Wednesday, Sep. 03, 2008

Tavary resigns as Prosser Memorial Hospital CEO

By Laura Kate Zaichkin, Herald staff writer

PROSSER -- Prosser Memorial Hospital's chief executive officer of nearly 10 years has resigned and will leave the hospital Nov. 24, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

Jim Tavary has not said why he's leaving or his future plans, said spokesman Jason Jones. Tavary resigned last week.

"It's a good opportunity for him and his family to seek new opportunities," Jones said.

The hospital's board expects to work on a plan for filling Tavary's position within the next couple of weeks, he said.

In other hospital news, the board voted last week to put the sale of the hospital's aging nursing home on hold in order to further investigate the possibility of keeping it under hospital ownership.

The hospital board voted in May to move forward with negotiations to transfer ownership of the 36-bed Transitional and Long Term Care facility to Eagle Healthcare Inc.

But the proposal was met with criticism from long-term care staff and community members, most of whom wanted to keep the nursing home under hospital ownership.

The criticism continued into this summer with community members picketing at community forums about the possible sale and circulating petitions calling for the resignations of Tavary and board president Jack Schroeder.

The board's decision was made after a committee of a dozen board members, staff and community members was asked last year to come up with solutions for the nursing home, which lacks storage and has other problems.

The committee determined moving the hospital's long-term care unit off site and transitioning ownership to Eagle to be the best solution.

But the committee did not comprehensively look at keeping long-term care under hospital ownership, and instead focused on keeping the facility in Prosser and keeping the hospital's debt capacity down, Jones said Tuesday.

A new committee made up of three board members, seven community members and three hospital staff members will form this month to again study the possibility of keeping the facility under Prosser Memorial's ownership.

"It will have a larger community contingent" than last year's committee, Jones said.

"It's going to speak to the concerns" of community members, he said.

The board will select committee members and have a clearer timeline for the study by its next meeting, at month's end, Jones said.

And when the new committee has made its recommendation, "the board will have all the information from the previous committee, all the information from this committee," he said. "It's turning over a few more stones."