by Richard Uhlhorn
Lake Chelan Community Hospital has hired two new senior positions; Mike Ellis takes over as the new Chief financial Officer and Kate Pina is the new Chief Human Resource Officer.
Mike Ellis (left) has been hired at the Hospital’s new Chief Financial Officer and Kate Pina has been hired as the new Human Resources Officer.
Ellis said that most of his history has been in larger hospitals over the last five years. “There have been a lot of changes in the health care industry,” said Ellis. He said he was excited to be back in a rural setting.
Pina is from Arizona and said she left home directly out of high school for the Air Force where she spent 22 years. She is also excited to be in Chelan and a smaller environment.
Dr. Megan Guffey has been named the hospital’s new Chief Medical Officer and will oversee the critical operations at the hospital and clinic.
Dr. Duffy has been named the new Chief Medical Officer at the Hospital.
The board went over its powers and duties as commissioners. Mary Murphy stated that each person on the board is only an individual with no power to make decisions. “We have to bring issues to the board,” she said. She also hoped that more people would access the board meetings and comment during the Public Comment periods of which there are two. One prior to the agenda and one following the agenda.
Responsibilities of individual board members are as follows:
- Chairperson – Phyllis Gleasman
Medical Staff
Facilities Steering Committee
Affiliations Partnerships Committee - Vice Chair – Mary Murphy
Quality committee
Affiliations Partnerships Committee - Secretary – Fred Miller
Finance Committee
Trustee/Retirement - Commissioner – Mary Signorelli
Community Committee
Credentialing
Facilities Steering Committee - Commissioner – Jordana LaPorte
Community Committee
Finance Committee
Warrants/Vouchers
LaPorte remarked that she would like the public to have more access to background documents. “The public doesn’t have access and I’d like to make those more available,” she said.
Signorelli remarked that all meetings were posted within 24 hours on the Hospital’s website and over the radio. “We don’t have to post to all media,” said Signorelli. Murphy shared this reporter’s concern that all media should be notified about the board’s meetings. “We want the public’s engagement,” said Murphy.
CFO Mike Ellis gave a short financial report to the board and said, “I do have ideas going forward, but the (financial) trend is the same as in prior years.”
Director of Public Relations, Celeste Hankins, told the board that a Prevention Fair would be held on June 20 at the Chelan Fire Station. This will include a Giant walk through super Colon, booths, prizes and food. She also mentioned the Hospital’s Health Challenge had 100 participants, many who had participated in past challenges.
Director of Public Relations, Celeste Hankins , gave a
short report on Community issues
Hankins also stated that they are finishing up a Chronic Disease Self Management program and would be offering a Diabetes Self Management Class later this year.
Kate Pina, the hospital’s new Human Resources Director, said her top priorities would be to change the performance based personnel evaluations. “We will be moving towards a merit based evaluation instead of a 2% over the board raise.” Employees performing at a high level will get more than those that are not performing well.
CEO Steve Patonai reported that the Hospital has retained both Bratton Construction out of Bellevue and Jerry Boyd in Chelan to oversee the construction of the new hospital. “Both interviewed very well,” said Patonai who added that Bratton will be the overall project manager while Boyd will be the on-sight manager.
Patonai said he is excited about the hospital coming together. “We’ve got managers here who are very strong,” he said. He recognized Vicki Bodle for the numerous hats she has worn at the hospital over the past five years. “Her work has been very, very important to us.”
Patonai said the hospital would be keeping things moving and that a lot of changes were going on.
All Things Lake Chelan 