Vote for Harold Fugate for Hospital Board

04/03/2024

Now that the election is over, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my family and all of those who supported my campaign for the CCMH Board. While we came up just slightly short of the votes needed, I am truly humbled by the effort people put into this campaign. I am also thankful to all of the people who voted. Voting is an important right and the bedrock of our Democratic society. Thank you all.

I am a longtime and proud resident of Cedar County. I want all of us to have ongoing access to medical care at CCMH. I will continue to listen and to ask questions. CCMH is a cornerstone of this community. I will continue to advocate for it and pray that it not only survives, but that it thrives.

Congratulations to Melissa Gallette. I pray that she and the other Board members listen and ask the tough questions needed to improve the financial standing of CCMH and assure access to medical care in this county.

We must all remain diligent for the benefit of Cedar County and CCMH. Thank you again.

04/02/2024

A reminder that the polls are open until 7pm.
In El Dorado Springs, voting is at the Community Center.
In Stockton, there are multiple locations. Simply go to: Cedarcountymo.gov
Click on “County Clerk” (on the left), then click on “Election and Voter Registration” in the middle of the page next to the County Clerk’s picture.
Then, click on “where do I vote?”
Then, simply enter your information and it will provide your polling information.
Or, you can call the Cedar County Clerk at 417-276-6700, option 2 to obtain that information.
I encourage you to utilize your Constitutional right to vote.
I request your vote so I may continue to seek the truth and work with the Board to bring Cedar County Memorial Hospital to a place of financial stability, ethical policy practices, local staffing, appropriate specialty services and continued excellent care.

04/02/2024

Thank you to the community for alway stepping up to help the kiddos in need.

A HUGE thank you to Fugate Motors for putting on the student need drive! And thank you to our community members who donated all of these wonderful items!
For children to become successful learners, their basic needs must be met first 💙💛

04/02/2024

Today is election day for my current CCMH seat. I was appointed to the CCMH Board a few months ago. There are several major problems at CCMH which, as a voter, you should be aware of:

* CCMH has lost millions from operations over the last two years. We cannot survive such catastrophic losses and need a course correction.
* The CEO is paid $240,000 per year. He claimed we would see an operations profit for the fiscal year that ended 1-31-24. We instead lost $1,629,793 in operations. The budget was off by 667.65%.
The CEO received a $40,000 pay raise even while CCMH has lost millions under his supervision.
* The projected budget was off by 3,042.51% for the month of February 2024 ALONE.
If your personal or business budget were upside down like we see at CCMH, would you agree that changes are needed?
* Multiple Chiefs of Staff and other providers for CCMH were pushed out during the tenure of our current CEO.
* Cindy Malone, Concerned Citizens of Cedar County who has defended this CEO over and over, posted on the Concerned Citizens of Cedar County page that CCMH "just lost Dr. Myers. . . ." If so, then the third Chief of Staff has left under the leadership of our CEO. I cannot confirm or deny that comment from Ms. Malone. I am only posting what she wrote.
* BreAnn Jackson, CNO at CCMH, has stated that we have only one full-time doctor in our clinics. And she has not denied Ms. Malone's comment about Dr. Myers leaving. So where do you think that leaves us?
* We already have a serious shortage of family care providers. We cannot afford to lose another one. Both the PA and the FNP we have at the Medical Mall Clinic must have a collaborating physician to legally provide care. CCMH should not be forced to throw together a hodge-podge of providers at the clinic to cover for doctors who leave. Doing so would not provide the stable primary/family practice care that we all need and deserve.
* What does this do for the Stockton Clinic? That clinic has lost multiple providers that the public was originally advised would be there. The Stockton Clinic has been open less than a year!
* How much worse does it need to get before we make changes?
CCMH, like any business, must take in more money than it loses. And it must have enough doctors and other providers to care for the citizens of Cedar County.

I have been pushing for correction. Leadership at CCMH must stop running off doctors and other providers. It must stop bleeding out millions of dollars. Many people have signed statements about how they were mistreated and humiliated by the CEO. Some of them now have pending complaints with the federal government based mainly on the conduct of Mr. Nichols.

The CCMH Board is in place to hold our CEO accountable. I am not a CCMH insider. I am a long-time Cedar County resident and businessman who applies common sense, logic, and business ideas to the problems we are facing to turn the tide at CCMH. I ask for your vote today - not because I want to cause problems, but because I want to solve them.

04/02/2024

Our CCMH Family Practice Providers Have Been Reduced to a Critical Level!

