BRMC swiped Community Advisory group's money
Published on March 24th, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - While the future of the Boston Regional Medical Center (BRMC) remains in limbo, the far-reaching effects of its sudden closing are still coming to light.
In addition to the many patients, employees, volunteers, physicians, vendors, and others who relied on the hospital for their livelihood, the body responsible for raising funds for the institution and the community at large, has been left stripped of direction or means to continue its mission.
As the fundraising arm of BRMC, the Community Action Foundation (CAF) was an organization whose mission, up until last month, was to address the varied and numerous needs of the institution and the communities which it served.
The CAF replaced the original Ladies Auxiliary and the Civic Advisory Board, which began its work, nearly 30 years ago, in a supportive role for the hospital. During the past dozen years or so, the groups' efforts grew, coming together as one body three years ago with a revised constitution and set of bylaws.
"We were a superior organization...We had something for every aspect in town," stated CAF president for the past three years Laura Hogan. She added that many areas of the town were represented on the various CAF committees, from the Police Department to the Senior Center.
Through its four annual fundraisers - a fashion show, golf tournament, the Holly Fair and the ever-popular Song of Spring gala - the foundation addressed such hospital needs as recent improvements to the Radiology Department, new mammography equipment, and renovation of the maternity ward.
Overall, according to BRMC Development Director and member of the CAF Diana Gould, the group helped raise approximately $200,000 each year from these annual events.
In addition, the CAF also made community outreach a priority and succeeded in addressing a number of community needs through the programs it initiated. One popular program that the group supported each year was a scholarship for a junior hospital volunteer. The $2,000 scholarship was awarded annually to a high school student who had given 100 hours of volunteer service to the hospital and was designated to be applied toward furthering the student's education.
Stoneham's Community Service Network, the Bread of Life program in Malden, Melrose's recreation department, as well as school systems in Stoneham and Reading, are only a few of the many recipients of the groups generosity.
"We were really doing an awful lot of community outreach," said Gould.
She explained that each January, the CAF opened its annual grant application process for both the hospital and the community to submit their requests for CAF funds. A committee of the CAF would then review and prioritize the applications, with the Board of Directors determining the final recipients. The announcement of the year's recipients was then announced at the April Song of Spring Gala.
This January witnessed a very different turn of events, however. Gould stated that while the hospital continued to assure its employees that the much publicized discussions regarding an ownership agreement with Doctors Corporation of America (DCA) continued to progress, the CAF embarked on planning the eleventh Song of Spring celebration and opened the grant application process.
According to Gould, however, shortly after beginning this process, she was called into the office of BRMC Chief Financial Officer Frances Crunk, where Hospital CEO Dr. Charles Ricks and other hospital officials abruptly called for the organization to turn over its treasury, a pot of approximately $300,000, to the hospital in order to help cover operating expenses.
Since the CAF was never allowed to be incorporated, said Gould, the hospital advised that the money raised by the group belonged to the institution and that the CAF had no choice but to turn the money over to the hospital administration. Gould insisted, however, on keeping a balance in the bank account to cover outstanding checks paid to creditors.
"We (the CAF) always paid our creditors on time," she said.
"When we realized things were crumbling around us, we wanted to disburse the funds to community," Gould went on, but the hospital would have none of that.
"We were basically strong-armed," she said.
Hogan stated that the idea communicated to CAF by the hospital administration at that time was that once the DCA took over, it would allow the foundation to continue.
"People are heartbroken about this ... All had been led to believe that the deal and everything was fine ... We don't know why the (DCA) agreement fell apart," Gould said.
Hogan added that the CFA had also looked at pledging its funds to the group of BRMC physicians who had expressed an interest in purchasing the facility. That group had committed to turning the money back over to the CAF once the hospital was solvent. Unfortunately, she reported, this did not come to fruition before the hospital took over the funds.
Gould continues to be dismayed at the hospital's actions. She said that she and BRMC Public Relations Director Christine Hawyrlak were embarrassed to relay the hospital's message to the CAF, feeling that they had let the community down, since the money was raised by and, in part, for the community.
For Gould, many questions remain. Although the hospital reportedly was not paying many of its bills, it continued to be busy.
"Where was the money going?.. Why weren't there layoffs?"
In addition, she questioned why the hospital would allow the CAF to continue its work toward improving areas of the hospital, such as the nearly $100,000 of renovation to the operating rooms, when the end was apparently so near.
"It makes no sense," she stated.
Hogan remained philosophical in her March 15 letter to the members of the CAF, writing "We all had so much hope ... so much promise ... so much success that our future seemed endless. We had all hoped to leave a legacy to coming generations as to what an organization can do in the Community ... Let's hope the future will re-unite us in some way, shape or form."
Both Gould and Hogan continue to hold out at least a glimmer of hope that the BRMC facility will someday reopen as some type of health care facility. If and when that ever materializes, the CAF, they said, would work to re-establish itself and be supported once again by the community.
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