Broward Health lawyer fired, blamed for chaos
The chief lawyer for Broward Health was fired Wednesday by the hospital system’s board, after a parade of speakers at a meeting accused her of squandering the system’s money, harming patient care and creating a toxic work environment.
General counsel Lynn Barrett was ousted by a 4-2 vote, in an action that supporters said could help the five-hospital system recover after years of instability. The vote came after doctors complained that her office’s failure to get contracts through was costing the system essential physicians and Broward Health’s own chief executive complained
about a “pervasive culture of fear” that Barrett helped create.
Barrett did not speak during the board meeting. In an interview after the vote, she said she had done nothing wrong and that she was grateful for the chance to serve as top lawyer for the taxpayer-supported system that serves the northern two-thirds of the county.
“I’ve always tried to do the right thing,” she said. “I really am blessed to have worked at the district.”
Beverly Capasso, the institution’s outgoing CEO, made an extraordinary public statement from the dais, denouncing the system’s “pervasive culture of fear and intimidation.”
Although she didn’t mention Barrett by name, she denounced the investigations that the general counsel initiated as expensive endeavors that accomplished nothing except to generate profits for law firms and create an “abusive work environment” at Broward Health.
“Recently 10 or more of my staff were interviewed by a DC law firm,” said Capasso, who had previously not given any indication of why she was leaving after only eight months. “For several this meant five to seven hours of being interviewed by a tagteam of three to five attorneys without any representation of their own.”
“No one in this audience, no matter how innocent, could possibly be expected in seven hours of aggressive questioning not to make some statement which could later be taken out of context by a cunning attorney and used against them.”
Doctors told the system’s board that patient care has suffered, as physicians fled its hospitals and a failure to sign contracts on time cost the system necessary medical equipment.
“Broward Health has seen a mass exodus of quality physicians from this system,” said Dr. Louis Yogel, immediate past chief of staff of Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, the system’s largest hospital. He blamed a “legal firewall” that has prevented contracts being signed for necessary specialties and equipment.
“Patient access to services is suffering due to delay in the contracting process,” he said.
The system, run by a board appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, has suffered a series of shocks over the past few years, including a massive federal fine, the suicide of its CEO, the decline of its bond rating and unending controversies and investigations.
Barrett was among five current and former Broward Health leaders indicted last year on charges of violating Florida’s open-meetings law. The case is pending, and many observers blame her for blundering into such a situation and taking with her the board members who depended on her for legal advice.
“The general counsel has not protected this board,” said Pastor Allen Jackson, a close observer of the system who frequently attends board meetings. “There are four of you under indictment for violating the Sunshine Law. That should not have happened, and the general counsel should have been the one to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Voting in favor of Barrett’s firing were board members Ray Berry, Nancy Gregoire, Chairman Andrew Klein and Christopher Ure. Opposed were members Steven Wellins and Stacy Angier.
During the discussion,
with momentum clearly running against Barrett, Wellins tried to throw a roadblock in front of the proceedings. He raised a point of order, saying the board needed to first elect officers for the year, which he said is traditionally done at the October meeting.
“I believe we are violating the charter and the bylaws by not holding an election,” he said.
Klein pointed out that the election of officers already was on the agenda, at the end. But Wellins insisted it should take place at the beginning.
Another board member, Berry, criticized Wellins for raising the issue, saying the general counsel and the law firms she’s hired had tried to get him to raise that point too.
“Lynn attempted to coach me on the same thing you’re trying to do here,” Berry said. “I’m really disappointed that you took the bait and the coaching from the outside law firm.”
“Sir, I take offense at that,” Wellins said.
Klein dismissed the point and the meeting proceeded, after the chairman of the Memorial Healthcare System, Broward Health’s south Broward counterpart, said its board does the elections at the end of the meeting.
Gregoire, who seconded Berry’s motion to fire Barrett, said the vote was “the most difficult decision” in her time on the board, if not in her entire life, but that the system needed to move forward.
“We’re in a crisis,” she said. “We’re in a logjam. It’s sucking all of the energy out of Broward Health just to deal with the dissension and the discord. This was very difficult for me.”
Klein, who led the effort to fire her, focused on Barrett’s spending on law firms which he said were being inappropriately used to attack Broward Health executives and board members. Among the top recipients of Broward Health’s funds are Foley & Lardner, McGuireWoods and Baker Donelson.
“We have firms getting multiple millions, which gives them considerable weight, unfortunately,” he said. “And some of those have been utilized against our own employees and our own board members. It’s confusing to me how attorneys who are supposed to be serving us as their client are acting adverse to our own interests.”
Broward Health, legally known as the North Broward Hospital District, is partially supported by property taxes.
In addition to Barrett’s departure, the board agreed to accept Capasso’s resignation and replace her with Gino Santorio, currently the system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. During the meeting, while they were denouncing Barrett, several doctors spoke in glowing terms of Santorio’s efficiency, honesty and professionalism. He will serve as acting CEO.
Although Barrett’s departure would appear to be one more sign of instability for the troubled system, board members and doctors expressed the hope that they can now focus more on medical care and less on internal politics.
After the board’s vote, Dr. Yogel said, “They did the right thing to help Broward Health. Hopefully, now they’re going to focus on quality and providing an environment where physicians are proud of working for Broward Health and taking care of the community.”