The Hospital Board election is not about choosing a CEO. It is about choosing a Board member who will provide an authentic checks and balances system for the CEO. The elected Board member should review financials, ask questions, and address patterns of concern (that even right now) are leading our hospital toward failure.
A main reason I am running is the desperate need for a solid checks and balances system for our current CEO. Two men who took over for Mr. Nichols at prior hospitals both signed statements saying that he ran those hospitals into the ground, in part, “by adding many unsustainable specialty services. . .while downplaying things like family and general care services.”
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. One of the very strategies that our current CEO implemented at the two other hospitals that the “ran into the ground” has also been implemented at CCMH. Family practice providers have been fired or were pushed into resignation. We have very few family doctors left. Call the Medical Mall Clinic yourself, for example, and ask which providers are available and on what days they can see us as patients.
Remember Dr. Wamsley? He warned leadership about decisions the CEO was making in getting rid of family doctors. Yet, here we are without enough family doctors to provide the level of service and care we need in Cedar County. While we may have multiple specialists, check their schedule and you will see that many of them are contracted with CCMH and only provide services a couple days each MONTH.
Mr. Dylan Timmerman, a homegrown Physician’s Assistant (PA), was hired and promptly discarded by our CEO. He signed a statement confirming that Mr. Nichols would often “speak poorly about other healthcare providers employed by CCMH. Mr. Nichols would make remarks such as, ‘I have got to get rid of Dr. Wamsley, he is seeing very few patients and costing the hospital too much money.’ Mr. Nichols also expressed his disapproval of Dr. De Hoyos. . . Mr. Nichols often shared his feelings regarding Dr. Wyant. . . .”
PA Timmerman also wrote that Mr. Nichols would brag that “’we do not have to show large profits like other places that you are talking with. And what does that mean? It means that we can put money back into all of our pockets.’”
Shockingly, CCMH has LOST millions in operations over the last two years, while our CEO makes $240,000 per year in his position. Bringing in nearly a quarter of a million dollars per year as Chief Executive Officer should result in profit for the hospital, not losses. It also should not result in a shortage of family providers. Yet, that is exactly what has happened.
Remember Dr. Jama Gilpin? She was hired to run the Stockton Clinic. She signed a statement saying that the clinic opened without even some of the basic supplies needed to provide good care. When it opened, our CEO was on vacation. She resigned after being badgered in Mr. Nichols’ office for 45 minutes. He tried to convince Dr. Gilpin to change her duties from Urgent Care to family practice last minute, an area in which she is not certified. Were you aware of that?
Would you like to read the statements and see the names and signatures of each signer that I have referenced throughout this campaign? Those statements were submitted to the CCMH Board in September 2023. They are public record and contain names and signatures. I have chosen not to publish some of those names on Facebook, but that does not minimize what those people said.
With this many providers gone, that leaves only a handful left to cover all of the patient care for the hospital, Stockton, and the Medical Mall clinic. Since the Medical Mall already has a PA on maternity leave, that leaves only two full-time providers – one for Eldo and one for Stockton.
Who is covering the hospitalist duties? Is it Dr. Myers, who is in Stockton, or is someone else covering? Will the patients have the consistent inpatient hospital care that they did in years past when we had some of these other providers?
Also, PA’s require a collaborating doctor. Who is available to juggle that right now (and into the near future)? It can take months to credential a new provider for a facility. If any more doctors leave or provide their resignation, who will cover for them?
Consider this as well: providers from the Medical Mall clinic also refer patients for admission to CCMH, for x-rays and for lab work, etc. Without ample family doctors, CCMH loses patients in both the clinics and in the hospital. The days of going to visit your local doctor who has roots in Cedar County have been replaced with specialists who do not live here and only visit Cedar County on a very limited basis.
Our hospital and clinics need massive course corrections. CCMH has never been perfect, but it has always survived. I am concerned we may not survive this leadership derailment. Appearing one way to the public but very differently in private, many people have been fooled, even right within the hospital itself. Please remember that when you cast your vote on 4-2-24. I have only been on the CCMH Board a few months and need more time to work with fellow Board members to get our facility back on track. I ask for your vote.

03/31/2024

https://youtu.be/sM0ovt_nbd4?si=COhE7iC7j8voFr25

The official video of "You've Already Won" from the album Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (Live) by Shane & Shane. Recorded live at Liberty University.Str...

03/30/2024

https://youtu.be/0gGa1w_bnvM?si=Olz5QGqEjdWLRds7
This Easter weekend our focus shouldn’t be about politics or elections, but about Jesus! Jesus is Risen! He’s alive!

David Phelps, Gaither Vocal Band - Official Video for “He's Alive (Live)", available now!Buy the full length DVD/CD ‘Tent Revival Homecoming' here: http://sm...

03/30/2024

Psalm 35: 7-9
May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame, may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay. May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away: may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me, may ruin overtake them by surprise—may the net entangle them, may they fall into the pit to their ruin. Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation.

