Ventura Hospital CEO Resigns Post
[Posted 10/03/03]

In an effort to end a court battle with its medical staff, the board of Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura asked for and accepted the resignation of the hospital’s long-time executive director, Michael Bakst. Bakst’s resignation comes after several years of escalating tension that led the medical staff to file a lawsuit against the hospital in April of this year, alleging numerous violations of the medical staff’s self-governance rights. 

According to the hospital’s press release, Bakst’s resignation occurred after “significant deliberation, including input from the medical staff” about the future of CMH. The hospital’s patient census is reported to have been flagging for several months as a result of the contentious relationship between the administration and the medical staff. Bakst’s departure is the first sign that the hospital may be interested in resolving the dispute out of court.

The hospital's associate executive director will serve as interim director, and a search team of board members and physicians will conduct a nationwide search for Bakst's successor.

“This is a good first step,” says Brian Brantner, M.D., a Ventura plastic surgeon. “[Bakst’s] departure removes the biggest obstacle to [resolving] these problems. It can only help.” Brantner is also suing the hospital, alleging it failed to renew his medical staff privilege, in violation of state law, because he is an outspoken patient advocate and has complained about various quality-of-care issues at the hospital.

Phillip Drescher, the president of the hospital board, also announced that the hospital’s long-time attorney, Peter Goldenring, will stop attending general medical staff or committee meetings. Goldenring, considered by the medical staff to be confrontational and intimidating, regularly sat in on medical staff meetings with former executive director Bakst.

Medical staff leaders and hospital board members are meeting weekly in an effort to resolve their differences. “We would like to see some significant resolution of issues with the Board within a month,” says past chief of staff Robert Garrison who has been involved in the talks. “Among other things, the Board has to recognize that John [Hill] is our chief of staff, because that is who the medical staff elected.” When the hospital imposed its conflict-of-interest policy on the medical staff earlier this year, it refused to recognize several medical staff officers elected last fall, including Dr. Hill. 

Med staff leaders remain cautious about the future, however. “But even if we settled the litigation tomorrow, this hospital will never be the same,” says Hill. “A lot of folks on the medical staff have been really hurt by all this administration has done.  Physicians have been vilified, demeaned, and attacked, and the trust we’ve had in this institution for so many years has been destroyed.”  It will take a long time, predicts Hill, “for physicians to feel really secure again and feel like they’re here to stay.”