Former trustees asked to join call with President

[Bravesfanchicago]

So we know things are bad at BU but things must be really bad ……the President has asked a group of former Board members to join a zoom later this week to review the state of affairs at BU. I saw the list and there are some heavy duty players who have been asked to participate. The business acumen among this group is top drawer….Jim Owens’ former CEO of Cat….etc.

And former true business and legal background board leaders that boldly called out the mismanagement under certain previous administrations and lack of adherence to board governance rules and the law. These folks literally tried to save BU from JG and Shaheen. On the call are supposed to be former board members….. Judson Mitchell a former higher ed leader; former Methodist Health CEO Michael Bryant; investment banker and attorney Bryan McGough and BU great Hersey Hawkins. This is like coming full circle ….some of these board members asked the hard questions ten years or more ago on curriculum..funding and strategy….and got no answers. In fact they were attacked for doing their fiduciary duties

If Standiford really informs this group and uses them ….that’s a great step forward…..but his chatter so far smells of waiting waiting for consultants to tell him what to do .

[PhiAlphaBoy]

If Standiford really informs this group and uses them ….that’s a great step forward…..but his chatter so far smells of waiting waiting for consultants to tell him what to do .

This is a great and bold move by Standifird. It's a very serious problem for many small private colleges and I applaud him for being humble enough and courageous enough to seek input from some of the very best minds with longstanding knowledge about Bradley.

[yoda]

a couple thoughts....and thanks BUChicago...

It's hardly a "bold move" - it's a DESPERATION cry for help from an incompetent leader.

btw- do you think the folks up at Bradley are reading and getting tips from our message board??

so.... they're bringing in new people???

Or put some people on the board who care and aren’t just there to pad their resumes.
I have spoken to Board members who don’t know or care what’s really going on and just to get the meetings over quick by rubber stamping things. That led to massive disaster under JKG.

with the right leadership it could thrive just like Creighton, Davidson or Richmond.

But completely failing on two of the last three hirings for leadership has been very costly, then doubling down and giving those horrible, failed leaders long term, bloated contracts and allowing them to make such horrid moves apparently without oversight. The single biggest key to the success Roberts had was to expand the Nursing degree program and promote it better to prospective enrollees. The increase in nursing students in 2016-2018 almost single handedly corrected the disaster in enrollment caused by Glasser. Then when Roberts left they slashed funding for the programs, made work conditions unbearable for the best faculty members, turned a blind eye towards further developments and improvements in the department, then axed the right people & brought in the wrong ones causing many of the remaining best people to look elsewhere.

anyway....

I agree 100% that a big part of the current problems do indeed date to the Joanne Glasser era and the long range debt she saddled Bradley with, including the enormous cost of her own buyout and those buyouts for Geno, Cross etc. - not to mention the $multimillion costs of the lawsuits she & Cross embroiled BU in and the huge, wasteful spending she was responsible for trying to help Geno win games.

BUT... am shocked that they would invite former Methodist CEO Bryant, as there are those who believe he was virtually single handedly responsible for the massive financial collapse of Methodist Hospital & Methodist Medical Center and their desperate effort to shed properties and finally sell at bargain basement price to Iowa Health Systems to be renamed UnityPoint. He ran off many of their fine docs, patients refused to go there and their share of the local healthcare market tanked - causing insurers to choose elsewhere for their preferred provider. He ran off whole specialty groups who then went & built their complex up at Proctor then sold everything to OSF. ...and brought in a bunch of clueless, hi paid outsiders who were horrible and got canned within a year or so. The subsequent damage was so severe that even the influx of $tens of millions more by Iowa Health Systems/UnityPoint still couldn't right the ship and their finances continued to tank - now they've bailed out to a small, nearby enterprise, Carle Clinic, and changed their name again. The story, much like what happened with Glasser's incompetence, never got covered nor reported by our "press" cuz "some believe" they were bought off.
Bryant went on to do the same at his next stop and "resigned" (which often means got fired) there as well barely more than a year later. **
His top lieutenant that helped MMCI fail is still on the BU board.

[Da Coach]

Thanks for the insight, BravesFanChicago. I hope you will continue to update us with as much info as you are allowed to reveal.
I've met Dr, Standifird, and he's a terrific guy and has the qualifications for the job. So let's all hope these moves lead to a resurgence of leadership and financial stability at Bradley.

[NashvilleBU]

I think this could be a positive step with declining student admissions and rising tuitions costs (52k room and board per year)….however, I have heard Dr. Standifor lacks accountability to be a successful college president. Why did the new Business School Dean retire after one and half years? Why are most of the admissions directors and counselors getting fired? Looks interesting?

The major problem with all colleges - high cost of tuition, possible large student loans due to rising costs and low paying jobs coming out of college (starting salaries around 40-60k) are making college less admirable. You can get an MBA from UofI for around 15-20k through Coursera (online schooling platform)….half of one semester at BU.

I’m hoping for the best but things are starting catch up and many students are looking for other avenues for education (community college, trades, online universities, etc.)

[Bravesfanchicago]

Yoda: I think you may be confusing the executive leadership of MB with the Board leadership at Methodist. The Board leadership at MHS pursued most of what you described. In fact …Michael opposed the strategic transactions. The UnityPoint deal was hotly pursued by the Methodist Board leadership . MB was long gone.

You are wildly misinformed on Bryant’s roles and leadership.

