REORGANIZED HOSPITAL BOARD SLASHING SPENDING FOR CONSULTANTS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

With two new directors seated, the Antelope Valley Hospital board is scaling back spending for consultants and already is canceling the contracts of two firms.

The board gave 30-day notices to McBee and Associates, which was providing an interim chief financial officer to the hospital, and Tom Rieger of Rieger and Associates, who has worked on strategic planning issues.

``This is in conjunction with my campaign promise I made to review all consultants and take a look at what value they are adding to the hospital, compared to cost, and make adjustments in the contracts that the board agrees are necessary,'' said Gary Hill, who was one of two challengers elected to the board in November.

Both firms were on month-to-month contracts. The votes Wednesday to give notice were both 4-1, with board member Larry Chimbole dissenting.

Hill, the Lancaster finance director, and Dr. Donald Bean, both sworn in Wednesday as hospital board members, had criticized high administrative salaries and campaigned for financial responsibility.

Rieger had been hired in December 1995 for $10,000 a month on a four-month contract. He was rehired in April 1996 on a month-to-month contract that paid him $1,250 a day plus expenses, officials said. From October 1996 to October 1998, Rieger was paid $738,000, officials said.

Rieger worked on the hospital's purchase of Valley Technological Services, a company that provides mobile X-ray and mammography services; on developing a joint venture with local doctors, which is inactive at this time; and on planning a facility for skilled nursing care, which is under construction.

``Consultants should be brought in for specific items and not long-term relations,'' Hill said about giving Rieger notice. ``We felt we had staff competent enough to carry on with the programs that had been initiated, and it's a substantial savings for the hospital: $738,000 can pay for a lot of nurses.''

McBee was hired in September for a fee of $20,000 a month, plus a monthly expense allowance of $1,500, to provide an interim chief financial officer because the hospital's CFO, Bob Anderson, was acting as hospital administrator after the $275,000 buyout of the former top executive, Bob Harenski.

The CFO work was part of services for which McBee was paid $325,000 from October 1996 to October 1998, officials said.

In a closed session, the board discussed potential candidates to serve as interim and long-term chief executive officer. Among the names that later surfaced was that of Mathew Abraham, a former interim and assistant administrator at the hospital.

Abraham engaged in a two-year legal battle with the hospital over his pay for administering a medical-insurance program for hospital employees. The dispute with him was settled in 1995 for $350,000 from the hospital and a related nonprofit organization.

Abraham now works for a medical group in Olympia, Wash., and commutes every weekend, Bean said.

Hill has said Anderson is capable of handling both jobs of CFO and interim CEO. Bean has said Anderson does not have the qualifications to be the top administrator.

``(Anderson) is not going to be the permanent CEO. He does not meet the requirements, not in experience or educationally,'' Bean said.

In October, the hospital hired an executive search firm, Witt/Kiefer, for about $80,000 to look for a new hospital administrator to replace Harenski.