Pomeroy hospital appoints new CEO

The future of Garfield County's only hospital remains elusive as the institution's board members grasp for Band-Aids to fix long-term problems.

The board recently hired Brenda Parnell as the interim CEO of the Garfield County Hospital District in Pomeroy. The search for a permanent CEO continues, but the board expects Parnell will be with the district for anywhere from six months to 18 months, said Board President Matt Hanson, who declined to comment about what the board wants her to do.

Parnell left her most recent two positions when the boards overseeing her decided to go in different directions, she said. One was as CEO and superintendent of the Ferry County Hospital District in Republic, Wash., and the other was a similar job in St. Maries with the Benewah Community Hospital.

Hanson said Parnell's departure from those jobs didn't concern the board, and he declined to elaborate.

In Garfield County, Parnell is leading an organization that plays a pivotal role in the community. It offers the only health care without traveling about 30 miles to Clarkston or farther. The hospital can treat those suffering from strokes or heart attacks, but doesn't do surgery.

It's also one of Pomeroy's largest employers, with a staff of about 80 people who work in a 24-hour-a-day emergency room, a 25-bed hospital, including a varying number of beds used for long-term care, and a primary care clinic.

Parnell is the No. 3 administrator of the district since Andrew Craigie left to join his wife's business, FastSigns, in Lewiston after 15 years as CEO.

Craigie was replaced in the summer of 2015 by Jay Pottenger from Missouri River Reach Medical Center in Fort Benton, Mont. He stayed for about one year before resigning to take a new job in Montana. Jon Smiley was interim CEO just before Parnell.

She has arrived when the district is in financial turmoil. Voters recently passed a levy of $630,000 to help with operations, but that money is only expected to tide the district over a year.

One of her goals is to find the "right size of service delivery for the community needs" to reduce dependency on property taxes, Parnell said. She declined to provide examples of what that might mean.

She also hopes to increase the volume of patients at the clinic and the hospital, partly by educating the community about how they can receive services that range from wound care to routine physicals from providers in the district.

"The service is here," she said. "It's just as good as anywhere else, and we can probably do it quicker because we're right here."

As she tries to boost patient numbers, Parnell will be evaluating what to do with the district's electronic medical records, a system that has to be maintained to meet the requirements of Medicare, which account for about 40 percent of the district's patients.

The system is important, especially when patients transfer to other hospitals and the physicians there need access to information about their ailments and medications, Parnell said. "(The system is) antiquated, and it's not going to be supported by the company that has it with us. They sold it to another company and that company has their own product."

As she works through those challenges and others the district faces, Parnell will be helping the board locate a new CEO, a position she's not interested in doing for the long term.

"There are great opportunities to see this organization be successful."

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.