The crowd erupted into cheers at the South Kingstown High School auditorium on Thursday, April 3, as Claudia Swain, former South County Hospital vice president of development, stood before 400 people to recognize the community for sticking by her side as she fought a lawsuit from South County Health.
Swain is just one of the hospital’s many former employees in support of Save South County Hospital’s community meeting directed toward changing leadership in the hospital.
Save South County Hospital, a non-profit advocacy group which formed in October, 2024 has been subject to two lawsuits by the hospital.
The first lawsuit claims that Swain had violated her non-disclosure agreement by sharing donor information and compromising the donor base.
The second lawsuit targets SSCH’s previously planned special meeting for the members of the hospital endowment.
The lawsuit against Swain has since created an outrage from the community on Facebook and other social media platforms, prompting the community meeting which aimed to better explain the situation and SSCH’s actions going forward, according to SSCH Co-Director Chris VanHemelrijck.
The lawsuit is a strategic lawsuit against public participation, according to VanHemelrijck. A SLAPP-suit is a lawsuit that is used to discourage critics by burdening them with legal defense until they step down from their opposition.
“It’s a suit that was filed without merit, and if the judge finds in favor, that would negate the lawsuit,” VanHemelrijck said.
As someone who worked with Swain for many years, Christopher Little, former chair of the South County Health Board of Trustees, shared his opinion at the community meeting to inform people on the lawsuit.
“That’s not Claudia,” Little said. “We all know that’s not Claudia.”
Little went on to give a personal account of Swain’s openness and encouragement for everyone to make their own decisions, Little said.
The lawsuit against Swain has yet to come forth for a hearing.
The second lawsuit was filed against a special meeting for the members of the hospital endowment.
In the special meeting, SSCH had planned to add nine independent trustees to the South County Hospital board, according to VanHemelrijck. The hospital sued the group claiming their actions were against the bylaws.
SSCH has since formed a legal defense fund to defund the lawsuit filed by south county hospital.
The group will hold off on adding these nine trustees and has withdrawn their claim so as to avoid legal expenses, according to VanHemelrijck.
“Part of the difficulty [SSCH] had in knowing for certain whether or not the suit would prevail was that the Board of Trustees was not willing to share the bylaws,” VanHemelrijck said.
The most recent version of the bylaws is from 2024, but that information is not available to the group, according to VanHemelrijck. The most recent version of the bylaws SSCH had access to is from 2016.
South County Health held their annual meeting on April 7 to discuss changes to the bylaws which will provide important insight for the group going forward, according to VanHemelrijck.
This meeting will also bring clarity to the number of endowment trustees which has also arisen as a problem, according to former council member for South County Health, Don Wineberg.
Heavy uncertainty lies in the fate of the endowment board, according to Wineberg. For many years, 400-500 community members had made up the endowment which now has been reduced to 112 members.
Many long-term endowment members have expressed disappointment after receiving letters of dismissal, according to Little. After being a dedicated member for 30 years, Little said had been kicked off the board without warning.
This massive shift in the number of endowment trustees could be a regulatory violation, according to Wineberg.
“We think the processes for manipulating membership are flawed,” Wineberg said. “I also personally believe as a lawyer that that’s a regulatory violation but I won’t go into too much detail because I’ve asked the regulators to look into that.”
This is still pending and up for consideration, according to Wineberg.
In hopes to give a public relations push to the board, SSCH set up a table after the community meeting where members who received sudden letters kicking them off the board can email the board.
“We’re very optimistic,” VanHemelrijck said. “We’re not viewing this as the defeat.”
