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For the week of January 23 - 29, 2002

  News

CEO Moses said he’s leaving St. Luke’s hospital


By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

Jon Moses, the CEO who oversaw the construction of St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center and the transformation of the hospital from a county-run to a privately run facility, said Monday that his employment with St. Luke’s has ended.

"Yes, that is the case," he said.

Moses, executives from St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Boise and the community board, which oversees the Wood River Valley branch of St. Luke’s, met Monday to negotiate a possible new deal between Moses and the hospital, said Kerry George, manager of public relations for St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center.

A meeting of the same people also occurred on Thursday, she said, the same day that the St. Luke’s branch in Boise notified St. Luke’s Wood River employees that Moses could be leaving.

"We’re doing everything we can to talk to Jon, and if it’s decided that (his employment) will end, we’ll make it as smooth as possible for everyone," George said.

Moses was not available to receive telephone calls at the hospital on Friday and Monday. Theresa Bush, director of nursing, and six other department directors, were filling in for Moses until he either returned or a permanent replacement was found, George said. However, a search for a replacement had not yet begun.

Neither Moses nor George would reveal why he might be leaving his job as CEO.

George said that Moses had not been fired and that Moses’ leaving was not related to the hospital’s financial loss of $1.5 million on a budget of $22 million last year.

Moses said that he might be able to discuss the status of his employment further when the negotiations end, possibly sometime this week.

It would be unwise to "jump to any conclusions" before then, said Wood River community board chairman Preston Strazza.

The Wood River Medical Center board of trustees, which oversaw the hospital when it was county-owned, approved St. Luke’s hiring of Moses in the winter of 1997-1998. Former County Commissioner Len Harlig, who was a board member then, said Moses was hired with the transition to St. Luke’s and the construction of a new hospital in mind.

The Boise-based St. Luke’s began planning the 32-bed facility in 1996, when county residents voted to replace the aging, publicly run Wood River Medical Center.

Philanthropists contributed more than $18 million for the construction of and transition to the new 110,000-square-foot building, which opened two miles south of Ketchum on Nov. 19, 2000.

But the project was controversial.

Moses, and St. Luke’s, encountered criticism from, among others, Blaine County Citizens for Smart Growth, a land-use advocacy group that accused hospital planners of arrogantly disregarding the county’s zoning rules.

Physicians decried St. Luke’s ousting of staff and services that resulted in the loss of Dr. Alice Police, a specialist in breast care and one of the valley’s three general surgeons. Several other physicians and numerous staff either left the hospital or were not offered new contracts during the transition.

Moses was at the center of another controversy in May 2000 when the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission denied St. Luke’s application to build a 38,000-square-foot medical office building next to the hospital. Moses said the hospital would not be financially viable without the building. The county approved a revised application in the fall of 2001, and construction began soon after that.

In part because of the new building, Moses said in November that he expected hospital revenues to exceed losses by about $900,000 this year.

As at any hospital, new needs and challenges constantly arise, he said in November, reflecting on the hospital’s first year, but "I think the future of this hospital is very bright."

 


The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.