Doctor heeds warning on Gubernatorial candidate
To the editor:
I was the founding chairman of the Board of Trustees and have served in this capacity for 15 years at North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville, widely recognized as an excellent hospital providing service to this community for the paying and non-paying patients. This hospital is a subsidiary of Hospital Corporation of America. I also served on the HCA Board of Governors for nine years. I have no financial interests in HCA.
I would like to add a personal perspective of Rick Scott and his campaign, because I knew Rick Scott.
HCA was founded by Dr. Thomas F. Frist, his son Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Jr. and Mr. Jack Massey -a University of Florida alumnus- all with high ethical and humanitarian standards. This is the reason that they were asked to build North Florida Regional Hospital here in Gainesville, and this was the culture of our hospital, its staff and employees for many years until Rick Scott’s involvement.
Scott, along with other investors, developed Columbia Health Company in Texas and became CEO of Columbia/HCA -so named after a buy-out of controlling interest in HCA. He almost immediately began changing the culture of the company including North Florida Regional Hospital.
This caused great resentment from all of us for his apparent lack of concern for quality medical care. He seemed to focus only on the bottom line.
It came as no surprise to many of us that Columbia/HCA was investigated for Medicare fraud because of his aggressive accounting practices installed on his watch. What was surprising was that he was not held accountable (other than paying a fine) when two of his administrators went to jail.
Thank goodness that he was ousted as CEO of Columbia/HCA and Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Jr. was renamed as his replacement. He immediately changed the name of the company back to HCA and to the previous great health care company that he, his father and Jack Massey began.
Be aware of that ‘tall, bald, good-looking’ rich guy. His past is probably indicative of the future he will bring to our state. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, and I don’t think that Scott will either. Passing the blame is what corrupt people do.
In my memory, we have always had honest governors, and we don’t need to change that record.
Richard Cunningham, M.D.
Gainesville