COVID-19 concerns drive conservative effort to win seats on Sarasota Hospital Board
Dr. Joseph Chirillo’s COVID-19 views put him at odds with many in the medical community.
Chirillo used ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat his COVID-19 patients, drugs that have received a lot of publicity in conservative circles but have generated warnings from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
The doctor also believes "masks are ineffective," and felt strongly enough that he signed a stack of blank opt-out forms to give to parents when Sarasota County schools mandated masks at the beginning of the last school year.
And while he says he's "not an anti-vaxxer," Chirillo describes the COVID-19 vaccines as "unproven," opposes vaccine mandates and doesn't recommend the shots for people who are generally healthy or low-risk.
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Chirillo knows his views are controversial.
“People were looking at me like I’m some conspiracy theorist or witch doctor,” when he prescribed alternative treatments for COVID-19, he said in an interview.
Such resistance hasn’t deterred him, though, and he now is hoping to bring his perspective to the largest health care agency in the region by joining the Sarasota County Hospital Board, which governs the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.
Chirillo has joined forces with three other Hospital Board candidates who share similar views on COVID-19. The candidates are calling themselves the “Health Freedom Slate” and working together to try to exert influence on one of the nation’s premier hospital systems, which they accuse of major pandemic missteps that have eroded public confidence in the hospital.
COVID-19, health care issues bringing intense partisan debates
The coordinated campaign by these conservative candidates illustrates how COVID-19 concerns are coursing through political campaigns at all levels now, including in usually sleepy races for low-profile seats such as the Hospital Board.
It also shows how much health care issues have been politicized over the last two years, drawing intense partisan debate.
Yet while it’s not unusual to have COVID-19 at the center of a political campaign in recent years, the Sarasota Hospital Board races are unique.
They offer a national case study on whether conservatives who are skeptical of how the health care system has handled the pandemic can exert significant influence on a major health provider, one that has garnered national acclaim and is now facing an uncertain future after years of steady growth that have made it a regional economic powerhouse with a $1.3 billion annual budget and 8,000 employees.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital is an enticing target because it is a public, partly taxpayer-funded entity that is controlled by an elected board, allowing for a political takeover.
The four “health freedom” candidates can’t gain control of the nine-member Hospital Board on their own, but they still could be a highly disruptive force and are putting longtime supporters of the hospital on edge.
“If they have lost confidence in a hospital of this caliber I feel sorry for them,” said Dr. Richard Rehmeyer, a Hospital Board member who is up for reelection. “And if they feel they need to politicize something to run for an elected office then I feel double sorry for them because this is a spectacular institution that has served this community extremely well.”
Defend our Union: ‘This is not medicine; this is insanity’
Rehmeyer is being challenged by Vic Rohe, a retired police officer and longtime local GOP activist who is part of the "health freedom slate," and three other candidates.
The other members of the slate are two nurses, Bridgette Fiorucci and Patricia Maraia. Neither responded to interview requests.
The four have set up a joint website – healthfreedomsrq.com – and have been handing out cards advertising the slate. The cards encourage voters to “restore the confidence lost in the Sarasota Memorial Hospital System.”
Rohe narrowly lost a race the be the vice chair of the Sarasota GOP, and also lost a bid to serve on the Sarasota County Charter Review Commission. He said the main reason is running for a Hospital Board seat is to address “serious allegations ... of patients' mistreatment, including death, involving the protocol for COVID-19 at the hospital.”
Rohe said he was recruited to run for the seat by Dr. Stephen Guffanti, a former emergency room doctor who was treated for COVID-19 at Sarasota Memorial last year.
Guffanti alleged in videos posted on conservative websites that Sarasota Memorial didn’t properly treat another COVID-19 patient he shared a room with, and that when Guffanti tried to advocate on the patient’s behalf he was restrained for hours.
In one video posted on the conservative platform Rumble by the group Defend our Union, Guffanti says: “This is not medicine, this is insanity.”
The video is titled: “Defend our Union interviews eyewitness to COVID Killing Fields.”
Guffanti’s allegations sparked a demonstration outside the hospital that drew dozens of sign-waiving activists. One sign read: “SMH hospital or jail?” Another called on the hospital to use ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatments.
Rohe and Chirillo believe the hospital didn’t handle Guffanti’s allegations properly.
“What needs to be done is there needs to be an open, comprehensive and well-documented investigation of the allegations,” Rohe said.
Sarasota Memorial declined to get into specifics about Guffanti’s claims, citing privacy laws.
“Our team has worked with dedication and diligence throughout this pandemic to provide the very best care to all of our patients,” said hospital spokeswoman Kim Savage. “The video, which contains unsubstantiated, untrue and often politically motivated accusations, does a grave disservice to our patients, caregivers and community.”
Hospital Board candidate cites complaints about how Sarasota Memorial handled pandemic
Chirillo has a host of other complaints about how Sarasota Memorial handled the pandemic. He doesn’t believe masks should be required at the hospital and doesn’t believe hospital employees should be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The federal government mandated vaccines for health care workers. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate.
