Sentara Healthcare has agreed to participate in the first of a series of community listening sessions to be held today at 5:30 pm. Sentara had previously declined an invitation to participate.
In a Jan. 8 email from Sentara CEO Howard Kern to EVMS President Richard Homan obtained by C&BP, Kern declined Homan’s invitation to participate. This past Monday, Jan. 25, Kern wrote that he had changed his mind. He appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Physician Executive Dr. Jordan Asher to represent Sentara on the panel.
Other panelists include representatives from Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, and the Virginia Department of Health. The listening session will be moderated by Barbara Hamm Lee of the Another View radio show on WHRV/WHRO. Ms. Lee will ask the audience to share their most pressing health needs and concerns. The listening session is organized by EVMS.
The first EVMS Community Listening Session will take place at 5:30 pm. The public may participate over via BlueJeans or the EVMS Facebook page.
Sentara has recently come under fire for reportedly trying to offload the operating costs of EVMS onto taxpayers, despite having $6 billion in net assets – far higher than the cash reserves of the state of Virginia.
“We’re pleased other Hampton Roads academic and clinical organizations are joining EVMS for this important community forum and demonstrating their concern about regional health disparities,” said EVMS spokesperson Vincent Rhodes in a statement provided to C&BP. “Listening is the first step to effectively engaging with our community and helps us all better understand the needs and priorities of our Hampton Roads neighbors.”
We have also reached out to Sentara and ODU for comment. We’ll update this post before the event if we hear from them.
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Scott Peterson is executive director of Checks and Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
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