photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Interim CEO Julie Schmidt addresses the Douglas County Commission during its meeting Oct. 20, 2021.

Following recent turnover in the leadership of Heartland Community Health Center and concerns about equity, center representatives said they were taking steps to restore confidence in the center’s direction.

As part of the Douglas County Commission’s study session Wednesday, several Heartland administrators and board members provided updates and answered questions from county staff and commissioners. Chief Operations Officer Rachel Hartford said that following the leadership changes earlier this year, the center was working to restore confidence with its partners in the community.

“We are prioritizing that because we recognize we have to restore the confidence in those partnerships, in those relations, but also we have to restore the confidence in the culture at Heartland because of the transitions that have happened,” Hartford said.

Hartford said the center, which is a safety-net health care provider in Lawrence, was having monthly meetings with a few of its key partners, such as LMH Health and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. Heartland also proposed a process to try to improve its communication with the county. That includes developing standing monthly meetings, a quarterly report and inviting a county representative to attend board meetings on a semi-annual basis to share information, concerns and challenges.

Wednesday’s study session was a follow-up to a discussion during the commission’s budget deliberations in June. At the time, commissioners questioned Heartland representatives about the departure of two top executives, former CEO Robyn Coventon and former COO Tiffany Lewis. Lewis later disclosed to the Journal-World that she had made a racial discrimination complaint against Heartland.

County leaders requested Wednesday’s discussion in preparation for an upcoming meeting where they will consider finalizing Heartland’s funding for 2022. Heartland requested $227,003 in base funding from the county and made a supplemental funding request for $27,653 to help support additional staffing, according to the county’s budget documents.

Though no additional details were provided about the circumstances of the leadership turnover, Heartland representatives did share information about efforts to address equity and inclusion. About 30% of the center’s patients are people of color, and Interim CEO Julie Schmidt said that the center was beginning an 18-month equity training program and would be looking at how to make the center’s mostly white board and executive staff more reflective of the people it serves.

“To move us not to the point of competency, but to really be responsive and recognize our own biases,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt also gave a brief financial update, saying that the center had replaced two administrative positions with director positions, which she said would reduce costs. Schmidt said that financially the center was at the very least at break-even, and that it anticipates it should be able to improve upon that.

In response to questions from County Administrator Sarah Plinsky about the benefit of the center’s recent acquisition of Panda Pediatrics, Chief Development Officer Julie Branstrom said that because the pediatric office was previously a for-profit practice, it meant that Heartland would receive more compensation than Panda did for visits from patients with Medicaid. Branstrom said those additional revenues could help the center serve more uninsured patients without coverage.

Plinsky said that as part of next year’s budget process, she would like to see what revenue was generated and how the new dollars were being used, and Branstrom said that Heartland could provide that information.

Heartland Board President Brad Koehler said that as Heartland prepares to move into its new facility at 1312 W. Sixth St., the board’s recruitment committee was preparing to open the search for a new CEO “within days.”

Commissioner Patrick Kelly noted that the amount of Heartland’s funding request was about a quarter of a million dollars, and he said the county had a responsibility to make sure organizations that it provides taxpayer money to are being good partners.

“I want to thank everybody from Heartland for coming today and sharing with us and your willingness to be reflective about your past practices and how we can improve the partnership,” Kelly said.