Samaritan CEO to resign

MOSES LAKE - Samaritan Healthcare CEO Andrew Bair has announced his resignation, effective Aug. 7.

Bair will continue as CEO until then, according to a press release issued Tuesday morning. It was issued jointly by Tom Frick, board president, Bair and Dr. Andrew Nye, chief of the medical staff.Frick answered an email sent to him by the Herald, asking for comment on rumors that Bair was the target of a no-confidence vote by the hospital medical staff. "Andrew was instrumental in improving the financial performance of Samaritan Healthcare," Frick wrote. "As noted in our joint announcement, the financial performance of Samaritan Healthcare improved from a negative margin of (3.2 percent) to a positive margin of 8.5 percent. This required difficult decisions and undoubtedly contributed to a vote of no confidence by a select group of the medical staff."

Staff cuts and what some doctors said was their impact on patient care, as well as concerns from doctors over communication with the administration, were the subject at a tense hospital district board meeting March 22.

"We have a crisis right now with our nursing staff at this hospital, the way I gauge it," said Dr. Hollie Matthews, a family medicine practitioner with the Moses Lake Clinic, at the March meeting. That followed the layoff of 13 people throughout the hospital in January and February, and the loss of other staff through attrition.

For three consecutive years the hospital lost about $2 million per year, Bair said in a March interview. In light of the losses, hospital administrators hired Huron Consulting Group to recommend ways to reduce the deficit and return the hospital to profitability.

Based on those recommendations the hospital reduced staffing levels, but soon after saw a surge in admissions, Bair said.

The hospital's 2011 private audit, presented at the board's May 24 meeting, said the hospital's operating margin showed a loss of 1.3 percent, compared to an operating loss of 3.2 percent in 2010. For the year to date the hospital was showing a profit of about 8.5 percent, according to the press release.

Doctors said in March that they did not think administrators were listening to them. Dr. Dan Canfield, an orthopedic surgeon at the Moses Lake Clinic, said he thought the consulting group didn't consider the medical staff's opinions adequately before making recommendations.

"There have been many times that we as a medical staff have addressed issues and made our voices known about things that Samaritan was going to ahead with. . .and even though we have voiced our opinions and objections. . . it didn't even matter what we said," Dr. Jill Dudik Bross said at the March 22 meeting.

She also expressed concerns about the electronic medical records program. "It didn't matter what we said, you were going to go ahead and implement this because there were economic benefits being reaped by the hospital at our expense. I don't think that is good for the health care of our community. I don't believe it helps the morale of our nursing staff or our medical staff," she said.

Bair has been hospital CEO since 2009, and was the chief nursing officer from 2005 to 2009. "We have asked that Andrew continue to serve in an advisory role through Aug. 7 which he has agreed to do," Frick wrote.

"I have loved working at Samaritan and will always be grateful for my time here. The people of our organization have been wonderful," Bair wrote in the press release.

"The Board of Commissioners are in the process of identifying the best candidate to serve as interim CEO and anticipate having someone on board by the first part of August," Frick wrote. "We have been in conversation with the Washington State Hospital Association and are also looking into the possibility of utilizing an executive search firm to find the best possible candidate for permanent hire. While we cannot predict exactly how long the search will take, we are confident the right person is out there.

"The board will appoint a search committee consisting of board members, physicians, and other hospital staff," Frick wrote. "The search for a permanent replacement will begin as soon as possible, after the search committee members are identified."