By PETER HUSSMANN
Newly named Skiff Medical Center Board of Trustees chair Debby Pence has provided City of Newton officials with the confidentially agreements sought earlier this week through an open records request by the city attorney.
In providing the information to the city, Pence said that she, not the hospital's consulting firm B.E. Smith, required members of the Steering Committee to sign the confidentiality agreements as they worked on completing the reduction in force initiative. Late last month the Skiff board approved adoption of the plan that eliminated hospital positions, left vacant positions go unfilled and reduced work hours for some employees.
In a memo to the Newton Independent, Pence said the discussion of personnel matters during the Steering Committee's work on finding cost-saving measures at the financially struggling hospital lead her to require all members of the committee to sign the confidentiality agreements. For most of the committee's work, Pence was the sole hospital trustee sitting on the committee.
"B.E. Smith did not request members of the Skiff Medical Center Board of Trustees to sign a document regarding confidentiality," Pence wrote in a note to the N.I. on Thursday indicating she had complied with the city's request to provide copies of agreements.
"I knew that we were discussing personnel matters which were highly confidential and I felt very strongly that we should be reminded that the information that was being discussed remain confidential. I had all the members of the Steering Committee (which included hospital employees, a physician, a trustee and B.E. Smith employees) as well as another Trustee present, sign a confidentiality agreement. I have give a copy of those confidentiality agreements to Darrin Hamilton as he requested."
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