Niagara Health System’s CEO Ousted By The Niagara, Ontario Hospital System’s Board

By Doug Draper

Debbie Sevenpifer, who has served as the often-besieged chief executive officer of the Niagara Health System for the better part of eight years, has been relieved of her $345,0000 per year job by the NHS’s Board of Trustees.

Ousted Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer

The news came in a media release posted by the NHS this Wednesday, January 19 and noting that “The Niagara Health system Board of Trustees today announced a change in senior leadership. … Effective today, R. Sue Matthews has been appointed as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, replacing Mrs. Debbie Sevenpifer.”

The board’s announcement follows in the wake of reports earlier this January that the NHS, the body responsible for operating most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario, could be facing a $7 million deficit in its operating budget for the coming 2011/12 fiscal year. That news renewed calls from local municipal councillors and others across the region, including Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor, for a provincial investigation of how well the NHS manages its operations.

The NHS’s media release (posted below) offers no reasons for replacing Sevenpifer and only ends by saying that the body’s board of trusties “sincerely thanks Mrs. Sevenpifer for her tireless work and dedication, and wishes her well in her future pursuits.”

Betty-Lou Souter, chair of the NHS’s board, told Niagara At Large “the organization is at a crossroads” and decisions to change leadership “are made in business every day.” Asked, if the board’s decision had anything to do with the growing budget shortfall, she said “not at all. … “This is not about (Sevenpifer’s) performance. It is about moving forward.”

Souter referred Niagara At Large to NHS’s media release for the rest of the story.

Niagara Health System board chair Betty-Lou Souter (left) and CEO Debbie Sevenpifer (centre) still 'celebrating successes' at a board meeting in Welland last year.

Others who have heard the news of Sevenpifer’s departure, especially through phone lines that seemed to be burning up, especially in south Niagara this morning, were not quite so charitable upon learning of the news.

“It is cause for some celebration,” said Pat Scholfied, a south-end resident and citizen advocate for protecting emergency and other health care services at hospitals the NHS operates in municipalities like Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Welland. “But we can’t get too excited because we still need policy change down here in south Niagara, and that probably has to come from the province. We need someone to challenge the NHS’s Hospital Improvement Plan so we all have equitable access to health care in this region and this is something that didn’t happen under Sevenpifer.”

Schofield said Niagara residents should not assume the departure of Sevenpifer will mean change for the better when it comes to Niagara’s hospitals. “We have to continue keeping their feet to the fire,” she said.

Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident and head of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group in Niagara South that has been fighting for a return of reduced hospital services including last year’s closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, said she was pleased to hear the news “but I think it is a shame that it may have taken a money problem (the recently disclosed $7-million shortfall) and not human problems at our hospitals to finally oust Sevenpifer.”

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey, who supports the call for a review of NHS management, was recorded on CKTB Radio saying: “The (Ontario) minister of health (Deb Matthews) says a review is not needed, but obviously something is needed because the board of the NHS just let their CEO go.”

Fiona McMurran, a south Niagara representative for the Council of Canadians and another opponent of cuts to hospital services in the region, said as much as she has had her disagreements with Sevenpifer, she feels a bit sorry for her because she feels Sevenpifer is a scapegoat.

Moving Sevenpifer out of the job “is absolutely cosmetic,” said McMurran. “She didn’t cause the problems (Niagara has with its hospitals). She is just a bean counter.”

McMurran said she’s afraid Ontario’s health minister and the government may use Sevenpifer’s departure as “a ploy  … as a pretense that they are doing something” to avoid doing an investigation of the NHS. She added that along with Sevenpifer,  Souter and the whole board should go because, in her view, they have always given the public every reason to believe they stood fully behind every decision Sevenpifer has made.

Public calls for Sevenpifer’s resignation became commonplace following the release, more than two years ago, of the NHS’s Hospital Improvement Plan (more commonly referred to as its HIP) that called for the ultimate consolidation of many hospital services at the new hospital complex the NHS is building in west St. Catharines. Since the release of the plan, residents at older hospital sites have expressed growing concern about a downsizing of services in their communities.

Sevenpifer also became the target of open criticism from municipal leaders like Badawey and Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin for coming to their councils prior to the release of the HIP and assuring that the NHS was “fully committed to community based hospitals,” including the ones in their municipalities, only to produce a hospital plan that called for reducing services.

The choice of the west St. Catharines site for the new $1.5-billion hospital complex has also been a sore point with many Niagarians, especially in the south end, who felt it should have been located in a more central site for all the region’s residents. While Sevenpifer always tried to pass the complex off, except for the regional cancer and cardiac treatment sites that will be built into it, as a St. Catharines area hospital that would replace the former Hotel Dieu and still-operating St. Catharines General hospital sites, many of her critics, including NHS doctors, nurses and other staff, believe the new complex  (wedged in a northern corner of the region) will become the new “super hospital” for Niagara.

Effective this January 19, Sevenpifer is being placed on an interim basis by Dr. Sue Matthews (not to be confused with the province’s health minister) who joined the NHS in 2009 and has recently served as its executive vice president.

Niagara At Large includes the NHS media release below and we encourage you to take advantage of the comment boxes further down to share your views on this development. NAL will have more on this and related matters in the days ahead.

Niagara Health Board Announces Leadership Change
·    Date of Issue: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
·
NIAGARA, Ontario: The Niagara Health System (NHS) Board of Trustees today announced a change in the senior leadership at the Niagara Health System (NHS). Effective today Dr. Sue Matthews has been appointed as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer replacing Mrs. Debbie Sevenpifer. Mrs. Matthews joined the NHS in 2009 and most recently served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive for the health system.

Mrs. Sevenpifer was named NHS President and CEO in March, 2003 and was instrumental in advancing the multi-site hospital through its first decade characterized by some of the most turbulent years in the history of healthcare in the Niagara region.

Under Mrs. Sevenpifer’s leadership, the NHS was well managed earned a prestigious accreditation award, secured greatly needed funding and developed the new healthcare complex and regional cancer centre currently under construction in west St. Catharines.

The Board sincerely thanks Mrs. Sevenpifer for her tireless work and dedication and wishes her well in her future pursuits.

The Board will commence the recruitment process for a new President and CEO immediately.

(Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)