It’s Time For Some Stability at CCHS

When Dale Polla was hired last fall as CEO of the Columbia County Health System, we at The Times, along with most other community mem- bers, breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that finally a long stretch of turmoil at our local healthcare provider had ended. Apparently it hadn't.

On August 1, Polla agreed to resign during the regular Columbia County Health System Board of Director's meet- ing. In interviews given after the resignation, board chair Lisa Naylor indicated that the board was dissatisfied with Polla's performance in community relations and felt the district needed a leader who was more up to speed with the changes the local health system needed to make as a result of the implementation of Obamacare.

Polla's hiring came after more than a decade of difficult times for CCHS. From 2001 to 2007, the organization lost a combined $3 million, including nearly $1.2 million in 2003 alone. Charlie Button was hired as CEO in 2008 to right the sinking ship and, numbers-wise, he was successful. By 2009, CCHS was slightly in the black, and it has remained so since.

But Button was often tone-deaf when it came to employee relations, and the district went through more than a year of turmoil. Many employees and community members became very unhappy with his leadership.

Enter Polla last year. He seemed to get along much better with employees and also seemed to be well-liked in the com- munity. Early on, Polla reached out to The Times and made clear his commitment to being a positive voice in the com- munity as CCHS's spokesperson. We spoke with many com- munity members who had a positive view of his leadership.

However, in an article in last week's Times written by Publisher Imbert Matthee, Naylor was described as feeling that Polla seemed strained by the community engagement demands of his job. An unidentified former CCHS manager said, "He wasn't involved in parades, in service clubs and so on. He wasn't fulfilling his PR function."

But in fact, Polla was an active member of Dayton's Ki- wanis Club. He put in at least two stints selling hamburgers at the Kiwanis booth during the recent Mule Mania event, including four hours on a Saturday afternoon. He also spent a day last month helping install a handicap access path at Lyons Ferry Marina last month.

In his article, Matthee also stated that anonymous observ- ers criticized Polla for having "dated" views and information about "critical access" hospitals. However, when Polla gave a detailed presentation at a July Kiwanis meeting on the state of local healthcare, he described how he was working as a senior administrator at a rural hospital in Montana in the early 1990s when the state-wide critical access hospital concept was first being developed there. (Montana's system was the model for the nation-wide critical access hospital program.) Polla appeared quite knowledgeable about the program.

In her interview, Naylor also indicated that there may have been some concern among board members about Polla's age, particularly in light of rapid changes that are happening in the healthcare industry. "We need a more up-and-coming CEO - someone beyond Dale's generation," she was quoted as saying.

Polla is in his early 60s, but he's younger than a majority of the board members. And the board certainly knew what generation he came from when they hired him less than a year ago. Besides, people in their 60s are perfectly capable of staying up-to-date on trends in the industries they work in.

CCHS is currently in the middle of trying to recruit a new doctor, as well as a new chief financial officer to replace John Hennessey, who recently resigned. The continued turnover at the top at CCHS can't help but make potential new hires think twice about going to work there. We don't doubt for a min- ute the strong commitment of the CCHS board members to the health and prosperity of our local healthcare system. They each have a difficult and time-consuming job, which they do with no pay. As community members, we must be grateful for their ser- vice and we also must trust them to do their jobs and allow them to make sometimes very difficult decisions.

But it's important for the board to also trust the managers they hire and let them do their jobs without micromanaging them.

The best way to assure the continued recruitment of quality employees at CCHS, and the continued patronage of local residents, is for the revolving door at the top to stop and a long period of stability to ensue.

The health and prosper- ity of our community won't continue if we don't have a strong and stable local healthcare system.