Mendocino Coast District Hospital Planning Committee Nov 29, 2016

The MCDH Planning Committee boots OB Ad Hoc Committee back to Board again!

Watch chaos and confusion reign as the November Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) Planning Committee, who had been charged by the Board of Directors at their November third meeting to proceed, kicks the Obstetrics (OB) Ad Hoc Committee back to the Board again! Confused?? So are the frustrated members of the public who have been patiently waiting to serve and had expected to be formally at the last Board meeting.

At the MCDH Board meeting there was a formal motion, which passed unanimously, to have the Planning Committee work on the structure and purpose of the OB Ad Hoc Committee.  The Board assured the public that improving OB is a critical priority, especially because it was ranked as a critical service in its recent phone survey.   Here is the motion taken from the MCDH official minutes:

MOTION: The Board to instruct the Planning Committee to develop a mission and scope of work to be achieved by this Ad Hoc Committee as expeditiously as possible at the next scheduled meeting; it can then be brought to the Board for Ratification.

You can see this frustrating and confusing discussion on the following November 3 Board meeting video.

Kitty Bruning and Tanya Smart each brought written ideas to the November 29 Planning Committee meeting expecting this assignment to move forward. What they received was a formal motion by CEO Bob Edwards to kick the OB project back to the Board of Directors without fulfilling their request to develop a mission and scope!  I was surprised that the hospital staff has a voting position on the MCDH Planning Committee.  In my experience with government and nonprofit organizations, staff serves as a resource without formal membership.

During the ensuing discussion on the motion, Dr. Jack Bella argued that it needs to go back to the MCDH Board of Directors for structure, which is the same argument he used at the MCDH Board meeting not to appoint OB Ad Hoc Committee members yet and to send it back to the Planning Committee. The motion eventually prevailed with a number of members voting no.

The OB Ad Hoc Committee idea emerged last May.  In July MCDH staff and board members assured the community, who overwhelmingly voiced the need to continue these services, that a committee would be appointed and solicited volunteers.  In August, the public contacted in the Voter Telephone Survey, also expressed very strong support for OB.  So what is going on here? Watch the video and see what chaos, confusion and frustration looks like!