[yoda]

Chgo-
you misread
I did not say MB was involved in selling out to Iowa-
what he was involved with was many horrible management decisions from 1999 thru 2011 that left MMCI NEAR BANKRUPT, so that the only option was to sell.
Sorry, but I was there & the whole mess was 100% his.
A 120 year old solid, strong Peoria institution down the drain under his leadership.
Also, it’s still sinking - damage way way already done, stay tuned

[Bravesfanchicago]

Yoda:

See the excerpted summary below of the Fitch ratings report from May 2011. This is a credit assessment of just Methodist that May of 2011 . The UnityPoint LOI was signed late March 2011….but they didn’t merge til later.

The Methodist credit review presents an “ A” rating …which was the median rating for all hospitals in the U.S. and hi-lights the Methodist strong cash position and operating results..among other things . Hardly a near bankruptcy organization.

Not sure what your issue with Bryant is ….but as of May 2011 …this was a credit worthy entity with a large cash position and positive operating margins.. competing in a competitive market. Certain board members wanted to sell …..they weren’t forced to sell.






“FITCH rates Methodist Medical Center's (IL) $52MM series 2011B revs

(The following was released by the rating agency)

May 04 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings assigns an ‘A’ long-term underlying rating to approximately $52 million Illinois Finance Authority variable rate demand revenue bonds, series 2011B to be issued on behalf of Methodist Medical Center of Illinois.


The Rating Outlook is Stable.

RATING RATIONALE:

--The ‘A’ rating is supported by Methodist Medical Center of Illinois’ (Methodist) strong balance sheet metrics, light leverage and physician alignment strategy with employed physicians accounting for over 65% of admissions;

--A primary credit concern is the competitive environment with Methodist maintaining the second market share position among three providers in a service area dominated by one large employer;




KEY RATING DRIVERS:

--Maintaining strong liquidity and solid operating profitability;

--On March 29, Methodist executed a non-binding Letter of Intent to explore a strategic partnership with Iowa Health System (revenue bonds rated ‘AA-‘; Stable Outlook by Fitch). Should both parties agree to a partnership agreement, an upward movement in Methodist’s rating could occur depending on the final terms of the agreement.

CREDIT SUMMARY:

The ‘A’ rating reflects Methodist’s strong liquidity, manageable debt burden, and good physician alignment strategy. Credit concerns include the heavily competitive service area and although capital plans are manageable going forward, Fitch believes the competitive environment may put pressure on capital spending in the medium term.

Liquidity indicators are strong for the rating level. At Dec. 31, 2010 (fiscal year-end), Methodist had $166 million of unrestricted cash and investments, which equated to a solid 193.8 days cash on hand compared to the ‘A’ category median of 183.8 days. With the series 2011 issuance, MADS will decrease to $8.2 million from $9.4 million (including an assumption for the line of credit), resulting in a proforma cushion ratio of 20.3 times (x) and proforma cash to debt of 189.9%. Both metrics exceed the respective ‘A’ category medians of 14.4x and 105.5%.

Operating performance softened in fiscal 2010 and 2009, primarily driven by an increase in employed physicians over the last few years and an increase in pension expense. Methodist employs more than 165 physicians and mid-level providers, 29 of which were hired in 2010. Employed physicians account for approximately 65% of all inpatient admissions. Management stated that the pace of physician practice acquisitions is expected to decrease in fiscal 2011 and 2012. Operating margin averaged 4% over the last four years, but declined to 2.5% in fiscal 2010 because of the reasons listed above as well as one-time expenses associated with the strategic partnership with Iowa Health System, which is below the ‘A’ category median of 3%. Operating EBITDA margin averaged 10.6% over the last four years, but declined in fiscal 2010 to 9.2% compared to the ‘A’ category median of 10%. Management expects operating performance to return to historical averages after Methodist absorbs the increased costs associated with the recent physician practice acquisitions.

Methodist’s debt burden is manageable with proforma MADS comprising 2.2% of total revenues compared to the ‘A’ category median of 3.0%. Solid operating cash flow resulted in proforma operating EBITDA MADS coverage of 4.1x in fiscal 2010 and 3.9x in fiscal 2009.”

[yoda]

but I know you know business, credit ratings often lag behind a year or two for financial data to get fully reported, but even so, "A" is not a top notch rating for a major referral hospital.
Even with the troubles they've had the past few years, they still maintained AA
From the 80's thru 2001, MMCI's market share was always 34-35%, never varying. In the next decade (2001-2010) it dropped to 29-30%, a massive drop that caused many insurers & employee plans to shift their preferred provider away from MMCI. One only needs to ask,
..."why after 100+ years of success and stable operation, then in 2009 and 2010 they shopped the heck out of the system trying to sell but were turned down repeatedly (Columbia, Humana...). Then they sold properties to shed fat & when the Iowa system bought in they spent many millions more trying to shore up the system and gain ground, but could not and now they're cutting & running. with another fire sale"

You prob don't know him, but Roger was also right there in their administration for 1/4 of a century- http://thecommunityword.com/online/b...-carle-health/

If the CEO from 1999 was doing such a good job, then what was the reason he was suddenly "gone" just as MMCI chose to sell to the Iowa system, then same thing happened a year later at the new place he landed

I just worry that the very people who were there when they brought in Glasser, and who some became puppets on her hand-picked Board, are maybe NOT the ones we need now. (And I am not referring to you)

[Da Coach]

We seem to be veering off topic here. So unless this focuses back specifically onto Bradley, I will move this discussion to the General board.

[Bravesfanchicago]

i appreciate the insight you have ….I won’t prolong the chatter. And I won’t get into the dynamics of who opposed the UP deal. One last observation…Bryant’s next role as CEO was at a challenged provider…..don’t read anything into his tenure there….it was messy before he arrived.

we have more wood to chop at BU ….and the timber is tall and thick . Hopefully we can support the admin make some big changes.