By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
11-25-2008

After a heated meeting last week, staff members, administrators and patients at Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine are trying to get to the bottom of a series of rumors and solve a dispute about the facility’s hiring and firing of staff members.
The board was scheduled to discuss concerns regarding the character of the current administration at SIH, but many turned out to voice their own concerns about the hospital, ranging from alleged overuse of the Internet on hospital computers to the turnover of doctors on staff.
The complaint about the hospital’s administration was filed by Tim Standing, DNS, Jim Gillespie, PT and Dr. Serra Tranmer.
The complaint seems to have stemmed from a recent lay-off at the hospital, but the board would not go on record discussing personnel matters that had not been resolved.

The board moved that discussion off the open agenda and into closed session, after which board member Lawrence Kraus announced that the hospital administration would re-think its actions and consider re-hiring the doctor that had been let go.
Nothing more about the closed-session discussion regarding the allegations about the hospital administration were brought up, but that didn’t stop those in attendance from voicing their concerns about the hospital.
Several members of the audience at Thursday’s board meeting, including former hospital board candidate LeRoy Kritz, asked board members why the hospital has so much trouble recruiting and retaining emergency room doctors.
“We’ve lost four doctors in the last year, why?” asked Kritz.
Board members, hospital administrators and even hospital staff members shot back with a volley of reasons explaining the difficulty in retaining doctors at Southern Inyo, ranging from the economy, to the isolated nature of Inyo County.
One audience member said that, in the past, doctors have been lost because the hospital could not afford the salary they demanded.
Another argument brought up last week is that many doctors leave Lone Pine because they can seek higher wages in larger cities.
In response to that, one audience member said that the doctor in question had personal reasons to remain at Southern Inyo Hospital, as she has friends and family in the area, and that she would not have willing left the area if she had not been laid off.
Kraus reiterated that the board is considering the matter of the doctor, and said that a decision would be announced later.
With that discussion tabled, Kritz had some other points about the hospital administration and its employees that he wanted to bring up.
Kritz said that he has heard rumors that some hospital staff members “spend 20 hours a week” playing games and surfing the Internet on hospital computers.
That comment stirred controversy. Hospital board members, staff members and administrators responded immediately, calling the allegations “crap.”
“There are very few computers at the hospital that are hooked up to the Internet,” said SIH Business Manager Patty Murray. “I take great offense to that. We’re too damn busy to play on a computer.”
Kritz corrected his statement, saying, “I think about 99 percent of the people here are doing an excellent job,” but there are rumors about some of the staff members.
Kritz also said that he has heard that Hospital Administrator Lee Barron’s daughter was hired on at SIH, then changed to another department “because she was not qualified.”
Again, staff members at the meeting stood in defense of the administration, saying that Tamara (Barron’s daughter) “is very capable” and serves in a number of capacities at the hospital.
“These are rumors,” Kraus said, “and rumors are always bad.”
One hospital staff member said she felt that it was a “shame” that the character of the hospital administration was being called into question.
“Lee (Barron) has been a big asset to this place. There are some people who don’t like her or whatever, but I think she’s done a great job,” the employee said.

(Southern Inyo Hospital had not responded to the Register’s request for comment as of press time. –Ed.)