UMC-EP Children’s strategic planning committee meets for first time
Wednesday, April 23, was the first strategic planning committee meeting to discuss how El Paso Children’s Hospital is going to pay University Medical Center the roughly $59 million it owes for rent and other support services.
The meeting lasted about three hours and was closed to the public. Although hospital officials weren’t allowed to discuss specifics with ABC-7, they are feeling optimistic about the future of the Children’s-UMC partnership.
The closed-door meeting was at El Convento at Loretto and started at 3:30 p.m. About a dozen people came out at the end of the meeting. The newly-formed strategic planning committee is headed by former UMC board chair Ron Acton. It’s made of of members are from El Paso Children’s Hospital, El Paso First and UMC.
Chairman Acton has previously said outside experts are being brought in, more specifically, those who specialize in changing medicaid reimbursement regulations.
Remember it was last week former Children’s CEO Larry Duncan resigned, but we were told it had nothing to do with the financial status of the hospital. The man who’s taken Duncan’s place as interim CEO, is former CFO Ray Dziesinski.
“I’m gratified that the group focused primarily on the ongoing care of our children. We have many complex issues that we need to work through,” Dziesinski said.
The next strategic planning committee meeting is set for two weeks from April 23.
ABC-7 was told that more detailed information about the financial status of EP Children’s will be coming out shortly so stay with us online and on air.
