You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! By David Conejo, CEO, RMCHCS
(This ad is a response from Rehoboth Christian Health Care Services CEO David Conejo to the Gallup Independent’s ongoing series focusing on the hospital. Its purpose is to provide the public with the true set of facts as opposed to those published by the Independent.) The Gallup Independent has gotten into the habit of distorting the news. The habit is pathetic because it ends up hurting the people they interview when the truth comes out. Following are clarifications to its “EDITORIAL” NEWS STORIES: Recently the Gallup Independent ran several “editorial” news stories. An editorial news story is a story filled with personal “editorial opinion”, but short on facts. Following is a factual response to their “infomercials” without their bias inserted. *The Board of RMCHCS is above personal control by any CEO. It is made up of former County Commissioners, the Assistant County Manager, Physicians, the City Human Resources Director, a Local Cardiologist, and a Medical Specialist along with Two Ministers. *Eight of the Board Members (two thirds) are appointed independently by either the Medical Staff or the County Commissioners. The final third is nominated by the Board. Neither of these three bodies consult with the CEO before making their appointment. So, the CEO does not influence membership nominations in the process of appointment. *Regarding 60% control of the Board, it is safe to say that every Board, Council or Commission wants a competent Administrator. Each Administrator is going to bring projects, proposals which they hope will be approved. If an Administrator’s suggestion must be over-ridden often, they are not doing their job. In fact, the Independent published a story months ago regarding the frequency with which the Gallup City Council agrees on legislation. Is that to suggest that the City Manager “Controls” the City Council? I’d even go so far as to suggest that if Bob Zollinger must frequently correct his editor Barry, that he should replace him. Or does his concurrence with Barry mean that he is controlled by Barry. You can’t have it both ways. *Regarding Dave and Dave, it is self-evident that every CEO is going to align with the Board Chairperson. The Board Chairperson speaks for the Board, or Council or Commission. No other member has that privilege to direct the Administrator between meetings. Each member has an equal voice only when the governing body is in session. For example: a member of the City Council cannot independently call the street department and say, “Fix my street”. When Dr. Carmany was here it was “Tom and Dave”; when Cal Foutz was Chairman it was “Cal and Dave”; with David Dallago it was “Dave and Dave”.
When Arlene High and David Baltzer were a team it was “Arlene and Dave”and now with Laura Hammons as Chair, we hear people refer to us as directing decisions. We’ve heard the county team referred to as Bill (Lee) and Tony or Doug (Decker, County Attorney) and Tony show. It goes with the territory. *Regarding discussions at the meeting “prior to the meeting” in which the Independent quoted an anonymous person implying that decisions are secretly made beforehand. Prior to the meeting every member talks to the person next to them…it’s very natural. The CEO always sits next to the Chairperson so it is also natural that we might exchange conversation. But our conversation might be about the sport game of the week, our family or an update on our employees. It is surprising the reporter even mentioned this topic since all committees, boards and commissions do it. Try visiting the legislature sometime, prior to the gavel. *Re: Straight Shooter Brett. Brett Newberry holds himself out as an expert when he says to the Independent, “I’m a CPA and a Certified Fraud Examiner and a straight shooter”. However, the hospital, during Brett’s time on the Board, established a policy to refuse to accept Navajo Medicaid patients. They were to be sent to Indian Health Service. The problem is that it was blatantly discriminatory. Also, any hospital contracting with Medicaid must accept all Medicaid patients. Finally, the hospital receives extra compensation for taking extra Medicaid patients. So, to say the hospital was accepting extra government money while rejecting Navajo care is outright fraud and did not occur. So how many times do you think that CPA, fraud expert, straight shooter Brett brought this to the Boards’ attention and championed for indiscriminatory policies and practices? If you guessed zero, you would be 100% correct. And Brett has the audacity to say that today, “(Boards) are required to do what’s right.” The new CEO, David Conejo, immediately reversed that policy and sent apology letters to all area providers for the previous practice. *Other comments from Brett Newberry suggest that he lost his audit contract with the County to Audit RMCH because the hospital CEO used his influence to get him removed. In fact, the CEO objected to Brett because Brett had written a letter to the Board, prior to Conejo being hired, stating his complete distrust for the CEO in order to try and keep then CEO Barry Mousa in place. (The CEO who sent Navajos to GIMC). So, what did “straight shooter” Brett do? He neglected to mention any bias to the County Attorney when he applied for the job. The CEO did not get him fired. When straight shooter Brett lied by withholding his bias, the CEO had no choice but to inform the County. Also, since Brett was pretending to be fair in the interview process while going behind Conejo’s back, while
