The Courier Tribune And Randolph Hospital: Closing Ranks And Circling The Wagons

I've been on a blogging break (for those who were concerned, I did - just barely - survive the far-Eastern floods).  But I wanted to update readers on what's been going on in what my brother calls "Mary-land".

First-off, courtesy of the grapevine, I hear that quite a few "right people's" heads are spinning over recent Housecalls posts.  I'm supposed to care that David Renfro (the Courier's old publisher whose nose stayed buried WAY up Bob Morrison's butt) is "pissed off", and Hospital Board members are sputtering and falling all over themselves to downplay their role in Bob Morrison's reign of terror at Randolph Hospital. 

That trouble-making Dr. Mary Johnson "exaggerates" what happened to her in our bucolic locale ripe with small-town values.  Yeah, right.  You have to register and pay thousands of dollars to see the IRS returns on Guidestar.  Not.  Bonus money and deferred compensation somehow doesn't count when you're doing the math.  Sure, tell me another good one.

As regular readers know, I've been trying for a very long time to get a comprehensive list of non-profit Randolph Hospital's Board of Directors and Corporate Membership since 1994 (the year I accepted the job in Asheboro). 

It's my theory, you see, that the public deserves to know who has been rubber-stamping everything Bob Morrison has done over the years - and who is legally responsible for the actions of Randolph's CEO and it's leadership "team". 

It's not like they can plead ignorance any more.

I may publish the e-mails in their entireties shortly, but allow me to summarize for now.  At first, Morrison agreed to provide the lists (something one would think would be readily at hand and available for anyone who asked to see) - but then, after consulting the hospital attorney, reversed himself and advised he would only provide the last three IRS returns - because that's all he/the lawyer reason he is obliged to provide.

Tax-paying members of the public be damned.  And never mind how many tax dollars the city of Asheboro and Randolph County (that would be $1,000,000 total) have dropped on the hospital.

The Bobber obviously missed President Obama's memos on accountability and transparency.

It's an uber-narrow interpretation of a non-profit's obligations with regards to the sharing of public records, and I intend to take it up with the IRS fairly shortly. 

Let's just say I'm going to take the President's noble theories on the IRS and healthcare oversight out for a test drive.

What really gets my goat is that an IRS agent can read a story in the newspaper and initiate an investigation that leads to successful prosecution.  But when a physician-formerly-in-public-service contacts the Feds/IRS and begs for help in dealing with liars and cheats, she's treated like a nothing and a nobody.  The law, as it is written, isnt' worth the paper it's printed on.

I'm very curious as to why (1) I can only communicate with Bob to get public information that Ms. Thornton has previously had easy access to - and has felt free to use in self-serving press releases, (2) why Bob needed to consult the hospital attorney over a simple records request (???), and (3) why every single member of Bob's Board of Directors and Corporate Membership would not be very proud of their association with Randolph Hospital and willing to have their names "out there" for all the world to see?

(Pssst . . . if you really crave "privacy", I would suggest that you not serve on a "non-profit's Board of Directors.)

Apart from the obvious . . . the amoral/unethical actions they did not want to hear about way back when . . . along with the perjury, contempt and fraud that these high-minded albeit deaf, dumb & blind community leaders have blithely condoned for years, I'm thinking that Board members circling the wagons now has something to do with Bob's absurd/criminal-for-a-mill-town-Bandaid-station compensation package . . . and the over $700,000 he pulled down in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

(I cannot wait to see this past year's return.)

As for the hospital's attorneys, as I pointed out in one of my e-mails to Bob, so far, they're batting far-less-than-a-thousand:

It does seem to me that Randolph Hospital's legal Counsel should be acting less like your own personal criminal defense attorney, and more like an above-board non-profit organization's lawyer. It is very unfortunate that, in all of these years, you and your management "team" cannot seem to do anything but obfuscate and escalate.

Meanwhile, while Bob is preparing to parachute all the way to the bank (albeit not First National Bank), he is laying off more "ordinary" saps who work at Randolph Hospital:

From a story, published yesterday at the Courier Tribune (with the throw-away news) and properly buried (far from the front page) by Sunday morning (it's far more important for the general populace to know that the planning Committee has been formed for the 2011 "Dancing With the Randolph Stars):

Officials confirmed Friday 20 positions, the majority of which were administrative/non-clinical, were eliminated at Randolph Hospital. April Thornton, hospital public relations director, said 11 of the people in those jobs were offered other positions in the hospital.

Thornton said the action was unfortunate but necessary due to economic conditions. She said the hospital is in strong financial shape, however patient volumes and government reimbursements are down.

“Sadly, the hospital is not immune to the economic conditions in the community. Hospitals are often the last to feel the effects of recession and the last to come out of it,” she said. “This was a tough decision but the hospital has to be proactive for the future.”

Curiously, both my good friend Buzz Armfield, of the Asheboro Armfields and I tried to drop comments on the story yesterday, but could not get them to post (I've actually been black-listed as "SPAM" . . . it kinda hurt my feelings).

Here's mine:

Instead of firing mid-level management at Randolph Hospital (people who really need their jobs), why doesnt' the rubber-stamping Board of Directors get rid of the ROT at the top?  You could FIRE two of them FOR CAUSE right now and save boatloads of "parachute" money.

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/09/doctor-on-public-record-when-american.html

If you want a REALLY interesting read, go to www.Guidestar.org . . . Register (it's free) your e-mail address and create a password. Then look up Randolph Hospital. Click on the "Documents" tab and check out the last three IRS 990 returns (2007, 2008, 2009) - specifically the salaries & benefit packages pulled down by Bob Morrison and his senior "team".

I'll make it even easier than that:

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/09/fruits-of-evil-mba-school-subtitled.html

Economically speaking, how many nurses/techs/mid-levels would Robert Morrison's "bonus/deferred compensation (translation: parachute) pay for?

And WHAT IN GOD'S NAME did the Bobber do to "deserve" such a "bonus"?

IS ANYONE ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AWAKE?

How about the Courier Tribune? When is this newspaper going to do something besides regurgitate a Thornton press release?

Buzz's comment expressed dismay that Bob's bonus clearly ate up a good portion of the money his Uncle's Foundation gave to the cancer center.  He apparently was flagged as SPAM too.  And it takes DAYS to get off the SPAM list.

It was all very convenient for the hospital given that the story was buried the following
day.

Now, I've got an e-mail in to the webmaster (and "Mollum"), but it's Asheboro, and apparently the newspaper staff here does very good Rip Van Winkle impersonations on the weekends.

Good thing they're not doctors.

Sadly, its new publisher notwithstanding, it appears that the Courier is reverting back to its old ways.  The Internet/Google does not exist you see.  And if you print enough vapid and positive stories/editorials celebrating the virtues of downtown toilet-paper-commercials (I really cannot wait to see the commercial), the general populace won't realize that the town is "in the crapper".

Meanwhile it's clear that Bob Morrison will be the last man in Asheboro to feel the effects of the recession.  He's fully immunized.

Asheboro's "right" wagons have been tightly circled around him for years.

And We-The-People-who-paid-for-Bob's-house-to-be-renovated-last-year (just in time for the Christmas home tour) are not supposed to be "pissed off" over that.

Postscript:  If any of those folks that got canned by Randolph (while Bob continues counting his big pile of bonus money) want to diss on their old employer, do tell, and come sit by me.  The Courier might bury your plight with the throw-away news, but I won't.  My e-mail address is on my blogger profile on the sidebar.