University's secret talks don't help tough merger

Some University employees from "The Sweetest Place on Earth" are finding a bitter taste in their mouths as the ink dries on the Penn State Geisinger Health System merger.

But the University has taken away that benefit and more, without warning and without much discussion.

At a time when the University is struggling to make ends meet, the merger might be in the health facilities' best interest in the long run, saving an estimated $105 million during the next three years for both institutions.

But in the name of budget cuts and efficiency, the University has forgotten the welfare of its employees.

Time and time again administrators refer to the members of the University as "The Penn State Family."

That family extends beyond University Park and the Commonwealth Campuses -- it includes the hundreds of people in Hershey who used to be called Penn State employees.

While their losses don't exceed those of most other company mergers, the manner in which they were informed of the new system left a lot to be desired.

Dr. C. McCollister Evarts, chief executive officer for the Medical Center, said he planted the seed for negotiations three years ago, while the work has been done in the past five months.

During that time, key players in the deal signed confidentiality letters ensuring everybody else would be kept in the dark until the day it was publicly announced at the University Board of Trustees meeting at University Park.

Instead of closed-door meetings and secret negotiations, the University should have been preparing these people for the drastic changes they were about to face.

It was more than a handshake and a smile that day for the secretary who was working at the Medical Center so her nine-year-old child could attend Penn State years later.

The situation wasn't as sugar-coated as it looked on the local news for the employee who lost part of his retirement package in the process.

While top administrators may have had the best intentions at heart, their secrecy only plants mistrust and low morale among the people the merger affects.

Good judgment isn't publicly speaking about meetings at a truck stop in Pine Grove after the fact. The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported last week that merger talks were held at a Comfort Inn to keep the talks secret.

This kind of behind-closed-doors secrecy only breeds feelings of betrayal and suspicion.

Deals and negotiations are best kept quiet up until a point, but when hundreds of people's futures are changing, they deserve to know before a public relations stunt at a meeting of the board of trustees.

Downsizing, merging and entering alliances -- it's all part of what the healthcare system is going through across the nation.

Anybody in the healthcare field should be expecting their jobs to alter.

But at an institution that prides itself on loyalty, administrators cut their people short with few options but to grin and bear it.

And for the unfortunate people who are losing their jobs, "transition teams" offered to help them find new employment.

Where these people will be able to relocate remains to be seen, now that this system combined with previous alliances has overtaken most of the state. The combined system will include 77 clinics, three major hospitals and almost 1,000 physicians.

While implementation occurs, the University should start being more open about the alterations about to take place.

The hospital has already been hit with a lot, but inevitably more is going to be thrown its way during this historic transition.

As the hospital adjusts to its "new look," administrators must work to build enthusiasm and trust among the most important people it has -- the people who run that hospital on a daily basis.

Perhaps they can still feel like part of that "Penn State Family" again -- however dysfunctional that family can be.