CEO of HCA hospital in Florida that allegedly had roaches in the operating room leaves job [View all]

The chief executive of HCA Florida Bayonet Point, the Hudson, Florida, hospital whose physicians characterized it as unsafe and unclean in a February NBC News report, has departed after less than four years, according to a memo delivered to the staff Friday.

Regina Temple is leaving “to pursue other opportunities outside HCA Healthcare, effective immediately,” the memo said. Temple’s exit seemed sudden, physicians working at the hospital said, as she was engaged in long-term initiatives as recently as mid-July.

Temple, who is being replaced by an acting chief executive, did not return a text seeking comment.

HCA Healthcare is the nation’s largest hospital chain, with more than 180 hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company is highly profitable but has come under criticism from some doctors and nurses for practices they say put profits ahead of patients. NBC News reported in June that 27 doctors at 16 HCA facilities said their officials pushed doctors into admitting patients to hospice care, reducing in-hospital mortality rates, a closely watched quality measure, and freeing up beds more quickly, potentially generating more revenues. HCA’s spokesman said in a statement then that “Suggesting that medical care in HCA Healthcare hospitals is based on anything other than a physician’s independent medical judgment of what is in the patient’s best interest is untrue and wrong.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/ceo-hca-bayonet-point-hospital-florida-leaves-job-rcna97354

A feature not a bug of the profit-motive in the healthcare system.