Attack Against Broward Health: Article Branding Public Hospital System Incompetent Hits Homes
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The situation at the public health system Broward Health is going from bad to worse.
This according to a savage article listing point-by-point Broward Health governance problems delivered to 60,000 residents of Oakland Park, Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale who receive the City News newsletters.
Written Broward Health watchdog Dan Lewis, the piece was also republished on Lewis’ blog.
Dan Lewis
In the article Lewis:
* Accuses Gov. Rick Scott of aggravating the situation by failing to appoint members to the governing Board of Commissioners. By law, the Board should have seven gubernatorial appointees. There have been only four for months.
Lewis detailed the problem with too few members.
“Remarkably, the board’s legal counsel (Lynn Barrett) advised that on a particular agenda item where one board member recused themselves due to a conflict (an all too common occurrence), only 2 out of the remaining 3 votes would be required to approve the item…
“Not surprisingly, no experienced or past Broward Health legal counsel agrees with this board’s legal counsel’s advice here. Consider the ramifications of a hypothetical agenda item to privatize the system where one ethical board member wisely recuses themselves. According to the current board counsel, only 2 affirmative votes would be required to flush the system down the toilette.”
* Slams General Council Lynn Barrett for bullying clueless commissioners to “strengthen her political control of the organization.” Lewis says many believe this and also believe she is “out-of-control.”
* Scorns hospital system commissioners as being so incompetent they can’t even run a proper meeting. More important, have the “weakest senior staff in the history of Broward Health due to the ill-conceived political ‘purges’…”
Recounting a recent meeting, Lewis writes that he was “struck by the overt incompetence of the board.”
Lewis knows something about running a public meeting. He is a former Miramar Commission and former chair of the Broward County Charter Commission.
As an example of commissioners being unable to conduct a meeting in a businesslike manner, Lewis cites the Board’s inability to enforce a three-minute limit on each public comment. For example, former Sun-Sentinel columnist and Broward Health gadfly John DeGroot was allowed to drone on endlessly more than three minutes. According to Lewis, this happens regularly.
Lewis writes that Commissioners should have ordered DeGroot “to take his seat or be removed” after three minutes expired.
For full disclosure, DeGroot once threw a pie at Lewis during a Broward Health meeting. I wrote about it here. So Lewis may have reasons beyond good governance for singling out DeGroot.
Yet I have personally seen commissioners allow DeGroot to hijack meetings with his half-baked ideas. He disrupted a meeting I attended with a machine that made loud fart noises, as I wrote here.
“Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid,” is the headline Lewis put on the story.
He ends his article with this ominous warning:
“The problem is most acute in the system’s governance – the Board, it’s hires and senior staff. Less problematic are thankfully the thousands of health care workers who daily deliver high quality service to the community. But the organization, at its most granular critical levels are not immune from the irresponsibility of the board and senior management. The longer that the board dysfunction and the Governor’s failure to appoint qualified people to a full board continues, the more avoidable and inexcusable damage will be done to the organization and Broward’s healthcare needs.”
February 20th, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Lewis like Trump just babbles on and on like a cranky old man because after the last election he was shown to be an out of touch fraud. Sad he claims huge readershipp for his BH blog yet the only time it gets attention is when it gets republished here
His blue card was snuffed out by Team Israel and his name associated now with being a fraud. All of his candidates lost. The only one who won, Judge Mollica shitcanned him for Judy Stern who guided her to victory in the general election.
FROM BUDDY:
His work for campaigns — Over the years, Lewis has won as many or more than he lost. — has nothing to do with his analysis of the Broward Health mess.
February 20th, 2017 at 8:57 pm
Mr. Lewis is correct, Broward Health cannot be successful and continue to serve those most vulnerable unless there is good represented Governance.
The Board has failed to select a President/CEO, Chief Compliance Officer and Internal Auditor (all direct reports) in over a YEAR.
The Board defers management to their General Counsel whom does not have a good track record as a lawyer let alone a hospital operator.
February 20th, 2017 at 10:15 pm
The buck stops at the Governor’s Mansion.
February 20th, 2017 at 11:37 pm
Once upon a time, I wrote a blog. There, I never really worried about quantity of traffic … just quality.
Think folks who matter aren’t reading Dan’s stuff?
Think again.
February 21st, 2017 at 10:07 am
Rick Scott ……Billy Rubin ……..Panuccio …….Myla Reizen …….Lynn Barrett
February 21st, 2017 at 10:07 am
Lewis attempted to confuse the democratic voters of Broward County with his bs “blue card”.
The issue is credibility and motive, IMHO Dan’s credibility is nil and his motives are self serving. It has been exposed before that Dan appeared to be seeking contracts from BH and when he didn’t get them from the dust arose this blog.
FROM BUDDY:
The blue cards are history. If Democratic activists spent half as much time worrying about the Democratic ticket as the blue cards, maybe the outcome would have been different in several races and the presidency.
As far as Dan Lewis’ motivation, his daughter almost died in a district hospital. I would think that is motivation enough to seek change at the public health system. However, I wrote it before and I’ll write it again: His motivation has absolutely nothing to do with the veracity of his article. Democrats have a vested interest in denouncing and opposing Donald Trump’s programs, but does that make their positions wrong?
February 21st, 2017 at 3:16 pm
Sadly Dan’s own actions as chronicled in the articles below show a not so altruistic reason for his criticism of BH.
https://redbroward.com/2016/02/10/democrat-lobbyist-broward-health-ceo-teamed-up-to-stop-nsu-teaching-hospital/
https://redbroward.com/2016/02/02/ccp/
February 22nd, 2017 at 12:46 pm
Tom Lauder writes it, therefore it must be true….
February 23rd, 2017 at 6:38 am
Mr. Lewis, I am sorry about your daughter and am glad she is OK. However, you are not here day to day seeing how poorly BH is run by the remaining executives waiting for their severance packages to leave. Their greed and inertia trickles down to the bedside where corners are cut due to poor finance. I do not know your motivation for your article, possibly some political motivation as you seem to have a very political background. In any event, it has been bad here for a very very long time. A culture of finance first came with Mr. Nask and has plagued us for years. The executives that are gone needed to go and those hanging on need to be cut loose as well and we need to move on. The horse is dead, quit beating it and bury it.
March 8th, 2017 at 6:49 pm
Connect the dots is on the money. Say adios Broward Health, hola HCA or other friend/investment of Scott. As for Lewis, sharp tongue with zero compassion for elderly and increasingly frail man who has the kahunas to stand up the incompetent board. Is Dan just pissed sweet deal he had while Nask CEO gone? Wolf in sheeps clothes?