NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The CEO of Nashville General Hospital's last day on the job will be Friday and Dr. Joseph Webb is not going out on a high note as the controversy surrounding the longtime head of Nashville General Hospital continues to grow.
Now NewsChannel 5 Investigates has uncovered hospital credit card receipts that show how Dr. Webb paid to move his daughter across the country. We also now know where Dr. Webb was the Sunday morning after he announced he was leaving his position with the hospital.
The Cathedral of Praise Church in Bordeaux posts its weekly Sunday services on its YouTube page.
And video from the service two Sundays ago on March 3 shows Pastor Jerry Maynard telling the congregation, "I was extremely upset at the way that our government treated my sister and my dear friend."
The service seemed very personal for Maynard.
It came just days after the Nashville Hospital Authority informed Maynard's company, run by his sister, that its contract for marketing and lobbying work was being terminated.
It was also just days after Dr. Webb announced he was stepping down from the job after getting a vote of no confidence from board members and an investigation by Metro auditors found evidence of fraud, waste and policy violations by the hospital's top leadership.
Much of Maynard's message during that Sunday morning service appeared directed at his sister, Misha, who is also a pastor at the church, and the man just across the aisle from her, none other than Dr. Webb, whom Maynard repeatedly referred to during the service as his friend.
"And I was bitter and angry because of what they did to my family and my friend and I was like, 'I’m not letting, somebody’s gonna pay a price,'" Maynard stated during his sermon.
Webb — who insiders said has long attended the former Metro councilman's church — hired Community Health Marketing, where Maynard is a managing partner, nearly 10 years ago.
The current contract pays Maynard's company $39,000 a month as Metro taxpayers give Nashville General nearly $70 million in subsidies to keep the hospital open.
But critics over the years, like Steve Glover who was on the Council in 2021, have loudly criticized the hefty deal.
"I think Metro General Hospital would be far better off to utilize that money at Metro General Hospital," Glover told us then. "The taxpayers cannot afford this crap."
Less than two weeks ago as the hospital board began to question whether Dr. Webb should remain on the job, Maynard was quoted in a Nashville Banner article, criticizing the board's racial make-up, something some say led in part to the termination of Maynard's contract.
Board member Craig Lesser read the comments to fellow board members at a meeting that day and said, " I'm surprised and offended by the comments in the story by Nashville General Hospital political consultant Jerry Maynard."
For more than a month, Webb has repeatedly turned down our requests for an interview, but after the last Hospital Authority board meeting, we did manage to ask him about one of his employees.
"There are questions about spending about hiring practices under your leadership?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Webb.
"Yes?" he replied, asking, "Can you specify?"
"Your daughter being hired? we continued.
"Well, we don’t want to get into that. There’s no violation or policy violation there. There are a number of individuals who work here who are related to one another. So no policy violations," Webb assured us.
Last summer, the hospital posted a help wanted ad for a Director of Operations position. They had 80 resumes for the job. And many of these people had years and years of experience in hospital administration. The person they hired though barely had a year.
Rana Webb, the then-26-year-old daughter of the CEO, got a $132,000 a year job to oversee more than half a dozen "key departments" at the hospital.
We found she also got a $10,000 signing bonus.
We further discovered her father used his hospital-issued credit card to pay nearly $6,000 to move her back to Nashville from California.
According to his credit card statements, Webb has not covered any other hospital employee's move, at least in the last year.
But Webb told us he didn't want to talk about it.
"This is your daughter who was hired for a $132,000 job with little experience?" we asked Webb.
"I’m not going to get into discussing family. So let’s don’t do that," he replied.
And as I tried to respond, "But she’s an employee of the hospital?" Webb turned away from us and walked off.
Maynard told the church during the service March 3 that this is all part of God's plan, suggesting, "I (God) will allow some things to happen to your (Maynard's ) friend and (Maynard's) your sister."
And the pastor assured the congregation, glancing frequently both at his sister and Dr. Webb, that things will only get better, saying,
"'You don’t know what plans I (God) got for your friend and your sister. You don’t know what I’m (God) about to do in their life. That’s why you gotta step back and step out of it because you don’t know what I’m about to do in their life.'"
In the termination letter that Maynard's company received, the Hospital Authority cited the section in the contract that states either party may terminate the agreement with 30 days written notice. The letter was sent Feb. 28th.
The contract will now end March 31 rather than the end of June.
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