The Search Is On

With the imminent departure of Charlie Button, CEO of Columbia County Health System, the hospital district that serves Dayton and Waitsburg is at a crossroads.

For a number of reasons, staff, patients and the community that supports the small rural health care district through their taxes have had their share of challenges in recent years: plenty of turnover, employee burnout, state inspection citations, emotional public meetings, billing trouble, state funding cuts and so on.

Calm, order and predictability have returned to some degree since the turmoil two years ago and improvements have been made. New technology and services have been introduced and the district is getting caught up on some of its billing and the work environment, particularly at the Booker Rest Home.

But the district is a long way from being out of the woods and current board Chairman Ted Paterson said his desire after Button goes on to greener pastures in May is to get a CEO who will help keep the district "alive."

Our desire is to make sure everyone (or at least every group) who is affected by this milestone decision be heard and possibly be included on the selection of a new CEO.

We're not proposing a public micromanagement of the five trustees' mandate to select the next fearless health care leader for our community. That would be counterproductive.

We're advocating for an open, careful and, if necessary, lengthy recruitment and vetting process that drills down deep into the finalists' backgrounds and gives all the local experts in their field, particularly the medical staff, nursing personnel and patient representatives, a chance to make weight-bearing recommendations to the board.

In other words: the appointment of a broad-based hiring committee.

This committee is critical for two reasons. First, none of the trustees, as credible and as upstanding as they are as professionals and members of the community, have all the expertise to evaluate the candidates. Even when they are all put together, perspectives on the right qualifications will be missing and we do not believe the expensive proposition of hiring a head hunter is in the best interest of tax payers. There is plenty of in-house expertise.

Second, the appointment of such a committee is what they call in political parlance good "stakeholder management." If a majority of the groups who are on the receiving end of a CEO's management style and decisions buys into the hiring decision, there will be that much more support for it and there will be far less second guessing.

After speaking with Paterson at some length on Monday, it's clear the chairman wants the selection process to be transparent. He welcomes the public to the 1 to 5 p.m. board retreat Thursday (March 22) at the Delany Building where the recruitment of a new CEO will be high on the agenda, though he's not sure if there will be an opportunity for a lot of public comment at that time. Those chances will come later. The board holds its regular meeting at the hospital at 6 p.m. that day.

At the retreat, the board intends to get its collective brain around the question what is the best approach to replacing Button, who leaves the district on May 9 - two months after offering his resignation.

If those 60 days aren't enough to find his successor, Paterson may recommend putting an acting CEO in his place to steer the ship until a new captain is found.

We believe that is a wise move. In fact, we recommend recruiting two CEOs: one who would be willing to act as interim head of the district come May 9, and one who will be Button's permanent replacement. Several board members said there might be retired hospital CEOs interested to be at the helm temporarily to help the district out during its search.

As important and time-sensitive as the appointment of a new CEO is, it's equally critical that there's a high level of comfort this time with the individual who will help the community's no. 1 health care resource and number one employer through a time of unsettling change in funding and technology.

He or she needs to be someone with vision, someone with inclusive and constructive management skills, someone who can track and anticipate changes in the industry, someone who models the kind of care for fellow staff members that radiates out to the patient care level, someone with sound fiscal skills and someone who can bring all the different stakeholders together for a common agenda.

As Paterson suggests, the new CEO needs to be someone who can commit to being here for some time to meet the objectives of a long-term agenda. We even recommend specifically looking for someone with personal ties to the area in addition to all the right qualifications.

Button's replacement needs to be someone who can take Columbia County Health System from an entity that merely survives to one that thrives.