Whidbey General Hospital may be out about $250,000 for a behind-closed-doors decision made by unknown hospital officials.
A decision by the state Attorney General’s office to file an appeal of a ruling in the case of Whidbey General’s Chief Nursing Officer Linda Gipson last week is yet another example of the perils of secrecy and an insular culture infecting the hospital’s unabashedly stubborn board of directors and administration.
The attorney representing Gipson revealed in court this summer that the hospital had been paying his bills for providing criminal defense. Apparently Gipson’s criminal defense was backed by a bottomless pit of public dollars.
After an unusually long and complex trial in Island County District Court, a jury acquitted Gipson of assaulting a restrained, mental-health patient.
Afterward, Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks questioned how the taxpayer-funded hospital district could legally pay for an employee’s criminal defense. It’s common for agencies to fund civil cases against public employees, but criminal cases are another matter. Banks said he could only find one other such case in the nation.
Rightly, Banks also questioned when, and how, the hospital leaders made the decision to pay for Gipson’s criminal defense, saying that it should have been a decision made in public. Banks never received an answer.
It seemed somewhat of a moot issue after the judge ruled that Gipson, and by extension the hospital, will be reimbursed from a special state fund that pays lawyers’ bills for people acquitted of assault by self defense.
The Attorney General’s office has thrown a bucket of ice- cold water on those plans, announcing that it filed an appeal of the judge’s decision for reimbursement. The AG’s office is questioning the judge’s refusal to recuse himself — his wife is a nurse at the hospital — as well as his rulings in the case.
If the AG is successful in its appeal, the hospital won’t be reimbursed for Gipson’s legal fees.
In addition to paying Gipson’s attorney approximately $250,000, the hospital hired two different attorneys to fight the county prosecutor’s subpoenas for internal investigations. The attorneys sat at the table with Gipson and supported her defense.
Some people will be tempted to blame the prosecutor or Gipson for the predicament, but that would be misplaced. The members of the hospital board are ultimately responsible for what appears to be a secret gifting of public tax dollars, which is contrary to law.
Two of the hospital board members are on the ballot this November. Voters would be well served to a send a message by telling the board they will not tolerate a culture of secrecy and misuse of public tax dollars.
The hospital board works for the public, not employees.
