Editor,

The lead article in the March 17 Whidbey News-Times got my attention very fast, as I am sure it did others. What is the hospital going to do with the $20 million? Increase the bonus to CEO Geri Forbes?

My understanding of a large bonus is a reward for increased production, efficiency, fiscal management and a few other areas that make your organization an outstanding example. A showplace for others.

During 2017, one of the EMT groups made a visit to my house and decided my blood pressure could be better checked at the hospital than on the floor of my bedroom. So off we went on an enjoyable ride to the ER clinic.

I am not sure what all they did to me in the ER, and at times I wondered if some of the ER crew knew. They decided to set me up for the night in one of the new wards.

They got me ready to travel to the next location but did not provide me with a buzzer to call for help if I needed it. As I waited, I needed help, but had no way of calling for help. A few people passed my room and I called to them, but got no response.

In time I was placed in one of the new wards. I had a visit from my wife and later from a friend. While visiting, a doctor came by, checked my records and advised I would be released the next day. My friend at the time said he would pick me up and take me home, no need for my wife to be called. Soon after he left, I was moved to a new location.

When my friend came to get me the next day, I was not there and it took him an hour to locate me.

To be left unattended with no means of calling for help, then to be relocated from one ward to another and not know the new location, does not qualify as outstanding leadership deserving of a $60,000 bonus. I should have been awarded a part of the $60,000 for what I had to put up with.

If what happened to me is an example of the standard of service for a new WhidbeyHealth system, we got problems. And $20 million will not resolve it.

Robert D. Brown

Oak Harbor