Save South County Hospital 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 12, 2024

Contact:

Steven Fera, MD  drsrf@cox.net   (401)523-5095

John O’Leary, DO   JLO2456@gmail.com  (401) 536-5247

South County Hospital Patients
Call for Change in Management

SOUTH KINGSTOWN - The management of South County Hospital must resign or be replaced immediately, demanded a united group of patients who held a press conference on Thursday. 

They joined forces with a growing coalition of physicians, former trustees, donors, and supporters, all calling for a sweeping leadership overhaul at the century-old healthcare institution. 

More than 100 people rallied at the press briefing, where patients passionately shared their deep connection to the hospital and their urgent desire to save this community cornerstone from the brink of collapse under the current management.  

They appealed directly to Governor Dan McKee and Attorney General Peter Neronha, whose wife is a physician, to intervene and restore stability. 

The hospital has been thrown into turmoil, rocked by widespread accusations of mismanagement from its top physicians and major donors. An open letter last week from physicians, donors and former trustees caused public eruption about the simmering concerns for the last few years. 

Outraged voices are demanding change through public outcries and strategic meetings aimed at persuading the Board of Trustees to cut ties with Chief Executive Officer Aaron Robinson and Chief Medical Officer Kevin Charpentier. 

Additionally, there is a strong push to see Board Chairman Joseph Matthews removed and to establish a new leadership team capable of halting the exodus of doctors, many of whom are threatening to resign, already leaving, or contemplating mergers with other healthcare systems due to the ongoing crisis. 

These patients made clear at Thursday’s press conference that their health care is being directly compromised by the current leadership’s failures. 

Christine Siravo, a South Kingstown resident, said that during COVID she was diagnosed with stage three cancer. It brought a blur to life and a whirlwind of activity, but her personal physician, Dr. John O’Leary, and Cancer Center Director Dr. Angela Tabor, helped her to know she would be cared for, hope existed to fight the disease and it could be done at South County Hospital rather than a large one in Boston or New York. 

South County Hospital had been her go-to hospital for 55 years. The Oncology Department staff became a second family to her, she said. Then various decisions by management led to key staff members, including the center's director, submitting their resignations in frustration. Two physicians from the Westerly office have also now resigned. 

“Recently, someone who has also been diagnosed with cancer asked me for a recommendation, and I was saddened to say, ‘Don’t go to South County Hospital...I have no idea who will be in the Oncology Department for you or whether there will be any kind of continuity of care,” she said. 

“The current chief executive officer, chief medical officer, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees are failing miserably ...The only feasible solution is to replace these people as soon as possible and take back our remarkable community hospital.” 

Jared Aaronson, 84, of South Kingstown, suffered a heart attack in 2013. Cardiac rehabilitation became the key to his emotional and physical survival for the next nine years. In 2020, it was discontinued and supporters created a petition to convince Robinson to continue the program. 

Aaronson requested a 15-minute meeting to present this petition to let Robinson know patients' concerns about the closing of the rehab center. 

"His secretary said 'someone' would get back to me. No one did. As a result, I stopped my annual donation, which I had contributed to the hospital for the past eight years," Aaronson said. 

"We need a change in management so there are people who listen to people," he added. 

Pam Matteson, 67, a pharmacist and cancer survivor treated at the hospital, and co-chairwoman of its Cancer Care Advisory Council, also discussed how the hospital helped her, but under current management she also is concerned about the hospital's ability to provide quality care.

"Governor McKee, Attorney General Neronha, SCH board members, donors and fellow patients, we need a change in upper management now. Matthews, and Aaron Robinson and his team must go," she said. 

State Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee (D-South Kingstown) also attended the meeting and urged those attending to write to state representatives and senators because the General Assembly funds hospitals each year. 

"Patient care is an ultimate concern for me and if people in South Kingstown and Narragansett are upset with the quality of care or hospital operations, I want to know about it," she said. 

These are only a few of the voices supporting Save South County Hospital 2024. Last week a joint letter from physicians, former trustees, donors and other supporters ignited a firestorm inside and outside the hospital about the degrading conditions within its walls from onerous management decisions.