Hospital adds to the ranks

Interim CFO, nursing home administrator will fill in

Weston County Hospital District’s board, at its July 25 meeting, unanimously decided to engage the services of an interim chief financial officer: John Gantner.

CEO Cathy Harshbarger said in an email on July 29 that the hospital is in negotiations with Gantner.

She said at the meeting that she and Tony Blake, of Strategic Impact, vetted Gantner. They had both heard of Gantner and contacted him to find out if he would be interested. Gantner’s experience includes working for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey from 1993 to 2007 and from 2017 to 2020. His most recent role at the hospital was as its president and CEO.

Harshbarger and Blake interviewed Gantner and five other candidates, and they brought two finalists to the search committee.

“The search committee and ourselves felt like there was no question that the best candidate, by far, was this John Gantner,” Harshbarger said.

Gantner is willing to start in mid-August and will do as much work as possible onsite, as that’s his preference, she said.

“He was willing to work free for us for the first few weeks, just to help us with our cash position,” she said.

The board also unanimously approved adding the position of nursing home administrator with compensation, including both salary and benefits, of up to $130,000, and authorized Harshbarger to begin hiring for the position.

Harshbarger said that she would ask the board in executive session for an agreement of contract terms for Shane Filipi as the interim nursing home administrator. Filipi’s experience includes currently serving as president of the nonprofit long-term care providers association LeadingAge Wyoming.

“He comes highly recommended,” Harshbarger said.

Harshbarger said that the hospital received a state survey informing the hospital that it was deficient because it needs an employee “whose only job is to be the nursing home administrator.”

She said on July 29 that both the state and federal government require the role to be separate. It’s federally required if the state requires it.

To immediately correct that situation, as required, because Allard is not currently working, the hospital is hiring a new person.

“If Piper were here, I would have had to have separated that job from her. It’s that serious (that) I have to have somebody in the nursing home working in the nursing home as the administrator,” Harshbarger said. “They’re not allowing it to be a dual role.”

Harshbarger said at the July 11 meeting that Kim Scharf, quality director, and Melissa Thomas, director of long-term care, are “both working towards” having nursing home administrator licenses so that the hospital has “some backup strategies” for the position.

She said on July 29 that Filipi accepted the offer, on a permanent basis, that day. Filipi was originally going to take the position on an interim basis, but the hospital board asked Harshbarger during executive session to change the position to permanent.

“This was largely based on the rule related to nursing home administrators being required to have the role as distinctly separate,” she said.

The hospital hopes Filipi, who will need to secure housing, will start work within a week. His salary is $100,000, with about 25% in costs on top for benefits. The 25% is the standard cost for all employees, depending on whether they accept all benefits the hospital offers.

Scharf and Thomas will continue pursuing the licensure, according to Harshbarger. Scharf needs to complete 500 hours of being mentored, and Thomas needs to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing.

Carol Jones, a community member, asked why Piper Allard, who was the hospital’s chief operating officer and nursing home administrator, hasn’t returned to work.

“She needs to be back to work, working for us,” Jones said. “She is local talent we raised up here.”

Betty Petranek, Allard’s mother, asked why there is what she termed “secrecy” regarding an investigation report that the board reportedly received at the last meeting.

Kari Drost, the board’s treasurer, chaired the July 11 meeting because board Chair Ann Slagle was absent. Drost said at the July 25 meeting that at the July 11 meeting, the board received the report and heard from the investigator. Harshbarger said on July 25 that she received the report from the attorney “just before” the July 11 meeting and that she had distributed it to the board at the meeting.

“These are all things that happened in executive session and we are not allowed to talk about it,” Slagle said, after Petranek asked why the board didn’t stop or formally object to former CEO Randy Lindauer and former Chair Dottie Briggs putting Allard on leave.

Slagle said later in the meeting that, looking back, she should have arranged for board members to arrive at the July 11 meeting an hour earlier so they could review the report and that Drost should have told the board members that they wouldn’t have a meeting but would instead read the report.

“That was wrong on our part, but there’s nothing to be done about it now,” Slagle said.

She said that any board members have had the opportunity to review the report at the hospital since that meeting.

Trustee Karine Wright West said that the board reviewed the report and discussed some of it during the July 11 meeting’s executive session and that everyone has had a chance to review the full report since that meeting.