Boca hospital under new leadership
South Florida Business Journal - by Brian Bandell
For the second time in less than a year, Boca Raton Community Hospital has ousted its CEO.
The nonprofit hospital said Thursday it hired Jerry Fedele as president and CEO. He was a managing director at FTI Healthcare, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based consulting firm that BRCH hired in June to help turn around its operations.
Fedele led a financial turnaround at a major hospital system in Pittsburgh before he resigned under pressure in 2007.
In addition, the hospital hired Karen Poole as COO. Poole also worked for FTI Healthcare and was CEO of Bayshore Medical Center in Pasadena, Texas.
BRCH also has added several doctors to its medical staff in recent weeks. It is searching for a new chief medical officer and chief nursing officer.
The hospital suffered a $110 million loss for the fiscal year ended June 30. It subsequently announced layoffs and the cancellation of its academic affiliation agreement with the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University, along with plans to build a teaching hospital.
At the time, BRCH said the loss was caused by decreased Medicare reimbursement, trouble with billing and collections, and losses in chemotherapy operations.
BRCH Chairman Richard Schmidt said declining patient volumes and higher expenses that occurred during the planning for the new hospital led to a deteriorating financial condition. However, BRCH still has $140 million in reserve.
Rick Van Lith replaced Gary Strack as CEO in January, but now Fedele is charged with turning around the hospital’s financial results. Fedele said he would start by improving the billing system and cutting costs. He said layoffs would be a last resort.
Fedele spent three-and-a-half years as CEO of West Penn Allegheny Health System, the second-largest hospital network in Pittsburgh.
According to a story by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fedele resigned from that post in July 2007 after a group of physicians from Allegheny General Hospital approached the chairman of the health system with concerns about Fedele’s capabilities.
That paper obtained a recording of a conference call where the system’s chairman said Fedele “seemed less surefooted in terms of devising strategy” to consolidate the operations of two hospitals.
Fedele did not address the circumstances surrounding his departure from West Penn Allegheny. Yet, he pointed out the $150 million upward swing that took place there under his watch.
Fedele engineered the acquisition of four bankrupt hospitals that lost $90 million the year before and had little cash reserves. In his last year, the hospital system made $40 million, he said.
“When we merged with those hospitals, we had very significant challenges – far deeper than what we have here in Boca Community,” Fedele said.
With favorable patient demographics, a large bank account and the support of the community, Fedele believes he will turn BRCH’s financial performance around.
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