[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Hospital receives OK to manage itself

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Hospital receives OK to manage itself

St. Bernard Parish Hospital has received the go-ahead to choose its own CEO,
and will no longer be bound by a third-party manager running the hospital,
Wayne Landry told the St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday night. But the
hospital will be required to undertake a nationwide search for a new chief
executive officer and hire someone to select the top three candidates,
Landry said.

Landry, chairman of the board that oversees the St. Bernard Hospital
District and currently the hospital's interim chief executive officer, told
the Parish Council the news during a scheduled update on the hospital.

As part of the hospital's arrangment with Goldman Sachs, which provided much
of the hospital's financing, the hospital board signed an agreement that the
facility would be run by a third-party manager.

When the hospital opened last fall, the CEO was provided by the nonprofit
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. But the Franciscan
Missionaries pulled out of its agreement to manage the $70 million facility
in Chalmette soon after the hospital's September opening.

The Franciscans cited differences in management philosophies, and former and
current hospital staff described contentious working relationships because
of Landry's hands-on managerial style.

The hospital has since worked to get out of the third-party management
clause in the Goldman Sachs agreement. As a result, Goldman Sachs has been
reviewing the hospital's operations.

Landry told the Parish Council on Tuesday evening that he got the verbal
go-ahead over the phone "giving us our right to self-manage."  He said that
once he receives a formal letter stating the revised agreement, he will
provide it to the council.

Councilman Guy McInnis asked, as a result of the Goldman Sachs decision,
when Landry would step down as CEO and return to just being on the hospital
board, and when a new CEO would be hired.

"I may just step down altogether," Landry said, apparently suggesting he
might step down from the hospital board itself.

Landry said a company will be hired "to come in an make an assessment of the
top three (CEO) candidates. But, hey, we are not bound by that selection,"
he said. "We can obviously hire whoever we want, but we expect to follow
those suggestions."

Landry said he would like to see a new CEO hired in 60 to 90 days.

Previously, Landry had said the hospital board likely would groom Charlie
Lindell for the CEO post. Lindell, who has served as the hospital's
cardiopulmonary director, was given the chief operating officer position
after the Franciscans' and other staff members' departures.

But after a Parish Council meeting last month, Lindell told a Times-Picayune

| NOLA.com reporter that, while he might like to one day become CEO, he

would not assume that rank immediately and that someone else likely would
first be hired. Lindell said that he does not yet have enough experience for
the position.