Report: Eleanor Slater Exec Who Makes $226K Has Job Protection

BURRILLVILLE, RI — Christopher Feisthamel holds the title of “chief of operations and financial management” at the embattled Eleanor Slater Hospital, with its campuses in Burrillville and Cranston.

Feisthamel earns $226,000 per year, making him one of Rhode Island's top-paid state employees. However, WPRI-TV reports that it's not at all clear what he was doing between January and April — a period when the state-run hospital became mired in public controversy over its operations and finances.

In December, Feisthamel’s former office in Cranston was given to someone else. Records reviewed by the Target 12 team show his security access ended at Eleanor Slater around the same time.

It appears that previous attempts to oust Feisthamel have failed because he is protected by an obscure state human resources policy called "leave to protect," reporters Eli Sherman and Tim White found. The policy in effect lets state workers put a placeholder on their old job if they take a new job with the state.

Read more at WPRI.com