Samaritan culture, staffing, public perception discussed at candidate forum

MOSES LAKE — Four candidates for Grant County Hospital District 1, which oversees Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake, addressed voters at a candidate forum Oct. 24.

The forum was hosted by the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, The Columbia Basin Herald and KWIQ. 

Candidates were invited to speak a little bit about themselves and their visions for the positions they sought. Moderator Alan Heroux, an ambassador for the Chamber, then asked each pair of candidates two questions about issues the hospital district is facing. Each answer was limited to two minutes, enforced by timekeeper Karisti Cox. The questions were alternated, so each candidate had a chance to answer one of the questions first and one second.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Participants were incumbent Board President Katherine Christian, challenged by Elliott DeLong for Position 3, and Joseph Akers, challenging incumbent Dale Paris for Position 4.

The first question was addressed to Akers and Paris, and asked how the prospective commissioners planned to ensure Samaritan remains financially sound.

“It really starts with making sure that services that we are currently providing are beneficial to the community as far as meeting the needs for health care, but they're also actually generating funds that are supporting them being here. You know, just because it sounds great to have an endocrinologist here doesn't mean that it belongs here. We need to have services that align with the needs, but we have got to be able to afford it, with $230 million going towards the hospital and having to pay a mortgage … We already struggle as an organization with Samaritan Healthcare staffing. So it kind of baffles me that we’re trying to add additional services when we can't even staff the positions that we have now (because) there's 96 open positions,” Akers said.

“I keep an eye on financials,” Paris said. “We do that regularly. The revenues that are projected have been going steadily up for 10 years. The expenses of course after COVID skyrocketed. But still, the revenues aren't keeping up. We've added 25 providers and physicians, I think, in the last several years; we've got eight onboarding this year … But the services we're bringing in are profitable. We do pro formas on all the services before they come in, projecting what the revenues will be, and then we go back and revisit it and say ‘OK, did they meet the expectation?’”

The turnover rate for Samaritan personnel had averaged about 12% until about two years ago, Paris explained, at which time it went up to 15%-17%. The national average is in the neighborhood of 20%, he added.

Fact check: As of Nov. 2, Samaritan had public listings for 91 open positions. NSI Nursing Solutions, Inc., a national nursing industry group, recently published a survey that average turnover for hospital staff is about 22.7%. Candidates’ responses to the question were generally accurate at the time they were given.

Workplace culture

Paris and Akers were then asked what they would do to increase the respect with which Samaritan Healthcare treats its employees.

“I think the answer to that is the culture of the hospital,” Paris said. “I've talked a lot about this recently with some of my co-workers and, you know, in the hospital, adopted a value set of “Listen, love, respect, excel and innovate.” … When they say don't treat you with respect, they're speaking about each other. And I think that's an issue that's going to be with us for a little while, but I think it needs to be addressed directly.”

Akers acknowledged the chain of command from the board of commissioners to the CEO to management, but said that shouldn’t stand in the way of good communication. 

“(I think) it's really important for people to understand that it is staying in your lane (to go) out on the shop floor, going down to the floor in the hospital or going down wherever it is, and engaging with the actual employees that are having to live it every day. I think it's really important getting out there, making annual rounding with staff and getting that feedback that I think has maybe lacked in the past …  I think there needs to be more in-depth conversations beyond just doing a survey, (where) you check the box.”

Staff retention

Christian and DeLong were asked how they would improve personnel retention.

“There's a lot of work going on right now on all levels,” Christian said. “On the physician level, we have a number of strategies in place to improve their satisfaction. One of the realities is, the world of 'take a job and stay until you retire' just doesn't exist anymore. So we do have to anticipate more turnover than we'd like. We are working with staff to try to improve their satisfaction. They are as well. It's an ongoing challenge, not just for us, but for every facility, everywhere. We're short of nurses, we're short of physicians, we're short of support staff. It's just a reality of our society right now. We are working on it consistently and making progress on it.”

“At my office, I do some operations management,” DeLong said. “In order for us to maintain staff, even on our small scale, staff have to feel like they're valued and they have to feel like they're heard. I've had conversations with people that have come up to me and said, ‘You know, we wanted to have this issue addressed, but every time we bring it up, it's it's pushed under the rug; it's not something they want to talk about.’ … If your incentives are correct, if your processes are in place and if your commitment is viable, you can have people stay. It's as simple as one or two things. It's not ‘Hey, we got a new coffee machine. Everybody check it out.’ It's more in-depth than that.”

Public image

DeLong and Christian were also asked what they would do to improve the public’s perception of Samaritan’s services. 

DeLong said that consistency in the staff was the key.

“If you're having a doctor that cycles through, people with issues consistently finding care, finding assistance ... the perception that Samaritan is able to provide quality is not necessarily there,” he said. “Having a staff that is reliable and consistent ... not just for a two-year period, not just for a three-year period, but in perpetuity is going to be the biggest change that is needed in order for people to have confidence that Samaritan is providing them the best health care in the area.”

“Personally, I've experienced excellent care when I needed to be involved as have my children,” Christian said. “It's very easy for negative stories to pass; whether they're true or not, perception is what it is. But we have excellent staff. And for the most part, I believe that we are already growing into a very positive environment.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.