Hospital at War: South County Hospital Sues Community Group, Advocates Blast Action
GoLocalProv News Team
Hospital at War: South County Hospital Sues Community Group, Advocates Blast Action
The lawsuit was filed this week in Washington County Superior Court and the hospital’s lawyer, Mark Russo, is the same attorney who is serving as the receiver for the Providence Place Mall.
South County Hospital and the group Save South County Hospital have been in a war of words for months over the management of the hospital. There has been a major exodus from the medical staff.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMeanwhile, as the battle has gone on, the CEO of South County Hospital, Aaron Robinson, has received a 60% increase in compensation.
"Vindictive" Legal Action Alleged
Save South County Hospital, a non-profit citizens advocacy group of over 2,000 supporters, donors, and patients in the South County region of Rhode Island, blasted the lawsuit in a statement.
“This past week, in a desperate and vindictive maneuver, the hospital has launched a lawsuit against Save South County Hospital and a former development officer who left SCH five years ago. Hospital leaders assail the creation of the Save South County Hospital non-profit advocacy group to preserve and take back our community hospital. They also falsely allege that we accessed confidential donor data to sabotage their philanthropy and even claim we urged the community to withhold donations—baseless accusations that we condemn," said the group.
“This lawsuit is nothing short of a shameless, desperate stunt designed to choke off dissent and cover up the catastrophic fallout of gross mismanagement at South County Hospital. The community sees through the charade and is demanding a total overhaul of leadership from both the CEO and the Board,” stated Save South County Hospital.
"We are not an insignificant faction—nearly 2,000 community members have signed our petition, underscoring the breadth of our support because they know and see the management’s neglect of their community hospital. If this is small, as the hospital claims, then why bring a lawsuit? It is designed to intimidate both us as well as members of the community who do and would like to support us. It is also designed to prevent community voices from being heard at upcoming meetings in a few weeks to deal with this situation," said the group.
“Let us all remember that South County Hospital's mismanagement has driven away primary care physicians, cancer specialists, urologists, and cardiologists from South County Medical Group, leaving patients desperate for care,” said Dr. Chris Van Hemelrijck, a director of Save South County Hospital.
In a press release, the hospital claimed, “Over the past nine months, South County Health’s Administration and Board of Trustees have taken exhaustive efforts to engage a small group of disgruntled individuals who have formed a non-profit organization invoking our name, ‘South County Hospital.' Unfortunately, their actions, both before and after the creation of this organization, have caused confusion, concern, and anxiety in our community. Despite our attempts to resolve disagreements amicably, they have chosen to take a non-constructive way forward. Their efforts have specifically targeted disrupting our critical relationships with donors—efforts that have been aided by a former employee of South County Health who violated their fiduciary duty to protect confidential donor information, placing millions of dollars in philanthropic support at risk.”
The hospital leadership added, “This lawsuit is not about silencing critics or punishing donors for redirecting their contributions to another non-profit. It is about protecting donor confidentiality and ensuring philanthropic contributions are not misused or interfered with. Donors have always had and will continue to have, the ability to direct their contributions as they see fit.”
But the 12-page lawsuit claims that the community group and Swain — the former vice president of development to the hospital — are guilty of "Tortious Interference with Contract, Tortious Interference with Expected Donation, Breach of Contract, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Aiding and Abetting a Breach of Duty."
South County Hospital, in its lawsuit, alleges that "efforts to terminate South County Hospital’s relationship with its Donor Base, based on the disclosure and use of confidential information gained through a breach of contract and a breach of fiduciary duty, as well as Defendants holding themselves out before South County Hospital’s Donor Base as having some agency to act with regard to South County Hospital, cannot be allowed as it has caused significant harm to South County Hospital and if allowed to continue, will continue to do significant harm to South County Hospital.”
The South County Hospital suit seeks that if “judgment should enter in favor of the System and the Foundation and against SSCH in an amount proven at trial, plus interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. In addition, the System and the Foundation should be afforded preliminary and permanent injunctive relief preventing irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law, plus attorneys’ fees."