NCH: Management/staff has 'full support of the board'

FILE: NCH Healthcare System. (Credit: WINK News/FILE)

Are the days numbered for the head of Naples Community Hospital? The medical staff voted no confidence in CEO Alan Weiss Thursday night, but the NCH board of trustees ultimately holds the power to determine whether this happens or not.

Board members denied an on-camera interview with WINK News when asked for comment, but the board did provide a statement Friday.

“Nothing has changed,” the NCH board said in its statement. “As the board said in its message to the community on Jan. 11, the management team and staff at NCH have the full support of the board.”

The board also said it has not received notification from the medical staff regarding its meeting and no-confidence vote. The board has a meeting scheduled Wednesday next week.

More concerned people told WINK News they are not happy with how management operates at NCH. This in part with the ongoing controversy surrounding the proposed pilot program that would require all patients get their care from NCH doctors only.

“We need to get a new administrator to guide this hospital in the correct direction,” said Dr. Ronald Garry of Naples Premier Concierge.

Garry said out of his 15 plus years working as a doctor in Naples, he has never seen something as controversial as the proposed policy and the impact it is creating in the community and at the hospital.

NCH medical staff met, and they all agreed in a unanimous vote to have Weiss and Chief of Staff Kevin Cooper step down from their executive roles at the Naples hospital.

“The staff and the relationship with the administration has been fractured over time,” said Thomas Parent, NCH chairman of surgery. “We would like to see that come together, but hopefully if it can’t, the board will listen and allow the results from that vote to be implicated.”

Some patients don’t understand why the board continues to support Weiss and Cooper if the entire medical staff have collectively disavowed them both.

“When you’re in a community, have a community hospital to ignore what the patients want is ridiculous,” said David Kramer

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