Candidate Profile: Joyce Preston, incumbent for hospital district commissioner at large

Joyce Preston is the incumbent candidate for Adams County Public Hospital District No. 2 Commissioner at Large District 2 position. She was first elected to serve the board almost four years ago, winning election as a write-in candidate after being a vocal audience member opposed to district decisions and actions at the time.

Preston, 64, graduated from Ritzville High School and attended Spokane Community College. As a result of her education, she became a dental assistant. While her husband, Jim, was in the Coast Guard, she spent 30 years traveling the country with him. The couple eventually returned to Ritzville in 1997.

They have two daughters.

Preston is currently employed as office administrator for Zion Philadelphia United Church of Christ. She has been there for nine years. Prior to that she has worked for eight dentists including Dr. Douglas Hille. During her career, Preston also worked for a physical therapist and as apartment manager.

“The reason I have listed all of these positions is to show my knowledge of time management, people management, policies and procedures, the aspects of being in the scene of the medical and dental environment,” Preston wrote in response to The Journal’s candidate questionnaire. “I have completely set up offices from the ground up starting with an empty building. I have changed and improved bookkeeping systems, done the collections of accounts and have continually dealt with the public for my adult life.”

Preston is a member of Beta Sigma Phi organization, P.E.O., Bronc Boosters and the Ritzville Festivals Association.

Her volunteer service includes selling tickets at school sporting events, the Ritzville Blues Festival, Historic Ritzville Days Western Art Show, Ritzville Library and Relay For Life.

Preston is not soliciting campaign contributions, but does accept them if a constituent offers.

Why seek re-election?

“I felt I needed to run again to be active in the support and continuation of our outstanding services and to be involved with the financial responsibility to our communities and district,” Preston said.

In her opening statement to The Journal, Preston identified several reasons for seeking re-election.

“I want to save our services that are so very vital to our healthcare and our communities,” she said. “I want to know that many years from now we will have a hospital to take care of our people and include a swing bed program so our patients can come home to recover and get physical therapy. We need to continue the most recent technological x-ray services such as our CT scans, digital x-rays, mammograms and MRIs that you do not have to leave town to have taken. Our lab has added many tests to improve our service to our communities and to have readily available results.”

“I feel a very important service we have today is our outstanding emergency room,” Preston continued. “Helping to support this service is our excellent emergency medical services staff that is always on call and whose members are highly qualified to handle all emergencies. Both of these entities serve all of our hospital district and the care of our fellow man on our local freeways.

“The hiring of a physician to complete our clinic and serve our district is a priority to me and would also help alleviate the financial responsibility we are incurring.

“If our medical facility would close, all of us would be affected. This includes Rose Garden and Life Care,” Preston said. “How many times has one of the patrons from either of these establishments needed the emergency room or a stay in the hospital? What would these entities do without our facility and EMS? Many lives have been altered by the presence of East Adams Rural Hospital and its services.

“Economically it would be an extreme drain to all of our communities. The hospital district employs 60 to 70 people. Our communities could not support these family units with jobs. These employees would have no choice but to leave our area.

“We are having a difficult time enticing new businesses to become established in Ritzville. Without our medical facility it would be almost impossible to have a new business take an interest in our community,” Preston concluded.

Do you remember what reasons prompted you to run in 2007?

“Same as it is today,” Preston said. “To keep the facility here open and vital. In fact I think today it’s even more important, more dire.”

It was an emotional time in 2007, are your reasons for running still the same?

“I think so, pretty much so. We still need to advance and do a lot of work and make sure that our patrons are all taken care of and people retain the best health care they can get. Some things have changed a little bit, of course, with different employees. It’s one of the strongest viable entities we have in the community for all of us.”

When asked to have attorney Randy Stamper attend meetings, why has the board not done so?

“If you had an attorney who was working closely with a person for 20 years I think they would have, I don’t know if you would say a biased opinion. They would be swayed possibly one way in their outcomes. The same contract (for doctors) had been drawn up practically for 20 years at least the last couple of years.”

Do you think there is a conflict of interest there?

“Very much so.”

During the contract process with doctors, is this the outcome you wanted?

“This is my opinion. The outcome for me would have been to have the employees we had at that time, help us financially and to maybe change some very definite patterns that we had with our scheduling and other things that were very definitely not being worked together well.”

When asked about her personal feelings on how the relationship ended, Preston declined to discuss the matter, stating as a commissioner she was still bound by a confidentiality agreement.

After the confidentiality agreement expires on Aug. 8, will there be clarity?

“I don’t have any idea. I guess we’ll see Aug. 8. I think it will help explain some of our actions more clearly.”

Did you want the two doctors to remain in the district?

