Lake Chelan Hospital hires Steve Patonai as permanent CEO

CHELAN – After going into an Executive Session during their Dec. 20 board meeting, the Lake Chelan Community Hospital Board of Commissioners agreed to remove Steve Patonai as Interim CEO and unanimously voted to place him as permanent CEO of Lake Chelan Community Hospital and Clinics.

Board Chair Mary Signorelli, congratulated Patonai and expressed the Board’s support towards him. “We are pleased to have you as permanent CEO,” she said.

Patonai thanked the Board for the opportunity to serve as CEO. “I am usually not speechless but it hit me with your announcement … there’s so much to do here, I just want to say thank you,” he said to the Board.

The Board went through a national search for seven or eight months and interviewed 10 people for the CEO position. They were able to narrow it down to four, however for one reason or another “they were not the right fit for us and our community.”

Signorelli explained that the Board offered Patonai the CEO position a few times before he finally accepted it. “We are looking forward to working him, we think he has done a tremendous job so far,” she said.

That afternoon the Board also approved the 2019 hospital budget. Chief Financial Officer Vickie Bodle presented the proposed operating budget. The projected income for 2019 is $776,419 on anticipated net revenue of $27,748,395. The budget includes $518,516 allocated to capital projects and $50,000 for the emergency capital.

The Board also heard from new CEO Patonai as he reintroduced the six pillars of performance. Each of the pillars includes a goal for 2019 that will help achieve the vision of the hospital in 10 years.

The pillars focus on people, service, quality/safety, growth/innovation, finance and community. Patonai informed that the Board will hear updates on each pillar every quarter.

In the last meeting, Commissioner Mary Murphy suggested for the Board to write a letter to community answering questions they have on the hospital. The letter was presented during the meeting and approved to be published in the hospital’s website.

The Commissioners want to communicate with the community at a personal level and will be writing letters to the community with updates from the hospital every now and then.