(Photo Credit: RVH)
Former chairs of the Renfrew Victoria Hospital (RVH), Renfrew Health, and the RVH Foundation have issued a joint statement defending past decisions following the recent release of provincial supervisor Altaf Stationwala’s final report.
A year-long investigation into the relationship between RVH and Renfrew Health determined there was a pattern of financial mismanagement and governance failures.
The statement, signed by Keanan Stone and Jim Lemenchick, indicates all actions taken were guided by expert legal and financial advice, with the sole aim of enhancing patient care and strengthening the hospital’s future.
While acknowledging the controversy, they expressed regret over the negative attention and reaffirmed their commitment to transparency, accountability, and the continued success of RVH.
Here is the full text of the statement:
As former chairs of the Renfrew Victoria Hospital, Renfrew Health and the Renfrew Victoria Hospital Foundation, we feel compelled to speak up following the recent publication of the Final Report of Supervisor Altaf Stationwala. There’s no question that RVH is an amazing resource in our community. We can all see it plain as day. Preserving and enhancing it are usually the main reasons people like us dedicate countless volunteer hours to support its governance and ensure its future.
However, it is unfortunate that greater context was not shared surrounding past decisions made by our boards of directors, informed by expert counsel in accountants and lawyers at the time, which has resulted in so much backlash and negativity being stirred up in our community.
At the heart of our decisions was always our mission to provide the best possible health care experience for our patients and their families. Our vision was to make Renfrew Victoria Hospital a model of excellence in healthcare. We held close to our values of quality – committed to continuously improving the quality of health care we provide; safety and well-being – making every effort to support the safety and well-being of all individuals within our environment; leadership and accountability – championing innovation and collaboration to anticipate and respond to the changing needs of our community in a fiscally responsible manner while fostering a culture of ownership and teamwork that promoted resiliency; respect – for the rights, dignity, diversity and values of each individual; and engagement – believing that care is enhanced through the active participation of patients and their caregivers, valuing the contributions of each individual and community partner.
These are high standards that we set for ourselves, for our leadership team, and for all the staff, physicians and volunteers without whom we would not have the facilities and access to care close to home that we take for granted today. And our expectations were consistently exceeded.
We clearly remember what our hospital was like 30 years ago, the small emergency room that used to be where the RVH admin offices are currently located. It was a far cry from the state of the art Emergency and Ambulatory Care Centre we have now. There were no electronic medical records, no pharmacy. There was no world class Nephrology Centre, no diabetes education, no Oncology-Chemotherapy or Breast Screening programs, limited surgical and radiology options, no sleep lab or access to sleep apnea products close to home. There were no medical buildings where family doctors could work in collaborative models to support each other and the hospital, keeping our ER open even in times when so many others would be forced to close. There certainly weren’t over 450 full time equivalent employees delivering services through a $40M annual budget. Nor were there financial reserves to support the next phase of redevelopment and investment into infrastructure, permanent programs, physicians and staff to further enhance the health care services we receive in our backyard, things like supportive housing, or renovation and expansion of the second and third floors (all of which were on the horizon).
It wasn’t by accident that these things came to be at RVH. Success comes from good planning. Every infrastructure investment, every program enhancement, every penny saved for every major change was strategic, planned out years in advance, and executed with expert precision as part of a long term vision for a best in class RVH campus, under the guidance of a highly sought after CEO (and senior management team). These people, like all of the RVH staff, physicians and volunteers, went above and beyond for our patients and their families.
We wanted the best for our patients and they were the best. We were challenged to retain them, to compensate them for a job well done. The funding climate for health care was (and still is) complex, they deserved to be compensated appropriately for a job well done, and we believe that they were never paid more than they deserved.
No one should be surprised at annual operating expenses charged to a corporate credit card. There were procedures in place to have multiple people, including Finance Department staff, and sometimes even the board chair, review these expenses. We are unaware of any audit recommendations being made to the procedures.
At all times we believed we were making the right, informed decisions to ensure the continued success of our hospital and its delivery of outstanding (and frankly unprecedented) rural health care programs.
The decision to establish Renfrew Health (RH) in 2014 was a fully informed unanimous decision of both the hospital board and the foundation board, supported by RVH’s lawyers and auditors, and confirmed at a joint meeting of the two boards of directors. The purpose of RH was solely to support the activities of RVH. The structure and bylaws presented by the Toronto-based legal firm was similar to other comparable organizations in the province. The accounts were audited annually. The non-hospital assets of RVH, such as Sleep Lab Products and rental properties, and the non Foundation assets such as a rental building and parking, were transferred to Renfrew Health. This enabled the hospital board to focus solely on the activities of the hospital and the foundation board to focus on fund raising. Transferring leases also meant that any risk of liability associated with rentals would reside in Renfrew Health. We believed this strengthened our governance and sustainability.
In the following years, Renfrew Health grew dramatically. A new medical building was constructed. Sales of sleep lab products expanded under the direction of the senior team. Additional lands were secured and reserves were available to invest in physician recruitment and other health services. And while Renfrew Health’s board may have been small, no major decisions were made without the RVH board chair also being involved. To imply it was a rogue business or simplistic shell company established solely for the purpose of executive compensation and not integrated with RVH is not correct. In its ten years of existence, no concerns or questions were ever presented. Then, when the integrity of the situation was initially questioned, it was the directors of Renfrew Health who first suggested folding RH back into RVH, and were open to any other arrangements that would allow the businesses of RH to continue to generate positive cash flow to support the continued growth of Renfrew Victoria Hospital.
That being said, as former board members, governors of the hospital, foundation and Renfrew Health, we feel we must apologize for the spotlight that has been thrust on our hospital by this situation and what has resulted. But to say it plainly, there was never motivation by greed, or deceit. Our motivation was simply trying to do what was best at the time for RVH.
We commend the current board for their dedication through this difficult situation and the positive changes that have been made to keep RVH moving forward. We look forward to watching the new senior management team continue to improve access to services and care for our patients. And we sincerely hope that this chapter in the history of RVH can be closed permanently so that the organization can focus on serving its patients, and our community can continue to be tremendously grateful for the health care services we have built and will continue to build here at Renfrew Victoria Hospital.
Keanan Stone and Jim Lemenchick
(Sherry Haaima)