New MCH CEO coming soon to Superior
SUPERIOR – There will be a new face among the familiar ones at the Mineral Community Hospital soon as the search for a new chief executive officer continues.
The facility has been without a permanent CEO since the resignation of Steve Carty on Oct. 4, 2013.
The exact reason for Carty’s resignation remains confidential but it followed a controversy regarding the handling of a $10.5 million grant.
In the meantime, interim CEO Larry Putnam of Helena has been handling the day-to-day operations of the facility as personnel and staff looked to the future.
For the last six months, the hospital board has been actively seeking a permanent replacement for Putnam and at least two candidates who applied show promise, according to him.
While the process is still ongoing and the board is still accepting applicants, Putnam said he anticipated a replacement could be chosen within the next few months.
He said, it all depends on the timing but he is willing to remain flexible in order to ensure the patients of Mineral County get the best replacement and the best healthcare available.
“The process is still ongoing,” Putnam said. “I told the board I would be here until we have a good transition between whoever the new CEO is and myself. But, we need to be flexible.”
If anything, Putnam himself is living up to that necessity. He has been an interim CEO four times over the last several years.
He even commutes on a weekly basis from his residence in Helena to help MCH through the process of finding a permanent replacement.
Putnam said he and the board have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of applicants they have received for the demanding position.
He said MCH has not received many new applicants in the last few weeks but he said there was still a possibility a new applicant could throw their hat in the ring at the eleventh hour.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Putnam said. “I’ve seen it at other hospitals where, for some reason or another, someone bows out. They may take another job or something. We did have a candidate who withdrew from the process before he could move on.”
The ultimate decision regarding who will helm the primary provider of healthcare in Mineral County is the hospital board.
One of the favorites for the position has yet to interview in person while the other was interviewed on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Putnam said one quality the board is looking for in a new CEO is someone who has experience with a small hospital such as the one in Superior.
He said the differences between larger facilities and smaller ones can be significant and they want someone who knows how to stretch resources.
“An important factor is experience with a small rural hospital,” Putnam said. “A larger facility has more resources. In a smaller hospital, we tend to wear a lot of hats. Here, we don’t have a vice president for everything. Here, we have to be able to do more with less. So it takes a lot of time and energy to do that and we just have to find the right person.”