Six vie for three seats on health care board

ENTERPRISE - Three seats on the five-member Wallowa County Health Care Board of Directors are up for election on the May 16 ballot - and each of the three incumbents seeking new four-year terms is facing a challenger.

The Wallowa County Health Care District is a municipal organization - a form of local government established, most typically in rural areas, to help health systems in those areas remain economically viable. Like other health districts in Oregon, the Wallowa Health Care District collects property taxes (in Wallowa County, the district collects about $1 million a year in taxes; the bulk of its roughly $50 million budget comes from fees for services provided.) And, as in the case in other health districts, it's governed by a publicly elected board.

The three challengers all have some experience in health care, but they say they're not running as a formal slate of candidates: Said Severin Knudsen, one of the challengers: "I think we're like-minded in a lot of positions. We're certainly not running together, by any means."

All the candidates praised the health care system in Wallowa County, and said the district consistently has provided excellent service to its patients. But they differed on what their priorities would be on the board and the reasons why they're running. The Chieftain interviewed all six candidates to ask why they're running. The profiles of each candidate are listed by board position, and the candidates for each board position are listed in alphabetical order.

POSITION 1

Keith Graham, Age: 69

Occupation: Retired medical doctor.

Relevant experience: Graham was a primary care internist who practiced medicine for 38 years and retired in 2019.

Keith Graham has been looking for volunteer opportunities throughout the county. When he noticed the elections for the health district board, he thought it was a "good opportunity for my skill set. ... I figured I'd put my hat in the ring and see what happened and learn in the process. ... This seemed like a good opportunity for my skill set. If I don't make it, then there'll be another opportunity."

Graham said his main interest in running for the board would be to help maintain what he called a "wonderful health care community here for a county that is as remote as we are from major cities."

He said the district has been successful in efforts to attract and retain good health care providers - and added that could be a challenge in the future, not just for Wallowa County but throughout the nation. He said his experience as a member of the credentials committee at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande could be an asset on the board: "I have some familiarity with the kind of problems rural hospitals are dealing with."

He added: "I really don't necessarily have any concerns about any grave deficiencies and the board's performance or in the medical community, in a larger sense. I just want to see it perpetuated."

Graham said he thought the board could do more to publicize its actions and to promote the health district.

He noted other health care providers such as Winding Waters Medical Clinic operate separately from the health district, and noted that a certain rivalry between the two is inevitable - but he said the community at large could benefit from the rivalry: "I would see the rivalry as actually providing benefits for the community, as long as it's a friendly rivalry."

Adrian Harguess, Age:

47

Occupation: Harguess is a commercial loan officer for Community Bank in Wallowa County.

Relevant experience: Harguess has served on the board for six months and was appointed after Robert Williams stepped down. He served on the board for the Blue Mountain Hospital District in John Day for two years before moving to Wallowa County. He also has served on the hospital's Budget Committee for the last eight years and recently stepped down from the Enterprise School Board.

Adrian Harguess calls himself "the new guy" on the district's board of directors and sees the role as his latest step in serving the community. But he has a personal connection to Wallowa Memorial Hospital: About 15 years ago, shortly after he and his wife Rhonda moved to Wallowa County, Rhonda was scheduled to give birth via cesarean section. But a week before the operation was scheduled, Rhonda started developing vision problems, prompting a visit to Wallowa Memorial's emergency room.

"And three hours later, we had twins," Harguess said. Rhonda and the girls stayed in the hospital for 10 days afterward due to complications, he said, but "I have to thank that hospital for the people" who provided that care in 2008.

He said the health district is providing excellent service and pointed to the string of awards Wallowa Memorial has collected, including frequent listings as being among the nation's top critical-access hospitals. (A critical-access hospital is a designation given to eligible rural hospitals by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that's designed to reduce the financial vulnerability of rural hospitals and improve access to health care.)

He also cited the district's ability to pay off its debt as a big plus, although he said that he couldn't take credit for that, being a new member on the board. And the district is on track to finish its fiscal year financially in the black, he said, a relative rarity in Oregon.

Harguess said the district's board faces its next challenge in selecting a hospital CEO to replace the retiring Larry Davy. "The biggest thing the hospital board does is hire that CEO position," he said. And aside from the CEO position, he said the health district - like health care facilities nationwide - will face challenges in recruiting.

His overall goal, he said, is "to maintain what has been built over decades and maintain that for our community so that it remains strong and vibrant and offers the best health care possible."

POSITION 2 Susan Coleman,

Age:

70

Occupation: Retired; worked 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service and, before that, seasonally with the U.S. Forest Service.

Relevant experience: She's served on the health care district since 2011. She worked briefly as an emergency medical technician. She's a longtime volunteer with the Soroptimist Club of Wallowa County.

Susan Coleman first got interested in serving on the health district board when district officials were considering closing the nursing home at the old hospital and noticed that there was confusion in the community about the matter. She started attending meetings of the board and eventually made the jump to serve on it.

The district's work to pay off its debt has been a big accomplishment, she said, allowing the district to expand its services and to purchase advanced equipment.

