PHOENIX — The longest-serving member of the Hacienda Healthcare Board of Directors is resigning, according to a statement sent Thursday.
Tom Pomeroy, who was a board member for 38 years, will resign effective Friday, March 1, the statement says. He had been serving as the board’s director.
Multiple state officials have censured Hacienda Healthcare after a former nurse at a Phoenix facility was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting an incapacitated patient who gave birth in December.
The statement says the Hacienda board is in the process of establishing new governance procedures after the company agreed to allow the Arizona Department of Health Services to oversee the company’s operations.
The procedures being changed include how board members are appointed and how long the members serve. According to the statement, each board member is individually reconsidering their service on the board.
“There has not been a waking hour in the last two months – since I learned about a baby being born in Hacienda’s Intermediate Care Facility under such awful circumstances – that I haven’t thought about and acted on ways to improve this organization. The same goes for every Hacienda employee and Board member, I am sure. Hacienda needs to get better, because what Hacienda does is too important to accept such a failure. If my resignation contributes in some way to Hacienda moving forward, then I do so sadly, but without an iota of doubt. I want Hacienda to thrive for its patients, their families, our people and our community,” said Pomeroy in the statement.