Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital today (Thursday) begins a rigorous three-day assessment center interview process to hire a new CEO.
The city-owned hospital’s board of directors conducted a nearly six-month search, before settling on three finalists. They are: Christine Harff, CEO at Sanford Medical Center in Thief River Falls, Minnesota; William Comer, Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations at Nueterra Health Care in Kansas City; and the only Alaska candidate, Petersburg Medical Center CEO Elizabeth Woodyard.
Hospital board member Kristen Bomengen led a committee in charge of the search. She says the board had a long list of qualifications it wanted candidates to have, including previous CEO experience, communications skills, and some understanding of running a hospital in Juneau.
“We wanted familiarity with the public process, being a public facility. We would like to see some clinical experience. We’d like to have people familiar with rural, small, community hospitals,” Bomengen says.
The board has been working with executive search firm Quick Leonard Kieffer since March. Bomengen says the firm looked at more than 500 hospital executives from across the country, before narrowing it down to nine candidates. The board brought six to Juneau for interviews in late May, and the finalists were announced on June 1st.
During the assessment center, each candidate will be interviewed again by a panel of board members, medical staff and community leaders, including City Manager Kim Kiefer. Bomengen says they’ll also be asked to perform “real-life” exercises, which won’t be revealed until Friday morning.
“As one might be presented a dilemma when you walk in Monday morning,” says Bomengen.
Members of the public are invited to watch the exercises tomorrow morning (Friday), as well as presentations by each candidate tomorrow afternoon. That’s followed by a “Meet the Candidates” reception. All events are at the Bartlett administration building.
Bomengen says public input will be part of the board’s decision process.
“Anyone who has an interest in the future health care process in our community would possibly like to take part in this,” she says. “There will be an opportunity for feedback to be provided by anyone who attends the full sessions.”
The assessment center will be run by the city’s Human Resources department. The process was recently used in hiring the city manager and Eaglecrest Ski Area general manager.
Assessment Center Public Schedule:
All events at the Bob Valliant Administrative Building, Bartlett Regional Hospital, Friday June 15, 2012:
- 8:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., and 11:45 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Assessment Center Exercises, BRH Board Room
- 3:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Candidate Public Presentations, First Floor Training Room
- 5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., Meet the Candidates, First Floor Training Room
