SÁÁ faces leadership crisis after CEO leaves

The situation at SÁÁ is “extremely serious and very sad”, according to Valgerður Rúnarsdóttir, a former medical director at Vog, the organisation’s hospital. She spoke to mbl.is after the SÁÁ executive board dismissed CEO Ragnheiður Hulda Friðriksdóttir, triggering the departure of most of the hospital’s senior management.

Valgerður, who previously served as Vog’s chief physician and CEO, has resigned after 26 years with the organisation. A severance agreement has also been reached with the outgoing CEO.

“The situation is extremely serious, unfortunately, and very sad, but hopefully it will become clearer in the next few days,” Valgerður said. She added that the authorities were treating the matter seriously and that the greatest damage was the renewed blow to SÁÁ’s reputation.

Valgerður said the dispute once again involved unclear boundaries between the board of the voluntary organisation and the professional management of its healthcare services.

“The voluntary organisation SÁÁ has a board and a chair, like all voluntary organisations, and then a CEO is appointed to run the healthcare service,” she said.

Running healthcare services was different from running an ordinary company, Valgerður said, because the CEO was subject to extensive healthcare-related duties and legislation. She said the necessary trust between the board and the CEO was absent because the board believed it knew better.

According to Valgerður, the unclear division between the organisation’s board and the professional healthcare management led to the CEO’s departure. She said the professional service was now at risk and that the gaps in management had to be filled quickly or the disruption would soon affect operations.

Valgerður said Vog’s financial position had never been stronger. The organisation had, for the first time, secured a contract with the state covering nearly all healthcare services. Work had been under way with the CEO to introduce changes and implement the new agreement, she said, but the board did not consider that approach viable.

She said the matter was now largely in the hands of the health authorities, with which SÁÁ has a contract and whose trust it had earned. In her view, the specialised healthcare service needed to remain under professional executive management.

Valgerður said she wanted Ragnheiður Hulda to be reinstated. She also said SÁÁ had been working to intervene earlier when appropriate and provide treatment in locations other than Vog, while making good use of its outpatient department.