2 D-H EXECUTIVES TO DEPART THIS FALL
Jeff O’Brien, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s chief operating officer, is scheduled to retire Oct. 5, and Sue Reeves, DHMC’s executive vice president, is set to retire in early November, according to a message Dartmouth Health CEO Joanne Conroy sent to staff this week.
O’Brien came to DHMC in November 2021 from the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Mass., where Conroy had served as CEO before coming to Dartmouth Health in 2017.
Reeves has served as DHMC’s executive vice president since July 2020. She also serves as chief nursing executive for the DH system. She’s been in the chief nursing role since June 2017.
Until the leadership positions at DHMC are filled, Conroy is planning to spend more time directing operations at the health system’s flagship academic medical center.
The leadership changes come as the health care system has reported more stable finances in recent months, following the implementation of a financial improvement plan, the opening of a new patient tower and layoffs. The system still lost about $45.3 million, or 1.5%, in the fiscal year that ended June 30. But it showed a gain in the fourth quarter that ended June 30, of $47.8 million.
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD’S ECONOMIC IMPACT ESTIMATED AT $1.4B
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s economic impact swelled to over $1.4 billion last year, a record high for the military installation despite a slight civilian payroll decrease.
The Seacoast Shipyard Association (SSA) unveiled its annual economic impact report last Thursday, showing the impact in 2022 was $1,457,952,317, a 10.2% year-over-year increase, according to the report.
The SSA calculates economic impact as the total of civilian employee payroll, military payroll, the cost of purchased goods and services, and contracted services.
In 2021, the shipyard’s economic impact was a little more than $1.32 billion. In 2020, it was nearly $948 million at the beginning of the pandemic.
In 2022, the civilian payroll was just over $663.5 million, a drop from $670.7 million the year before. More than 4,100 workers lived in Maine, with nearly 2,900 from New Hampshire and 160-plus from Massachusetts. A total of 187 workers came from outside those three New England states.
Close to $372 million was paid to civilian workers in Maine, compared to $239.1 million to New Hampshire employees and just shy of $24 million to Massachusetts yard workers. Almost $28.5 million was paid to workers outside the three states.
In 2022, the shipyard paid nearly $196.2 million for purchased goods and services, a major increase from the previous year’s $133.7 million-plus payout, and over $559.7 million for contracted services, which was over $90 million more than in 2021.
CONCORD CASINO KEPT CHARITY PROCEEDS, WITH STATE LOTTERY’S PERMISSION
Earlier this month, state lottery regulators moved to strip Concord Casino of its license to operate after investigators found the casino’s owner, former state Sen. Andy Sanborn, allegedly used $844,000 in COVID-related bailout loans to fund a lavish lifestyle including sports cars purchased for himself and his wife.
For years before the NH Lottery Commission took action, publicly available records show Sanborn had been collecting fees from charities he partnered with above the percentage charged by other charitable gaming facilities, in apparent violation of state law.
According to public records, the arrangement was done with the Lottery Commission’s approval, and resulted in Sanborn retaining half of the proceeds intended for charities for himself.
In 2006, the state overhauled its rules for charitable gaming, allowing for-profit facilities to run table games year-round, with 35% of gambling proceeds going to local charities. The gaming operators, however, were permitted to continue charging “rents” to the charities, as a way to cover their overhead.
State law requires that casino rents be fixed and not “based on a percentage” of proceeds, but records from the Lottery Commission show that the Concord Casino was doing just that.
Rather than the charity receiving 35% of the gambling profits from table games, nonprofits that partnered with Concord Casino only received 17.5% of proceeds.
The Lottery Commission stated that it was aware of the arrangement with Sanborn’s casino and “raised the issue in recent audits.”
