Doctors Hospital looks to share ownership

Alexis Brown, the Great Game’s director of public relations since 2000, left the Springfield Remanufacturing Co. subsidiary Dec. 30 to become communications director at Doctors Hospital, 2828 N. National Ave.

The move signifies more than a personnel addition for the hospital. Brown said her new job will take advantage of her experience in open-book management techniques and employee stock ownership programs learned from SRC chief Jack Stack.

The hospital plans to become partially employee-owned by March. According to Brown, the new ESOP is taking out a loan through Empire Bank to purchase 30 percent of the company’s outstanding stock.

“The plan, though, which is the part that I think is really interesting, is that in 15 years the entire company will be 100 percent ESOP,” she added. “That is the succession plan, so as doctors and physician-owners retire, employees will buy back their shares through the ESOP.”

A committee of hospital employees will eventually run the ESOP, though Brown said that committee will not be selected until after the ESOP is in place.

Back on track

Doctors Hospital CEO Paul Taylor, who took over operations in 2000 after the hospital was closed for two years, said that the employee-ownership plan fulfills a promise he made before the hospital re-opened.

“Those employees had put so much sweat equity into this place to get it open,” he said. “I had nurses who were painting walls and doors and cleaning floors, and the entire staff worked hard to get this place open, and then in the early days when things were a struggle they worked hard to keep it open, and I said I wanted to reward them and make sure to turn that sweat equity into real equity, and that means ownership.”

The hospital has not been without its struggles. SGOH Acquisition Inc., which does business as Doctors Hospital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Aug. 23, 2002, due to more than $8 million in secured and unsecured debt.

But it seems to be rebounding. One

indicator that the hospital is doing considerably better lately is its selection as one of Springfield Business Journal’s 2005 Dynamic Dozen, a list of the area’s 12-fasting growing companies based on revenue growth.

Part of Brown’s job is educating hospital employees on the intricacies of the new ESOP.

“An ESOP is extremely complicated in terms of the vesting schedule and what is your portion and so forth,” she said. “I’ll be communicating to the employees how the ESOP will impact them.”

She added that explaining how the Great Game works also is important.

“It will not only be the ESOP, but also how the hospital runs, which encompasses what The Great Game of Business is,” she said, “It’s just about communicating with the employees about the business and how they impact it, so I’m going to do that through different forms of education and training for the employees.”

Taylor said that the open management philosophy that the Great Game expounds is something he’s always felt was essential to the hospital’s success.

“When you go through a startup like we did, there was no way to keep good employees working for you in that environment unless you were completely candid with them about what was going on financially, and we’ve always practiced that here,” he said.

Additionally, Brown will be working on an internal wellness program and a comprehensive marketing and media plan.