Thompson hired as Samaritan CEO
Samaritan Hospital CEO candidate Thomas Thompson waits for another question during a community forum recently. He was named the organization's CEO Thursday.
MOSES LAKE - Thomas Thompson, consultant for Envision Associates in Detroit Lakes, Minn., was hired as the chief executive officer for Samaritan Healthcare.
The hospital board voted 5-0 to hire Thompson at its regular board meeting Thursday. Thompson will take over the job about May 1, said Connie Opheikens, the hospital's community relations specialist.
Thompson will receive $275,000 per year with opportunity of earning incentives up to 20 percent of that salary, depending on meeting organizational goals established by the board, Opheikens said.
Thompson will replace Andrew Bair, who resigned in August 2012. Joe Sharp was hired to serve as interim.
In other business, Chief Financial Officer Tom Legel reported that hospital use for the year to date is down from the same period in 2012. That's had an affect on the bottom line, Legel said, with the hospital showing a loss through the end of February.
Patient days (the days all patients spent in the hospital during the month) was about 6 percent below budget projections in February, although patient utilization at Pioneer Medical Center was 1 percent above budget. However, expenses were above budget, Legel said.
Board members approved a quality improvement and risk reduction plan for 2013.
Quality Assurance Director Laurie Polneau said hospital officials want to improve reporting of any incidents and work on ways to prevent them in the future. Hospital officials need to convince employees that reporting incidents that are mistakes, and not carelessness, will not lead to punitive action, she said. Board member Dale Paris asked if employees believe that. Polneau said the reaction is mixed. But in her opinion how hospital leaders react will likely determine how employees react, she said.
The plan also ramps up the district's risk assessment program, looking for places where incidents could happen and figuring out the best way to address them.
The plan would produce practice evaluations for health care providers, which would become part of the information used in credential decisions, Polneau said.
Board members approved a $2.2 million capital projects budget for 2013-14. Within that budget, all purchases more than $100,000 must be approved by the board.