Eastern State Ceo Under Investigation State Steps In After Former Aide Accuses Him Of Ethical Violations

Eastern State Hospital is in turmoil and its CEO under investigation as the state reviews whistleblower complaints at the mental hospital in Medical Lake.

When Steven Covington took control of Eastern in 1994 he was given the delicate task of running the expensive institution in a more frugal manner. His management decisions soon sparked worker complaints that now border on mutiny, hospital sources say.

The state auditor’s office and the state Executive Ethics Board are investigating allegations about Covington filed by a well-placed hospital whistleblower.

The complaints accuse Covington, the chief executive officer, of such ethical violations as demanding that assistants run his personal errands and lie about his whereabouts when his bosses called from Olympia.

Covington also is accused of misusing state vans and telephones, and carting hospital furniture to his home for private parties.

The complaint by Covington’s former top assistant Shirley Maike states that at least four of the hospital’s top 18 managers can confirm her claims, according to documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

Covington denied the alleged ethics violations in a letter he sent to Maike, but would not discuss the specifics Friday.

“Those are just what they are - allegations,” he said, noting he will let the investigations run their course.

Covington said he doesn’t believe his tenure is drowning in staff dissention. “I believe I have the support and confidence of the hospital staff as well as my superiors” in Olympia, he said.

“I don’t think the morale is any different than any other organization where you are seeing downsizing.”

Theresa Mahar, the hospital’s director of social work, defends Covington.

“He’s very supportive and very honest in his approach to managing the hospital,” said Mahar, who has been in her job two months. “The (whistleblower) allegations are not Steven. He is very aware of what the hospital needs. The misuse of state items is not in his makeup.”

Eastern, one of the state’s two big psychiatric hospitals, is coping with a budget cut of nearly 10 percent. The hospital closed a ward last year and has trimmed staff to the chagrin of three strong unions for the 590 employees.

The whistleblower complaint and hospital sources - who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation - say morale can’t get much lower. “It’s below zero,” said one employee. Covington’s alleged lack of concern for workers’ job security has some nurses calling him “the ax murderer.”

Earlier this week, hospital workers were outraged when Covington notified the hospital’s medical director that he was was getting “terminated.”

Dr. Al Miller was just returning from a leave to be with his sick wife who was recovering from surgery when he got the news. Miller was not given any reason, sources said.

Covington said Miller wasn’t fired, but simply moved to another job with no loss in pay. “He was not terminated,” Covington said. “He was reassigned.”

Miller refused to comment.

His colleagues reportedly rallied behind him at an emotional meeting Friday of the hospital’s top executives. Some doctors told Covington how upset they were about his handling of Miller, sources said.

“Al Miller is an asset to that hospital,” said a veteran nurse. “I’ve never heard a physician complain about his abilities.”

Covington said the downsizing he’s had to enforce has triggered some discord, but that it has not affected the quality of care at the hospital.

Gregg Goins, director of personnel at Eastern State, said he believes Covington is doing good work. “He’s as good of a CEO as I’ve seen anywhere,” said Goins, who has worked at the hospital for 15 months.

Jerry Pugnetti, a spokesman for the state auditor’s office, said the office will release its report on the whistleblower allegations in about a month. The ethics board’s findings should follow soon after that.

In a letter to the auditor’s office, Maike states that she got along with Covington until he wrongly suspected that she had turned him into the state for driving a car with expired tabs and out-of-state license plates.

Maike, who has worked at Eastern for 21 years, served on the hospital’s executive committee and was the top assistant to Covington before she was demoted last year.

In July, Covington put Maike on the list of proposed “RIFs”a bureaucratic acronym for reductions in force - which usually results in someone being fired or at least demoted.

Contacted at the hospital Friday, Maike refused to discuss her whistleblower case or anything regarding the hospital. “I cannot comment,” she said.

“On multiple occasions, Mr. Covington has used a state van for personal business,” stated Maike’s complaint to the state. “He has instructed me to lie about his whereabouts to Mental Health Division staff. He has routinely made out-of-state long distance telephone calls from his office on work time…”

Maike also raised concerns about Covington’s use of state employees and state equipment to outfit the house he rents from the state on the hospital campus. At one point, he directed state employees to deliver hospital tables and chairs to his home for a private Christmas party, according to the complaint.

Maike told state investigators that Covington often asked her and others to run his personal errands on state time. “Most recently,” she wrote, “he asked a state employee on work time to take his daughter to the airport in her private vehicle.”

, DataTimes