DEXTER HOSPITAL REMAINS WITHOUT DIRECTORS SIX MONTHS AFTER MERGER

DEXTER -- Six months after Dexter Memorial Hospital affiliated with NetCare Health Systems, Inc., of Nashville and became a for-profit medical facility, it remains without a board of directors.

Meanwhile, the hospital's longtime surgeon, Dr. Ron Hill, has begun performing some operations at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, apparently a result in part of a lack of experienced operating room personnel at Dexter Memorial Hospital.

Hill has joined the staff of the Sikeston hospital, a somewhat ironic move considering that it has been one Dexter Memorial's major competitors for patients in recent years.

"I am planning on doing some surgery there," Hill said. He joined the staff in Dexter when the hospital was a new addition to the community.

"There's been some changes in the operating room staff, and so I feel that until there is some stability there, I will be doing some work at Sikeston," Hill said. "We're struggling right now with some problems."

Hill explained that it is a difficult process to replace and train operating room nurses. He indicated that as the process is worked out at Dexter Memorial, he will be working at the Sikeston facility.

However, Dexter Memorial Administrator Randal Tennison said this week that the hospital has been operating smoothly without the oversight of a new board of directors.

The new board of directors was to have replaced the 15-member board that previously set policy at the Dexter hospital.

"We've been moving along," Tennison said, noting that NetCare is making good on its pledge to upgrade the 30-year-old primary care hospital. He said an architect has been at the hospital in recent days studying possible improvements.

As for a new board, Tennison said he has a list of potential board members and soon will begin putting together a new set of directors.

Representatives from NetCare could not be reached by the newspaper. Calls placed to the Nashville company were met with a recording, asking callers to leave a message.

Since NetCare took control of the hospital through a lease agreement in April, there has been little information flowing out of the hospital regarding activities at the 50-bed facility. The perceived lack of information coupled with recent news of NetCare's apparent change in corporate philosophy has prompted concern among Dexter-area residents about the hospital's future.

Hill indicated that so far NetCare has not carried through on all of its promises to the local hospital. However, he noted that the firm remains committed to the Dexter facility and sees "potential" in the growth and development of the hospital.

NetCare's shift in direction has involved the company putting up for sale four of its 14 hospitals -- all small, rural hospitals. According to PACE Special Projects of Nashville, NetCare plans to sell Stone County Hospital in Wiggins, Miss.; Marshall County Medical Center in Holly Springs, Miss.; Central Texas Hospital in Cameron, Texas; and Chatuge Regional Hospital in Hiawassee, Ga.

Two of the hospitals -- Central Texas and Marshall County -- were brought into the NetCare fold in 1998.

The PACE report says that, "Although NetCare officials describe the move as a strategic decision to focus on markets that are 'a little bit larger,' the evidence suggests a straightforward desire to shed unprofitable facilities and to raise cash.

All of the hospitals now on the selling block have been unprofitable in recent years and at least two reportedly struggled to stay open in the years before NetCare acquired them."