Top 3 Hospital Candidates To Visit

DAYTON -- The search for a CEO of the Columbia County Health System is progressing into its final stages as the hospital board prepares to meet the top three candidates at their July 24 board meeting.

The candidate pool was narrowed down from more than 30 initial candidates to eight, Board Member Lisa Naylor said.

One of those eight has already taken another po- sition leaving seven candi- dates to be interviewed in the coming weeks.

The seven candidates have been provided with a packet about Dayton from the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, Naylor said. Interim CEO Jon Smiley said most of the candidates are from Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon and he hopes they will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with Dayton.

"We've been busy," Naylor said.

The next round of inter- views will be conducted in two teams over the phone. Naylor said the phone interviews will start July 9, and by July 18, the pool will be narrowed down to three.

On July 24, at the next hospital board meeting, which was rescheduled from July 26, the three remaining candidates will meet with the hospital board, Ted Paterson, chairman of the board said.

Smiley said he hopes the sit-down meetings with the final three will include the candidates' family so they have an op- portunity to check out the Dayton area.

He said meeting the final three will be a very special part of the process because it will be an op- portunity for the families of the candidates to decide if they are interested in the Dayton area.

"It's also important that the candidates have a chance to meet and mingle with the staff," Smiley said.

The three candidates will be invited to a formal dinner and an opportunity to meet the staff and check out the facility while they are in town as part of the process.Naylor said she is happy to be looking at the applicants as people as opposed to just the credentials.

"It's exciting now be- cause we're actually look- ing at names," Naylor said.

The board members would like to have the po- sition filled by September so the new CEO can be part of the budget process in October.