It was a packed meeting room and into the hallway for a special meeting of the Lexington Regional Health Center Board of Directors last evening as the Board conducted a job performance evaluation of Chief Executive Officer Leslie Marsh. The agenda stated that the Board could also consider any action including termination of employment. Marsh requested that the evaluation be held in open session. Board Member Pat Samway shared several positive attributes of Marsh.
Each of the five Board Member read their evaluations. Secretary/Treasurer Ken Harbison listed several strengths.
Harbison also discussed weaknesses.
Harbison was referring to a new hospital software system that was implemented about three years ago along with cyber security that he says continues to have problems and outages along with outages of the hospital phone system. Both Board Vice-Chair Tucker Case and Board Chairperson Rob Anderson expressed similar concerns.
Dr. Kyle Klammer, a physician with the Health Center’s Family Medicine Specialists clinic, said he was saddened by the accusations and finger pointing during the discussion and was hopeful the differences could be reconciled.
Board member comments seemed to indicate the Board would vote 3 to 2 towards a separation of employment. But, it appeared an impassioned plea by Marsh’s Attorney Kent Turnbull helped turn the tide. He appealed directly to Board Members Case and Harbison to change their vote to a “No” on separation…
Both Case’s and Harbison’s deep respect and trust for Turnbull appeared to turn the tide. Case became emotional as he talked about his change of intentions…
After more than two hours of discussion, the Health Center Board voted 5 to 0 to reevaluate Marsh as CEO in six months with the pledge for both the Board and Marsh to work together on the issues they have with assistance from Marsh’s attorney Kent Turnbull.
Marsh joined what was then known in Lexington as Tri County Hospital in 1998 serving as Chief Nursing Officer until becoming Chief Executive Officer of the rebranded Lexington Regional Health Center in 2010.
