New hands at the helm of hospital

By MARK SAGE/Staff

A friend in LifePoint management called Jerry Dooley three weeks ago, asking if he’d run Wythe County Community Hospital for a while.
Retired from 30 years as a chief executive officer, the final 16 at Terre Haute Regional Hospital in Indiana, Dooley said filling in on an interim basis keeps him energized. Monday, when he took the reins of the hospital, he began his fourth tour filling in as a chief executive, his second at a LifePoint facility.
“This is a way to keep your hand in it a little bit,” he said.
Dooley said he likes the challenge and enjoys keeping up with the health care field, but knows, having done it for 30 years, that he doesn’t want to do it again on a permanent basis.
He’s retired, for the most part.
Dooley replaced Eric Deaton, who ended his nearly three-year tenure at WCCH last week to become CEO of the 300-bed Danville Regional Medical Center. Dooley said he originally was asked to start on Feb. 22, but the date got pushed back. Based on experience, Dooley said it likely would be two to three months before a permanent replacement for Deaton is found. During that time, he’s at the helm, living at a motel, keeping in touch with his wife and other family members via the Internet, cell phones and the occasional visit home.
Dooley said it’s not always an easy gig. It’s tougher, though, when a hospital is having problems. It’s the reason he says he always asks why the old CEO is leaving before accepting an interim position. Here, though, Dooley talked with Deaton and the Hospital Board. It’s not tough at all, he said, calling it well-managed and staffed with an expert leadership team.
“Eric (Deaton) did a terrific job,” Dooley said.
Dooley said that as an interim officer, you know it’s short-term, still you function the way you would filling a permanent slot. Though there’s not the time to get involved in long-term planning or projects, the day-to-day management isn’t any different.
He said he’s not at the hospital to make any major changes because major changes don’t need to be made. So far, he said, he’s met with the management team and spent time with physicians. At the hospital board’s next meeting, he’ll get to know its members.
He’s also gotten out in the community some. He said he’s “extremely impressed” with the community center.
Dooley takes the tiller at a time when state budgets are promising a tough couple years.
Before leaving the post, Deaton said that even in the best case scenario, state budget cuts would leave the hospital short an extra $275,000 in Medicaid reimbursements next fiscal year. Last year, WCCH absorbed $5.6 million payment shortfalls, Deaton said.
Dooley said Medicaid reimbursements are a big issue everywhere. The figures are troubling, he said, because there’s not many ways to make up that kind of money, particularly at a rural hospital.
Dooley said he believes that he’ll be part of the process in finding a permanent CEO, pointing out that one of the most important things is getting someone who wants to be here.
When he’s retired retired, not working retired, Dooley, who roots for Notre Dame on the gridiron and Duke on the hardwood, said he enjoys traveling with his wife, a breast cancer survivor. They’ve been to Europe several times and take frequent trips to visit his son in Alabama. Though that apple might have fallen several states from the tree, it’s still not far. His son is CEO at Andalusia Regional Hospital, also a LifePoint facility. Dooley also has a daughter, also in the health care world. She, who lives a lot closer to home, actually in the same subdivision as her parents, works as an ER nurse, he said.
Dooley said he used to play a lot of golf, until his partner, his oldest grandson, was killed in a car crash.
Contact Mark Sage at 228-6611 or jsage@wythenews.com.