Hospital president search moves forward
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 10, 2016 1:46 PM
Interviews are expected to begin next week in the search for a new president for Wayne Memorial Hospital.
The search has drawn national attention, said Bob Walker, hospital board member and chairman of the search committee that includes board members and medical staff personnel.
A Charlotte-based consulting firm is helping with the search.
Bob Enders has served as interim president since the first of the year following the retirement of Bill Paugh last December.
On Dec. 30, 2015, the hospital signed a managed services agreement with UNC Health Care, the state-owned not-for-profit integrated health care system based in Chapel Hill.
Enders is an employee of UNC and president of Chatham Hospital in Siler City, part of the UNC Health Care Network Hospitals.
Wayne Memorial Hospital and UNC officials stress that the hospital has not been sold.
"It has been a really huge response to the word in the medical community that we are looking for a new CEO," Walker said following the hospital board's Wednesday afternoon meeting. "It (response) is not surprising at all. Everybody in the business knows the job the previous administration did.
"Our consultant has taken a lot of time to go through all of the applications. We have slowly, but surely, gone through what I guess I would call the first stage. We haven't eliminated anybody, but we have identified a top tier of people that we want to talk to."
That top tier will include eight to 10 applicants, he said.
"We have not eliminated anybody," Walker said. "We have said we are going to talk to these because we like what we see. We are in that process of bringing them in, sitting down, exchanging information with them. We have made them sign confidentiality agreements so they won't take any information they learned from us and use it against us.
"The plan now is to interview the top few in this group that we really want to talk to. If we are lucky, we will be able to narrow it down to one, or two or three. Then we will bring them back and have an extended tour of the community, meet people in the community, meet more folks who work here and then take that final group and try to make a decision."
Walker said the search committee has a "floating timetable" that has no specific hiring date. But Walker said he hopes to be in position to hire the new president by end of summer.
"It could be earlier if we find the right person quickly, or it could be later," he said. "If we don't find the right person, we are going back to the drawing board and keep plugging."
When Paugh announced in April of 2015 that he would retire at the end of 2015 the hospital board said it not only needed to replace Paugh, but needed to start thinking about the future of health care in the county as well.
An exploratory committee was formed that eventually split into two committees to weigh all of the options, including selling the hospital and entering a management services agreement.
The board decided on the managed services agreement.
Under the agreement, UNC will help the hospital achieve significant cost savings, enhance patient care and increase hospital-based clinical services for patients, hospital officials said.
The financial aspects of the managed services agreement are proprietary and will not be made public, Enders said in an earlier interview.
Enders has said UNC will be able to help the hospital with information technology; supplement its dealing with insurance companies and managed care; expand locally available hospital and community-based patient care services to enhance patient care; enhance operational efficiency; and provide access to cutting-edge research and treatments at UNC Health Care.