Hospital drops SLAPP suits against advocacy group, both sides call a truce
By Will Collette
Much of the blame was focused on then newly appointed
hospital CEO Aaron Robinson.
Opposition to Robinson gelled into the Save South County
Organization who stepped up the pressure for reforms at the hospital. At the
same time, South County’s once top-ranked ratings for patient care and satisfaction dropped significantly. Last November, their patient safety rating, once A-rated, dropped to "C."
In a surprising move, Robinson and the hospital board
filed a SLAPP suit against Save South County Hospital and its leaders. “SLAPP”
stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” that actually
gives the defendant, usually a community group or local leader, grounds to
countersue for damages under Rhode Island
law. SLAPP suits have been around since the 1990s and are generally
reviled as a tool used by corporations to stifle opposition.
But both sides have now agreed to end the lawsuits and
apparently resolved, or at least stuck a pin in, the underlying disputes. Save
South County Hospital has changed its name to “Save Our Health Care” in a clear
gesture to de-escalate the conflict. They posted a statement, reprinted below,
describing where they see the issues going forward.
For its part, South County Hospital has reinstated and
restaffed its Oncology
Department that was one of the sparks that set off the conflict.
Robinson is not resigning and neither side has addressed the labor-management
issues that were also the major casus belli.
I hope this really does work and that South County Hospital
can improve patient care, working conditions and regain public trust and
confidence.
I first got acquainted with South County Hospital in the
1970s through friendship with then CEO
Donald Ford. Alone among RI hospital administrators, Donald supported a big
organizing drive in Rhode Island that aimed to get all hospitals in the state
to comply with federal law requiring that patients be treated regardless of
ability to pay and to provide a reasonable amount of free or reduced cost care
to uninsured patients.
I worked as a strategic researcher on that campaign and
Donald was a key contact who also became a cherished friend and mentor. I wish
he was still alive. He never would have filed the SLAPP suits, and I doubt this
painful conflict would ever have gotten so out of hand.
When Cathy and I returned to Rhode Island in 2001, South
County Hospital and later South County Health became our primary source for
health care. I’ve had a couple of multi-day stays as an inpatient and really
came to appreciate the great staff, as I wrote in this
review of my last stay.
Fingers crossed that this ordeal is over.
Here’s “Save
Our Health Care’s” statement posted on their re-branded substack site:
New Approaches for Our Health Care Advocacy In and Beyond
South County
With Our New Name Will Come an Expanded Purpose for Our
Group
Feb 16, 2026
New
Approaches for Our Health Care Advocacy In and Beyond South County
Dear Subscribers,
We’re continuing our work to support better health care in
South County. As our efforts with South County Hospital continued through
various discussions, our Save South County Hospital group discovered a role for
itself and this site beyond just one hospital. As such, we will no longer go by
that name.
Our decision came from multiple factors, including the
thorny issues in our current national, state, and local health care services.
We have decided to focus on both the big and small pictures. To align with that
purpose, we have rebranded ourselves Save Our Health Care to
touch on many and varied matters affecting medicine and your health.
In addition, our experiences in the last year have led us to
see ourselves as part watchdog and part advocate of best practices overall.
This means providing periodic information related to real
problems—physician shortages, physician autonomy removed when corporations
decide on allowed medical services, private-practice dilemmas, management in
the healthcare profession, cost-reimbursement and other kinds of financial
issues, coverage denials, prior authorization delays, surprise/out-of-network
bills, charity-care disputes, Medicaid access barriers, and “can’t get an
appointment” problems as a larger issue than just for a few patients.
Medicine is changing at a fast rate with new drugs, new and
different treatment protocols, and new approaches to healing or dealing with
old ailments and serious diseases.
The point is to examine, inform, and provide commentary on a
range of issues confronting health care and patients.
As a Rhode Island and South County watchdog, we also aim to
be a policy and regulatory force multiplier—showing up, as time allows, where
decisions are made and asking for measurable fixes.
This means we could testify at the State House, hold our own
press briefings, and form partnerships with community health centers and
providers, faith groups, senior centers, disability advocates, unions, and
municipal leaders.
To accomplish this, we will reach out to recruit additional
community members and professional stakeholders knowledgeable about the health
care landscape. We will invite them to join with us to broaden the scope of our
initiative and increase online commentary on this site about issues affecting
you.
We will be in touch shortly with more information about this
change and the overall benefits it can bring.
Yours Truly,
Save Our Health Care