[M]ichael K. Smith, a top aide to former Gov. Jim Douglas who went on to lead both FairPoint Communications and Burlington College through tough times, has been appointed interim CEO of a medical records management nonprofit that has been faulted in recent months for failing performance.
Smith’s appointment at Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL) comes two months after a Kentucky-based consultancy found the medical records exchange was suffering from serious financial and administrative maladies.
Smith has been a prominent political pundit and hosted the “Open Mike” radio talk show on WDEV and affiliate stations for the past 2 and a half years. He was also a columnist for VTDigger. His column has ended and Feb. 19 will be his last “Open Mike” show.
Dubbed the “Interim Fixer in Chief”, Smith taken leadership roles at other troubled institutions. After he left the Douglas administration in 2008, Smith worked as CEO of FairPoint, which had a rocky tenure in northern New England before the company was taken over by Consolidated Communications last year. Smith also served at the now-defunct Burlington College, which had financial problems as a result of the purchase of a lakefront property the school couldn’t afford.
Under Douglas, Smith was administration secretary and the secretary of the Agency of Human Services. He has also served in the Legislature and was deputy state treasurer.
“VITL is such an important partner in the delivery of quality health care in Vermont,” Smith said in an announcement issued by VITL. “I am especially pleased to be working alongside an experienced staff that’s dedicated to the success of VITL. My sole goal is to help them succeed in achieving VITL’s objectives during my time here.”
The public problems at VITL began with an audit in 2016 that found that “the state is unable to adequately assess the performance of VITL and to demonstrate the value” of the exchange. Soon after, VITL administrators told the Green Mountain Care Board they were having trouble meeting payroll.
A damning report delivered to the Green Mountain Care Board in December found that most of the health providers relying on VITL to manage medical records had “lost confidence” in its ability to perform its core mission of making patient information available.
“We have a very low percentage of patients whose data are accessible, and there are quality issues,” said Dawn Gallagher, a consultant with HealthTech who conducted the report.
However, state officials and VITL administrators said they did not want to give up on the problem-plagued system, which had received a total of $44.3 million in state and federal funding. They have begun implementing a multi-year plan meant to make the exchange more efficient, effective and accountable.