"We have great leadership and great management leaders and I'm pretty proud of this hospital and staff," she said. "They're amazing." And she said the board is "inquisitive and intelligent and very supportive."

Coleman said she was interested in another term on the board to follow through with the hiring of a new CEO and helping the new hire acclimate to the position to be sure that person "stays true to the vision of the hospital. I'm not saying you can't bring in new ideas and new vision," she said, but that person shouldn't go "so far off-course that you start alienating some of your department heads and management."

In fact, Coleman said, it's important for the board to keep that vision foremost in its work and to make sure that the district's actions follow it.

She said she thinks the board could improve its visibility in the community so that residents know more about the health district's activities. For example, she said, she sometimes is asked why both the health district and Winding Waters are building clinics in Wallowa. But she said the clinics will offer complementary services, and called it a "win-win for the lower valley."

Severin Knudsen, Age:

35

Occupation: Veterinarian, owner of Enterprise Animal Hospital.

Relevant experience: Knudsen has been the owner of Enterprise Animal Hospital for four years and a licensed veterinarian for eight. He has experience as a practitioner, in addition to managing a medical clinic.

Severin Knudsen said he chose to run for the health care district board because "I have concerns about certain aspects of the management of the health care district."

In addition, he said he's concerned about the lack of a physician in the leadership of the health care district, including on the board. "I'm coming in with some experience that can provide better oversight just just because I have a better understanding of what it takes to run a medical facility."

He emphasized that he believes the district is providing excellent health care. But he said the district needs to do a better job of providing "competitive pay and benefits to as many members of our community as we can," and said the district has unfilled positions, partly because of low wages.

Knudsen questioned some of the board's spending decisions, including its decision to grant outgoing CEO Larry Davy a $56,000 one-time bonus and its approving the purchase of a $50,000 tractor that he said is only used a few days each year. (The board chair, Nick Lunde, said the bonus to Davy was approved after it discovered that Davy had been making less than other CEOs at public health districts.)

Knudsen noted that the hospital's foundation raises money to purchase medical equipment and argued that with "a little more fiscal discipline," the hospital itself could be footing the bill. "If we are going to be asking for donations to fund improvements in our health care, we have a responsibility to be spending the money we do have wisely," he said.

Challenges facing the board in the future include the hiring of a new CEO and adjusting to that new leader, he said, and making sure its new clinic in Wallowa is adequately staffed when it opens later this year.

"And it's important that the board actually acts as an oversight board and can question leadership decisions, even though we ultimately might agree and vote for them," he said.

POSITION 5

Nancy Crenshaw Age: 75 Occupation: Crenshaw is a retired special-education teacher in the Wallowa School District.

Relevant experience: She has served on the board since July 2018.

Since her appointment to the board in July 2018, Nancy Crenshaw has become increasingly fascinated with health care and says she now has a better understanding of how important it is to the county. "I really care about the community and I'm very vested in the betterment of the community," she said.

She's proud of the accomplishments of the district, including its frequent listing as being among the nation's best critical-access hospitals.

Among those accomplishments, she said, is the opening of its new clinic in Wallowa later this year.

But she said the district could be looking into other areas as well, and said she's intrigued about early discussions that the district could be a player in opening an indoor recreational facility in Enterprise that could include an indoor swimming pool.

Overall, she said, district leaders, including board members, need to focus on the changing health care needs of the county and noted its growing population of retirees, who may increasingly require specialized care such as cancer patients, diabetics and those who require dialysis services.

She said she likes the mix of the current board, with longtime members sitting alongside new additions such as Adrian Harguess, who brings what she called "a new dynamic" to its work. "But I value the board members who have been there a long time, too, because they know how it works and I'm learning from them, too. I like the board members. They're very professional and smart."

Overall, she said district staff members "are working hard to be the best hospital that they can be, I really believe that. There's always room for improvement, but they're really working hard."

Tim Funk, Age:

75

Occupation: Retired; was a health care professional in a variety of positions.

Relevant experience: He worked as a neurologist and at hospitals and physician groups in Salem, Eugene and Spokane, Wenatchee and Vancouver, Washington. "I even went to work for a health insurance company so I could figure out why they never paid me properly. ... And then when I went back to health care, I was much more knowledgeable, especially when it came to negotiations."

Tim Funk says he believes the district is doing well, but believes his experience across a variety of health care positions would be a valuable asset to the board as it copes with an uncertain future.

In particular, he said he's concerned with the decline in federal funding as the COVID pandemic eases its grip on the nation, and added that his experience in the health insurance industry would be an asset on the board.

He said board members have to exercise oversight over the health district, but added that has to be done with care: "You have to give your administration a lot of leverage or a lot of ability to manage the organization. It would have to be, I think, a rather rare occasion when you would even challenge them. But still ... you have to have some oversight. You have to ask them questions so that you know what actually is going to occur."

On occasion, he said, a board member might believe that management is "on the way to make a mistake. As a board member, all I can do is challenge it. ... Your responsibility is just to let them know what you think."

He emphasized, however, that "right now I don't think that there are major changes that need to occur. So it's the kind of circumstance where there's no need to fix something that doesn't need fixing."

As a board member, he said, he would look for ways to increase its visibility in the community.