By Debra Vaughn

Staff Reporter

Voters have three starkly different candidates to choose from in the race for Hospital District Commission position two.

Vocal critic Rob Born and former healthcare worker Rita Drum are vying for the seat of incumbent Georgia Gardner, a certified public accountant who is seeking reelection.

The primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 4. Ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 4 or dropped off at ballot boxes by 8 p.m.

Whidbey General Hospital faces numerous challenges, including a multimillion dollar hospital expansion, rapid changes in health care, a public perception the hospital isn’t transparent and a string of complaints by the nurse’s union.

ROB BORN, a retired attorney, said he started an investigative blog because the more he learned about the hospital, the more he saw “scandal after scandal.” His beef isn’t with patient care, but with the past administration, which he describes as “dysfunctional and then some.”

He said he’s hopeful new Chief Executive Officer Geri Forbes can heal “the hangover” from past leadership.

Born arrived for his interview in a blue hospital scrub shirt with “Rob Born for Hospital Board.”

Born said he’s concerned most with the retention of hospital staff. He said it’s time to stop playing politics and create an environment in which employees don’t feel they’ll lose their jobs if they disagree. He also said EMTs, who can make upward of six figures with overtime, are paid too much.

“The pay structure is skewed,” he said. “We’re overpaying some people at the top and underpaying some at the bottom.”

The hospital needs to improve its reputation and patient satisfaction, he said.

One idea to do so is getting the hospital accredited, he said.

If elected, Born said he’ll visit the hospital weekly and talk with patients.

Another plan is, as he puts it, to “quit self-inflicted wounds” by obeying all laws and regulations. As an example, he noted the hospital got dinged for not sending its financial information to the state auditor’s office.

“It’s easy enough to do,” he said. “The Whidbey Cemetery District does it.”

Born concedes he didn’t make too many friends with hospital leaders in past years, but maintains he wants what’s best for the hospital and said he can work with other board members.

“What I hope to bring is a sense of urgency,” he said.

“What we have on the board now is a sense of complacency.”

RITA DRUM moved to the island last year after marrying a retired Navy doctor. She brings an academic background and self-described “compassionate heart.”

Drum said she knows hospitals after a career on the East Coast in the healthcare industry.

Drum sees her role as commissioner as a liaison who can speak up for people in the community and explain the hospital’s practices and decisions to the public. She said it is the board’s responsibility to oversee policy but not set it.

The schism between the hospital, community and hospital staff might be healed with better communication, she said. Some of the hospital’s problems with the nurse’s union might be improved if the hospital were more up front about what it can and can’t offer future employees.

Drum said she looked into working at the hospital when she moved here and found it not a good fit because the hospital wasn’t large enough to employ someone with her skills, adding she would be be practicing “antique medicine.”

“It’s really important for anyone — nurses, physicians, anyone — to know that it’s not going to be an interesting, exciting hospital,” she said. “They are not going to see amazing, interesting cases.”

“They need to know that going in.”

She supports affiliating with other organizations and she’d like to see board meeting times moved to evenings or weekends to make them more accessible. Doctors and other hospital staff tend to be more available in the morning, and Drum suggested the hospital consider flex-time or over time to make other meeting times possible.

One of her top priorities is the fiscal health of the hospital, and she has confidence the new chief financial officer will help the hospital get on track. She obliquely criticized her opponent Gardner, a CPA, saying “some people talk about how they manage the money for the hospital and that’s not really the job or responsibility of the hospital commissioners.”

Drum, who then used the name Penny Bartell-Schlachter, filed a lawsuit against her former employer, Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island after she was fired. She told the New York Post in 2013 that she was fired for her beliefs as a fundamental Christian after she started a program to give miscarried fetuses a proper burial.

Asked about the case, Drum said said Whidbey Island voters don’t need to know about the lawsuit and it was settled in her favor.

Drum said her willingness to launch the program demonstrates she will do what’s right, even if it’s not the easy thing to do.

GEORGIA GARDNER, a CPA, said she offers voters her expertise in accounting, government finances and legislative processes as a former state legislator.

“As a CPA, we’re not doing our job unless we’re telling them how to run their businesses,” she said. “That’s what I can feel I can offer here.”

She was first appointed to a vacant seat and then elected two years ago. Her opponents have suggested the hospital’s finances are in trouble and Whidbey General is millions of dollars in debt.

“My opponents are confused,” she said.

The hospital purchased an expensive, mandated electronic medical records system using cash reserves.

“That’s like buying a house for cash and saying, boy, you had a big loss,” she said.

The hospital is beginning to show profits this year, although the reserve fund remains lower than ideal, she said.

Gardner said she does not favor affiliating with other hospitals. She’s concerned the hospital would lose autonomy and patients would have fewer choices, not more.

She’s been an advocate of the hospital’s home care-hospice program.

The hospital may need to take a hard look at whether it can afford EMTs if it’s forced to move them onto a more expensive pension plan designed for firefighters and police — the matter is caught up in the court. She’d also like to see hospital physical therapy services turned over to the private sector, since many physical therapists already work on the island.

She’d like to see more people attend board meetings and take advantage of hospital programs.

The board is considering hosting town hall style meetings in hopes of getting the public more involved.