Dear Editor:

My concerns about the closed nature of board meetings, lack of public oversight and community input in the future of St Andrews Hospital began in the late 1980s when my job was as a consultant/liaison to Hospital Corporation of America, the hired management company for St. Andrews. I began to have concerns about management level and board decision making processes as I began reporting at that level to management.

I voiced these concerns to HCA management, individual board members and then in a letter to the board president asking to report these concerns at a board meeting. I was met at the door to the board meeting and turned away by hospital attorney John Doyle. I was told that there was no legal mechanism for public comment/input to the Board of Trustees of St. Andrews Hospital, though I reminded him that advertising/marketing, history and funding sources referred to and point to St. Andrews as a “community hospital.”

I then wrote a letter to this newspaper about lack of public input, the mechanism for selecting replacement for exiting board members (recruit their friends/social peers) and suggested that a more inclusive nominating process be instituted and a community advisory committee be established. Years later, a Community Advisory Committee was established but has since been abandoned. As far as I know, the board nominating process has not been widened and recent events prove that there is still no mechanism to provide community input.

I believe it is unethical and immoral for an institution that so profoundly impacts the region to control the board membership and consideration of public input. Having three boards (St. Andrews, Miles Memorial and Lincoln County Healthcare) made up of the same members is evidence of MaineHealth’s intent to control the outcome of any deliberations. Each entity should consider only the defined area they serve as a priority and then members from both serve on the parent (LCH) board to consider joint issues. St Andrews management and board must be accountable to the public they serve and that donates and funds them.

Frederica McIlwain Luke
Brawley, Calif., and East Boothbay