Board of Commissioners,
West Volusia Hospital Authority,
131 E. New York Ave.,
P.O. Box 509,
DeLand, FLA 32721.
Sirs:
You should have received my letter of the 20th inst. along with Mr. Lind’s letter of the 23rd in which he announced that Ormond had agreed that they would leave. Based on my clear instructions at the top, you should have had the week-end to consider it. I stand ready to answer any questions.
I am of course pleased that Ormond has agreed to leave. They have mis-managed the facility, wasting an asset with net worth of about $20 million, along with nearly $20 million in subsidies, and $6 million in other cash and inventory. As it stands now, they’d have to win the lotto just to be broke.
This was possible because no one held them accountable. The public, along with its representatives on the W.V.H.A. Board, are kept out of meetings and records. We have no accountability from Ormond, and we see the results.
Instead of playing the lotto, they’re pressing a demand for over $40 million. No one expects them to receive it; more likely it’s blackmail to make us more receptive to their begging over the next ninety days, which period they have allocated to themselves in lieu of the 30 days this Board wisely refused them.
If I recall correctly from our February meeting, Ormond is in default as to their bonds. It would probably not be in order to speculate as to whether the bond assurance company has come down from N.Y. to investigate, and whether Ormond needs to come up with $7 million per year for payments. None of that need concern us; we care about the hospital itself.
Allow me to join with the doctors in endorsing the three concepts of
If we sell the hospital, it closes and we lose the beds, because the likely buyers are only interested in the beds and moving them.
We’ve seen the results of leasing. We can expect several nasty threats and possibly even lawsuits relating to this one. In truth, no one is going to lease it unless they plan to make money. Ormond bungled the job entirely, but there is no reason to believe that any lessee would have put our interest in front of his.
That leaves us with keeping the hospital. A few weeks ago, Commissioner Portman discussed on the radio what happens when we get the hospital back. I think he was right. He said we needed a management company to run it. The Board is great for setting public policy. However, four of five members are not familiar with daily hospital operations. I think you can best serve the public by doing what you do well and hiring someone to do what they do well.
Clearly, a management agreement must include accountability. Without accountability, look what we got.
Yours,
Tanner Andrews
CC: Al Everson / DeLand
Beacon
CC: Tom Berson / Daytona
News-Journal
CC: Purvette Bryant / Orlando
Sentinel
The current version of this letter,
and other information about the management of the hospital
which may interest those paying taxes in West Volusia,
may be viewed at:
http://www.payer.org/wvha
Posting of this letter is a paid political advertisement provided by Tanner Andrews, P.O. Box 1208, DeLand 32721, independent of any campaign or committee. This material is also on display at the offices of the West Volusia Hospital Authority. No candidate has approved this material.