{"id":39592,"date":"2016-05-18T23:45:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T23:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=39592"},"modified":"2016-05-19T00:28:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T00:28:30","slug":"vialet-says-j-f-l-in-state-of-chaos-employees-outraged-and-disappointed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592","title":{"rendered":"Vialet Says J.F.L. ‘In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed’"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. CROIX — Senator Kurt Vialet said on Wednesday that Juan. F. Luis Hospital officials will face\u00a0the Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services on Tuesday, May 24, following troubling events<\/a><\/span> unfolding at the medical facility’s board meetings.<\/p>\n

The senator says he is “extremely” disappointed that the hospital is back in the news following unpopular board decisions, which Mr. Vialet contends are not the wisest.<\/p>\n

In an authoritarian move on Tuesday, J.F.L. Board of Directors voted unanimously to give its executive committee \u2014 which is made up of all board members \u2014 the authority to \u201cact in the full power and exercise the authority of the board.\u201d The motion was made member Philip Arcidi.<\/p>\n

The move essentially blocks the public from meetings that are supposed to be open, while giving the board the power to make major decisions behind closed doors. The Juan F. Luis Hospital is funded in great part by taxpayers, and the Government of the Virgin Islands recently financed its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (C.M.S.) Systems Improvement Agreement to the tune of $7 million<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In light of the board\u2019s decision, open board meetings \u2014 formerly held monthly \u2014 will now be conducted quarterly. But the executive committee will continue to meet; leaving very important decisions that could potential change the trajectory of healthcare in St. Croix to five people, who will be able to act without the public’s knowledge.<\/p>\n

According to Virgin Islands Code, all meetings of governmental agencies or their subdivisions authorized to take action on behalf of the agency shall be held in public. This means that the board\u2019s bold action on Tuesday was a clear violation of law.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions are being made without a clear succession plan as to how the present leadership void will be filled. The hospital is presently in a state of chaos and employees are outraged and disappointed,” Mr. Vialet said.<\/p>\n

Asked by The Consortium why the board moved in the direction it did, board Chairman\u00a0Troy de Chabert-Schuster\u00a0said the approved motion was in conformity with the bylaws of the board. \u201cWe didn\u2019t create those bylaws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pressed further by a Consortium reporter, Mr. Schuster said the decision was made to streamline meetings, and reaffirmed that the public \u2014 including media \u2014 would not be allowed in the executive committee meetings.<\/p>\n

The board had been holding executive meetings for weeks, where it would deliberate decisions and then present said decisions at the public meetings. With the hope of getting clarity on how the determination to block the public out of meetings came about, the Consortium asked Mr. Schuster who had first raised the idea. The board chairman, however, lost his composure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have patience for stupid questions,\u201d he said. \u201cNot tonight. You were sitting right here. You heard who made the motion.\u201d Pressed on whether the motion made on Tuesday by Mr. Arcidi was the first time that the board was hearing of barring the public from meetings, or whether those discussions were being had prior to the public meetings, Mr. Schuster did not respond.<\/p>\n

The move takes J.F.L down a dangerous path. The hospital, still being watched closely by C.M.S., has been mired in a swamp of bad decisions that have left the hospital in a management crisis<\/a>. It\u2019s chief financial officer, Mr. Lessing, had resigned twice and asked for a severance of $185,000<\/a>. Mr. Lessing had promised not to pursue legal action against the struggling hospital once the requested severance pay was given. And Mr. Lessing\u00a0worked at the hospital for an entire year without signing a contract, and only moved to do so under the tenure of Dr. Okolo as C.E.O., according to people with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not at liberty to speak to the media.<\/p>\n

But there Mr. Lessing was, sitting at the table again on Tuesday \u2014 a man who had resigned twice, asking for a severance pay of $185,000, for reasons yet unknown to the public and of which Mr. Schuster said he was not at liberty to reveal.<\/p>\n

The board, under the leadership of Mr. Schuster, had only recently given the C.E.O. position to Dr. Okolo, and had spoken highly to a Consortium reporter of Dr. Okolo\u2019s ability to do the job. Mr. Schuster had unflinchingly defended Dr. Okolo\u2019s annual salary of $350,000 as well.<\/p>\n

And although the hospital was able to fill the acting C.E.O. position with Mr. Evangelista, J.F.L. remains without a chief operating officer, chief nursing officer, chief medical officer and its chief financial officer position remains in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. CROIX — Senator Kurt Vialet said on Wednesday that Juan. F. Luis Hospital officials will face\u00a0the Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services on Tuesday, May 24, following troubling events unfolding at the medical facility’s board meetings. The senator says he is “extremely” disappointed that the hospital is back in the news following unpopular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,12,2474,147],"tags":[587],"yoast_head":"\nVialet Says J.F.L. 'In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed' - 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=39592\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\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=39592\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592\",\"name\":\"Vialet Says J.F.L. 'In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed' - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-18T23:45:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-19T00:28:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\"},\"description\":\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vialet Says J.F.L. ‘In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed’\"}]},{\"@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\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\",\"name\":\"Ernice Gilbert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ernice Gilbert\"},\"description\":\"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vialet Says J.F.L. 'In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed' - 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=39592","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ernice Gilbert","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592","name":"Vialet Says J.F.L. 'In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed' - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-18T23:45:22+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-19T00:28:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51"},"description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=39592#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vialet Says J.F.L. ‘In State Of Chaos; Employees Outraged And Disappointed’"}]},{"@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\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51","name":"Ernice Gilbert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ernice Gilbert"},"description":"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/"],"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39592"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}