MCHD Board Faces Accountability Questions as CEO Review Comes Due

Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash

When the Mountain Communities Healthcare District board convenes Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m., it will do so under the same scrutiny that has shadowed its monthly meetings since February when the removal of Dr. Chad Smith over a private Facebook post first ignited a community discussion over the culture at Trinity Hospital.

Smith has since landed at the Redding Rancheria in Weaverville, where he began seeing patients at the beginning of March. In a statement, he said: “I’m really happy to have the opportunity to practice medicine in Trinity County at the Redding Rancheria. It’s going to be a very good relationship. Regarding the hospital work environment, I am hopeful there is enough interest and awareness in the community to help enact needed change in the way some employees are treated. I will avoid the specifics, but it’s actually an easy solution.”

His departure has proven to be less of an ending than an opening. Since February, a growing number of current and former hospital employees have come forward — at board meetings, in letters, and in interviews — describing what they call a pattern of intimidation, poor management, and retaliation under CEO Aaron Rogers and Vice Chief of Staff Dr. Patrick Shipsey.

More Voices, More Letters

At the March 4 board meeting, roughly 50 community members and hospital staff packed the room. Family nurse practitioner Heidi Johnson, who has worked at MCHD for four years and serves both the Weaverville and Hayfork clinics, addressed CEO Rogers directly. She told the board she had brought staffing and safety concerns to administration repeatedly over several years and said her concerns had been dismissed. She raised nursing staffing patterns as a particular problem, including what she described as unsustainable shift lengths, and said her proposals for solutions had not been taken seriously.

She was not alone. A former director of the skilled nursing facility, a nursing assistant, unit secretary, front desk registrar, and a community physician also spoke. About 20 letters from current and former staff were submitted to the board.

Johnson made a point of acknowledging what Rogers has accomplished financially. The hospital was nearly bankrupt when he arrived, she said, and under his tenure it has grown significantly — a fact that even his critics don’t dispute. Their argument is not that the hospital’s finances are broken, but that its culture is.

Not everyone shares that view. Some current and former employees told the Trinity Journal that complaints of a toxic culture are overblown, and clinic manager Mary Cole wrote in a letter to the editor that during her 13 years at MCHD she was always respected for speaking her mind and never felt she would be terminated for her opinions.

Johnson, however, says that some of those same staff members have privately expressed the same concerns to her that she has been raising publicly.

That same week, a lengthy letter from Dr. Kathleen Williams — a board-certified internist, pulmonologist, and critical care physician who worked at MCHD beginning in 2020 — was submitted to the board. Williams, who grew up in Hyampom and returned to Trinity County specifically to care for the community she was raised in, described years of scheduling irregularities, contract disputes, and what she characterized as a fundamental breakdown in the physician-administrator relationship at MCHD. She wrote of being pushed to practice outside her specialty, having her clinical expertise sidelined, and watching a steady stream of providers come and go — in a county she noted is consistently ranked 58th out of 58 in California for population health. “Behind closed doors,” she wrote, “the disrespect shown by [administration] toward others has radiated out to the entire MCHD, resulting in the constant turnover of providers.” She closed with a call for collaboration, citing the Mayo Clinic model of joint physician-administrator leadership and urging all parties to “work together to create and support a healthy, prosperous, and happy community.”

Other anonymous current and former providers have also come forward, with at least one former nurse practitioner telling the Trinity Journal they left after raising patient safety concerns and being told to stay quiet.

Staff who have continued speaking out say they hope that now that these issues have come to light publicly, there is enough momentum to ensure they are genuinely addressed and that the conversation doesn’t simply fade without meaningful change.

Also on Wednesday’s agenda is the formal resignation of Dr. Samuel Grossman from the medical staff. Grossman made his support for Smith known publicly when the controversy first broke, his departure comes as the board meets again amid ongoing scrutiny.

What the Community Is Watching For

For Johnson and others who have been speaking up, Wednesday’s meeting centers on whether the board will take action. Three board seats are up for election in the fall, and multiple community members say they are now paying close attention to a body they previously knew little about.

Trinity County is consistently ranked last among California’s 58 counties for population health. Recruiting and keeping providers in a community this rural and this small is already challenging. Whether the board treats the concerns raised over the past two months as a governance matter requiring action — or as issues surrounding an otherwise financially healthy institution — may influence how staff who have come forward view their future with the organization.

The MCHD board meets Wednesday, April 1, at 8:30 a.m.

Earlier: Trinity Loses Only Resident ER Doc Over Social Media Post