One of the finalists to be Bartlett Regional Hospital’s new CEO says she has declined a job offer from the Juneau medical facility.
Liz Woodyard says the Bartlett job sounded like an opportunity she didn’t want to miss. But for now she plans to continue as CEO at Petersburg Medical Center, where she’s been for nearly a year.
“Professionally for my career I thought it would be a good opportunity. It’s a great job and really good people, but when all is said and done I have a great job here and I have a lot of great opportunities,” Woodyard said. “We’re doing good things at the hospital and I really wanna see it through the things we’ve started.”
Woodyard was one of three finalists for the Bartlett job – and the only in-state candidate. One applicant, William Comer, withdrew his name from consideration before the final assessment center interview earlier this month. The only remaining finalist, Christine Harff, currently serves as CEO of Sanford Medical Center in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.
The Bartlett Board of Directors has not named its top candidate, citing the need to keep personnel and financial matters private. Board President Bob Storer declined to say whether Woodyard was offered the job.
“I’m just not prepared to discuss the process until the process is completed,” Storer said.
Storer said the board continues to have “very positive discussions” with its top candidate. But he stopped short of saying an announcement would be made at a board meeting Wednesday night.
“If in fact we have an announcement to make on who the candidate is at that point, I think everybody would be happy. But I’m not prepared to say that it’ll be finalized by that point,” Storer said.
Bartlett is the largest hospital in northern Southeast Alaska. It’s owned by the City and Borough of Juneau, and its board members are appointed by the CBJ Assembly. The board late last year decided to hire its own CEO after more than two decades of an outside management company running the hospital.