03/30/2024

It’s amazing what vision and teamwork can accomplish! Kimball Long’s vision to revitalize our downtown sparked the creation of a dedicated committee, which included Harold Fugate, Jack Tough, and others. Together, the committee sold brick pavers, installed new lighting, new sidewalks, new crosswalks and a new parking lot on Broadway. This revitalization effort is a testament to the power of community collaboration and forward-thinking leadership.Let’s continue to support initiatives that breathe new life into our community, and it’s with this same focus that Harold will continue to to be a leader, bringing more business to Cedar County Memorial Hospital!

03/29/2024

I submitted an important message about "listening" to Concerned Citizens of Cedar County twice yesterday. Instead of posting that message, Concerned Citizens put up postings for Melissa Gallette's campaign page. Does Concerned Citizens represent all concerned citizens or just the ones that agree with their ideas?
I hope the Admins at Concerned Citizens will reconsider and list my post so readers can decide for themselves where they stand.

03/28/2024

One of the main reasons I was appointed to the CCMH Board and am running to retain that seat is because I listen. I will not sit idly by and watch our neighbors, family, and friends at CCMH be attacked and humiliated without trying to fix the problems. Since I was appointed to the Board, here are some of the things I have seen and heard:

1. When people were reaching out to the Board last year with concerns about the CEO, some on the Board did not listen. When information was being presented from previous hospitals that Mr. Nichols has “no business being in healthcare” and drove them into financial ruin, it fell on deaf ears.

2. When people from other hospitals and communities tried to warn us that their doctors and staff had been humiliated, demeaned, lied about, talked down to, and manipulated, I listened. When I was told that good general surgery and primary care providers had been pushed out of those other facilities, along with nurses and administrative staff, I listened.

3. When our CCMH doctors, nurses, and staff were being similarly fired, humiliated, demeaned, lied to and lied about, I listened.

4. When concerns were presented about spending large amounts of money on equipment, specialists, and various contracts, all of which cut our days of Cash on Hand in roughly half, I listened.

5. When CCMH doctors and staff were fired, demoted, humiliated, lied about, etc., none of them were interviewed by the CCMH Board. The word of the CEO (re: how bad those providers or other staff were) was simply accepted or not even asked for. I read their letters and signed statements about their horrible experiences.

6. When all of these statements and financial records came to light, I started hearing the CEO and his team downplay the financial losses as “paper losses,” and received statements like “we had to repay Covid money,” or “Critical Access Hospitals” (CAH) cannot make money.” But, when audit reports were presented and documents showed another local Critical Access Hospital had made millions (while CCMH lost millions from operations), I listened.

My goal is to preserve this hospital. Regardless of how the CEO appears to be in public, we cannot:
1) keep spending millions more than we bring in, and
2) allow good Cedar Countians to have their livelihoods lost and reputations ruined.

Most people at CCMH are good, hard-working people. To preserve CCMH, changes are needed. While I am not perfect, I can assure you that I am listening.

To retain my seat on the CCMH Board, I respectfully request your vote on April 2, 2024.

03/27/2024

Krystal Wyant asked me why I am running to retain my seat on the CCMH Board. Here is why:
1. I want to save our hospital. I have deep roots in Cedar County. It is a privilege to be in a rural community that has a hospital to serve us and to employ so many good people.

2. I have no beef with the doctors and staff at CCMH. My beef is with the way the hospital is being managed, which starts with the CEO. The buck stops with him, and ultimately with the Board who is there to hold him accountable.

3. CCMH has lost millions over the last two years in operations. It baffles me that so many people find that unimportant and chalk it up to "paper losses". If we keep losing money at that rate, we will close or be bought out, neither option benefiting our community.

4. I get paid nothing to be on this Board. My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud. I suspected daggers would be thrown at me for pointing out the facts and for highlighting the background of Mr. Nichols at other hospitals (as well as how he has treated some employees here).

5. We have far less family doctors who live and work here than we did before. Good people have been run off. There are people who have been mistreated but are too afraid to come forward because they fear that Mr. Nichols will retaliate.

6. I did not write nor seek the numerous signed statements from people attesting to how Mr. Nichols treated them or mismanaged this or prior hospitals. People have seen the damage one person can do and are speaking out.
What did the people who have signed statements gain from that?
If some people are afraid to speak even though they were treated horribly, do you think other current employees are also afraid to speak up?

· In contrast, what might Mr. Nichols, who gets paid $240,000 a year to work here, gain from his version of events that have taken place? What gain might his management team get from defending him? All of that should be considered.

· I love Cedar County. Although I obtain no financial gain from being on the Board and am being attacked unmercifully, I am standing up for the many who have been ignored. Our local hospital, its employees, and our residents are too important (and worth preserving) for me not to seek to serve on the Board. That is why I am running to retain my CCMH Board seat.