Time to bring Sister Margaret Wright back.

Just when you think you have seen it all.

Some people need to be investigated for what is really going on at an old time Catholic hospital. Formerly known as St. George Hospital, they moved to Palos Park in 1972. Until January 2013, the hospital was run (very well) by Sister Margaret Wright. Suddenly, she was out and things do not seem to be running that well anymore.

As reported by Crain's Chicago Business, instead of sitting on the bench, the judge sits in the board room.

Judge sits on hospital board while her brother represents it in court

By Kristen Schorsch and Andrew L. Wang March 03, 2014

For at least 15 years, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Egan has sat on the boards governing a south suburban hospital while it regularly has hired her brother's law firm.
Chicago-based Pretzel & Stouffer has represented Palos Community Hospital in almost half of the 170 cases involving the hospital filed over that period in the law division of the circuit court, according to a Crain's review of court records. From 2011 to 2013, Matthew Egan, a partner in the firm, represented Palos in at least 15 cases before his sister's judicial colleagues, most of them involving medical malpractice or personal injury.
The nonprofit hospital did not disclose the financial relationship with Mr. Egan in forms filed with the IRS between 1999 and 2011, the latest year for which records are publicly available. It did disclose a separate sibling relationship: payments totaling nearly $56,000 to the sister of its former CEO in 2011.
In a response to questions from Crain's, the hospital says it plans to review its procedures.
“As it pertains to contracted legal services, we believe all of the required board disclosures have been made,” Palos board Chairman Edward Mulcahy says in a statement. “However, as a precaution, we will again review our internal processes.” Mr. Mulcahy says the administration, not board members, hire vendors.
SHAKEUP
The independent, 362-bed community hospital in Palos Heights is in the midst of a leadership shakeup. After roughly 30 years under CEO Sister Margaret Wright, who retired in 2013, the board hired Edgardo Tenreiro, chief operating officer at a Baton Rouge, La., hospital system. But with no public explanation, he departed three weeks ago after less than three months on the job.
Greg Paetow, a board member for three years, says he quit for “personal reasons” on Feb. 12, the same day Mr. Tenreiro left. A second person on the 12-member hospital board also resigned in February, as did Thomas Barcelona, chairman of the board of parent company St. George Corp., which solicits donations for the hospital.

Ms. Egan (at right), who also serves on St. George's board and is on the Palos hospital board's executive committee, says she disclosed Mr. Egan's representation of Palos on an annual conflict statement available to the hospital's auditors and tax preparers.
“I believe that I have performed my service as a jurist and volunteer PCH board member in a responsible and ethical manner,” she says in a statement. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
Ms. Egan did not respond to a request to provide the document. Disclosure statements she filed with the Illinois Supreme Court from 2011 to 2013 do not mention her brother or his law firm.
Mr. Egan says in an email that “no attorney in our firm has ever appeared before Judge Egan in any matter on behalf of Palos Community Hospital.” Notions of a potential conflict of interest are “false, indeed reckless,” he adds.
Even if Pretzel & Stouffer were the best firm for the job, experts say the lack of transparency raises questions.
“I would think in this case you would want to bend over backwards to disclose the conflict to make sure no one makes assumptions,” says David Becher, an associate professor of finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

I would think in this case you would want to bend over backwards to disclose the conflict to make sure no one makes assumptions.

— David Becher, professor, Drexel University

During Ms. Egan's tenure on the board, Pretzel & Stouffer has been named only once in the hospital's available tax returns, as one of the five highest-paid vendors in 2002, making about $163,000. Nonprofits generally must disclose employees who are board members' relatives if they make more than $10,000 a year, says David Lowenthal, a Chicago-based senior manager at accounting firm Plante & Moran PLLC.
The hospital has disclosed the compensation of board members Thomas Courtney, a lawyer who processes third-party liens for patient bills; Dr. Mark Sinibaldi, the medical director of the psychiatric unit; and Ms. Wright's sister, who also worked at the hospital.
CODE OF CONDUCT
Having Ms. Egan and fellow law division Judge Deborah Dooling on the hospital board raises other questions. The Illinois Supreme Court's Code of Judicial Conduct allows judges to serve on charitable boards so long as the service doesn't interfere with their duties.
The code, however, warns that a judge should not serve if the organization is “regularly engaged in adversary proceedings in any court” and singles out hospitals as a potential trouble spot.
Ms. Egan says she “carefully considered whether my service on the board was permissible” and, after consulting the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee, concluded there was no issue. Ms. Dooling did not return messages.
One past chair of the ethics committee says he would caution judges against serving on a hospital board because hospitals are frequently named in malpractice litigation.
“The fact that Dooling and Egan sit in the law division makes it more obvious that they should not be on the board,” says Warren Lupel, special counsel at Chicago firm Much Shelist PC. “If (cases are) frequent, it's 'regularly engaged,' and certainly for a hospital, it is frequent.”