Richard Thompson

Occupation: Registered Nurse

Relevant experience: I have worked in the fields of long-term care, psychiatric, pediatric, adult medical/surgical, intensive care units, and as a manager of ICUs. I have served as an elected member of the Pierce County Nurse Association, and as an elected member of the Key Peninsula Community Council. I recently resigned from Grays Harbor Community Hospital, and continue to practice nursing on the Puget Sound.

1. Moving forward after layoffs is difficult for an organization. What should the board do, specifically, to create a workplace culture that fosters teamwork?

In my opinion the first step is to have a competent leadership team in place that focuses on process improvement, root cause analysis, and that staff can trust to make the right decisions moving forward. It is inconceivable to me to believe that the majority of the staff in the hospital district can have confidence in the decisions of the hospital board or of the CEO. In the short span of two years the district laid off the billing and coding department (told they were inefficient), laid off nursing staff and support personnel, decreased inpatient beds — resulting in increased transfers out to outlying hospitals for basic care, loss of pediatric and obstetrics providers, increased wait times in the emergency room, experienced significant staff turnover rates, paid over $3.4 million in a nine-month period to consulting company Navigant to figure out what they are doing wrong, refinanced a $32 million bond defaulted on years earlier to the additional cost of $3 million, and the debt now square on the shoulders of the taxpayers, and not the hospital. The common denominator in the performance in the hospital as a private and public entity is the CEO. It is my opinion, all the aforementioned clearly shows that the skills and expertise necessary to maintain the hospital district as a viable entity currently are not the set held by the current CEO, and should be looked for in another.

Once a new leadership team is developed, a general meeting with the residents of the district can take place to prioritize the needs of the community and properly structure the hospital and the district to meet them. It needs to be determined as a community if we want to provide exceptionally high fees to provide specialized care and interventions, or spend it on developing programs to focus on our chronic debilitating diseases and prevention programs.

To answer the question in a more succinct and direct manner:

Terminate the current CEO and recruit one with the requisite skills to make the hospital district viable. Allow the new CEO to develop a team that sets goals, objectives, and outcomes that the district employees can work toward that are clear and specific. Implement real staff involvement at the individual, department, and district level using proven process improvement methods. Hold open forums with the staff and public that provide real and meaningful data and dialogue as to current, anticipated, and future state with realistic financial cost and projected benefits.

2. What are your thoughts about expanding Hospital District services in the Ocean Shores area?

I would like to see services such as provider, x-ray, lab, same day appointments and urgent care type clinics expanded to all the more remote areas of the district. The hospital district recently signed a contract worth over $9 million over the next three years and an untold amount of money in supplies and lab upgrade to provide one cardiologist and the support staff for him/her. This will severely limit the ability to provide or expand services in a traditional model. I believe we will need to look at the cost/benefits of mobile units, same day walk in clinics, provider house calls, nurse triage call line, transportation service to appointments, as well as provide educational centers located in the outlying areas. I find it unreasonable and unacceptable to have to travel more than 15 miles to obtain basic health services such as labs, x-ray, or a medical appointment with a provider from my publicly funded hospital district.

3. What qualifies you to serve on the Hospital Board, and what district-related issues are important to you?

The district related issues that are important to me are: 1) financial viability of the hospital district 2) Providing adequate services (lab, x-ray, providers, transportation) to all the outlying district citizens within a reasonable mileage radius. 3) Open, transparent and accountable district board. 4) Terminate the current CEO (district required to pay one year severance as the board did not give a year notice prior to the end of this contract period end of December 2019.) 5) Recruitment of a CEO with the requisite skills, background and record to make the hospital district financially viable. 6) Educational initiatives to address behaviors that lead to chronic debilitating disease states. 7) Chronic disease specific management/support groups in the communities sponsored by the district.