Public Comments

Public Comments by Scott Scowcroft before the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital Board of Commissioners

First as a grant writer, then Hospital Foundation Director and finally staff member of the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital, I witnessed the remarkable transformation of a previously failed hospital into one of the most respected critical access hospitals in the USA (see T op 20 Critical Access Hospital) , one that developed a regionally acclaimed Swing Bed Program, and even constructed a new 21st Century hospital building during the height of the Great Recession.

All this was accomplished by Hospital Commissioners Cynthia Johnson, Kevin Hauglie, Joan Young, Fritz Ribary and David Spikers under the inspired leadership of President Dick Jones and the then executive team of CEO Rodger McCollum, CFO Don Galer and Medical Director Dr. Kimberly Whitkop. As a "dream team," they rose to defeat many challenges with courage, an entrepreneurial spirit and vision.

There's been a changing of the guard. With new Commissioners and management came a more cautious approach. One Commissioner, Gene Pollard, went beyond caution and used the legal system to challenge the "Certificate of Need" required for the new Hospital to be built. He failed, but not until after the Hospital and WA State DOH spent unknown hours and 10's of thousands of tax payer dollars on legal fees. Worse, the year-plus delay in construction clearly cost the Hospital millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Below are my public comments during the past year, in which I've encouraged the current Commissioners to return to courage and an entrepreneurial spirit. For the good of the Valley, I also asked Commissioner Pollard to consider voluntarily resigning early so as to make room for a fresh start and new beginning as the Hospital prepares to merge or affiliate with a larger healthcare organization.

Public Comments:

7-13-17 SVHD Board of Commissioners Meeting

Public Comment 1: Scott Scowcroft

My name is Scott Scowcroft, and I live in West Seattle. I’m a former executive director of the Hosptial Foundation, am a former staff member, and a grateful family member of a former patient.

Any organizations responding to the RFP will now do so without benefit from meaningful public participation, and once proposals are submitted, essentially the die will have been cast.

This is a pity because involving, for example, the 15 or so leading civic and health services organizations in the community could have resulted in some great insights and suggestions, and certainly would have resulted in helping to build a constituency of stakeholders who felt they had skin in the game.

As it is, there was no information about Affiliation or the RFP process on the District’s website, and the dozen or so notices that went out obviously make little or no difference.

Therefore, I propose you consider amending the RFP to add a section that points out that the vision of the District is to make the Snoqualmie Valley the healthiest community in the nation, and ask respondents if they can sign off on that vision. If so, then ask them explicitly how they would propose to go about achieving that aspirational goal.

The point is, if you don’t ask explicitly, then there’s no reason to expect that the District’s Vision for the health of the Valley will be part of the deal. But if you do ask, you just might be pleasantly surprised by some of the answers.

7-13-17 SVHD Board of Commissioners Meeting

Public Comment 2: Scott Scowcroft

Most if not all of you ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. Now that the District is financially stable, and you have chosen Affiliation as a path forward, I put it to you that if there was ever a time for the Board to be courageous and entrepreneurial, it is now.

Personally I think you made a mistake last year by burning bridges when you let Rodger McCollum go. Had it been done more amicably, you could have used his background, his visionary leadership, his influence and good reputation throughout the regional healthcare sector to help shape and frame the Affiliation process going forward.

In lieu of that, I put it to you that the next best thing that could happen is for Commissioner Pollard to voluntarily resign. It was Commissioner Pollard after all who ran on a platform designed essentially to dismantle the District.

He was such a disruptive force on the Board that you had to hire a professional parliamentarian.

I’ve attended three Board retreats, during which you all recognized and acknowledge your frustration in how dysfunctional this board had been in recent years -- something I believe was solely caused by the actions and behavior of Commissioner Pollard.

For example, you will remember that in 2012, in his role as Commissioner, he sued the District in an attempt to deny the new hospital a Certificate of Need.

To this day, he continues in his self-proclaimed role as watchdog as is evidenced by the fact he continues to be the sole nay vote when the rest of the Commissioners voted yay.

This Board does not need a watchdog. This board needs to be inspired, aspirational, and energized to bring about positive results going forward.

You and the Valley deserve nothing less.

6-8-17 SVHD Board of Commissioners Meeting

Public Comments: Scott Scowcroft

For the record, my name is Scott Scowcroft. I’m a former Executive Director of the Hospital Foundation, former hospital staff member, and grateful family member of a former patient. I live in West Seattle.

For over a year now I’ve been encouraging this Board to be courageous, entrepreneurial and visionary. With affiliation on Fast Track, if ever there was a time to be all three, it is now.

To the best of my knowledge, mine are the only substantive comments to have been received from the public so far. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

In any event, I don’t think it’s too late. There’s still time to invite the community to participate and provide meaningful input.

