Vialet: J.F.L.’s Latest CEO Is ‘Good Choice’ To Lead Hospital

ST. CROIX — Freshman senator Kurt Vialet on Tuesday said that the Juan. F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center Board of Directors made a “good choice, one based on expertise, experience and talent,” when it chose Dr. Ken Okolo, bolstering the new C.E.O.’s chances of being approved by the territorial hospital board, which has the final say.

Dr. Okolo served as the hospital’s chief operating officer before holding the interim chief executive officer position when former C.E.O. Dr. Kendall Griffith stepped down in November, 2015.

“While there are still challenges, Dr. Okolo has done a good job as C.O.O. and as interim C.E.O., with the hospital seeing an increase in collections and productivity,” Mr. Vialet said.

Dr. Okolo has been praised by J.F.L. Board Chairman Troy De Chabert-Schuster, who described the new C.E.O. to The Consortium recently as someone who hit the ground running during his tenure as interim C.E.O., and as a hard and dedicated team member while holding the position of chief operating officer. His annual salary, as negotiated by the hospital’s board, is $360,000, with over $40,000 in bonuses — bringing the total in annual pay over $400,000.

Mr. Vialet did not comment on the new C.E.O.’s salary, and gave no hints that he was bothered by the amount. Instead, Mr. Vialet went on to thank Dr. Okolo for his support and dedication in helping J.F.L. be a facility that serves its community well.

“The Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services looks forward to working closely with Dr. Okolo to make sure that the sole hospital on St. Croix remains a viable option for acute patient care,” Mr. Vialet concluded.

Dr. Okolo inherits a C.E.O. position that is much less strenuous that when Dr. Griffith was in charge. Dr. Griffith oversaw the hospital’s operations during its most difficult season, including the dreaded Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decertification.

In an exclusive interview with The Consortium late January, Dr. Griffith said while he enjoys his new life, he misses being able to affect change at the hospital.

“There were still some things I wanted to accomplish. For instance, full information technology implementation,” Dr. Griffith said, adding that the effort was around 60 percent complete. However, “I’m proud of the fact that when we came on at J.F.L., we were collecting between $2 million to $2.5 million a month, and at the end of my tenure, we were at $4.5 million, and the month after I left, we went to $5.4 million. And we had had four months of positive cash flow.”

Dr. Griffith said the changes did not eliminate the hospital’s debt, “but at least the changes had been put in place to ensure that we were no longer bleeding money,” he said.

He also had some advice for the hospital’s new C.E.O.

“I would tell him to take care of his employees and listen to them. A lot of the solutions actually come right from the rank and file. And don’t forget to be transparent with them,” Dr. Griffith said.

He added: “The second advice I would give is to include the community in the growth of J.F.L. Because all the success that we’ve had with maintaining our certification, wasn’t just Dr. Griffith or the board, or the executive team. It was a combination of efforts of a lot of people. You had the rank and file at J.F.L. — all the staff, doctors and nurses and everybody else at J.F.L. — you had the hard work of the board, and in particular, even before we had a quorum, you had three board members who just carried the weight of J.F.L. — Dr. Anthony Ricketts, Joyce Heyliger and Philip Arcidi — when there was no one else.

“And then you had the senators who helped pass legislation to get us the funding we needed to make those changes necessary for the Systems Improvement Agreement. And then you had the past governor, and [current] governor, who signed off on legislation giving us the authority to get the monies necessary to implement the S.I.A.,” Dr. Griffith concluded.