The Whidbey General Hospital board of commissioners delayed the selection of the top candidate for the CEO position Friday.
The board discussed the qualifications of its three finalists behind closed doors during a special morning meeting but then postponed the decision until next month.
Anne Tarrant, the board president, will continue working with an executive search firm to review the information about the candidates.
The three candidates are Geri Forbes, current CEO of Doctor’s Memorial Hospital in Florida; Michael Ellis, CEO at Big Bend Regional Hospital in Alpine, Texas; and Eric Jensen, CEO of Valley General Hospital in Monroe, Wash.
So far, the only chances for input from the community during the five-month process of finding a new CEO were invite-only luncheons; the names of the candidates weren’t released before the events. The hospital board invited representatives from the chambers of commerce, mayors and officials from such community organizations as Good Cheer Food Bank and island Rotary clubs.
The current CEO of Whidbey General Hospital, Tom Tomasino, gave his notice this past summer. Tomasino said he could stay until October of this year, but his departure date hasn’t been decided.
The extended notice gave the board time to do a comprehensive search for his replacement, with the help of Kate Kingsley with KL Kingsley Executive Search. It will also give the new CEO time to train with Tomasino to get to know the hospital and communities on Whidbey Island, according to board members.
Tomasino was criticized by the Island County prosecutor and others for his handling of an investigation into an administrator accused of assaulting a patient and his lack of public transparency.
Tomasino earned $261,000 in salary and benefits in 2012, according to the state Department of Health.
During a special meeting Friday, the board moved to have Tarrant continue working with Kingsley in reviewing the information about the candidates.
The board members said they will make their final decision about which candidate to offer the job to at their regular board meeting 7 a.m., Monday, Feb. 9.
Geri Forbes
Forbes met with the luncheon group Friday, Jan. 16. She said she and her husband are considering relocating to the Pacific Northwest for about 20 years. Forbes said now is the right time for it, with her daughter grown and getting married.
Forbes holds a degree in psychology and social work and began her career managing physician practices, eventually working her way into hospital administration.
“That gives me a nice perspective because a lot of hospital leaders don’t have exposure to the physician side,” Forbes said.
Forbes said she has recently been working with the idea of “cradle-to-grave care” and likes the idea of establishing lifelong healthcare for patients.
“I enjoy being a part of innovation and change,” Forbes said, “and I feel that this area is a great microcosm where we can really experiment with that — how to raise the health of the community, do it cost-effectively, improve people’s lives, increase the stability of the hospital and the network that we relate to.”
She said one of her first priorities would be to ensure the senior leadership team is strong and cohesive.
“They’re going to be the nucleus of setting a new tone, a new day, new goals and objectives,” Forbes said. “You want that group to be strong and aligned and then cascade that message through the organization.”
Forbes said she’d make connecting with the community another priority and said she’s had success in asking physicians to go to public meetings as well.
When it comes to transparency, it’s important to be open and speak plainly, she said.
“Transparency means to me to keep people informed, within the limits of what you can keep them informed on,” she said. “We are health care; we do have legal issues that we have to take into consideration, but we just need to state those clearly. It’s all about communication.”
Michael Ellis
Ellis met with the community leaders Monday, Jan. 19. Ellis has worked in healthcare since 1989, including nine years in the Air Force. He’s spent his entire health care career after leaving the military in rural hospitals, preferring the atmosphere over larger hospitals.
He’s been the CEO at his current hospital, Big Bend Regional Hospital in Alpine, Texas, for seven years. He said the position on Whidbey Island is the first to make him want to leave.
“This facility … has tremendous potential.”
Ellis said that he’s “not an office CEO,” but likes to go around to talk to people in his hospitals and get a real feel for what’s going on. He also gets “significant input” from hospital leaders when he makes his yearly strategic business plans in order to keep informed on the priorities and goals of the various departments.
“You have to trust the people you hire to do their jobs so you can do everything else,” Ellis said. “And that’s meeting with the public, that’s working on your strategic plan, it’s following up and asking the tough questions.”
Ellis said his strengths include honesty and being approachable to the public. He said health care is the most emotional business there is.
“It’s people’s lives,” he said. “If you want to have anybody trust you with their healthcare, you have to be honest with them. They might not like the answer, that has to be understood up front, but just because they don’t like the answer doesn’t mean it’s not correct. If you don’t have the answer, go get the answer and get back with them.”
Ellis said connecting with the community is a priority and that it would be important for him to attend community meetings like chamber luncheons or City Council meetings in order to keep the public informed about goings-on at the hospital.
Ellis stressed the importance of answering questions from the media and public as honestly and completely as possible within the confines of confidentiality laws.
Another priority for him, he said, is the public wants from the hospital.
“This place should be handling 85 percent, if not 90 percent, of the community’s needs,” he said.
“Knowing that, what are the misses?”
Eric Jensen
Jensen was the final CEO candidate, who attended the luncheon Thursday, Jan. 22.
A Washington state native, Jensen has worked in many hospitals within the state, including in Ellensburg, Everett, Forks and, currently, Monroe.
Jensen said he became interested in the position on Whidbey because the hospital he is currently the CEO of, Valley General Hospital in Monroe, is merging with Evergreen Health Affiliation. Though he would still be in charge of his hospital, he said he “won’t have that autonomy that I used to have, for 26 years, operating a hospital.”
“I’m looking at this as an opportunity to have more of the autonomy that I’m used to having,” Jensen said.
Jensen said he has joined a couple hospitals that were in dire straits, including the understaffed Clallam County Hospital in Forks, and the indebted Valley General Hospital.
During his tenure as CEO of both, Jensen said he managed to turn both around to becoming successful and solvent hospitals.
“My preference is not to be in crisis mode and losing sleep all the time,” Jensen said.
“I think what I see in Whidbey is opportunity; I don’t think Whidbey’s in crisis, but I think it could be in crisis if some of the financial issues aren’t addressed,” he said.
Jensen said one of his priorities would be turning public perception around into a positive one.
“You’ve got to be transparent with the media and the public about what’s going on within,” Jensen said, “but still respective of people’s privacy on issues like personnel issues.
“The public has a right to know at the end of the day, if there was an issue with me as CEO, then what was the outcome of that issue? What came of the whole investigation of something that happened?”
They have a right to know the outcome.”
Another priority for Jensen would be staying connected to the communities on the island. One of the things his current hospital does, he said, is always saying ‘yes’ to speaking engagements, whether it’s him as CEO or physicians or other employees of the hospital.
Jensen said he’d also spend his first months at the hospital getting to know the employees and physicians, as well as filling vacant positions, like that of the chief financial officer.
“It’s really important to understand … do you have the right people in the right positions, and do they have the right responsibilities?”
