Online Investigation Reveals Scotland County Hospital Staff Changes

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By Echo Menges

Friday, August 19, 2022 – The new leadership of Scotland County Hospital is remaining tight-lipped about some staff changes, despite the recent announcement of a new SCH chief executive officer (CEO) and title change of another newly hired executive.

Last week, the hospital communications specialist issued a news release announcing the hires of two new co-chief operations officers, Meagan Weber and Brent Peirick, which is featured in several local weekly newspapers on newsstands now.

The ink was barely dry before SCH was again making an announcement about a shakeup in hospital leadership via the SCH Facebook page.

On Wednesday, August 17, the hospital announced Weber was taking over the CEO position, Peirick would be the sole COO, and the Memphis Community Pharmacy located at the hospital was closing immediately.

No mention was made of past CEO Dr. Randy Tobler or past Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Michael Brandon. 

In the days since the latest announcement of new leadership, Weber has declined to answer any of our questions about it. However, the “Leadership & Supervisors” page on the SCH website is telling a different story.

On Wednesday and Thursday, August 17 and 18, the hospital listing of executives and staff didn’t change from the old guard. Tobler was listed as the SCH CEO. Brandon was listed as the SCH CFO. Weber and Peirick were listed as COO’s.

Friday morning, the same page is telling a different story. In addition to Tobler and Brandon, another person has been removed from the staff list completely. 

Chief of Human Resources Terri Schmitt has also been removed from the list. A new staff member has not been added, and the entire position listing has been completely erased, along with Brandon and the CFO position.

Other aspects of the SCH website have remained the same including the pharmacy information page and the “Healthy U” page, which is dedicated to Tobler’s local radio show where he is credited for “disseminating eclectic and credible health information in a humorous and relaxed style,” according to the SCH website.

Tobler is still listed as one of two SCH physicians that “deliver babies” on the “Women’s Center” page.

It is unclear if Tobler is still practicing medicine at the SCH. 

One mention of former CFO Michael Brandon also remains on the website. On the SCH “Community Benefits” page, Brandon’s name is given as a contact person for the Scotland County Hospital Foundation saying, “If you have any questions about the Foundation, please call Michael Brandon” before giving a phone number to call.

A search of archives of past online staff listings show Brandon was the SCH Controller on May 29, 2022, a position Brandon held at the hospital going as far back as December of 2012.

This reporter submitted a lengthy list of questions to Weber on Thursday, August 18. In lieu of answering any questions, Weber issued the following statement:

“I am not at liberty (to) answer your specific questions at this time. What I will tell you is that Memphis Community Pharmacy will be closed indefinitely, and our staff has been working so very hard on communicating with our patients to get their prescriptions filled. We are looking forward to building and expanding services for Scotland County Hospital and Rural Health clinics, and I am excited for our future.” – SCH CEO Meagan Weber

This is a developing story. We will report more information as it becomes available.

Reporter’s Notes: 

The information in this story was collected by this reporter beginning Wednesday, August 17, 2022, by retaining SCH website listings available that day, checking the SCH website regularly and comparing the collected information to changes first observed on Friday morning, August 19, 2022. An online search tool that collects cache data from websites called Wayback Machine/Internet Archive was also used to compare data from as far back as December of 2012.

Links showing this research have been provided in this story to show the information available early Friday, August 19, 2022. The information inside those links may be altered by the SCH website administrators at any time.