Jerry Smith, chair of the Virgin Islands Government Hospitals and Health Facilities Corporation, told the Source Thursday that the appointment of a single chief executive officer to oversee both territorial hospitals is a personnel decision that complies with existing law, responding to concerns raised by Senator at Large Angel Bolques Jr.
The hospital board recently appointed one individual to serve as CEO of both Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix and Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas as part of what officials described as an effort to unify operations.
In a press release, Bolques said that while Title 19 of the Virgin Islands Code allows the corporation to “employ and remove the Chief Executive Officers,” it does not authorize structural consolidation of hospital governance without legislative approval.
If the intent of this change is to permanently consolidate governance or alter the statutory design of the hospital system, Bolques said, the proposal must be brought before the Legislature for debate and amendment of Title 19. “There is a fundamental legal distinction between appointing one individual to two existing CEO positions and restructuring our hospital system into a consolidated territorial model,” he said.
“If this transition is merely a personnel decision under existing law, that is one matter. If it represents a structural consolidation of governance, that is another, and the latter requires legislative action,” Bolques added.
In an interview with the Source, Smith said the leadership change does not alter the statutory governance structure. “It’s personnel. It’s not a consolidation of governance per se,” Smith said. “Senator Bolques is 100% correct, in order to consolidate the governance of the organization, legislative changes would be required.”
Smith said separate district boards remain in place, along with the territorial board. “There’s still a functioning district board in St. Croix. There’s still a functioning district board for St. Thomas–St. John, and there’s still a territorial board. We still function as a cohesive organization where all initiatives that come through the district boards and flow through the territorial board to ensure that we are all marching to the same beat,” He added, “It depends on how you define structural change … it’s not one that is a front to the way the legislation is written and what the law allows us to do.”
The Source reached out to Sen. Ray Fonseca, chair of the Senate Health, Hospitals and Human Services Committee, but he had no comment, saying he was not familiar with the remarks made by Bolques at this time.
Smith said he understands the questions around the new CEO role but maintained the move is on solid legal footing. He said he wants to “assure the community that the corporation continues to work in line with our enabling legislation” and is focused on improving care across the territory.
