{"id":35887,"date":"2016-03-02T10:59:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T10:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=35887"},"modified":"2016-03-02T10:59:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T10:59:15","slug":"vialet-j-f-l-s-latest-c-e-o-is-good-choice-to-lead-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887","title":{"rendered":"Vialet: J.F.L.’s Latest CEO Is ‘Good Choice’ To Lead Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0based on expertise, experience and talent,” when it chose<\/a><\/span> Dr. Ken Okolo, bolstering the new C.E.O.’s chances of being approved by the territorial hospital board, which has the final say.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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,\u201d Mr. Vialet said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Okolo has been praised by J.F.L. Board Chairman\u00a0Troy 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s operations during its most difficult season, including the dreaded Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decertification<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were still some things I wanted to accomplish. For instance, full information technology implementation,\u201d Dr. Griffith said, adding that the effort was around 60 percent complete. However, \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Griffith said the changes did not eliminate the hospital\u2019s debt, \u201cbut at least the changes had been put in place to ensure that we were no longer bleeding money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also had some advice for the hospital\u2019s new C.E.O.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t forget to be transparent with them,\u201d Dr. Griffith said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe second advice I would give is to include the community in the growth of J.F.L. Because all the success that we\u2019ve had with maintaining our certification, wasn\u2019t 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. \u2014 all the staff, doctors and nurses and everybody else at J.F.L. \u2014 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. \u2014\u00a0Dr. Anthony Ricketts,\u00a0Joyce Heyliger and\u00a0Philip Arcidi \u2014 when there was no one else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.,\u201d Dr. Griffith concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0based 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,191,147],"tags":[3266,587,4640,4641],"yoast_head":"\nVialet: J.F.L.'s Latest CEO Is 'Good Choice' To Lead Hospital - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887\",\"name\":\"Vialet: J.F.L.'s Latest CEO Is 'Good Choice' To Lead Hospital - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-02T10:59:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-02T10:59:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09\"},\"description\":\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vialet: J.F.L.’s Latest CEO Is ‘Good Choice’ To Lead Hospital\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09\",\"name\":\"Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Staff\"},\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vialet: J.F.L.'s Latest CEO Is 'Good Choice' To Lead Hospital - V.I. Consortium","description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Staff","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887","name":"Vialet: J.F.L.'s Latest CEO Is 'Good Choice' To Lead Hospital - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-02T10:59:15+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-02T10:59:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09"},"description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=35887#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vialet: J.F.L.’s Latest CEO Is ‘Good Choice’ To Lead Hospital"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/39b3006bfe8aca8c2131c695b7505c09","name":"Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f92cdebdd3d534234e61f7a1b9fbfa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Staff"},"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35887"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}