This article was originally published by The Lufkin Daily News on March 14, 2024. It was written by Josh Edwards/The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel
NACOGDOCHES, TX — The healing is already starting at Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital.
The Nacogdoches County Hospital District retook control of the health care facility from Lion Star early Monday morning. By Tuesday morning, employee morale was on the upswing as the transition put to an end the uncertainty facing hundreds after Lion Star began layoffs and said the hospital was in “imminent danger of closing.”
“It’s like we can breathe again,” Robert Scott, the facilities manager for the hospital, said Tuesday as he was grabbing lunch in the cafeteria.
Lion Star, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, had well-documented trouble maintaining the building and keeping supplies coming in after failing to pay bills on time.
“Getting parts was really hard. I was barely able to get all the inspections done,” Scott, who has worked at the hospital for nearly 10 years, said of the last year under Lion Star. “This is my home away from home. I want this place to be as good as it was when I hired on here.”
Mary Loftin, who has spent the past 17 years working in environmental services at Memorial Hospital, felt a similar enthusiasm.
“It feels like a relief,” Loftin said as she was cleaning one of the hospital’s break rooms. “We’ve got to let (the hospital district) work out the kinks, and it’ll be OK.”
Front line health care workers in the operating room and emergency room agreed.
“The morale is better. I don’t think we’re as stressed as we were,” said Jennifer Dougherty, a surgical tech who started at Memorial two years ago. “The doctors are excited too. That’ll help us.”
Emergency Department director Dr. Eduardo Wilkinson, who started again at Memorial Hospital on Monday after two years away, said he was looking forward to helping continue to build relationships between the hospital and community.
“It’s a 90-year-old hospital and it belongs to the community. Not a lot of cities have a 90-year-old hospital,” he said. “We have a commitment. People first. Community first. There’s a lot of pride here.”
A hospital emergency room is often the driver of patient volumes inside the hospital. Wilkinson compared it to the front door of a home.
“We are here 24 hours a day,” he said.
Current and former employees, patients and vendors have previously described difficulties communicating with Lion Star.
But now, reaching out to top executives is much easier, emergency department charge nurse Bridget Hughes said.
“We’re just really excited. We definitely feel more connected to leaders and ownership,” Hughes said. “We’re excited to have Memorial back up and running at its peak, which we were used to.”
Hospital administrators say they’re glad to have the opportunity to foster those relationships.
“These are the people who make it happen. This is why people come here,” hospital administrator Rhonda McCabe said after a walk-through of the hospital Tuesday morning.
Lawn maintenance had also begun Tuesday after being neglected, and a deep clean of the hospital is the works, McCabe said.
Last week, Memorial onboarded about 500 employees including those who work at clinics that Lion Star planned to close.
“The managers and the staff here are the glue that was holding this all together,” McCabe said.
Attorneys for Lion Star and the district announced in late February the company planned to sell operations of the hospital back to the district. Under the deal, the district will purchase Lion Star’s inventory for around $600,000 and pay $1.2 million to a lender who has been helping keep the cash-strapped company afloat.
“We weren’t fighting what we hated,” McCabe said. “We were fighting for what we love. We love this hospital.”
The transfer of control came after Lion Star CEO Sean Fowler said the hospital was in “imminent danger” of closing after the state’s health agency demanded a more than $7 million recoupment for overpayments.
Throughout the bankruptcy process, Fowler has blamed the hospital district for Lion Star’s financial woes. When Texas Health and Human Services demanded a repayment for $7.2 million, he blamed the district again. The health authority says Lion Star is on the hook for the repayment.
District officials say they have since worked out a payment schedule with the state.
The transition does not end Lion Star’s bankruptcy proceedings and could force the company to liquidate, though final authority will be up to the judge.
Lion Star’s debt relief financing was dependent on keeping its contract with the hospital, which was put up for collateral for an emergency loan of $2 million.
Editor's note: According to their website, Nacogdoches County Hospital District was formed by the Texas Legislature as a special district providing community services in 1967. The district is led by an elected board and manages sales tax revenue generated to provide indigent care in the community. Their outreach includes the Nacogdoches County EMS, the Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital Foundation, Nacogdoches County Healthcare Foundation, the Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Transportation Services and the Medical Assistance Program.