Business

Mapp Says Hospital CEOs Making Close To $1 Million Combined, Calls For Change In Operations

ST. CROIX -- At a press conference held on Wednesday at Government House, Governor Kenneth Mapp called for change in the manner in which the territory's two hospitals are ran, and insisted that the current model of yearly floating bonds to keep them open is unsustainable. Attempting to demonstrate how operations at the hospitals have changed, the governor said the facilities were originally built to house 500 beds between St. Croix and St. Thomas, and there was one chief executive paid a salary of $60,000 yearly, who managed both the Juan F. Luis Hospital (JFL) and the Roy Lester Schneider Regional Medical Center (RLSH). However, in the territory's quest to see the hospitals become more profitable, "we decided to go and do some level of independence but we didn't really deal with the real issue," Mapp said. "The real  issue with the hospitals is uncompensated care. So we create all kinds of structures and systems and don't get to the issue of someone must pay for se...