Thursday, September 15, 2005

I’m Back

Now I tried very hard to retire. I have a full time job and more kids and pets than I can handle but those gosh darn healthcare consultants just couldn’t stop causing problems. Cambio healthcare consulting’s overpaid under-worked executives already have their plane tickets to return to the red states they came from, permanently. The medical center hired a new CEO, Wright Lassiter, things kept hobbling along, they way they do with vacant executives, but no… consultants can’t even leave gracefully. The aggressive infighting over turf, titles and the spoils of Measure “A” threatens to disrupt patient care and undermine the new CEO before he even arrives in California.

Since the medical center got occupied by consultants it has experienced out of control executive titles and salaries. We now have multiple vice presidents, none of whom were elected. Why the human resources department has four heads, a VP, a consultant/chief negotiator, and two private contractors to handle union negotiations and still they come to the negotiating table and can’t find their own memos. Other feverish executives desperate to say they have done something began implementing time clocks. This fiasco resulted in so many errors and so much confusion that SEIU had to take legal action just to get the executives to figure out what they had done.

The most alarming consultant driven mental breakdown is the secretive and paranoid behavior the Authority Board is starting to display around money and labor unions. The finance committee, misled by Supervisor Alice-Lai-Bitker’s appointee, has begun hiding numbers, refusing to share and acting fearful and mistrusting of medical center employees and concerned community members. They have become secretive, paranoid and hostile to anyone trying to get information, there is some speculation that the data just got lost.

The grapevine also says the Board also plans to undermine the new CEO by not allowing him to deal with labor unions or contract issues. This would justify keeping the four heads of human resources employed but would completely discredit the new CEO before he walked in the door. So I guess my early retirement is on hold for now.