The hospital board positions being contested on the ballot are terribly important to this area. That’s why we must understand what’s going on with the hospital. One race in particular is that for District 2 Commissioner position 2 between Melanie Sturgeon and Scott Dilley. I have gone to several of the hospital board meetings and spoken with several of the board members. During my stay in February I was also able to talk with staff.

Scott Dilley criticized the hospital for not being immediately open and honest with the public once the ransomware attack was discovered. For the first two months the hospital said nothing publicly about it. The reason for that was that they were under an FBI gag order that prohibited them from saying anything to anyone about the incident. The FBI was investigating and you don’t tip your hand in such cases. Scott Dilley claims that he would have gone to the public immediately and inform them of the breach. Had he done that, he could have endangered the hospital’s very existence. Thankfully, the hospital did not pay the ransom and the computer system is being repaired with great speed.

Secondly, Scott Dilley went after the hospital for cutting jobs and outsourcing the work, both of which they did. They had a reason for doing that. KeyBank, which held the paper on the hospital, had enlisted an independent consulting firm to come in and find out how to slash cost and decrease debt. In short, that consulting firm’s recommendation was to shrink the staff and to obtain those services from a cheaper source. The bank took the recommendation and essentially told the hospital ‘you will take these measures or we will call in the note’ and the hospital would have been bankrupt. Again, we would’ve had no hospital.

Last year at this time Grays Harbor Community Hospital had a deficit of nearly $2 million. As of today, thanks to work of management and the current board, the deficit has been reduced by over 80%. The management and board worked with our Democratic legislators to get a 150% reimbursement rate for Medicaid, one of only 2 hospitals in the state to get that. As the hospital approaches profitability, those outsourced jobs are starting to return to Grays Harbor and the hospital is looking for good people.

These are just some of the reasons why I support Melanie Sturgeon for hospital board. We must continue the progress she and the board have started.

Alan Richrod

Aberdeen