New CEO hired at East Adams Rural Healthcare

The Adams County Public Hospital District No. 2 Board of Commissioners met for its monthly meeting on April 25, and several days later announced that they had hired a new CEO, ending a monthslong process.

Since the last regular monthly meeting on March 28, the CEO Recruitment Committee conducted several face-to-face interviews with the finalists for the position. Following a special board meeting on April 15, the board unanimously agreed to offer the CEO position to one of the finalists, Corey Fedie.

Fedie is currently the interim CEO at the Kit Carson County Health Service District in Burlington, Colorado, which like EARH is also a Critical Cccess Hospital. Fedie earned his bachelor’s degree in facilities, engineering and management from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2000, and earned his master’s of business administration (MBA) from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2015.

Prior to his current role, Fedie was the director of facilities, clinical engineering, construction, safety and special projects at BSA Health System, an extensive hospital system in Amarillo, Texas that has a medical staff of more than 450 physicians and about 3,400 employees.

At a special meeting on April 22, the board unanimously agreed to offer Fedie the following terms for the CEO position: a $200,000 salary with a two-year contract; a retention bonus of $25,000 a year, to be paid at the end of the second year; a signing bonus of $20,000 to be paid after the first month of employment; a performance bonus of up to $25,000 per year; and a severance package of six months. It is presently unclear whether those were the final terms of the agreement.

The board expected that Fedie’s start date would be June 10, to allow him to overlap with current CEO Gary Bostrom for several weeks before he is set to retire. Bostrom, for his part, will still be working for the hospital on a part-time basis as the chief financial officer. Bostrom will be working from his family home in Montana.

In other news during the relatively brisk meeting, a report on the March ambulance runs showed that the ambulance usage increased markedly compared to March of 2018. There were 37 ambulance runs in March of 2018, and that number of ambulance runs rose to 60 in March of 2019.

Bostrom announced to the board that EARH has signed an agreement with Merritt Hawkins, a national physician recruiting firm. Merritt Hawkins will help with the recruitment of an M.D. to the hospital.

Also on the hiring front, chief nursing officer Jennifer Pepperd updated the board on recent applications received for nursing positions at the hospital. The hospital received applications from three candidates recently, and Pepperd is in the process of talking with and possibly interviewing each of them.

On the memory care center front, Bostrom told the board that if the sale of the Life Care Center building to Gibraltar Senior Living, LLC does not go through for whatever reason, Gibraltar has agreed to repair any damage done to the building because of recent asbestos testing that was conducted. Bostrom also applauded the Ritzville City Council for their support of the sale and noted that the process has been moving forward smoothly.