Hospital Board Swears in New Members
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – The Houston County Hospital District (HCHD) board met Tuesday, May 16 to canvass the votes from the recent elections and seat and organize the new board. There was an attempt to nominate a replacement for the recently deceased Dr. John Stovall, which ended in argument and a postponement.
HCHD Barbara Crowson opened the meeting by inviting Houston County Elections Administrator Cynthia Lum to present the results from the recent elections to be officially canvassed. The winner in position one, Barbara Crowson was reelected and Tami English McCreight defeated incumbent Roy Langford in position five. Debbie Kelly, Harvey Bruner and Carol Dawson ran unopposed winning new terms.
The board members were given their oath, signed the conflict of interest papers and sat in their places as the board voted unanimously to name Barbara Crowson as HCHD President for another term, with Pam Ainsworth as vice-president and Debbie Kelly as secretary.
When the matter of replacing Dr. John Stovall was raised, two names were mentioned, Catherine Jordan and Monica Pierre. As the board members voted, Jordan had a lead of 4-3 when Crowson voted for Pierre. With the vote locked, Crowson declared the seat would need to remain vacant until the next board meeting. Board member Bruner told Crowson she could not vote, unless in the matter of a tie, with Crowson assuring Bruner her lawyers told her she could in fact vote and the matter was dropped for the time being.
Kent Waters, the new Administrator for Mid-Coast Medical Center – Crockett, who was welcomed by the board as he gave his first report. In the month of April, there were 781 emergency room visits, 74 emergency department transfers, 14 inpatient care, and 23 observation admissions. There were a total of 35 surgeries performed at the hospital in April.
Board members Rhonda Brown and Dina Pipes asked Waters if he could amplify his reports in future meetings as per the hospital agreement, especially to include matter of indigent care. Waters promised to check the agreement and provide any additional information required in future meetings, asking the board to understand this was on short notice and he only came with certain information. The board thanked him for his report.
Mid-Coast Medical Center will host a “Mid-Morning Coffee” event Thursday, May 18 at 9:30 as part of the Crockett Area Chamber of Commerce to get to know the local community better.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
