Council seeks study of TRMC, Lady of the Sea

After struggling to defend his rationale amid accusations of ill intentions, Lafourche Councilman Jerry LaFont reneged on his attempt to delay a south Lafourche hospital from hiring a chief executive to replace its retiring CEO.

However, LaFont’s amended resolution to endorse a feasibility study into a partnership between Thibodaux Regional Medical Center and Lady of the Sea General Hospital passed by a one-vote margin, to the verbal chagrin of about three dozen hospital employees who attended the meeting. TRMC had previously agreed to pay a third party to conduct the study, LaFont said during the hour-long quarrel.

“I can tell you, the majority of the people I talked to are not happy with the hospital,” LaFont said. “… Not saying for what you guys got. For getting extra, they want more. That’s all I want to do, see if we can bring more (specialists) down.”

With Lady of the Sea CEO Don Werner having announced his retirement effective Sept. 30, LaFont sought to stop the hospital from hiring Werner’s replacement until the conclusion of a partnership study that hasn’t yet begun.

For this desire – and for keeping Werner and the hospital’s governing board in the dark about the plans to study and delay – LaFont and other councilmen were criticized. The outgoing CEO said the move would curtail progress and jeopardize physicians’ expiring contracts. The board’s chairman said he was “mystified” and that he felt the council was trying to “force something down our throats.” A Cut Off radiologist and former hospital board member accused LaFont of having an “ulterior motive.”

“If there’s no effort here for Thibodaux Regional to step in and take over Lady of the Sea hospital, why would you not hire a CEO?” Parish President Charlotte Randolph asked.

LaFont said he wants to unify the parish through consolidating its services and that he wants to study whether south Lafourche residents can receive specialized care without leaving the 10th Ward.

“I have no plans on disbanding the board or anything like that,” he responded, “but if the feasibility study comes back and says it can run under one CEO, it might happen. If not, no.

“All I’m trying to do is bring specialists down the bayou through some kind of partnership. I’m not trying to take your jobs. Actually, I’m trying to bring more jobs. … You can take my word for it. You guys are not going to lose jobs.”

LaFont was interrupted multiple times, and at times council Chairman Lindel Toups threatened to adjourn the meeting or expel outspoken audience members. Detractors of the study expressed unease that it would be biased toward the entity funding it and fear it would trigger job losses in the 10th Ward.

The hospitals’ governing boards have discussed a partnership in the past that has focused on making specialists available to south Lafourche residents. The two sides could not stitch an agreement due to concerns about Lady of the Sea’s would-be role and questions about which hospital the specialists would admit patients to, said Ronald Callais, Lady of the Sea’s board chairman.

“We need specialists that are going to admit that person to Lady of the Sea, if possible,” he told the council. “We don’t want to be a first-aid station to Thibodaux, and that has been the tenor of our conversation on this for the last four or five years. … What I can’t understand is why y’all are getting involved in this. … We didn’t even know about it.”

LaFont, along with Toups and councilmen Daniel Lorraine and Jerry Jones, recently met with members of the TRMC governing board, LaFont said. “They said it was at a stalemate, nothing was happening,” he added.

Our Lady of the Sea’s board had one representative at the gathering, but Callais and other board members were not notified of the discussion. TRMC officials asked the councilmen to attain their body’s support, LaFont said.

“Remember, you can only do things with money,” Lorraine said in support of a partnership. “Thibodaux has a bunch of money.”

Councilmen John Arnold, Aaron Caillouet, Joe Fertitta and Philip Gouaux voted against the resolution. In its passage, the council did not opine on desired parameters. Its request has no force of law, and the council will have no official oversight in how it is commissioned.

Thibodaux Regional has remained quiet on the issue.

“The Lafourche Parish Council has passed a resolution directing that a feasibility study be done on the partnership of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center and Lady of the Sea General Hospital. Thibodaux Regional has no additional information to provide at this time,” said TRMC spokeswoman Toni Martinez.

Radiologist Sharm El’ Buras, who served on the Lady of the Sea’s governing board four years ago before resigning the position, said south Lafourche’s patient population can’t support various specialists on a full-time basis.

“You guys don’t have the patient population to support (my private practice),” she said. “If it were financially conducive for them to come, they would come. (The market) drives itself.”

She seemed more irritated, though, that the council considered meddling in the hospital’s process of hiring a new CEO.

The five-member governing board will be tasked with hiring Werner’s replacement. Fifteen applications have already been submitted to oversee the roughly 250 hospital employees.

Buras and Callais alluded to what appears to be a power struggle over control of the board.

Callais’ six-year term on the board of commissioners concludes in September, which will give Lorraine the opportunity to nominate an appointment to the board. Callais can seek to retain the spot, but any nominee will need council agreement.

Earlier this year, LaFont nominated a resident he described as an ally to a spot on the board despite continued interest from the sitting commissioner to retain his position. The council ratified LaFont’s choice, which he said arose from a desire to “move the cheese” and motivate commissioners to avoid complacency.

Buras remained skeptical.

“To use Mr. LaFont’s words of ‘moving around the cheese’: We’ve got enough people moving around the cheese (without feeling) like you guys are fighting against people just trying to provide quality health care to the people of our community,” Buras said. “Obviously there is something else going on, and we would just like to know what that is.

“These are taxpayers. They are workers. They take care of patients at the hospital. They deserve an answer.”