I therefore challenge the Board to put meat on the bones of your often stated desire to involve the community. Consider hosting one more event. Call it a Lunch and Learn and then send personal invitations to 10 or 15 leading service and civic organizations throughout the Valley.

By this I mean Encompass, the two senior centers, the two school districts, the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, the Rotary, the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, Friends of Youth, the food bank, the Tribe, and anyone else you feel should attend. Maybe ask the Snoqualmie Record or Living Snoqualmie to sponsor the event.

Then bring in someone independent to facilitate the meeting. Someone knowledgeable like Ben Lindekugel who as you know is the Executive Director of the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts and who you’ll remember facilitated your January strategic planning meeting.

Once he, or some like him, has educated and hopefully inspired these local organizations as to options for Affiliation, they can then provide written feedback which you would distribute to each RFP respondent to help guide them in crafting their proposals.

I believe involving the community with the Affiliation process in a meaningful way is what is meant by being courageous, entrepreneurial and visionary.

5-30-17 Affiliation Strategy Public Hearing

Scott Scowcroft, SVH Forum

My name is Scott Scowcroft and I live in West Seattle. For those who don’t know me, I’m a former executive director of the Hosptial Foundation, former Hospital staff person, and a grateful family member of a former patient.

I’ve also attended and videotaped most of the Board of Commissioner meetings for the past six years, and most recently hosted the SVH Forum, a website whose slogan is, “Become informed, get involved and participate.”

My sense is the for the most part, what is of most interest to the Board is that the District doesn’t someday default on the debt and thereby saddle taxpayers with a 50 or 100 million dollar bill to pay off. Beyond that, the rest is more or less gravy.

I think its a given that anyone responding to the RFP likely already has the operational wherewithal to run a Hospital and clinic.

The change of perspective I’d encourage the Board to adopt is to assume the same is true in terms of debt management. In other words, being able to handle the finances -- including the debt -- is the price of admission. If you can't do that, then don’t bother to apply.

The competition then becomes for the middle tier priorities. What else can you do for us?

This is where I’d say being courageous and entrepreneurial comes in.

Be courageous by incorporating the District’s vision into the RFP, that the Snoqualmie Valley becomes the healthiest community in the nation.

And then, entrepreneurial by suggesting steps RFP respondents can consider in order to achieve this vision. Can you meet or beat this?

Three ideas immediately come to my mind.

Using a combination of lease and tax funds, the new Public Hospital District underwrites public health grants to local NPOs, just like Verdant Health does with their affiliation with Swedish http://bit.ly/svhforum-VerdantModel and http://bit.ly/2rNnApK . Or, how about launching a School Based Health program, just like Group Health and others have with Seattle Schools http://bit.ly/2q45JH4. Or maybe support a public health/community services cooperative, just like the Together Center does in Redmond http://bit.ly/2q4wZFj. If King County rezones the property, the East Campus would be perfect for that.

Better yet, why not ask the Encompasses , Carnation Senior Center and Snoqualmie Community Network’s of this world to come up with ideas of their own?

The point is, to not undersell yourself and to aim high.

5-11-17 SVHD Public Comments

By Scott Scowcroft

My name is Scott Scowcroft, and I live in West Seattle.

I’m concerned that the Public Hearing to give a status update on the Affiliation RFP may not be very successful There’s been virtually no investment involving the public to date, and if history is prolog, just posing an announcement or even a newspaper ad won’t yield many results. Evan Pappas from the Valley Record is here tonight, so maybe a newspaper article might help.

For what it’s worth, I’ve started a Citizen Involvement website and Facebook page. It’s called SV Hospital Forum, and I hope will provide a place for members of the public to congregate, ask questions and express their opinions, not only on the RFP process but on other topics as well.

It’s url is bit.ly/svhforum, but if you forget, just search for “SVH Forum,” you’ll see it as the top listing in Google Search. I hope you’ll have an opportunity to visit the website and to follow the Facebook page.

3-9-17 Public Comments

SVHD Board of Commissioners

By Scott Scowcroft

My name is Scott Scowcroft, and I live in West Seattle.

Who in this room doesn’t believe that the Snoqualmie Valley represents a very special place to work and live? And who in this room doesn’t believe in the District’s aspirational vision to make the Snoqualmie Valley the Healthiest Community in the Nation? That vision represents the beauty of local control over local health care delivery, and the reason to support Public Hospital District #4.

What faces this Board of Commissioners today is the tricky exercise of threading the needle to both remain true to your local vision while operating in and affiliating with in the larger medical community.

In order to do this successfully, I feel you need to be both courageous and demonstrate a measure of good old American entrepreneurship.

