Members of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors have denied local physician Greg Salard permanent privileges to practice at the hospital.
Board members, acting as the “fair hearing committee” made the decision at a private meeting Friday, March 2. WMC Board President Mark Robinson said Salard was notified of the committee’s decision in the form of a letter.
On Monday, Salard and his attorney Lee Holen said they would be appealing the committee’s decision. Holen said a “temporary injunction” would also be filed in court to try to have Salard’s privileges restored at WMC pending a court decision on the appeal.
“The Salard’s want to stay in Wrangell and want to make their home there,” Holen said. “…It’s their intention to get this resolved and get his privileges back and live in Wrangell.”
Salard echoed Holen’s comments, saying he plans to challenge the WMC committee’s decision in order to practice at the hospital.
“I have every intention to fight this, and have my full privileges restored,” he said.
Salard is employed through Alaska Island Community Services, and was given permission from the WMC board to practice at the hospital through November 2011.
Last November, however, the WMC board decided not to extend Salard’s hospital privileges. On February 21, a review hearing was held between the WMC hearing committee and Salard regarding that November decision.
The March 2 meeting that led to the WMC committee’s final vote on Salard’s privileges was held at noon at the hospital and lasted approximately two and a half hours, said Robinson.
He would not comment on why the hearing committee made the decision it made or which WMC board members were present at the meeting.
“Everything the committee did is confidential, period,” Robinson said.
WMC Board Member Dorothy Hunt-Sweat told the Sentinel she was out of town and could not attend last week’s meeting. However, she said she does not agree with the committee’s decision, saying there was not enough evidence presented to warrant denying Salard the right to practice at the hospital.
Hunt-Sweat said she was in favor of granting Salard privileges to work at WMC for one year, to “see how he does.”
Hunt-Sweat was elected to the WMC board last October. She said she voted along with other WMC board members in November not to extend Salard’s privileges, due to what she called a lack of information. She later regretted her vote, she said.
As an elected board member at the hospital, Hunt-Sweat said she has a responsibility to the people of Wrangell, to the WMC, as well as to Salard, to do what is best.
“His whole future is in our hands, and we just squashed the man,” she said. “I have trouble with that.”
The March 2 meeting of the “fair hearing committee” was not advertised to the public. Robinson said notifying the public was not required because it was a meeting of the hearing committee, not a meeting of the borough-owned hospital board of directors.
“It was not a meeting of the board, therefore, according to our attorneys, it was not necessary to do that,” he said.
The WMC’s attorney Roger Hillman could not be reached for comment prior to the Sentinel’s deadline.
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