Editor’s Note: VeroNews.com and its online companion publication Vero Beach 32963 have been offering substantive reporting on questions currently being raised about the financial condition of Indian River Medical Center.
MEG LAUGHLIN/VERONEWS.COM
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A majority of the seven-member elected Hospital District Board appears poised to delay approval for building a new Cancer Center at Indian River Medical Center until an independent auditor clears up questions over hospital finances.
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Will Cancer Center inflame hospita’s operating deficit?
MEG LAUGHLIN/VERONEWS.COM
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Cancer Center in Vero Beach, affiliated with Duke Medicine. Who doesn’t like the sound of that? Right here, thanks to more than $30 million in contributions from island residents, people could go to a shiny new Indian River Medical Center building with state-of-the-art equipment to seek care for a dreaded disease without having to fly to other parts of the country or drive to Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa or Miami.
But at several recent meetings, hospital board members, doctors and Hospital District trustees – all of whom said they would enthusiastically support a cancer center that was self-supporting in a few years – voiced concern that the center could be underutilized and lose money for years to come, making it a drain on the hospital’s operating budget and foundation.
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What’s going on at Indian River Medical Center?
Executive firings stun medical community
MEG LAUGHLIN/VERO BEACH 32963
The sudden and unexpected forced resignations of two top Indian River Medical Center administrators last Wednesday sent shockwaves through the Vero Beach medical community.
The hospital’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, Dan Janicak, and Indian River Medical Associates executive director Yoshi Barreirinhas were well-respected and well-liked, and were credited by many with having the know-how and determination to turn a hospital with a $5 to $6 million projected 2013 shortfall into a financially profitable institution.
Indian River Guardian 
There is no doubt that it is now time for an independent audit of the IRMC budget. The majority of the Hospital Board made the right decision.