News

By Julia Caulfield

Staff at the Telluride Regional Medical Center are calling for Richard Betts’ resignation from the Hospital District Board.

Betts was recently reelected to the Board and serves as the chair.

In a letter sent to Betts and the Hospital District Board on July 8th, more than half of the Medical Center staff call for Betts’ resignation based on alleged verbal and physical harassment by Betts towards Dr. Sharon Grundy at the end of May. According to Med Center staff the incident was witnessed by Dr. Diana Koelliker.

Grundy says as her complaint regarding the incident is active, she’s not able to speak publicly at this time.

“This has been a really difficult eight weeks for me,” Grundy says, “Given that the incident of May 28, 2022 – giving rise to my complaint – is presently before the Telluride Hospital District Board, while also in the investigation stage with other agencies, I’ve been advised by my council not to publicly speak about the issue at this time.”

KOTO News reached out to Betts for comment. He was not available by broadcast deadline.

The letter states Betts’ “harassing and intimidating behavior undermines the values” of the Med Center, and threatens the “psychological safety” and wellbeing of staff.

Med Center staff note in the letter they are held to a code of conduct and harassment policy, and staff expects the Board of Directors to be held to the same standard. Dr. Christine Mahoney, is the Director of Primary Care at the Medical Center and signed the letter. She says staff waited for the Hospital District Board to take action. When that didn’t happen, Mahoney says they decided to call for Betts’ resignation.

“Our staff loves the Med Center. We love our patients. We love each other. Our goal is to be able to come to work every day and feel safe. This letter to Mr. Betts and to the Board is really about our overall concern about what is seeming to be tolerance of harassment and intimidating behavior,” Mahoney says. “If harassment can occur to the head of our med center, no one really feels safe here. We feel like it’s our duty to protect ourselves and our patients, so we can continue to provide the excellent care we do.”

Staff acknowledge, as an elected official, those on the Hospital District Board are unable to terminate Betts from the position, but expect fellow board members to urge him to step down. In the letter, staff say “doing nothing will be perceived as passive endorsement” of Betts’ behavior. In a statement to staff, Med Center CEO Bev Schulman stated she is “deeply saddened by a recent dispute”, adding the Board has called for Betts to step down as chairperson.

In the letter, staff gave Betts until 5 p.m. on July 15th to step down before going public with the demand – at the time of broadcast, Betts had not resigned from his position on the Board.

Med Center staff are urging the community to attend the Hospital District Board meeting on July 22nd adding they may consider a recall election for Betts this fall.