New hospital CEO to start in May

Bartlett Regional Hospital (Photo by Heather Bryant/KTOO)
Bartlett Regional Hospital (Photo by Heather Bryant/KTOO)

Bartlett Regional Hospital has hired Charles “Chuck” Bill of Durango, Colo. as its new chief executive officer.

Bill is assistant administrator of physician development at Centura Health Physician Group. He’s previously held other CEO positions at hospitals in Arizona, California and Colorado that have lasted anywhere from one to 11 years.

Bill says he’s had experience working in two publicly owned hospitals and is used to the public process.

“I’m comfortable working in that environment and in the legislative environment with advocacy issues and that sort of thing and, really, I’m passionate about smaller, sole community kind of hospitals that are such a critical resource for their community,” Bill says.

Bill’s mother grew up in Juneau and he says he’s familiar with the capital city.

“I’ve still got a cousin that lives there in town so we’ve got a little bit of family connection and have been up there, so we’re not total strangers to Juneau.”

His first major step as CEO is hiring a permanent chief financial officer. Since Ken Brough resigned at the end of 2013, Bartlett has had two interim CFOs – Cynthia Brandt and now Alan Germany.

Bill says other priorities include building an environment of trust at the hospital and being involved in the community. He plans to be active in groups like Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, and says he’ll be accessible to the media.

“My goal would be at some point in time that the stories from Bartlett are basically feel good stories instead of adversarial kind of stories and that’s going to take building those relationships and building that trust,” Bill says.

Bill plans to start the job in mid-May, which hospital board president Kristen Bomengen says will overlap with interim CEO Jeff Egbert.

She says the board offered Bill a three-year contract with a possibility of renewing.

“None of us had any difficulty with that as a starting point. We feel reasonably assured that the intention here is to make Juneau home and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to introduce some longevity and stability in our management team,” Bomengen says.

Bill’s annual salary will be $315,000. Bomengen says, for Bartlett’s size, that figure is in the 75% percentile of what other hospital CEOs in Alaska receive. Former Bartlett CEO Chris Harff’s salary was $260,000. Harff resigned after being in the job for 13 months.

Bill will move to Juneau with his wife Sue, who’s a registered nurse and works from home. They have three grown daughters.

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