I was surprised this morning to see Jim Douglas' photo prominently featured at the For Our Community section of the web site of Central Vermont Medical Center (usually known as CVH). There was nothing on the page to indicate why his photo was there.

I expect to see the governor's photo when I go into state offices, but CVH is not a state hospital. Curious about why a politician who doesn't live in the area would be featured on "For Our Community," I called CVH to ask about it. The switchboard connected me to Public Relations. I told PR I was a reporter and had a question about an image on the web page. I was transferred to Hjonis Hanson, who explained that the photo was from Relay for Life in Montpelier, and the woman with Jim Douglas was hospital employee Amy Gendron. After a few more questions, Hanson said he wasn't the right person to talk to the press about this. I also heard him start typing furiously, which seemed significant a couple minutes later.

Hanson referred me to his colleague Susan Kruthers, and I called her immediately. When she looked at the web page, the photo was gone. I hit refresh on my browser, and it was gone on mine, too! It didn't take long to take it down.

I can understand including a photo of a politician at a hospital web site if there's a story about an event or issue that the politician has figured prominently in. But I don't see a reason to include a photo of our governor, no matter who holds the office, as a generic picture on the community section of our hospital's web page. I'm glad CVH appears to agree--at least their actions indicate that.

Here are the pre-scrubbing and post-scrubbing versions of the web page:

When I first found the page today, it looked like this:

 Before Scrubbing: Jim Douglas and Amy Gendron

Here's the page minutes after I asked Hjonis Hanson about it:

Scrubbed CVH Page