Terry Rowe, executive director of the Vermont State Hospital, announced her resignation Thursday. She has served as head of the state facility for severely mentally ill patients for seven years.
In an e-mail, Rowe told the 240 staff members of the hospital that she decided she will leave her position this summer because of “major shifts” in the new administration’s vision for mental health service.
Rowe said in an interview that the Shumlin administration officials are “good people” and “there’s a lot of energy and optimism in the air — I’m just really tired.”
In an interview on Friday morning, Rowe said she was discouraged by recent publicity about a patient who set a fire on one of the wards and public complaints from staff about forced overtime. Employees told news outlets they had been working extra shifts, some days working as long as 16 hours in an environment in which they needed to stay alert in order to keep patients from endangering themselves or others.
“What’s been hard is there’s been extremely negative publicity about the hospital and in that environment there is no margin for error,” Rowe said.
The intense level of public scrutiny, she said, has been taxing for her and for the staff.
The staff complaints about overtime were very difficult for Rowe. What was most painful was the feeling that “on some professional level I was disconnected from the staff.” She said the “last thing I would want to do was to hurt them.”
“I’ve had dark moments at the hospital and that’s one of them,” Rowe said.
Since the end of April when the stories came out, Rowe said she has tried to even out the unpredictable scheduling problems that go along with having enough employees to ensure safety at the hospital when psychiatric patients who are a danger to themselves and others are newly admitted.
When the fire occurred at the hospital, “people jumped to conclusions about what had gone wrong” even though the staff, Rowe said, handled the fire appropriately.
“The response was, ‘there goes the state hospital not doing a good job again,’” Rowe said. “We believe we have a safe environment. We don’t have a lot of capital out there with what we do because of the enormous amount of negative publicity. We haven’t come out the other side.”
The 54-bed Vermont State Hospital was decertified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2003 after several suicides.
Rowe was hired in 2004. During her tenure, the state has repeatedly attempted and failed to regain federal authorization for the hospital, and previous proposals for replacing the facility have not materialized. Lawmakers and the governor have pulled back from the significant investments necessary to bring the hospital in line with federal requirements. At the same time, the state loses about $10 million a year in federal reimbursements because of the hospital’s decertified status.
The Shumlin administration will begin the process of planning a new replacement facility in Berlin this summer.
“These major shifts call for reflection,” Rowe wrote. “I felt I needed to decide to either continue my commitment to the hospital or look at other options. Standing at the turning point, I knew the pressure, stress and demands of this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week job would continue unabated. In the end, I chose to pursue a life where work is a part of what I do, not its defining purpose.”
Rowe has accepted a position as director of the Registry Review Unit in the Vermont Department for Children and Family Services. The registry tracks child abuse incidents and investigations.
Christine Oliver, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, described Rowe’s position as a “critical,” 24/7 job.
“She’s done it for seven years,” Oliver said. “That’s a long time in hospital administration, let alone the type of hospital she is running.”
“I am sure the news of Terry’s departure is difficult to absorb,” Oliver wrote in an e-mail to staff. “Terry has long been a stabilizing force for (the Vermont State Hospital). During her tenure, she has dedicated herself to the challenges of operating a 24/7 psychiatric facility serving some of our most vulnerable Vermonters. Terry will leave the state hospital in much better shape than when she first arrived in 2004. Terry’s many contributions and accomplishments are greatly appreciated, and we are lucky that she will continue to use her talents for the benefit of the (Agency of Human Services).”
Oliver said the position has been reclassified as an exempt position. The secretary of the Agency of Human Services, Doug Racine, and Oliver will choose Rowe’s successor. The position will also come with an increase in compensation. Rowe earned about $78,000 a year — less than half that of her counterparts in small hospital administration in Vermont who earn about $200,000, Oliver said.