Conejo was in the process of being interviewed. How much of a “straight shooter” is he? The suggestion that Dallago Corp. directs business to itself is fictious. As verification, the county recently set up an elaborate bid review for a million-dollar project at the hospital. There were contractors from as far away as Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Albuquerque. The hospital was excluded from reviewing the bids before selection. The county wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Thousands of dollars were spent to bid it properly. Neither Dallago nor the hospital had or could have had influence on the selection of a contractor. After all of that, the project was awarded by the county to Dallago Corp. We used all the contractors with satisfaction and encourage others to do likewise and suggest we appreciate them all. *It was surprising to see the comments by Dr. Warner Anderson because now we must now release the information which influenced the decision leading to his discharge to protect the hospitals’ name and reputation. Dr. Anderson came to work at RMCHCS in the ER in 1987. Over time a patient came with a complaint. The patient opened the ER door to find a doctor aiming a pistol at him which today would prompt an “active shooter” response from the police. There stood Dr. Anderson with a revolver aimed right at the patient. Dr. Anderson tried to pass it off as a fluke, a one-time thing. But it was not a laughing matter. An investigation revealed that he had filled out an application with the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms requesting to have weapons delivered to the hospital and delivered there on a regular basis. He was buying and selling weapons on the premises against policy. On the form, Mr. Transparency, Warner Anderson, indicated that there was no other business conducted at the hospital address. In another example of his transparency, he was also caught treating private patients in the ER and having another private physician cover his ER duties while he was being paid to be the physician on duty. His transparency apparently did not require him to tell us about this double staffing for physician coverage by the hospital. Warner says light is the best cleanser. But he didn’t want light in the rooms where he bought and sold weapons nor where he privately treated patients in the ER. The public nor the administration knew of his secret dealings and he liked it that way. But then, hey, maybe he was talking recently about a different type of transparency. Who are we to judge? Perhaps his firing at RMCH helped him to see that he could not do anything he wanted like possessing firearms at a hospital or buying and selling guns at the hospital. Maybe that’s why he went on to have a good career. He may not have liked our manage-
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ment style, but we never approved of his maverick style and cavalier attitude. While Dr. Anderson turned himself around to have a stellar career which we applaud, after discharge for less than transparent actions. *Finally, it was sad to see William Kiefer leave. But the fact is he had accepted a job as CEO in Snyder, Montana. He was going there 7 days a month, of which 5 were Monday through Friday. They asked him to make it 10 weekdays a month. He came back asking us to allow him to work there 10 days per month. He also said to let him know if we had to move our conversation to transitioning as he had already made his agreement in Montana. Our CFO was present at the meeting as a witness to the discussion. It was the next morning, after discussion with the Board Chairman, that we said, “William, it is time that you move on.” As he also stated, he neither quit nor was he fired. But we were not about to agree to pay him full-time for a half-time position. *Regarding Dr. Lytle, she recommended a new physician for hospital privileges with glowing colors, only to recant on the physicians’ first day. Within the new physicians’ first halfhour, Lytle sent the administration a note that either the other doctor be fired or she (Lytle) is resigning. Dr. Lytle was asked immediately to meet with the other physicians and administrators to review the matter. She refused, but during the next several weeks she was asked by William Kiefer, COO; Valory Wangler, Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Charles Guimares, Chief of Staff and CEO, David Conejo. She continued to refuse to meet saying, “You have my resignation. I am not meeting with anyone. When the CEO accepted her resignation, she asserted that she had been fired. *The last response in “YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP” is the funniest. The Gallup Independent references a letter from the physicians’ questioning one of our decisions and tries to exaggerate our response. But the real story is the full page ad CONDEMING the Independent which appeared in the Sun newspaper. Was that letter investigated? The letter criticized the papers’ negativity and bias towards almost every organization and group in the region. Did the Independent Investigate Bob Zollinger to see if he has anger issues or depression? With all of Bob’s ranting and raving, he has made The Gallup Independent equal to the Fox News of McKinley County. It is sad that the Gallup Independent dredges up fake news from disgruntled people who have moved on from the hospital and their digging ends up embarrassing the very people they interview. How pathetic! The Gallup Independent writes grossly inaccurate stories. Accordingly, it is a waste of time to respond further. RMCHCS’s work is in serving others and we intend to spend our time doing that rather than writing editorials. We will not respond further to the Independents’ fake news.