Harper’s ‘departure’ leaves questions across community

When Heather Harper moved to Crowley after she accepted the position of Acadia General Hospital’s CEO, it appeared as though she did so with the intention of staying for quite sometime.
She attended meetings of numerous civic organizations such as the Crowley Rotary Club and was recently elected to the board of the Crowley Chamber of Commerce.
She gave numerous addresses to organizations detailing her plans to improve nearly every aspect of Acadia General Hospital. Her goals to work on the hospital’s communications by reaching out to citizens of the Crowley and Acadia Parish area, hosting fundraisers to raise money for future improvements to the hospital and hoping to forge a bond among all the different workers at the facility appeared to be working.
And as recently as last week, she was receiving compliments by locals who were saying things like:
• “Before you got here I would have made the drive to Lafayette rather than go to American Legion Hospital (the former name of the hospital prior to it being placed under new management by Lafayette General Health, which runs the hospital in Lafayette under the same name).
• “Love all the positive changes you have made with AGH. It’s a great feeling when trust in our home town hospital has been restored. Great job.”
These weren’t quotes from area residents that were gathered over the year and a half that Harper ran Acadia General Hospital. They were among several that were given just after Thursday’s Business After Hours.
Anyone who has passed in front of Acadia General recently can notice the visible improvements that have been made, including a paint job that was still ongoing as of Tuesday.
However, it’s the following numbers that impressed area residents who had grown tired of complaints about the hospital and were thrilled to see after the new management had been there for a year:
• Patient satisfaction had grown from 35 percent prior to the take-over to 99 percent in just over a year.
• The expansion of the cancer treatment services had grown by 70 percent during the same period.
• Surgeons, such as Max Trahan and Dale Leleux, Crowley natives who were working at other hospitals prior to the takeover, returned home to work at the hospital with the hopes of seeing their hospital reach it’s potential.
So when people began to contact the Post-Signal on Monday, many of them confused, wanting to know why Harper is leaving, no ready response was available from us.
Contacted Tuesday, Harper had little to say except that she wished Acadia General Hospital nothing but the best for the future and that she was sure that the people she considered “her family” would keep up the progress that began under her leadership.”
LGH’s Daryl Cetnar, issued the following statement Tuesday after being asked to elaborate on a short press release he issued Monday which stated simply that Harper was “leaving to pursue other options.”
“We really don’t discuss employee matters when employees leave,” he stated. “I can say that the hospital has not seen the financial turnaround we were expecting by this point.
“The search has just begun and we don’t have an individual in mind just yet. For the time being, Charmaine Vidrine (who served as CEO during the transitional period prior to Harper’s arrival) and Caroline Marceaux will handle the operative duties until we find a permanent CEO.”
As for Harper, though she didn’t bring up the subject, she and her husband have just purchased a lot that they are planning to build a home on. And her civic involvement definitely didn’t give the appearance of a person who was planning to leave a city that she was becoming such a part of.
However, she would not say anything negative about the company that formerly employed her.
“All I can say is that I love Crowley,” she said. “The way they’ve embraced Phillip (her husband) and me has been very special. I really hope to be able to find a good job around here.”