Brian Thomas
Jefferson Regional Medical Center’s President and CEO Walter Johnson and Executive Vice President Thomas Harbuck left the hospital on March 25 after a disagreement with the hospital’s directors over management style.
The board of directors and the administrators entered into a “mutual agreement” for them to leave, said Chuck Morgan, vice chairman and chairman-elect of the board. “It really occurred because of a difference in opinions on leadership styles going forward.
“It really had more to do with communication,” Morgan said, but wouldn’t offer any more specifics on the dispute. Johnson and Harbuck couldn’t be reached for comment.
Johnson had been president and CEO since October 2009. Harbuck joined JRMC in 1994.
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, Johnson’s total compensation was $775,311 and Harbuck’s was $705,317, according to JRMC’s most recent Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Brian Thomas, senior vice president and chief operating officer, has been named interim CEO. He has been with JRMC since 2010.
“JRMC has a bright future,” Thomas said in a news release. “With the expansion of insurance coverage for the underserved in south Arkansas, we are now able to provide health care options for those that previously have not had access.”
Thomas’ total compensation package was $416,540 for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014.
Robert P. “Bob” Atkinson also will help with the transition to a new CEO and will be a consultant. Atkinson had been JRMC’s CEO for more than 17 years and retired from in 2009.
Morgan said it might take the board up to six months to find a permanent CEO. And it expects to use a national search firm to find a CEO for the 471-bed Pine Bluff hospital.
The board first will decide on what it wants in a CEO, he said. It also will ask for input from JRMC’s doctors and some members of the community.
Johnson has “done a really good job over the years,” Morgan said. “A lot of good things have happened.”
He said the hospital is “in very good shape.”
JRMC had net patient revenue of $153.6 million and a net income of $6 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, the latest figures available to Arkansas Business.
“We expect nothing but great things for the future,” Morgan said.
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