Dimensions' Critics Seize On Severance

Recent tax filings showing that the troubled company that runs the county's hospitals paid more than a half-million dollars in severance to two former executives have provided new ammunition in County Executive Jack B. Johnson's battle to prove the system has been mismanaged.

According to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service that are required of all nonprofit organizations, Dimensions Healthcare System paid about $389,000 in severance money to former chief executive Patrick Mutch and almost $270,000 to former chief financial officer Noel Cervino in fiscal 2006. The two left Dimensions in 2004 after a national company was brought in by a joint state-local oversight committee to improve operations.

According to the filings, Dimensions also paid $952,000 to the law firm of Steven Smith, who until four years ago was on staff and was paid less than a quarter of that amount.

At a forum in Largo last month, Johnson spokesman James Keary called the payments to Smith's firm an example of "systematic mismanagement."

Another spokesman, John Erzen, said the severance payments, which were first reported by the Washington Times, were examples of "gross mismanagement."

Johnson and the Dimensions board are engaged in a legal tussle over county subsidies for the financially ailing nonprofit hospital management company. Johnson has refused to release county payments until four members of the board step down; so far, they have resisted.

"These things are going to employees rather than going to patient care, where we would obviously like to see the money go to," Erzen said. "We've been very clear on our position about how the Dimensions board is spending money, and that's why we're not giving them any more."

Dimensions spokeswoman Suzanne Almalel said that severance packages are common in the world of hospital management, where turnover is high. Once negotiated, she said, they must be paid unless a chief executive resigns or is fired with cause. Otherwise, she said, a hospital system can be sued. Based on information from the American College of Healthcare Executives, she estimated that 80 percent of hospital chief executives have severance packages.

As for Smith, he said that comparing the salary he was paid as a staff lawyer to his firm's billings today is unfair because the payments to his firm go to several lawyers who perform different services. He said that when he was on staff, he had a budget for work done by lawyers on contract that went beyond his salary.

"The fair comparison would be the salary they paid for me and the amount paid for outside counsel, then compare that to the numbers they're paying for our billings today," he said. He added that legal costs have risen as the company's financial position has become more precarious.

One additional note from the IRS filing: Dimensions president and chief executive G.T. Dunlop Ecker was paid $269,233 last year. That puts Ecker, who served previously as president of Greater Southeast Community Hospital and Washington Hospital Center, at the low end compared with chief executives of other nonprofit, though less troubled, institutions.

In the same year, Joy Drass, president of Georgetown University Medical Center, was paid $720,000. According to documents filed with the IRS in 2004, William G. "Bill" Robertson, president and chief executive of Adventist HealthCare, was paid $708,746. Ecker's salary is also less than either of his two predecessors at Dimensions was paid.

Ecker has in the past declined to share details of the severance package he would receive should the Dimensions board replace him.

Echoes of a Warning on Comcast

Prince George's officials have added their voices to the chorus of Maryland leaders warning county residents about a change to the terms of Comcast subscribers' agreements, a change that the officials said limits customer rights to take legal action against the cable behemoth.

The company sent customers notices in July alerting them to the change, which would restrict their rights to take the company to court and instead would require that disagreements go to arbitration. Customers can opt out of the change, but only if they formally do so on Comcast's Web site or by letter within 30 days of receiving the notice.

In a news release, the county said that the notice was made as a "stuffer" that arrived with bills and that no one consulted Prince George's government officials. According to the release, the county will send a stern letter expressing its disappointment. Montgomery County officials have also complained about the change.