Hospital CEO search to stretch into next year
Interim Samaritan Healthcare CEO Joe Sharp listens to a presentation at a recent meeting of the hospital's board of directors.
MOSES LAKE - The search for a permanent chief executive officer for Samaritan Healthcare should begin in early October and take about six months.
Board member Julie Weisenberg said at least two companies that specialize in recruiting will be interviewed, with a selection sometime in September. It was estimated the search would begin by October 1, Weisenberg said.
The new CEO will replace Andrew Bair, who resigned in June. Joe Sharp has been hired as the interim CEO.
Weisenberg announced that Lisa McDaniel, the hospital's new human resources director, will begin work September 4.
In other business at the regular board meeting August 23, chief financial officer Tom Legel reported the hospital is still turning a profit despite lower-than-anticipated usage through the end of July.
For July the hospital reported a $371,238 profit. For the year through the end of July, the hospital is showing an operating profit of $3.1 million.
Hospital usage is lower than 2011, both in terms of inpatients (in the hospital overnight or longer) and outpatients (treated and discharged within 24 hours), Legel said. General surgeries have declined, although the number of obstetrics patients has risen, Legel said. Patient usage in most other areas has declined, Legel said, and that might be attributable in part to a loss of family practice doctors in the community.
Expenses are down also, Legel said.
The board voted to hire an outside practice to provide anesthetic services for the hospital at $938,000 per month. The company will provide seven total staff from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, with enough people for two operating rooms and one obstetric surgery room. From 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. a person will be available at the hospital, and people will be on call during weekends.
The board voted to spend $386,743 on new signs for the hospital and Pioneer Medical Center, the hospital-owned clinic on Pioneer Way.
The sign project was proposed a few years ago but postponed as revenues declined. Board member Dale Paris said the hospital probably had, and probably has, the money, but his first focus was solving staffing issues.
Kathryn Trumball, the vice-president of nursing services, said hospital officials have filled some of those open positions, including an obstetrics nurse.
Legel said the existing signs are adequate for the job, but they're weathered and some, especially at Pioneer Medical Center, can be confusing. Sharp cited one of his first trips through town, when he saw Pioneer Medical Center and thought it was a competing facility.
The sign at Pioneer center will be changed to reflect its affiliation with the hospital, and a reader board will be added. More detailed signs will be placed around the hospital grounds.