Michael Drummond resigned as chairman of the board of trustees for Baptist Health System (BHS) March 8. His resignation came during a special called meeting with the seven-member Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) executive committee.
The meeting was convened to discuss how to best manage Alabama’s largest health care provider and its board of trustees, according to Ricky Creech, BBA director of missions.
“It was a combined agreement between myself, Mike and the moderator (Dan Nichols) that the board of trustees was at an impasse and that leadership direction needs to be given from BBA,” Creech said, noting Drummond resigned as a board member as well as chairman.
“We met to listen and to render some type of recommendation … about leadership issues from BHS,” Creech explained.
Drummond, a vascular surgeon at Baptist Medical Center Princeton, was asked to step down as chairman of the board, but was not asked to resign from the board, officials noted in a news release March 9.
In fact, Drummond was praised by his fellow board members and by Creech.
Noted leadership
“We honor Dr. Drummond for the extraordinary leadership he provided Baptist over the last eight months, and we are saddened by his departure from this board,” Creech said.
“We know full well that without Dr. Drummond’s energy and passion, BHS would have been sold and our ministry would be no more. Now that the crisis is past, we have honorably disagreed over how best to manage BHS as we move into the future,” Creech noted.
“Dr. Drummond leaves with our thanks for his service.”
Drummond was named chairman of the BHS board in July 2003 after trustees halted a sale of BHS to a for-profit hospital company. With the halt of the sale came the dismissal of then-Chief Executive Officer Dennis Hall and the resignation of five board members. Among the resignations was then-board chairman Bobby Keith.
In the July 17 issue of The Alabama Baptist, Drummond said, “Bobby Keith is a fine Christian gentleman, but often when you change direction, there is also a change in leadership.
“The honest and sincere disagreement over the direction of BHS” did not reflect a disagreement over the mission of the organization, Drummond explained in the July 17, 2003, article.
Instead, it was a disagreement over the best way to accomplish that mission, he noted.
Similar words are now being said about Drummond as BHS officials have debated selling or not selling facilities, restructuring and refocusing throughout the past eight months.
The BHS board of trustees released the following statement about Drummond March 9: “As the BHS board of trustees and its chief executive officer (Beth O’Brien) prepare to turn our vision for BHS into reality, we recognize that it was Dr. Drummond’s leadership that laid the foundation upon which we are able to construct this new future of BHS.”
Creech likened Drummond to Moses.
“Mike Drummond is our Moses,” Creech said. “The leadership and passion of Mike Drummond has made BHS what it is. He has led us through the wilderness, but now we are in the promised land and are looking for a Joshua.”
Describing the March 8 meeting as “very tough,” Creech said, “Some change needed to take place to further prepare us for what is going to happen in the days ahead as far as the future of this great health system.”
Board member Aubrey Miller was named interim chairman following Drummond’s resignation.
Miller has been vice chairman of the BHS board of trustees since July 2003 and was named as an interim, nonvoting board chairman.
He is a member of Faith, a mission of the United Methodist Church, so he will not be a candidate for chairman. BHS board bylaws state that only a member from a participating BBA church can be a voting chairman of the BHS board.
Transition period
Miller will work closely with the BBA executive committee through a transition period of 60 to 90 days while the process of naming a new chairman is put in place, Creech explained.
“Everyone felt it was best that Miller step in and fill this role until the governance committee (of the BHS board) and BBA can bring the board membership back to full capacity, which is 12,” Creech said, noting three positions are currently vacant. “By the end of April we want the BHS board at full capacity.”
Miller, who is director of tourism and travel for Southern Living magazine, said, “I hope to play a role in bringing this board and our system the unity and stability it needs during this time of change.
“The vision for BHS announced [recently] is a true reflection of the desire of this board for the future of our ministry,” he said in the March 9 news release.
“There is a lot of work to do to turn that vision into reality. Fortunately, this system is blessed with a good team of professionals led by a strong CEO,” Miller said.
The new vision for BHS will focus on acute and ambulatory health care services, pursue new partnerships with its physicians and call for a major investment in capital improvements in its major facilities this year.
The new system, which was unveiled March 2, will move from 10 hospitals to seven, with plans to cut ties with the Baptist hospitals in Sylacauga, Centre and Moulton. Galleria Woods Retirement Community and Shelby Ridge Nursing Home will also no longer be a part of the health system.
This move comes after months of studying, analyzing and researching, said David Jarrard, BHS spokesman.
“Where we are today is so different from where we were two years ago,” Jarrard said. “What we have today is a plan that takes advantage of the full potential of what we have today.”
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