CEO’s abrupt departure questioned as Memorial Hospital reports continuing losses
Patients and employees at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport are buzzing over what seems like an abrupt departure by longtime Memorial Hospital CEO Gary Marchand.
Marchand sent an email to all employees Tuesday saying that his last day as head of the nonprofit hospital would be Wednesday. The email said he is retiring.
Harrison County supervisors learned secondhand Tuesday about his departure, board member Beverly Martin said. The county is usually kept in the loop about upcoming changes at Memorial, supervisors said, because the county and city of Gulfport co-own the hospital.
Martin said she could not believe Marchand was leaving voluntarily because of the abrupt nature of his departure. She noted that he is well-respected in the community and said her family has nothing but praise for Memorial staff after her mother died from a massive stroke that hospitalized her for 17 days.
“That hospital, from what I saw, was run like a well-greased machine,” she said. “They really had it together. I give Mr. Marchand the credit since he is the CEO.”
Martin talked to a Memorial board member Wednesday morning who said the board and Marchand have been discussing his retirement for “quite some time.”
Marchand did not return phone calls Wednesday morning from the Sun Herald.
Memorial’s public relations office sent out a news release just before lunch Tuesday, only after the public learned of Marchand’s retirement. The 65-year-old had been with the hospital for more than 26 years, the brief news release said.
It quoted Marchand as saying, “I joined an excellent organization and will leave an excellent organization.”
Ken Nicaud, who was Memorial’s chief operating officer of operations, steps in today as CEO and president.
Marchand’s retirement comes on the heels of the departure of Chief Financial Officer Jeff Steiner, who also retired.
The public hospital has been grappling with a reduction in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, a local and national shortage of physician specialists, rising technology costs and uncertainty over the state’s future Medicaid funding levels, according to the most recent annual audit by Horne CPAs and Business Advisors.
The most recent audit, from fiscal year 2017, shows expenses exceeded revenues by $5.6 million. In 2016, Memorial spent $5.9 million more than it brought in.
Memorial and Jackson County’s public hospital system, Singing River, recently lost a case in the state Supreme Court that challenged the state’s method of distributing Medicaid reimbursements.
Memorial sold its psychiatric hospital earlier this year, after reporting operating losses that had ranged from $3.7 million to $4.8 million per year since 2013, when the state changed Medicaid rules.
This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 11:52 AM.