Passionate patients address MHCC board

By REBECCA RODENBORG
Reporter/Photographer

What are you guys afraid of?

This is the county’s hospital. It’s not yours, it’s ours.

How can you guys say who can and cannot practice here?

Twenty doctors have left this facility in the last 10 years . . . that’s not a record to be proud of.

The angry accusations – interspersed with heartfelt stories – poured out for nearly an hour as approximately 30 of Dr. Sherri Blanchard’s estimated 3,500 patients lined the walls of the board room where Memorial Hospital of Converse County’s Board of Trustees held their monthly meeting Jan. 27.

Blanchard resigned from the hospital Aug. 3, 2009, effective Feb. 1, and has since disputed the “do-notcompete” clause included in the contract she signed in Sept. 2005.

Board members explained that they were unable to respond to a lawsuit Blanchard filed earlier the same day questioning the legality of her do-not-compete clause.

“We don’t control this litigation. It’s Dr. Blanchard’s choice, she initiated it,” Vice Chairman Bob Kayser said. “The discussion here tonight serves no purpose in terms of us going into a back-and-forth, but we appreciate what’s been said.”

Board President Charles Lyford and Kayser reiterated the contents of a public letter MHCC sent to concerned citizens. They explained that after Dr. Blanchard submitted her resignation in August, she asked to withdraw her resignation at the end of October. The board increased its offer to Blanchard, which would’ve made her the highest paid primary care physician on the MHCC staff and what they believed to be the top five percent of pay for family practice physicians in the U.S.

“The next thing we heard was from an attorney which she hired to represent her in challenging the terms of her original contract,” the letter reads.

“We can’t control what she does. She’s my wife’s doctor and it would make my life a hell of a lot easier if she stayed,” Kayser said.

Several attendees voiced their intentions to seek medical attention elsewhere if Blanchard wasn’t allowed to practice in Douglas.

“Let’s see. . . these people will drive to Casper to see another doctor,” Jennifer Marshall said. “Then you’re probably going to take your prescription to Walmart, so Safeway is going to be out and maybe Shatto’s too.”

“She has been there everytime to take care of me,” Terra Ellison, a type one diabetic, said. “I do not like doctors. And I’m tired of trying to fight for a good doctor. It’s really important to me that she is close enough for me to at least go see her.”

This is part of the February 4, 2010 online edition of The Glenrock Independent.

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