But I fear you will fall short unless you are also liberated from a persistent cloud of negativity. That is why I call for the early and voluntary resignation of Commissioner Pollard. It is, afterall, Commissioner Pollard who attempted to deny the Hospital of it’s Certificate of Need in 2012, and to the best of my knowledge has never apologized for the cost and disruption that caused.

With a new interim Board member of your choosing, you’ll be better able to find innovative and even inspired ways to meet the financial and other challenges that you now face.

Only then will you have the best chance to truly make the Snoqualmie Valley the healthiest Community in the Nation.

Public Comment by Scott Scowcroft

SVHD Board of Commissioners

February 9th, 2017

My name is Scott Scowcroft, and I live in West Seattle.

Given the decisions you’ll soon be asked to make, I believe you need to perform at the top of your game. If so, I think you’ll be able to find hidden blessings and surprising opportunities in this otherwise uncertain political environment.

But there is among you someone whose goal is to sabotage your best efforts. For example, he purposefully disrupts meetings through trivial objections, mini-grandstanding and trying to dominate discussions.

He also acts in big ways too.

For example, in 2012 Commissioner Pollard filed a legal suit against the District, asking the Department of Health to deny the certificate of need for the new hospital. This delayed the opening of the new hospital by a year or possibly more and at a cost of who knows how many hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars?

Were it not for that one action, I”m certain your job tonight and going forward would have been easier.

That’s why I again call upon Commissioner Pollard to voluntarily step down. This would allow the remaining Board members to quickly appoint someone new who would not only bring new skills, but also fresh ideas and a positive attitude to the Board, just in time as you plan and negotiate for the future healthcare of the Valley.

You’ll remember your Vision for the District is to make Snoqualmie Valley the Healthiest Community in the Nation. For this to happen, you need a Board with everyone on the same team, all pulling in the same direction.

Scott Scowcroft Public Comment

11-3-16 KCPHD#4: Board of Commissioner

My name is Scott Scowcroft. I live in West Seattle.

Because I have only 3 minutes, I need to get right to the point.

My call to action is entirely non-partisan. I simply ask that you grow into a high functioning Board that aspires to and accomplished great things.

I encourage you to benchmark your own performance for say, the past five years. How does it compare to other Governing Bodies locally? How about other Public Hospital Districts across the country?

Sorry. A few adjectives that come mind for me are dysfunctional, ineffectual, and inept.

And the accident to these adjectives?

I’d say, solely do to Commissioner Pollard who has tried to dominated and disrupted the good work of this Board since day one. All you have to do is think back to his first few meetings as Commissioner. Remember?

He is also the only Commissioner who asked the Washington State Department of Health to deny the District a Certificate of Need.

Time and time again I’ve seen other Board members try to come together to function as a team, only to be thwarted by Commissioner Pollard.

The analogy I like to use is that of a spinning top. All you need to do lightly is to tap as it spins. The top will begin to wobble. Tap it enough times and eventually it’ll lose its balance and fall.

Nothing in Commissioner Pollards behavior has lead me to believe he’s changed. I see him continue to this very day to do his best to tap that spinning top.

That’s why I’m calling tonight for his voluntary and immediate resignation from the Board.

I see two benefits for him. Having fought the good fight, he’d be seen as magnanimous in stepping aside for the greater good. He’d also avoid having to hear my public testimony each month pointing out the obvious, that he’s doing more harm than good.

You as a Board members could then appoint someone new, introducing new blood to the board, someone who could build on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses.

I believe this would reinvigorate your efforts and allow you show just what you’re capable of accomplishing when given half a chance, and that is to grow into a high functioning Board that aspires to and actually accomplishes great things.

8-4-16 Board of Commissioners

Scott Scowcroft Public Comment

For the record, my name is Scott Scowcroft, and I live in West Seattle.

I congratulate you for your vision statement that reads “Our Community will Become the Healthiest in the Nation,” but I hope you’ll agree with me that to truly achieve this vision, you’ll need go beyond the walls of the Hospital in order to engage the larger Community.

For example, as the Hospital Foundation Director, I obtained a $5,000 grant to give away drug lock boxes and organize the “Youth Drug Abuse Prevention Community Education Forum” with Rob McKenna as the keynote speaker and Gregory Malcolm as moderator. I obtained a $50,000 grant from the Washington Health Foundation so the Rehab department could deliver 3 times weekly falls prevention exercise classes at the Mt. Si Senior Center. I obtained grants to fund numerous Key Leader Summits, and invited Encompass and the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network to participate as co-sponsors.

These are examples of how the District has engaged community partners to help improve the health of families throughout the Valley.

While it’s not everything you’ll need to do, I’d say it’s its entirely consistent with your vision statement to partner with Encompass, Senior Centers and others by seeking million dollars grants in support of preventive medicine and management of chronic conditions.

