Published: August 27, 2008 09:05 am         

No quick fix for issues at Tri-State health center

Bartlett calls closed-door meeting with stakeholders

CUMBERLAND — U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett has requested a meeting next month with stakeholders in the ongoing personnel issues and descending level of morale at the federally funded Tri-State Community Health Center.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 8 at Bartlett’s office in Frederick. It is closed to the public, but each member of the board of directors, along with physicians Wayne Spiggle and Jack Harvey, have been invited, in addition to representatives from the offices of U.S. Reps. Shelley Moore Capito and Alan Mollohan, both of West Virginia.

Lisa Lyons Wright, Bartlett’s press secretary, said last week there was no public update available regarding the politician’s concern over the welfare of patients and staff at Tri-State. But Spiggle hopes the Sept. 8 meeting can be more productive than recent meetings.

“I hope we can have an open and frank discussion about Tri-State and how it can be improved to better fulfill its mission and that such a conversation will produce positive change,” Spiggle said in an e-mail to the Times-News. “But we have had such talks in other venues and nothing good has come from those efforts.”

Personnel and morale issues came to light in May when the health facility, which serves uninsured and under-insured patients with offices in Cumberland, Hancock and McConnellsburg, Pa., fired medical director Matthew Hahn without reason or notice. Hahn later said he was fired “following my attempts to assist a large number of Tri-State’s employees to bring significant work-place problems to light.”

Those issues were brought to Leslie Colbrese, executive director, and summarily discarded, Spiggle said. After Hahn’s firing in May, a number of physicians, including Spiggle, met with the board at the Cumberland facility on Kelly Road. There, the physicians asked for Colbrese’s resignation.

Spiggle said recently that request, as have others attempting to address personnel and morale issues, have been ignored.

On July 17, Spiggle and Harvey met with the Allegany County commissioners and asked they request representation on the board. Acting County Administrator David Eberly sent that letter the same day.

In an Aug. 5 letter in response, Nancy Forlifer, board secretary, told Eberly the board is “seeking another representative from the Cumberland area and would appreciate your suggestions.”

The composition of the board membership must follow the organization’s bylaws, Forlifer said. On Thursday, the commissioners discussed the issue during their public work session. They noted the letter did not provide the current makeup of the board and, therefore, opened up a candidate for the board to be ineligible only because of the bylaws.

Spiggle said just recently the Cumberland office has lost three nurses in key positions. “Their official reason for leaving is that they received better offers elsewhere, but their colleagues know that they left in the search of a more fair work environment,” he said.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.