please visit us at

www.savepwhs.blogspot.com

big things will be happening very soon and we’ll need Manassas to stand up with us!

the.real.save.pwhs@gmail.com

everyone, please check us out here:

www.savepwhs.blogspot.com

big things will be happening very soon and we’ll need Manassas to stand up with us.

the.real.save.pwhs@gmail.com

Your accounting job will not survive a merger.

Good afternoon, ladies. I apologize for the startling statement but I had to make sure that I have your attention. I’m an old golfing amigo of one of your husbands, but please don’t hold that against me. He gave me your names, so please don’t hold that against him. I will not say who, and if you realize it for yourself and you know me, then I’d suggest not making mention of it to keep yourself out of trouble in the time you have left at PWH. I’m writing this because I’ve read the papers, have talked to someone who has a serious stake in your career and has told me what you’ve been told, and because I truly believe that us bean counters need to stick together, especially after what I went through myself.

I was a senior accountant at Loudoun hospital from 1983 through October 2004, when I lost my job to the INOVA merger. The rest of my department went along with me.

Prior to the merger, I was told that Loudoun would grow and my career there would be safe. I was lied to, as you are being lied to.

Accounting is a corporate, home office position. When your hospital is sold and ‘merged’ there will be no more corporate. Corporate will be somewhere else. The numbers will be crunched somewhere else. AP will be done somewhere else. Checks will be cut somewhere else. Payroll will be processed somewhere else. There is no doubt about this. PWH will be a branch, a part of a network, a chain like a retail store. The home office will no longer be in Manassas. Accounting will no longer be in Manassas.

Accounting is always done at the home office, the corporate office. Do not let anyone tell you differently. Anyone who tells you to expect ‘growth’ is twisting words around, words that do not apply to a department like accounting. Ask your executives to tell you that they’re expecting growth for accounting. Just don’t stand too close in case their noses start growing.

When the time comes and your hospital’s ‘partner’ is announced, call them. Call one of their branch hospitals (again, not the home office or main hospital, because that is not what PWH will be) and ask if they have their own accounting department. If they do, ask exactly what they do and how many work there.

Use your common sense. Look at the hospital structure and realize what jobs are home office, corporate jobs. Tell your friends in those department’s what’s coming and to protect themselves. Feel free to write me if you have questions. Information is the power. Your hospital will no longer be the seat of power, it will no longer be corporate, it will no longer be the home office, do not forget this.

By way of more of a warning, do not allow yourself to show up for work one morning and be unceremoniously told to leave. Organize amongst yourselves. Tell them you deserve to be taken care of. Find out exactly what you will receive in terms of severance and if they have no plan for that in place then tell them they need to make such a plan. Do not doubt that such plans are in place for the executives. This is no time to be unemployed.

For a final example of my personal experience with the kind of deception I suffered before Loudoun sold me and my department out, I have to tell you to be careful who you trust. When our merger plans were announced, we were told not only that we were safe but that no people were definitely going to go and that no one was receiving preferential treatment. Our execs were on a separate payroll, so the majority of our office did not know about their sweetheart deals and severance arrangements. Those in charge of the executive payroll of course received a similar package in exchange for their silence and being their accomplice in dishonesty.

If you have this same type of setup at PWH as we did and as most community non-profits do, do not trust those in control of executive pay and do not believe a word they say. They will already have a variation of the execs’ sweetheart deals in place for themselves. Yes ma’am, the ol’ golden parachute. Tell them you deserve something too, and don’t wait for the other shoe to drop to start looking out for yourself and at other opportunities. They may tell you the merger process will take months oreven years, and this may be true, they may keep you on for this or hire kids who are merger experts and will be cheaper, but the fact is that accountingwill be going away. I am truly sorry. I’m here for any advice I might be able to give, so write me, ask questions and I’ll do what I can.

Right now you still have the power to make sure you’re treated
appropriately. Best wishes and be strong!

F.T.P.
ftp.cpa@gmail.com

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/manassas_hospital_named_best_orthopedic_surgery_hospital_in_dc/32330/

HE SAID EMAILS WERE BEING REVIEWED TO KEEP THE ‘SAVE PWHS’ PEOPLE OUT. I ASKED WHO REVIEWS THEM? DOES THAT MEAN SOME COMPUTER TECHNICIAN IS READING ALL OF THE DOCTOR’S EMAILS? AREN’T THEY SUPPOSED TO BE PRIVATE AND PROTECTED BY HIPPO LAWS? HE ASSURED ME THAT THE EMAILS CONTAIN A DISCLAIMER ABOUT PRIVACY THAT IS LEGALLY BINDING AND I SAID WELL THAT DON’T MAKE IT RIGHT FOR SOMEONE WHO IS NOT MY DOCTOR TO READ THEM!!! HE WAS APOLOGETIC AND GAVE ME HIS PERSONAL EMAIL AT HOME. THIS DOES NOT MAKE UP FOR THIS, THOUGH. WHO WOULD WANT TO TRUST A HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THAT HAS TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM CONTACTING THEM OR HAS SO MUCH TO BE AFRAID OF? FURIOUS. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031303941.html

and thanks to BVBL for giving this important local story the attention it deserves first!

Fortunately someone mentioned this in the ‘comments’ section. I urge you all to read the article and spread the word how Manassas jobs are being thrown under the bus so the executives who ran the place make out like bandits.

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/prince_william_hospital_opens_center_in_woodbridge/31783/

Funny how they can afford to expand to Woodbridge but can’t afford to keep local governance.

Start sending any job leads you might come across to any friends you have working at the hospital. They should start unionizing, protesting, doing anything to get the word out to the county. Like a typical tax and spend, run-a-business-into-the-ground and get rewarded for it liberal moron, their CEO is going to sell out the community and its values and get a payday out of it.

Did you know that as a non-profit organization PWHS’s tax forms are public records? Here’s their 2006 one:
http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/541/541278944/541278944_200612_990.pdf

Check out page 17 to see how much their CEO made in 2006 - he’s probably making even more now and will get an entire year in severance with benefits when he finally manages to sell the place. How very Circuit City! Too bad the actual working people there will not be so lucky. Prepare for my unemployment and homelessness, Manassas! Thanks, PWHS management!

It is your right to call their CFO and ask for copies of their more recent 990 forms so you can see exactly what these executives are earning and exactly how golden their parachutes will be when they sell out the hospital at the expense of local jobs.

cut and pasted from a comment on this article: http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/prince_william_hospital_babies_smoke_detectors/31469/