The Weems Hospital in Franklin County is facing a crisis. It has very low daily patient numbers, a large staff for its usage, and cannot offer many primary services. As a result, it struggles financially and cannot attract enough patients or doctors to be viable. At a recent county commission meeting, commissioners discussed terminating the hospital's management contract with TMH Healthcare and finding a new partner to take over management and financial responsibility to prevent the hospital from closing. However, TMH has said it is not interested in fully taking over the hospital's operations. The commissioners voted to extend the TMH management contract by 60 days to allow negotiations for a new partner to take over the hospital.

1. Crisis at Weems Hospital
Hello Everyone:
The vast majority of healthcare in Franklin County is delivered by Doctors and Hospitals
from out of county. Of the care delivered inside the county Weems East and West, the
Health Department and various private Doctors and Nurses deliver the bulk of in county
healthcare. I hear report after report of people happy with the clinics (at least until lately)
and unhappy with Weems Hospital itself. We are not going to beat up on Weems
Hospital today since it’s unfortunately imploding on its own. Daily overnight stays
averaging one ½ per night, an 85 person staff and many primary services simply
unavailable at the Hospital continue to be the real reason Weems is unable to attract
enough patients and Doctors to be viable. Today, I simply want to report to you what is
happening in county meetings this last week.
Tuesday at the normal county commission meeting, Commissioner Noah Lockley made
a motion to terminate the management contract with TMH effective immediately, which
was subsequently modified to the end of the contract between TMH and Weems. I
guess no one was keeping up with the paperwork, because when they looked up the
termination date, they found that it had already passed on January 2nd
. Last Friday
January the 20th
, a special meeting was held of the County Commissioners to decide
what to do. Hospital Management had told employees that the hospital was going to
close if they did not make their voices heard at the Friday meeting. County
Commissioners were not happy. The following is some of my notes from that meeting:
1. CEO and CFO not present. Chairman Parrish says they are no longer
employed. (this will have changed by end of meeting)
2. Commissioner Sanders talked about why we are here today. Explained to
audience what's happening with the relationship with TMH and it’s not about the
hospital. She expressed her desire to put interim management in.
3. Chairman Parrish says we need a management agreement with someone. He
supports an agreement with TMH. Hospital will close without a management
contract. Parrish wants to have TMH takeover completely, taking the
Commission out of the loop. Smokey was agitated and wants an end to the
current issues constantly being brought before the Board. Smokey says the
county has a mandate from the citizens to provide healthcare.
4. Commissioner Lockley expressed his reservations as to the accuracy of the
hospital's financial reporting. He stated that the two people getting paid by TMH
(the CEO and CFO) are not delivering results and should not be getting the
benefit package they receive. Lockley defended his motion to terminate the
management contract, talking to the many hospital employees in the audience.
5. Commissioner Massey says the workers never hear the true story from hospital
management. He also said that Cooper sent an email to the Board last week that
they will need more money from the Capital side of the Trust Fund within a month
or two. This may be the proximate cause as to why this is coming to a head.

2. 6. Commissioner Jones said he wants somebody who is knowledgeable and can
take responsibility to take over. Wants to give up control in exchange for getting
out of the hospital business. Board is for quality healthcare.
7. Parrish proposed that the management contract be extended by 60 days to allow
for a management contract to be negotiated with TMH. What he really meant was
someone to lease the hospital and to take over full financial responsibility with
some caveats.
8. Jim Bachrach spoke and said TMH has no interest in taking over the hospital
itself. That they needed a partner to make this viable with expertise in Critical
Care Access.
9. I spoke to the issue at hand from the CCFC's point of view. Several other
supporters of the hospital spoke as well. Approximately 75 people in the
audience. I had written up a position paper and gave it to all Commissioners prior
to the meeting. I praised the decision to go out and seek an entity to take over
but expressed that only talking to TMH limited our ability to negotiate and could
lead to us not having anyone to move forward with in sixty days and being in the
position of being up against the wall. I specifically suggested that talking to other
neighbor healthcare systems could not hurt us and could only help us understand
the issues and what is reasonable to expect and what is not.
10.Motion by Lockley to extend the agreement with TMH by 60 days while
negotiations with TMH go forward passed
For years now, the CCFC has focused on the financial numbers. Those numbers tell us
that no one can run Weems profitably. Weems receives approximately $2 million a year
in various subsidies and that’s not enough. Weems has current Accounts Payable of
about $2 million owed to vendors, the County and TMH with no real ability to pay that
back. While everyone says that quality healthcare for the citizens of Franklin County is a
priority, the decisions taken and the care delivered belie that assertion.
Thank you for your support of the CCFC. Not a member? No problem, click
on…http://abetterfranklin.com/index.php/join-ccfc Join today. We depend on your support!
Membership dues are not tax deductible.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Allan J. Feifer
President
Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, Inc.
P.O. Box 990
Eastpoint, Florida 32328
AllanF@DEC-International.com
ABetterFranklin.com
(850) 653-5571

3. “The Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, Inc. serves as a citizens’ advocate to ensure that
our Franklin County governments are more open, affordable, efficient, and responsive to our
citizens. The organization seeks to hold public officials accountable for their actions in the
administration of their duties and in their fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers.”
Commissioner Contacts:
Cheryl Sanders <cheryl@franklincountyflorida.com>697-2534
Chairman-Commissioner Smokey Parrish <wardshrimphouse@yahoo.com> 653-8790
Commissioner Ricky Jones <ricky@franklincountyflorida.com> 653-8861
Commissioner Noah Lockley <noah@franklincountyflorida.com> 653-4452
Commissioner William Massey <william@franklincountyflorida.com> 653-8861
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