Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, at-large Seat 3: George Davis

Age: 77

Occupation: Retired physician. consultant in palliative care.

Resident of Sarasota County: More than seven years

Why are you running for election? 

To promote the excellence of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Health System and guard it against attempts at privatization and attempts to introduce non-scientific misinformation and lower standards of professionalism and education into its culture. 

These actions would jeopardize the retention and recruitment of the present excellent medical and nursing staff and would jeopardize the ability of SMH to provide the community services needed into the future.

Have you ever run for public office before? If so, for what office?

Yes, Columbia County, N.Y., coroner. Elected for four years.

What experience and/or special skills do you have that make you a better candidate than your opponents?

More than 35 years of medical practice, previously served on a hospital board, understand continuous quality improvement principles in hospitals, and I bring to the board deliberations my uniquely blended perspectives of primary care, palliative care and medical ethics.

What do you see as the top three or four priorities that the hospital board needs to address? And how should those priorities be addressed?

1. Remain a public, community-owned, excellent health system.
2. Continue the highest standards for medical and nursing care.
3. Continue to grow as a robust, major financial driver in the county able to meet the community needs in the future.
4. Continue to foster the level of caring and compassion that makes SMH stand out as a health care system.  

The system will need to grow as the population grows. More resources need to be given to the primary care network to enhance its coordinating role in the health system. 

The retention and recruitment of the highest trained physicians and nurses will need to continue to maintain the level of excellence. That means that SMH will need to develop additional teaching programs and research opportunities.

On a scale of A to F, with A being excellent, what grade would you give the performance of the current SMH executive team? Why, and what if anything should change in the way SMH leadership operates the SMH system?

Grade: A. Excellent care with up-to-date medical knowledge and excellent nursing support and professionalism. 

The hospital has identified and provided important community services, such as the behavior health center and the new health center in Newtown, which participates in the internal medicine residency training program. Continued recognition of community needs will be necessary in the future.

The hospital’s property-tax millage rate has been 1.042 mills. In 2023, that generated $81.9 million in property-tax revenue, accounting for 58% of the hospital system’s surplus over its expenses. What is your position on the hospital’s millage rate — should it remain 1.042 mills; should it be reduced or increased? Why?

No change. It should remain as it is for now as its revenue allows the hospital to provide substantial debt relief as needed for patients. It does not need to go higher as the system is financially sound and doing well and showing growth. 

Since there will be future growth in population and health needs, it is difficult to predict if the tax rate will need to be increased in the future.

A faction of Sarasota County citizens contends the hospital should be sold and privatized. What is your position on this and why?

No. Profits now go into community services, like the trauma center, behavior health center, obstetrics, the neonatal intensive care unit and comprehensive emergency rooms. 

Under privatization, profits go to shareholders and investors at the expense of quality and compassion. Any early changes by privatization, such as the number of patients the nurses care for, would quickly negatively impact the retention and recruitment of highly trained, highly qualified physicians and nurses.

Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, the hospital board recently rejected a motion from Board Member Victor Rohe to add on the SMH website, among other points, the following: “to fully inform the public of the lack of pre-authorization safety data, the evidence of probable risks of these injections and of [Florida Surgeon General] Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s recent call to immediately halt the use of these COVID-19 mRNA injections. … Further, all staff and employees should be instructed, when they interact with patients or other members of the community who make inquiries about the COVID-19 vaccine, to refer those patients or community members to the information available on the SMH website concerning the risks and lack of safety data, rather than simply referring those individuals to local pharmacies that continue to dispense these potentially dangerous injections.” 

Instead the board unanimously voted to support the following: “That the Board will continue to respect and honor every patient’s right to make [his/her] own health care decision within the patient-physician relationship, and using all resources available to them to inform the discussions surrounding those decisions … [T]he Board will continue to endeavor not to invade the physician-patient relationship or mandate treatment regimens for patients to its physicians.”

Do you agree or disagree with the board’s decision, and why?

The board acted appropriately to create a sense of unity while allowing Mr. Rohe to save face. Everyone wants to respect the doctor-patient relationship. The board avoided the acceptance of scientific and medical misinformation. But, taking what it voted on at face value, then there is much that could be done to strengthen the integrity, the privacy and the confidentiality of the physician-patient relationship.