Two RI lawmakers demand firing of Eleanor Slater medical chief

PROVIDENCE - State lawmakers - and the union representing clinical social workers and psychologists at Eleanor Slater Hospital - are calling for heads to roll.

On the day after the McKee administration announced that Kathryn Power had resigned as head of the agency that runs the state hospital, two lawmakers called for the "immediate dismissal of Dr. Andrew C. Stone, the chief of medical services at Eleanor Slater State Hospital."

Their argument:

"Hospital administrators began planning the closure last year under the guise that services were not needed and then began pressuring physicians to improperly discharge patients."

"Several doctors have resigned rather than comply with Dr. Stone’s directives, which [most recently] included issuing an ultimatum to oxygen dependent patients at Zambarano – that they agree to transfer to the Cranston campus to continue receiving oxygen," or agree to stepped-down treatment.

More: State hospital agency director resigns; Zambarano down to 2 full-time doctors

More: Emails about transferring patients out of Zambarano raise more questions

More: Legislators upset by director's early departure from meeting on Zambarano

Their allegation in large part echoed Dr. Normand Decelles's testimony to the House Oversight Committee last week about the impetus for the latest in a string of physician resignations at the Zambarano hospital.

Decelles, the recently retired physician administrator/medical director at Zambarano, told the lawmakers that Gillerin's resignation, after 24 years at the hospital, followed a "contentious conversation" she had the night before with Stone, the chief of medical services at Eleanor Slater Hospital.

"How shall I say [it]? Dr. Stone attempted to persuade Dr. Gillerin to transfer Zambarano patients to Cranston, 'for their safety,'" Decelles said. "She resigned on the spot effective April 14, 2021."

(Gillerin has thus far been unwilling to talk publicly about the reasons for her abrupt resignation.)

“The situation at the Zambarano Unit of Eleanor Slater Hospital has deteriorated to the point where the chief of medical services needs to be removed,” said Senate Minority Whip Jessica de la Cruz in a statement co-signed by Rep. David Place.

“Governor McKee needs to step in and fire Dr. Stone,” de la Cruz said. “The gambling with these vulnerable people’s lives needs to stop.”

There has been no response so far from the McKee administration.

The two Republican lawmakers represent districts that encompass the sprawling Zambarano hospital campus along Wallum Lake, in Burrillville. The Eleanor Slater Hospital system has a second campus in Cranston.

Hospital operations on both campuses have been targeted for downsizing under a plan McKee inherited from his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, who quit mid-term on March 2 to become the Biden Administration's commerce secretary.

The unapproved downsizing plan - unveiled last September - calls for the closure of buildings and the replacement of the Zambarano hospital with a newly built nursing home on the Burrillville campus.

State officials have not disclosed their plans for the remaining buildings and grounds.

The two Republican lawmakers are not alone in their battle to shake-up the top ranks at the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.

On Monday night, following the announcement of Power's resignation, Local 580 SEIU - which represents clinical social workers and psychologists at Eleanor Slater Hospital - issued this statement:

"We are hopeful that an assessment of the entire BHDDH administration will result in additional staff changes by Governor McKee or the Acting Director.

"We believe true culture change at BHDDH will not happen until all those responsible for gutting the last line of defense for our most vulnerable are replaced with leadership based on patient-centered reform."

In her statement, de la Cruz noted: "This is the second time that [she] has called for Stone’s resignation.

"Shortly after Stone was hired last fall, it came to light that he was convicted [of] four felony counts of open and gross lewdness for exposing himself on multiple occasions to boys in the locker room of a YMCA in Seekonk, Mass.

A Journal look at Stone's past confirmed:

He lost his license to practice medicine in Rhode Island in 2008 after exposing himself to boys at a YMCA in Seekonk.

His license to practice was reinstated in February 2015, years after pleading guilty to four felony counts of open and gross lewdness and receiving a four-month sentence in the Bristol County House of Corrections, according to records on file with the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Board of Licensure and Discipline.

After the sentence, Stone “spent three months of in-patient treatment and evaluation” at a rehabilitation center in Texas and "almost seven years... in the treatment and monitoring program of the Physicians Health Committee,” during which he “has spent hundreds of hours in group therapy, individual psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment,” according to a filing by the Licensure Board in 2015, when it reinstated his license.

Among the conditions of reinstatement that the board imposed is limiting his practice only to adults and continuation of monitoring and treatment at Miriam Hospital’s Men’s Health Center.

When Stone's past came to light, BHDDH spokesman Randal Edgar said: "Dr. Stone maintains an active medical license, which requires extensive vetting and re-credentialing every two years. As the State Mental Health Authority, BHDDH believes in and promotes rehabilitation and recovery for all Rhode Islanders."

Though BHDDH says it can shuttle doctors back and forth between the two hospital campuses, there are currently two full-time doctors at Zambarano for 74 patients - and one more is about to leave.

Decelles left in the fall. Two physicians were laid off. Dr. Michele Paquet retired, saying that she, too, was leaving earlier than planned. Then Gillerin quit.

That would have left one doctor, but one of the laid-off doctors was temporarily brought back.

In an email Monday morning, Edgar said: "The layoff will still take place in a matter of weeks."

.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Two RI lawmakers demand firing of Eleanor Slater medical chief

___

(c)2021 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.)

Visit The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) at www.projo.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.