If the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network can do it -- and they have -- then so can you. And I’d say there is no better person to implement this lofty goal than Jill Green, assuming of course you give her the right marching orders and resources to do the job.

Finally, I hope we can all agree that neither Overlake, nor Swedish, or any other external entity can or would ever think to fight for the Snoqualmie Valley as well or as fiercely as would Public Hospital District Number 4.

I don’t want to say too much tonight, but if you don’t fully believe that government can or should manage the delivering of health care, then I’d suggest there is no better time than now for you to voluntarily resign from the Board.

Otherwise, I fear you may not only be jeopardizing your own personal legacy, but more importantly you might keep this Board of Commissions from living up to its potential and accomplishing great things.

7-7-16 SHVD Board of Commissioners meeting

Scott Scowcroft Public Comment

My name is Scott Scowcroft. I live in West Seattle, am a former Executive Director for the Hospital Foundation, former staff member, former patient, and grateful family member of a former patient. I began attending these meetings in 2011.

Recently I’ve begun public testimony around one of two theme.

One is to encourage you as a board to be visionary and courageous. The other theme is to shine a light on the disruptive behavior of one of the Commissioners that I believe is trying sabotages the good work of this Board.

Given the limitation of 3 minutes, its clear I must choose one theme per meeting.

Historically, the District’s proven to be entrepreneurial, risk taking and if necessary willing to fail fast. I believe these are necessary qualities for you as a new board to also adopt if the District hopes to survive and thrive in the coming volatility and uncertainty of Healthcare reform.

All of you have expressed your admiration for the hospital and clinic doctors, nurses and staff. One of you even went so far as to use the word “love.”

It’s a rhetorical question, but “Do you think these professionals -- all of whom are highly trained and many playing at the top of their game -- that these souls came to work for this small out of the way Hospital and clinic by accident or for no good reason?

Of course not.

These are the people who executed on transforming an old, dilapidated and discredited Hospital into among one the best hospitals in the country,

And so, this is a gift that has been handed to you and you are now charged with navigating the uncharted and treacherous waters of healthcare reform.

I put before you that you’ll never be able to cost cut your way out of debt, If you try, you’ll enter a cycle of diminishing returns, inevitably to be subsumed by a larger entity from a position of weakness, and with those who hate the District saying, “I told you so.”

This, I would argue, would be a betrayal of both those who worked so hard to make the District what it is today as well those in the Valley who expect and certainly deserve more.

And possibility with one exception, I know this is certainly not the future of your hopes and dreams for the District either.

So, as you face your strategic planning, I’d encourage you not to be small and diminutive. Rather, be bold, courageous and visionary. Don’t be afraid to think big, and to aspire to greatness.

Presentation before the Board of Commissioners

Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District #4

March3, 2016 ⧫ http://bit.ly/SVHDrm1

For the record, my name is Scott Scowcroft.

You may recall I stood before you last November to encourage you to be positive and act with vision. You'll remember I shared a little of my background, personally as grateful family member of a past patient and professionally as a past Executive Director of the Hospital Foundation.

From the beginning, I’ve witnessed first hand a stunning transformation, from a hospital that for decades had been in a perpetual state of disarray to one that has been designated as among the best 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the nation.

We all know this transformation from bad to best occured under the medical excellence of Dr. Witkop, but I put before you tonight that she was not acting alone but rather as a member of a very talented team, a team incidentally under the skillful and inspired leadership of the current CEO.

And just to be clear, the Hospital’s journey from bad to best these past 12 years was anything but easy.

For example, you’ll remember the building of the new hospital just happened to coincided with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and yet every time funding for new Hospital became problematic, the District miraculously was able to come up with something even better than before.

For example, take the Leisure Time Properties.

I don’t know why people don’t rail more against the then County Executive Ron Sims. It was he after all, who in the spring gave his blessings and then in by fall pulled the rug out from under the good citizens of the Snoqualmie Valley by denying the promised change in zoning.

But you know what?

He who laughs last laughs loudest ...

… because now we, or more accurately you as the Board of Commissioners, have the opportunity when the time is right to designate the use of this precious property, the gateway of Snoqualmie, for the best and highest good. Or, you could just sell the property for a profit. Now, how cool is that? That’s an example of what I mean by being forward looking, positive and acting with vision.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you to hear of my sadness when I read in the papers about your plans to fire the CEO. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed in you, not all of you, but you know who I mean.

I feel that you’re choosing to look backwards to settle past petty grievances, rather than to look forward with vision and optimism. It’s as if last September’s retreat never took place.

And, I feel you’re going about this in an an entirely unnecessarily mean spirited way.

What’s the urgency?

If for some reason you can’t stomach the idea of working with Rodger, then the decent thing to do would have been to let his contract run out naturally, and use that extra time to make a considered, informed choice for new leadership of the District.

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