Chirillo also praises alternative treatments for COVID-19 and criticizes the use of remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug used at Sarasota Memorial.
“I think SMH is a good hospital,” said Chirillo, who practiced medicine for 34 years and served on the Englewood Community Hospital board. “I think they might be heading a little bit in the wrong direction, and if I can help I’d like to do it.”
Rehmeyer said pushing ivermectin, which is used to treat parasites in humans and animals, and hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria, as COVID-19 treatments is a bad idea.
“Do I think giving a drug that’s used for malaria to a COVID patient makes sense? I’m sorry, I don’t… Do I think giving veterinary medicine to humans is wise? I’m sorry, I don’t,” he said.
The FDA says ivermectin shouldn't be used to treat COVID-19 and hydroxychloroquine should only be considered as treatment in "clinical trial settings or for treating certain hospitalized patients."
Gregory Carter, a retired AT&T employee who has served on the Hospital Board for nearly 20 years and is up for reelection, said the health freedom candidates “misunderstand” some of the issues surrounding COVID, adding that: “It really bothers me that politics have gotten into this.”
“I think that there’s some bad information that they’re getting that our challengers are sticking with in a negative way,” Carter said.
Tramm Hudson: Sarasota Memorial did great job responding to COVID-19
Hospital Board member Tramm Hudson, the former chair of the Sarasota GOP, has been critical of the hospital administration, voting last year against a 10-year contract worth more than $12 million for Verinder and raising concerns about the hospital funneling money into a political committee.
Verinder’s contract – which other current board members defend as a bargain for a CEO of his caliber and record, arguing he could earn much more money elsewhere – also is a major focus of the health freedom candidates.
But Hudson, who is not up for reelection, believes that Verinder and his team performed admirably during the pandemic.
“I don’t have any reservations about how Sarasota Memorial responded to COVID; I think it’s commendable,” Hudson said. “I think the team did a great job.”
Hudson said the administration moved quickly to address a supply shortage and worked long hours under stressful conditions. Rehmeyer noted that the hospital more than doubled the size of its intensive care unit at one point to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients, a task that required a “tremendous effort” to coordinate the staff and equipment needed for those ICU beds, he said.
“I think the response that Sarasota Memorial did on COVID in general was historic and heroic," Verinder said.
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Hudson believes the administration has too much control over the Hospital Board, and wants to see a shake-up. He is promoting his own slate of candidates.
They include Nick Altier, Brad Baker and Thomas Dart. Hudson also is endorsing Chirillo and Maraia, saying they will be independent voices on the board, even if he doesn’t agree with their COVID criticism.
Large slate of Hospital Board candidates makes for unusual election
The dueling and overlapping slates of candidates makes for an unusual election. There also are five incumbents running – Rehmeyer, Carter, Darryl Henry, Jim Meister and Joseph DeVirgilio.
Among the 14 candidates running for five seats, all but one is a Republican.
Only Republicans are running for four of the seats, so the contests will be decided in the Aug. 23 primary. If there is no general election, all voters can cast ballots in a Florida primary, so Democrats and no party affiliation voters will have a chance to weigh in on the four races.
The Sarasota GOP isn’t endorsing any of the candidates, but the Sarasota County Democratic Party is recommending Dart, Baker, Henry and Carter in the primary.
“There are reasons for concern about some of the other candidates you’ll see on the ballot for Hospital Board,” the Democratic Party wrote in the endorsement. “The Board should function in a non-politicized manner.”
Rehmeyer said he should be reelected, along with the other incumbents, because the hospital has performed well under their leadership.
“It just gets better and better as we go along,” Carter said. “I can’t see where we need to make a lot of these changes ... I think we need to keep up the high standards that we have.”
The Sarasota Memorial system has been expanding aggressively, with a new hospital opening in Venice, a new cancer center on the Sarasota campus and more major improvements in the works. These projects amount to roughly $1.2 billion in community investments, according to the hospital.
At the same time, Sarasota Memorial has earned a national reputation for quality care.
“I think Sarasota Memorial has exemplary results," Verinder said. "It’s not because of me, it’s because of the people that work here. It’s everyone from the housekeepers who work the floors, to the nurses, to the physicians, to the board members.”
Sarasota Memorial is the only Florida hospital to earn the highest rating, five stars, from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid every year since the rating system launched in 2016, was ranked among the best hospital's in the country and the top six in Florida by U.S. News & World Report this year and also is among 13 Florida hospitals that made Newsweek’s list of the Top 2000 hospitals in the world, the only hospital in Southwest Florida to earn that distinction every year since the ratings were first released in 2018, according to a summary of the hospital's accolades provided by Savage.
Rehmeyer started working at Sarasota Memorial in 1968 as an ear, nose and throat surgeon and served as chief of staff at one point. He has seen the hospital’s growth and believes it is on the right track.
“The pandemic certainly has been a catalyst for increasing division,” he said, adding: “I only hope that the incumbents get reelected, that the CEO continues to be a beacon for the future and this community will continue to enjoy an incredible institution.”
Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Far right faction tries to win influence over Sarasota Memorial Hospital
