The former interim CEO of Eleanor Slater Hospital has resigned, state officials confirmed Friday.
Jennifer White submitted her resignation effective Saturday, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services said in a one-sentence email. White recently served as the chief financial officer of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH), which oversees Slater.
White was placed on administrative leave last month, the same day that state officials announced that Slater’s chief medical officer, Dr. Brian Daly, would resign at the end of July. White and Daly were among the officials who have raised concerns about improper billing practices at the troubled state-run hospital system.
White could not be reached for comment Friday.
Daly said in his resignation letter that he chose to leave his job because he feels the hospital is resuming practices he said led to “patient abuse” and he fears retaliation for speaking out about the problems. He has declined comment.
Slater, which has campuses in Burrillville and Cranston, serves as the state’s hospital of last resort for patients with complex medical and psychiatric needs. In mid-June, a national nonprofit that accredits hospitals found issues with patient care and threatened to deny the hospital accreditation.
Accreditation is crucial for a hospital to receive federal funding from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Joint Commission found conditions at Slater that “pose a serious threat to public or patient health and safety,” according to a letter the group sent to the head of the state BHDDH. (State officials on Thursday released the Joint Commission’s full accreditation report.)
“The final report confirms what The Joint Commission indicated in the preliminary report shared last month,” Richard Charest, director of BHDDH, said in a statement. “Hospital staff, leadership, and I remain completely focused on addressing the findings in this report and on maintaining Eleanor Slater’s accreditation.”
A surveyor who visited Slater earlier this week to check on the hospital’s progress addressing concerns identified in the Joint Commission report “indicated that they were pleased with our progress so far,’’ Charest said.
The Joint Commission said it may change Slater’s accreditation status after determining the hospital has eliminated the issues that pose an immediate threat to health or safety.
The Joint Commission’s findings included:
- “Lack of governing body support to ensure a safe patient care environment that supports patient rights.”
- “Ongoing lack of Leadership action to prioritize and address culture of safety concerns identified in culture of safety assessments”
- “Lack of a process to address and ensure completion of backlogged physical plant maintenance requests”
Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
Health reporter Lynn Arditi can be reached at larditi@thepublcisradio.org. Follow her on Twitter @LynnArditi
