their roof as they make those daily rounds. The Sisters sold out long ago. They allowed their brand name to stay on a defective product.

As I view the national Catholics Come Home TV ad campaign and I think about how my experience with OSF and their practitioners changed me, I think why should they. In Peoria they can look across the bridge and see the Methodists doing it better.

Does that make me question my Faith? It should be incentive enough to make all Catholics question what type of brand you are funding when you don't stand up or speak out either as a patient or provider. If the Sisters are silent partners, that sets the tone for their business. The Sisters do not attend grievance committee meetings? How is that? They should be leading them and have a strong, weighted opinion in how these grievances are managed and resolved.

Hanging a cross in every patient room or affiliated doctor's office doesn't bring more Faith or better practice. Oversight and accountability do. Paying close attention to the business practices of those individuals you place in charge to represent your brand or mission is a measure of how sincere you are about your Faith and your mission. What would Jesus do if he was CEO? I think there would be more than 2 pink slips delivered in 2012, no parachutes and a swift corporate attitude adjustment. In fact, the Sisters might just be given pink slips for giving up control and hiding in the closet as this corporate giant morphed. Magnet status cannot be possible in this institution as it stands. It is mere label on a brand that I wouldn't buy if I were living in Peoria.