Internal review criticizes Indian Health Service administrators.
Jimmy Carter used the phrase "crisis of confidence" to describe the malaise that descends over the masses when they lose faith in their leaders. And, judging by a recent employee survey, it appears that local Indian Health Service (IHS) administrators have just such a crisis on their hands.
SFR has obtained results from a recent internal audit of nearly 150 workers within the Santa Fe Service Unit (a region that includes five facilities serving nine northern pueblos) that amounts
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to a glaring indictment of their IHS bosses.
"My experience at both facilities was that everyone was miserable," Janice Levering, who has spent 14 years working in the medical lab at both the Santa Fe Indian Hospital and the Santa Clara Pueblo health center, says. "There was absolutely no communication, and I think a lot of people felt like they had zero support from administration."
The survey underscores persistent problems within IHS that have caused disruption and elimination of services at facilities like the Santa Fe Indian Hospital [Cover story, Dec. 13, 2006: "
"].
According to the survey, only 11 percent of respondents agreed that the SFSU administration makes wise decisions and only 9 percent agreed that the administration adequately communicates its goals and strategies to employees. Nearly 40 percent said they often think about quitting while 35 percent will look for a new job in the next few months. Furthermore, when asked what the administration was doing well, 56 percent said "nothing."
Neither Regional IHS Director James Toya nor Santa Fe Indian Hospital CEO Jim Lyon responded to multiple requests for comment on the survey.
The internal review comes at a time when several employees have decided to leave either on their own accord or by taking a contract buyout offered as part of a national IHS restructuring effort [Outtakes, Jan. 31: "
"].
Just under half (142) of the estimated 300 employees within the SFSU responded to the 2006 survey, down from 201 in 2005. That discrepancy isn't significant enough to convince Diane Polaco-an IHS nurse since 1977-that the situation has gotten anything but worse.
"It's not just a couple of disgruntled folks who answered those questions," Polaco says. "The percentages are very high of people who are unhappy with the administration, and I think the survey results show that."
Both Polaco and Levering are among the employees within the service unit who accepted the contract buyout.
While administrators are working to replace those lost workers, SFR has learned that the hospital has experienced widespread problems in recent weeks.
In mid-January, several staff members experienced respiratory problems while working in an outpatient area of the hospital that has since been closed.
"We have someone running tests now to see if we can find out what the problem is," Lyon told SFR last week. "We're thinking that it might have to do with a roofing project being done right now at the hospital. Either that or maybe there's mold in there with all the snow and moisture we've been getting. Either way, that section will remain closed until we can correct the problem."
According to an internal IHS e-mail, Lyon will meet with staff to discuss the problem on Feb. 7. The hospital also suspended its X-ray services during the last few weeks.
"There have been some issues with our X-ray services, but it's not related to anything other than us being a little bit slow paying our bills," Lyon told SFR. "We send our X-rays out to a private contractor and we were kind of delinquent getting our bills paid to the contractor, but I think that's all been resolved."
Lyon says the suspension of X-ray services lasted only "a few hours" but says the hospital is looking to address the problem during the restructuring effort.
"We are in the process of hiring our own radiologist so that we won't have to be contracting out those services," Lyon says. "But it will probably be another six months before we can get somebody on."
But while the buyouts will effectively allow the service unit to fill some gaping holes in its services, others fear that the departure of veteran staff will cause more glaring concerns.
"What they've done with these buyouts is gotten rid of the worker bees," Dr. Ron Lujan, a former IHS physician, says. "But the people who make the decisions-the administration-are still there, and that's where you find a lot of the real, systemic problems."
Polaco says that if the survey accomplishes anything, it is to give employees a forum for their voices to be raised, if not heard.
"A lot of people have been afraid to speak out because they're afraid of retaliation from the administration," Polaco says. "I was so proud that people finally had the backbone to speak their mind. When the results came back, people were gloating they were so glad that they finally got some of their ideas heard."
