A Northeast Health System vice president has been named the new medical director of the Gloucester High School Health Center, filling a post that had been empty since the previous medical director resigned in protest of the clinic's policy on providing birth control for students.
Peter Short, vice president of medical affairs for Northeast, which runs Beverly Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital and the high school health center, was a pediatrician at North Shore Pediatrics for 25 years before becoming a full-time administrator.
Addison Gilbert Hospital Director Cindy Donaldson announced Short's new assignment to the high school health clinic Tuesday afternoon and said the hiring of a new nurse practitioner for the clinic was in the process of being finalized and would be announced soon.
"We are very pleased that we have a medical director who is an exceptional candidate," Donaldson said yesterday. "I think we get the best of both worlds in that he has experience in private practice as a pediatrician and as an administrator. He is very enthusiastic about this."
Along with the former medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, the senior nurse practitioner at the clinic, Kim Daly, resigned effective at the end of the year.
Scott Lannon, a nurse practitioner who has been at the clinic since January, will see an increase in hours and take over Daly's slot, while the new nurse practitioner, a woman, would take over his old slot, Donaldson said.
In late June, Northeast announced that it had chosen a new medical director, but would not announce the identity of the person chosen.
Yesterday Donaldson said Short had always been the candidate in mind for the job, but that the hospital company had wanted to keep the position open in case a local physician expressed interest. In the end, finding a local doctor interested in dealing with the emotion and media attention surrounding the Gloucester clinic was not easy.
"Some felt the time commitment was too much for them; some thought the political environment would be difficult right now," Donaldson said.
The announcement of the new medical director comes at a time when the city and school department is re-evaluating its arrangement with Northeast on the health center.
Currently, no contract or agreement exists between Gloucester and the hospital formalizing the responsibilities and policy-making process regarding the health center, something Mayor Carolyn Kirk yesterday said may have contributed to the controversy that erupted over contraceptives and ultimately ended in scandal over an alleged pregnancy pact between students.
"One of the discoveries in this episode is a lack of a formal contract between the schools and Northeast Health System," Kirk said. "A contract would have clarified the roles and who was responsible for policy. Everyone thought they were in charge of policy decisions."
Orr and Daly resigned after members of a health clinic advisory board — responding to a surge in the numbers of students becoming pregnant and taking pregnancy tests — expressed reluctance to provide confidential access to birth control at the clinic.
Kirk has argued that the number of pregnancies at the school should never have been released from the clinic — even to school officials — and the debate about contraceptives should have been sent quickly to the School Committee.
To try to iron out and codify the governance of the health center, Kirk, through Public Health Director Jack Vondras, has requested that Northeast, the school department and the city enter into a contract over the clinic, which is funded by the state.
A spokesman for Northeast said the company had been contacted by Vondras about a contract, but did not yet have a comment on the proposal.
As the holder of the state license for the high school health center, Northeast is responsible for staffing it and did not consult with the schools on the hiring of Short.
With school set to open in less than a week, Superintendent Christopher Farmer said he hoped that the naming of a new medical director would allow the clinic to open along with it, but that he was not involved in the hiring process.
"I am looking forward to receiving the record of the medical director who is to be appointed and anticipate that the district will be invited to participate in the involvement of any nurse practitioner," Farmer said yesterday. "The district's hope and expectation is that the health center will reopen with an experienced and qualified staff and it will continue to receive the support of the community."
Farmer said he would prefer that at least one nurse practitioner at the clinic would be female, something Donaldson said the hospital had targeted as well.
"We think it is good to have one of each," Donaldson said. "There are a lot of males who have needs and females who have needs that may feel more comfortable with having one of each."
No matter who staffs the clinic, when it opens next week, it will still not have a policy regarding the distribution of contraceptives, which the School Committee has yet to hold a hearing on.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
