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Down to the wire
By Anthony McConnell
This document was published online on Thursday, October 30, 2008
Seven candidates are vying for three two-year terms on the West Park Hospital Board.
Incumbents Graham Jackson, Charles Moore and Jeff Parsons were appointed earlier this year to fill board vacancies and must be elected to retain their seats. Challengers are Richard Evans, Dr. Christopher Lowther, M.D., Peggy Rohrbach and Ruth Torrey.
Four other candidates are seeking two four-year terms on the board. (See related stories on page A-8.)
Collectively, only the term of hospital board chairman Carol Lea Roberts is not expiring this year. The six other incumbent board members are all running for election.
Graham Jackson
Jackson was appointed to replace Karen Ballinger (after she resigned from the board) and is a senior vice president and district manager at Wells Fargo Bank. She's lived in Cody with her husband Bob for 14 years.
In addition to Jackson's recent appointment, she previously was elected to a four-tear term in 2002. She also is chair of the committee developing the Spirit Mountain Hospice House.
Jackson's desire to serve came after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was able to receive most of her treatment at WPH.
“We're so fortunate the cancer treatment center is here,” she said. “I'm dedicated to working hard to represent the community. The patients and their families come first.”
One of Jackson's priorities is ensuring that the hospital is capable of serving Cody and Park County in both the near- and long-term.
“We can't just think about today, we have to think about tomorrow as well,” she said. “Cody is a place where people want to grow old.”
Jackson explained that the board is taking steps to ensure that aging population doesn't over-extend Cody's medical community. Those steps include construction of the Cathcart Health Center medical office building on the west strip, development of the hospice house and recruiting additional physicians.
“The hospital is a partner in the community,” Jackson says. “As the largest employer in Park County it's important that a trustee understand the medical community and its needs to better serve the community.
“It's not just a hospital,” she added. “It's about vision and working with the community for the future.”
Charles Moore
Charles Moore was appointed to replace the late Bill Rohrbach last year.
He is semi-retired from the audio industry and moved to Cody two years ago with his wife Lynne. They have three grown children.
In addition to the WPH board, Moore serves on several corporate boards.
Moore “learned the value of good medical facilities” after being diagnosed with cancer.
“In one year I was in the hospital 183 times,” he said.
“The medical system is what drew us to Cody,” Moore added. “I'm impressed with the doctors, with the level of care and with the hospital.”
Moore credits the volunteer nature of the WPH board for the quality of care available at the hospital.
Unlike the corporate boards he has served on, where members are paid and have their own interests and egos to contend with, WPH board members have to put all that aside and “just do what's best for the hospital and patients,” Moore said.
To meet those needs, Moore says the board is doing everything it can to recruit additional physicians to the area, including working with Billings Clinic-Cody to maximize efforts, he said.
“Right now we're 8-10 physicians short in the community,” Moore added. In addition, at the rate Cody's growing “we won't have enough physicians to meet that need. It's not just us that's dealing with this. It's a nationwide shortage.”
Moore is also concerned with Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, which are vital to the hospital, though he concedes there's little that can be done locally to change those “unrealistic payment schedules.”
“Right now we're (WPH) in good shape financially and we need to be extremely careful with our money and expenditures,” he said, adding that credit for the hospital's favorable financial position should go to previous board members.
Jeff Parsons
Parsons was appointed to replace Dr. Kim Slight after he stepped down to join the WPH staff.
He is a real estate broker associate at Prudential Brokerage West and has three children with his wife Carla.
“I know how lucky I am to live in Cody and how special this area really is,” Parsons said. “Part of that is knowing that for such a small town we have a medical facility you would only expect to see in a much larger community.”
WPH is facing many of the same problems seen nationwide, including the affordability of medical care, a shortage of doctors and nurses and insurance issues, he said.
These problems are “all a great concern to me,” Parsons said.
“As a real estate agent I know that our medical services are also important to people who are considering relocating to this area, whether they are bringing a business or just planning to retire,” Parsons says. “It has always been a pleasure to be able to give (people relocating) a good report about our excellent hospital and doctors in Cody.
“I want to know that we will continue to have the same great, and even better, medical care right here in Cody, where most of my family lives and works,” he added. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the hospital board and have been impressed with the board and management. Anything I can do to help, maintain and improve this great asset will be well worth my time and effort.”
Richard Evans
Evans says he has one reason for seeking his first term on the WPH board - he's tired of seeing people travel to Billings to receive treatment.
“Why should people have to go to Billings to get good medical care?” Evans asks. “There's something wrong with that picture.”
Evans owns Grizzly Creek Outfitting, River Runners of Wyoming and Grizzly Creek Coffee Co. His wife is Dian and he has three sons from a previous marriage.
“People say, ‘If you want to change something, don't complain, run for office,'” he said. “So I'm running.”
His goal is to make WPH the premiere hospital in the region.
“Cody is the hub of the Big Horn Basin,” Evans said. “And West Park should be the premier hospital.
“We have a great facility and a great (office) facility being built,” he added. “The care should match.”
Peggy Rohrbach
Peggy Rohrbach says she's tired of standing on the sidelines and that's why she's seeking her first term on the hospital board.
“For many years I have lived on the periphery of the medical field,” Rohrbach says. “My daughter Sara is an emergency room doctor in Billings, my son-in-law Tom is a family physician in Casper and my niece Stacey is a plastic surgeon in Denver.”
There have been 19 physicians in the Rohrbach family, she added.
In addition, her late husband Bill served on the hospital board until his death last year. She is a real estate agent at Prudential Brokerage West and has three children.
“I supported Bill's involvement by accompanying him to various medical functions, boards and advisory committees locally and throughout the country,” Rohrbach says. “Consequently, I am aware of the many issues facing the medical community, but by no means do I claim to have complete knowledge of the subject.”
The hospital is “first and foremost dedicated to patient care, but I am enough of a realist, having raised three children and spent the past 18 years as a real estate agent, to know that if difficult decisions are not made there may not be a hospital here to care for anyone.”
“I have no agenda other than to ensure great medical care in Cody,” Rohrbach says. “We need to keep the Cody medical community viable with a hospital that serves the needs of the physicians and the Park County community.”
Rohrbach says she understands she will have much to learn
“I have the time, energy and determination to devote my energies to the board,” Rohrbach says. “We have a saying in our family, ‘If you're not helping someone, help someone who is.'
“I'm asking for that opportunity,” she adds.
Ruth Torrey
Ruth Torrey is hoping her extensive business background will help her bring change to the WPH board.
She operated Main Street Ice Cream for six years before retiring and merging it with her husband's business, Peter's Cafe.
Torrey also worked for Cody High School, Columbia Hospital & Clinics Foundation, an outreach of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., as director of human resources, and Ellin & Tucker, LTD, an independent accounting firm in Baltimore.
“I have lived in Cody almost 18 years and the community has been good to me and Peter,” Torrey says. “I would like to give something back to all who have been so supportive.
“I am not too familiar with any of the issues concerning the hospital,” she added. “I do know that all too often I hear folks warn others not to go there. That's disconcerting. People in any community should be proud of their hospital, not afraid. I don't know if there is anything I can do to change this perception, but I am willing to try.”
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr. Christopher Lowther declined to be interviewed for this story.)
(Anthony McConnell can be reached at anthony@codyenterprise.com.)
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