The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has asked Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office to review a fundraising campaign run by Anna Jaques Hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic called the “Healthcare Heroes Fund ”, which raised more than $200,000.

Anna Jaques is an 83-bed, nonprofit community hospital located in Newburyport serving the North Shore, Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire. It has 1,200 employees and more than 200 doctors, according to the hospital’s website.

A hospital spokesperson told 25 Investigates: “All funds and resources were distributed appropriately to support our dedicated team in providing exceptional care to the community as we faced the unique needs of an unprecedented global health crisis. »

According to an expired donation link, Anna Jaques created the “Healthcare Heroes Fund” in spring 2021 to “support our nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and staff who are fighting on the front lines of the pandemic.” An April 2020 Facebook post announcing the fund said it “directly supports our crisis response efforts and ensures our frontline caregivers have the critical resources needed to face this pandemic head-on.” Anna Jaques is affiliated with the Beth Israel Lahey Health System. The fund’s marketing said all donations would stay in Newburyport.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020. An estimated 2,224,337 people have been infected in Massachusetts and nearly 25,000 have died here, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Kevin Kenney said he donated to the Healthcare Heroes Fund after spending 8 nights battling Covid in Anna Jaques’ intensive care unit in November 2021.

“It meant a lot because I was really on my deathbed. I was almost saying goodbye to my family after a few nights because I was having so much trouble breathing,” Kenney told investigative reporter Ted Daniel. “We really wanted to give money to the nurses who took care of me. They suggested we donate to the Nurses Heroes Fund and that money go to the nurses who took care of us.

Kenney said he held a benefit at a sports bar he owned in Salisbury and raised about $800 for the fund.

“I was expecting him to go back to the department, to the intensive care unit, to maybe give them some gift cards or something to help them and their families,” Kenney said.

25 Investigators reviewed correspondence between the deputy and hospital administrators. The MNA is the union that represents nurses in Massachusetts, including Anna Jaques employees.

On November 11, 2023, the MP asked Anna Jaques CEO Dr. Glenn Focht for a “detailed accounting of the total amount collected in the Healthcare Heroes Fund, an accounting of how these funds were allocated to Anna Jaques and the total remaining balance.” of the fund. » In the letter, the MP’s director of strategic campaigns, Dana Simon, wrote that the MP had already made the same request 7 times verbally and in writing starting in February 2023.

“Since we began questioning AJH (Anna Jaques Hospital) management, AJH web pages specific to the Healthcare Heroes Fund have been removed. All links to fund pages in previously published solicitations have become unavailable,” Simon wrote.

Simon questioned the hospital’s record keeping for the fund and cited what he claims are conflicting answers about the amount of money raised.

In meetings with hospital management, Simon wrote that the MP was informed: “that management was having difficulty tracking the funds in more detail, because there was some sort of connection with the BIDMC ( Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in Boston; that the contributions go to Boston.

25 Investigators asked Marsha V. Kazarosian, a Haverhill-based attorney, former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) and MBA board member, to review correspondence between the union and management of the hospital.

She said the questions asked by the MP are “absolutely fair” and based on the funds’ marketing that announced donations would directly benefit frontline workers.

“You ask for a specific objective and you talk about people, individuals. You are not talking about an entity or an organization. You conjure up the image of a person, you know, a nurse or someone on the ground, helping others,” Kazarosian said.

The lawmaker declined to speak on camera, citing an ongoing investigation by the attorney general’s office. A spokesperson for Attorney General Campbell said: “We are unable to confirm, deny or comment at this time.”

Anna Jaques responded to the MP in February 2024 with a written note containing a detailed account of the donation amounts received and a breakdown of expenses incurred by the hospital during the pandemic.

In the memo, Martha Lipchitz O’Connor, executive director of Anna Jaques Labor, said the “Healthcare Heroes Fund” raised $208,461 over a 3-year period and was “able to offset some of the pandemic’s unexpected expenses, but donations from the Fund covered only a fraction of the hospital’s overall costs.

According to Lipchitz O’Connor’s memo, “the unprecedented nature of the pandemic has required AJH to modify its clinical and operational practices to provide care and ensure the safety of our employees and staff.”

Changes included, but were not limited to, reconfiguring hospital spaces, training staff in new clinical practices, implementing different disinfection practices, providing large quantities of personal protective equipment, and switching to remote workflows.

The hospital says it spent $515,495.63 on safety measures for employees, including lab tests, surgical masks, disinfectant wipes and HEPA filters, $869,693 in 3 years of sick pay for hospital employees and $98,435.48 in gifts for staff, including social ice cream and Thanksgiving pies. , turkey dinners and logoed clothing for employees.

Anna Jaques administrators refused to speak to 25 investigators on camera. A hospital spokesperson said: “Anna Jaques Hospital appreciates the generous support our frontline workers have received from the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have implemented several initiatives to support the health and safety of our nurses, doctors, clinical teams and staff during this difficult time, including providing large quantities of personal protective equipment, reconfiguring hospital space and organizing increased employee engagement events.

These expenses were costly and unexpected, and donations to the Healthcare Heroes Fund covered a fraction of the overall costs of these initiatives.

The MP called the hospital’s explanation of how the funds were spent in an email to the attorney general’s office “far-fetched” and described Anna Jaques’ accounting as “just a long list of more of a million dollars in routine and mostly routine hospital expenses…”

“That’s what you want to avoid when you’re creating a fundraising event and you want precision to avoid that kind of questioning or at least avoid it in passing,” Kazarosian said.

“I think a lot of people donate to these funds, expecting it to go to the right place and to the right people. And if they didn’t, then we need to figure out why,” Kevin Kenney said.

The MNA said it was still awaiting a response from the attorney general’s office on the status of its complaint.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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