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The former CEO of the shuttered Pioneer Community Hospital in Patrick County has joined the team at Foresight Health, the newly formed company that purchased the 10-acre property earlier this year. As director of development, Jeanette said she is responsible for ensuring that the Philippines achieves its goal of opening the hospital as the first critical access in early 2023.
“When a hospital closes, it’s devastating, it’s a very stressful time for any small community,” said Phillips, who spoke about the hospital where she worked five years ago when Mississippi-based Pioneer Health Services closed the facility. More than a year after Stewart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “But it’s very exciting to be able to come back and help them open,” Philippines told Cardinal News in an interview Tuesday.
A 30-year veteran in health care, with extensive experience in a physical therapy clinic to various administrative roles, Phillips moved to Patrick County from South Carolina in 2012 for a senior job at Pioneer Community Hospital. “I’ve been with several large hospitals, but over the years I’ve realized that supporting rural healthcare is my niche, because I enjoy working to keep rural hospitals alive and well,” she said.
After the hospital closed in September 2017, Pioneer Health Services of the Philippines stayed on for a while to assist with the closure and the process of extending the license that would allow the future owner to continue operating the facility. “The hospital was very good, it was profitable in operation, but the company itself was hit many times, and unfortunately we went down with the ship,” said the Philippines.
Since then, Filipina has been traveling to Alabama and Colorado, where she helped open other rural hospitals for other companies. “I still live in Patrick County, my husband works here. I’ve been traveling to different projects for the last five years.
Foresight Health, the hospital’s lender that bought the 10-acre site from Virginia Community Capital in the spring for $2.1 million, said she was introduced to Samer Suhail, a Chicago entrepreneur who founded the company in February, after hearing about it in the Philippines. Empty property.
Suhail faced an investigation back home in Illinois after being caught up in the spotlight of several state and federal legal investigations, but has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has since won the trust of initially skeptical local stakeholders.
Joseph Hylak-Reinholz, the company’s chief operating officer and general counsel; He told Cardinal News in July. Since the company started hiring in June, more than 100 candidates have applied for jobs at the new critical access facility, including many Filipinos who used to work at the hospital.
In her new role, the Philippines said she will report to Suhail and Hailak-Reinholtz. “The leader is Sameer, but he is a very busy businessman. The second in command is Joe, so I have a lot of conversations with Joe and then he talks to Samer,” said Filippin. “They don’t seem to spend much on titles, but they always emphasize project completion.”
For now, Forsyth Health remains on track to open the hospital on January 31. The company plans to open in several phases, starting with an emergency room with five beds — a number that could be increased if necessary — followed by a psychiatric program and, later, an outpatient oncology unit and infusion services.
Last week, the company submitted a Certificate of Public Interest (COPN) application to the Department of Psychiatry and Substance Abuse.
COPN is a federally mandated program in the 1970s that requires providers seeking to open or expand a health care facility to obtain approval from a regulatory agency to ensure that a community needs the services the facility provides. Its original purpose was to control costs and increase access to care.
The application will allow for the addition of 10 inpatient beds for psychiatric and substance abuse treatment services at the upcoming Patrick County Hospital, Foresight said in a news release.
“The people of Patrick County have lived without a local hospital for more than five years,” Suhail said in a statement. “This action brings us closer to restoring the health care services that the people of Southside and Southwest Virginia deserve. We will continue to work hard until the hospital doors open.
COPN’s filing follows intense activity and community engagement from Forsyth Health leadership, including an open town hall meeting hosted by Del. Ren Williams, R-Patrick County, to discuss service line options, a roundtable discussion with community emergency service leaders. Several meetings with community stakeholders in Southside and Southwest Virginia and hosting a check signing ceremony with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.
Both lawmakers two weeks ago presented a $600,000 check in federal dollars to the Patrick County Economic Development Authority, which will be used to fund a second mobile health unit in the area.
The Philippines appreciated this bilateral effort and thanked the regional government for its support of the project. “I believe that government agencies are very supportive of what we’re doing, they generally support rural health care,” she said. “Virginia is becoming an example for others to look up to, and you see it on all levels,” she said.
While the Philippines is on schedule to open as planned, he said “there are always obstacles” when opening a project of this magnitude. “Especially coming out of the pandemic, you have supply chain shortages and labor shortages, but while our motivation is to make sure we open on that schedule, there are things that are out of our control,” she said.
After the hospital opened, the Philippines said she would be willing to continue in her previous role until she left five years ago. “I would be open to being CEO,” she said. “Patrick County is my home, I’ve lived there since 2012. It’s a great community.”
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