Skrivanos to employees: BRF will prevail
Biomedical Research Foundation Chairman Steve Skrivanos told employees their work and the foundation’s operation of public safety net hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe will ultimately be vindicated as it continues its battle with LSU and Willis Knighton Health System.
Skrivanos sent a letter to the more than 3,000 employees at University Health in Shreveport and University Health Conway in Monroe on Thursday following its response Wednesday to LSU’s claim BRF is in breach of its contract to operate the hospitals.
LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard told Gannett Louisiana on Thursday the university will have no comment while negotiations are underway.
BRF and LSU were at odds almost as soon as the foundation secured the contract to operate the hospitals in 2013 as part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to privatize the state’s charity hospital system.
“LSU claims that since BRF took over hospital operations, we have failed to meet our ‘public purpose’ as a safety net hospital serving the citizens of north Louisiana,” the letter reads. “In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.”
Skrivanos also reminded employees BRF has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Willis Knighton, which the foundation believes has undermined BRF from the beginning in an effort to siphon University Health’s commercially insured patients.
He told employees Willis Knighton “is threatened by your achievements and new competition in the market.”
“I urge you to be patient and have faith that the truth will emerge and that you, along with the BRF and University Health, will be fairly recognized for what we have accomplished, when no one else was willing to do so,” the letter concluded.
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Text of the letter
July 30, 2015
To Our Dedicated University Health Staff:
On Wednesday the BRF and University Health formally responded to LSU, that we believe there has been no breach of our agreement to operate the hospital.
LSU claims that since BRF took over hospital operations, we have failed to meet our “public purpose” as a safety net hospital serving the citizens of north Louisiana.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Because of your hard work, we have been able to reduce clinic wait times and increase patient volumes. We have been able to achieve higher levels of quality care and improve patient satisfaction. Nothing in the history of health care in north Louisiana has done more to advance the public purpose than your dedicated efforts over the last nineteen months. You have attained those goals by working alongside LSU physicians, who share in those accomplishments.
How could LSU possibly claim that we have failed to meet our public mission? The measures they developed for the cooperative endeavor agreement prove that we have far exceeded the performance of LSU when it ran the hospital.
Further, it is hard for me to believe, and I am extremely disappointed, that our representatives on the LSU Board of Supervisors – Ray Lasseigne and Jim McCrery from Shreveport and James Moore from Monroe – could support a claim that University Health and its employees have failed to meet the public purpose. The Department of Health and Hospitals is on record, saying that your efforts have saved Louisiana taxpayers more than $40 million in our first year of operation, while increasing services to the poor. During the same time, the LSU School of Medicine has received numerous accreditations and recently announced its largest enrollment ever. If our northern Supervisors were fully informed before LSU took its action, they certainly owe the community an explanation as to why they believe the public purpose was not served.
So why then is LSU trying to remove University Health?
I believe part of the answer to that question lies with the activities of our competitor, Willis-Knighton, and with an agenda largely orchestrated by LSU Vice President Frank Opelka and others in South Louisiana, supported by some of our own local elected officials. As a lifelong resident of Shreveport, I am no stranger to attempts by interests in Baton Rouge and South Louisiana to manipulate our community.
Let me assure you, the BRF and University Health are going to stand strong against these efforts. As you know, we recently filed an antitrust lawsuit against Willis-Knighton, which is threated by your achievements and new competition in the market. We have retained a nationally recognized attorney, who recently won a similar landmark case in Idaho. As those involved in this plan receive federal subpoenas and testimony begins to separate fact from fiction, I believe your efforts will be vindicated and better appreciated by the public.
As the next few chapters of this story unfold, I want you to know that we will stand behind you and we encourage you to make your voices heard. Your fellow employees have launched a website -- www.uhwarriorcampaign.com -- where you can stand together to tell your stories. A public outreach website – www.imwithu.org – is also available to make it easy for you to contact state legislators and members of the LSU Board of Supervisors.
On behalf of the University Health Board of Directors and administration, I cannot thank you enough for all you do for the patients in our community – and in service to our public purpose. I urge you to be patient and have faith that the truth will emerge and that you, along with the BRF and University Health, will be fairly recognized for what we have accomplished, when no one else was willing to do so.
Sincerely,
Stephen F. Skrivanos
Chairman of the Board, UH System Board of Managers