“That’s a silly question. Never once did I ever want those doctors gone. Absolutely not. That was never the intent whatsoever.”

Was there a better way to handle it?

“Well, I have to say that the board voted unanimously for that decision. I think we felt it was the best decision for the district when we took the action for a unanimous vote to happen the board must have felt very strongly about what we did.”

Do you see patient volumes improving in the future?

“Once we find another physician I think that will help immensely. Also though the hospital is doing extremely well. The facility is being used for what it was built for. We have to look at both sides and the hospital is doing very, very well.”

Is creating the swing bed program unfriendly competition with Life Care?

“No, at the time when we did the strategic report three years ago that lady who presented at that time told us there were two rural hospitals in the state who did not have a swing bed program and we were one of them. At that time, already with the way revenue was being handled by federal government and the state, it was going to be a necessity to help the facility survive.”

Is there a threat the clinic volume won’t turn around?

“No. I have to be optimistic. I would hope that there are people who would like to have an option. I would like to recover some of the business that is going out of town. Hopefully, which is difficult to do because once you establish a doctor you stay with them.

“The younger generation, I think has all been brain washed by having to have a pediatrician, that a family practice doctor can’t fulfill that job anymore. I think that’s part of the problem no matter where you go. It’s part of our society.”

How important is it to annex Sprague into the district?

“I would like to see them come into the hospital district because they are kind out there flailing about. I feel badly that they don’t have permanent health care. If they can combine and be involved in our school system, this is also a way to make communities tighter and be able to work together better. By them having the use of our health care. If they had an opportunity they might choose to come this direction.”

The hospital building’s last major improvement was in 1968. Do we need a new building?

“Cosmetically we painted. It looks fine. They (public) don’t understand though that our infrastructure is a mess. We have the problem with the flat roof, the basement and the cement floor. Trying to use conduit for technology is just a nightmare. There’s no space. The asbestos. Because of the laws now today we can’t enlarge the bathroom for a handicapped bathroom. Once we take off that frame now considered a hazardous building (due to asbestos) and it has to be razed down to the cement floor before we can even starting doing anything, which means we have no facility in the mean time and it costs a lot of money.”

If you had supreme power for a day what would you do?

“I would really like to see the two entitites work together. This community could have the best results and the best healthcare that any community could want,” Preston said. “They have their favorite doctors they have used for years and a medical facility that can provide just about any kind of service they could need. If two entities could work together, it would be a draw for people.

“Heal. Just heal what’s going on. I grew up here and this is not the community I am from. I’m sure there was stuff going on that I didn’t realize (back then). The animosity, the hatred, the disrespect, I would never have thought my town would do that in a 100 years. In Jim’s 30 years in the service and out traveling I couldn’t say enough about my community. We’ve divided everything. Families are divided. I think it is very scary.”

What does the future hold?

“I am willing to listen to anybody. The animosity is so strong at those board meetings we can’t truly do our business. No matter what we say, no matter what we try and accomplish it’s wrong. Sitting there feeling that animosity and hatred, it’s very hard to concentrate.”

What about those who say commissioners aren’t listening?

“If you try and speak as a board member you are booed, slapped in the face right away.”

What are your top priorities?

“One of them is to bring in a different physician to give the community some options. To have a new face, maybe new ideas. Secondly I think we’re going to have to have a new facility. We are so close on so many different compliance codes that we are on the edge of not being compliant due to the age of the building. What do we do if they come in and shut us down or say you can no longer practice here until it’s fixed and it’s going to cost $6 millions and take two years?

“It’s a very difficult situation. I understand when people are saying you can’t build a new facility because of the economy. I agree we need to stabilize and get back on our feet and be in a different place before we start that, but the community has to understand it’s going to happen sometime or it’s going to be too late.”

What do you look for in a new doctor?

“I would want them to have their patients first no matter what. I would want him to be innovative, technological savvy, down to earth. Reachable. Professional. Want him to understand this is a business along with being a profession and sometimes business decisions are hard to make and might not always be popular. We can’t continue paying a person and giving them raises and higher salary if productivity is going down and that was part of the problem.”

You have been stern with the community a couple of times. How has this experience been for you?

“Awful. Terrible. This is not the community I was raised in. Not the community I want to pass on to anybody else. It tears my heart out. It saddens me.”

Did you consider not running?

“Yes very definitely. I was on the edge.”

Is the best solution a peace treaty of some sort?

“It might be worth it. All I’m trying to do is keep that facility going to help our people. My primary goal is the facility not getting back at them or the community. It was about 2 in morning one night and the helicopter came in. I went out and watched. It just cannot go away. That could have been my mom and dad. It could have been anybody.”