Hospital CEO Departs; Financial Officer Takes Interim Leadership Post

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Despite announcing last month that he would stay on until his
contract runs out in October, the chief executive officer at the
Martha's Vineyard Hospital made an abrupt exit this week after
hammering out a severance agreement with the hospital executive
committee.

Hospital CEO Kevin Burchill cleaned out his office and was gone by
the end of the day on Tuesday.

"The board and I have come to a mutual understanding; it is
probably best for me to make this transition now rather than
later," Mr. Burchill said.

"The lame duck situation - it never does work out that
well, and this is not an unusual thing at all," said hospital
board chairman John Ferguson. "We wanted to get on with what we
needed to do and Kevin wanted to get on with what he needed to
do."

"We decided it would be best for all parties involved,"
said Tim Sweet, who is vice chairman of the board of trustees.

Hospital trustees issued a one-paragraph statement on Tuesday about
Mr. Burchill's departure. Mr. Sweet met with hospital staff
yesterday to formally announce the news. He and Mr. Ferguson said
hospital chief financial officer Tim Walsh will take over as interim
CEO.

Mr. Burchill's severance agreement with the hospital includes
a guarantee on his current salary for the next 12 months. Mr. Burchill
is paid $220,000 a year.

Mr. Burchill announced his intended resignation at a hospital forum
in late March. The announcement followed weeks of uproar in the Vineyard
community over Mr. Burchill's noisy clash with Dr. Richard
Koehler, a leading surgeon at the hospital.

Dr. Koehler will also now leave the Vineyard in July to take another
job.

Mr. Burchill's three-year contract with the hospital runs out
in October. If Mr. Burchill is employed before the end of the 12-month
period, any salary he earns will be subtracted from the amount the
hospital pays him, Mr. Ferguson said.

Mr. Ferguson said the severance agreement was crafted using a clause
in Mr. Burchill's contract that gave him one year of salary if he
was dismissed without cause.

Mr. Ferguson said he does not characterize Mr. Burchill's
departure as a dismissal: "A dismissal? No, it is truly not a
dismissal. Kevin decided he had had enough and we decided this would be
best," he said. Mr. Ferguson also said the severance package is
not excessive.

"It's not a windfall, it's to keep a person whole
and it follows the terms of his contract," he added.

Mr. Burchill concurred.

"It was my decision to leave. Transitions are often difficult
on individuals and organizations and in order to ease the transition of
this organization, this is a better approach," he said.

Mr. Burchill, who came to the hospital in October of 1999, said this
week that he leaves the hospital in sound financial shape, reiterating
his own list of accomplishments over the last three years.

"I came here with a set of goals and tasks and they are done.
In the first term of my contract I accomplished everything I set out to
do, and I am not looking for external rewards or gratification. The work
in terms of beginning to rebuild this place has been accomplished.
It's a good time to leave," he said.

"Whether I leave in April or in October, I think I have
positioned this organization to move forward, and, as we have said many
times, I am not going to stand here looking in the rear-view
mirror," he added. "I leave the place at a good time,
personally and professionally. And it's time to move on."

Mr. Sweet agreed.

"The professionalism Kevin has brought allows us to make the
transition without it being catastrophic. We feel very secure because of
Kevin's hard work and we are in good hands," he said.
"I think we are in a better place for having had Kevin
there."

Mr. Burchill said he will leave the hospital but not the Vineyard,
and will continue living in West Tisbury with his family while he
pursues other career interests. He said he is exploring a wide range of
professional opportunities in the field of health care, including
consulting, management and law. Mr. Burchill has degrees in law and
health care administration.

Mr. Ferguson said a special hospital board meeting will be held
April 27, with the single purpose of naming a search committee and
selecting an executive search firm to find a new CEO for the hospital.

"My best guess will be that it will take at the most six
months - in three to six months we should have a new CEO,"
said Mr. Ferguson, who is longtime CEO at the Hackensack (N.J.)
University Medical Center. Mr. Ferguson took over as board chairman in
March, replacing former chairman Fred B. Morgan Jr. Mr. Morgan also
quietly resigned as a hospital trustee this week.

Mr. Ferguson said the board hopes to include representatives of both
hospital doctors and the community at large on the search committee, and
spoke briefly about the qualities the board hopes to find in a new CEO.

"We are looking for the qualities that Kevin had -
plus," he said. "We are looking for someone who knows the
business and you also need a person that can bring all the
constituencies together - the doctors, the staff, the community
and the donors."

Mr. Ferguson said the immediate goals of the board include getting
back to a plan that was on the front burner three years ago -
building a new hospital.

"We need to figure out what form that will take and we need to
get everyone behind it," he said, adding: "In a community
like Martha's Vineyard the resources are there, it's just a
matter of people feeling good about where the money is going."