Hospital Board Refuses To Resign

Members Contend Johnson's Demand Is Undemocratic

The Prince George's hospital system's board of directors rejected yesterday a demand by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) that several members resign, deepening a standoff between the county and the nonprofit company that runs several county medical facilities.

Johnson had said he would release no additional funding to the financially strapped hospital system until the board agrees to restructure itself. He demanded that four of the board's 11 members resign: the chairman, representatives of the boards of two hospitals in the system and the past president of the county's medical society.

Board members said they were willing to negotiate a change in membership but rejected what they characterized as Johnson's attempt to dictate the terms.

"This board elected me as a member," said William Williams, one of the board members targeted for replacement. "To me that's very democratic. Anything to the contrary is just government imposing itself on a private corporation."

Another board member, Donald Foran, jokingly referred to Johnson's proposal as "a ransom note."

Under Johnson's proposal, the remaining seven members -- including Johnson's chief of staff, the chairman of the County Council and two members who got their seats based on Johnson's recommendation -- would select replacements for those who resigned.

Dimensions is a not-for-profit company that has run Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly since 1982. The system also includes Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Campus and two county nursing homes.

Johnson contended the move would provide more public accountability for a board whose mismanagement he says has compounded the system's problems.

Board members, however, have rejected Johnson's allegations of mismanagement, arguing that unreliable funding, vague promises from government and high costs associated with treating thousands of uninsured patients are the true reasons for Dimensions' losses. Johnson's critics believe his move against the board is a thinly veiled attempt to gain greater control over its membership and the fate of the system.

At stake immediately is $2 million that the County Council authorized be spent on the system by June 30, money hospital leaders say they have counted on to stay afloat. Johnson said he would not release the money unless his demands were met. The council has also appropriated $12 million to fund hospital operations from July through next June -- funds Johnson has also said he would withhold.

"There will be no more funding until the board is reconstituted," said James P. Keary, Johnson's spokesman. "It's unfortunate that you have a few people who are more interested in their own positions than they are about the health-care needs of the 750,000 residents of Prince George's County."

The system has lurched through a cycle of financial crises for the past several years. Most recently, hospital leaders said they faced impending closure in April after the General Assembly session concluded without a deal between state and local leaders on a shared plan to provide long-term stability for the system.

That predicament passed when county leaders pledged to keep the hospital open through June 2008 using local tax dollars. Hospital leaders believe Johnson's ultimatum amounts to reneging on that public promise. Johnson, meanwhile, believes he is enforcing a previous agreement with the hospital board in which its leaders agreed to a restructuring if the system required additional public money.

Hospital leaders have raised the specter of closure so often that county officials now cast a skeptical eye, believing the threat is intended to arouse public sympathy and pry loose additional tax dollars for the system. Indeed, Progressive Maryland, a grass-roots group that works closely with the hospital union, has scheduled a news conference for today designed to boost support for the system.

At the hospital, managers said they must keep creditors and patients informed about the possible consequences of the facility's financial state. They said the threats have become depressingly familiar because neither the county nor the state has been a reliable funding partner.