Tahoe Forest Hospital District has had its share of problems over the past few years, most notably medical staff discontent with the former CEO, Harry Weis. Medical personnel had voiced their concerns about a lack of accountability, transparency, and communication under the leadership of Weis, and complained of a toxic work environment. The hospital parted ways with Weis in June and is currently searching for a new CEO.
Additionally, the region’s population has grown since Covid, placing strains on the hospital and affecting access. Many people now have to wait months to be seen by a doctor.
The TFHD Board of Directors has two seats up for election this November. Moonshine Ink talked to the three candidates, including two incumbents, to find out their priorities for the hospital, what they are looking for in a new CEO, and how they would go about creating a more open and transparent management style. Here they are in last name alphabetical order.
Bob Barnett
Barnett is running for his third term on the TFHD Board. A retired attorney who represented disabled and injured clients, Barnett has a long history of dealing with patient and medical practice issues.
One of his main goals if reelected is to help create collaborative leadership. He heard from doctors that under Weis’ leadership they weren’t granted access and input to decision-making that affected their practices. Barnett supports a dyadic leadership model, which pairs a physician and an administrator as leaders for healthcare oversight. The hospital has already implemented this for many of its department heads.
Instead of doctors and administrators on opposite sides of the table, the idea is to put them on the same side of the table and the problem on the other side.”
~ Bob Barnett
“Doctors can better anticipate the impacts of decisions on care; on the other hand, they are not always strong on the business impact and need an administrator to help guide them on that,” said Barnett, who has met with representatives of the Mayo Clinic, the gold standard on dyadic leadership, to discuss the concept. “Instead of doctors and administrators on opposite sides of the table, the idea is to put them on the same side of the table and the problem on the other side.”
Barnett says that the COO and chief of staff are already working in a successful dyadic relationship, an example of a collaborative rather than hierarchical leadership model. He advocates that the chief of staff, whom he likens to a spokesperson for the medical staff, attend board meetings. He also invited the chief of staff to participate in the CEO selection process.
“It’s a way of reaching out and making sure to include the medical staff in our decision making,” he said.
Barnett says he views a key part of his board position to be listening.
“I see my job as trying to facilitate so these people [medical staff] can do their jobs and deliver the highest care possible,” he said.
While the prior CEO was focused on financial growth, which Barnett says was not a good fit, he prefers to focus on the community.
“My focus is really on the sustainability of high-quality patient care and the patient experience,” he said.
Robert Darzynkiewicz
Darzynkiewicz is the only non-incumbent running for the TFHD Board seat. He has been an ER physician for 20 years, currently works at Renown in Reno, and is also the co-founder and chief medical officer of the pediatric tele-health business Hazel Health.
Darzynkiewicz decided to run for the TFHD board because he felt it was time to give back to the community and he can leverage his experience as both a doctor and business owner.
“As a cofounder and past chief medical officer of a start up, I built a great healthcare system,” he said. “From me to the first doctor to now over 200 therapists and clinicians, I learned a lot about leadership, healthcare systems, and I hope to share that experience on the board.”
In my start-up, one of my goals was to be the best place to work, Having that as a guiding light and building that into high-quality care and a financially successful healthcare system is the trifecta.”
~ Dr. Rob Darzynkiewicz
After hearing from residents, Darzynkiewicz’s priority is improving access.
“The community has grown. Tahoe Forest Hospital’s systems are growing,” he said. “I want to improve access so people can see their doctors and prevent people having to go down the hill.”
He also wants to ensure that the doctors and all employees feel they are a priority for the hospital.
“Healthcare systems are built on people,” he said. “I want to make sure the well-being of doctors and the entire staff are being supported.”
In terms of hiring a new CEO, Darzynkiewicz says he is looking for someone who cares about delivering quality care, understands a hospital is a business and has to be successful in order to provide quality care, and is well aware all of this is done with people.
“In my start-up, one of my goals was to be the best place to work,” he said. “Having that as a guiding light and building that into high-quality care and a financially successful healthcare system is the trifecta.”
Darzynkiewicz is supportive of a dyadic leadership model as an option for the CEO. He worked under such a model when he was the pediatric ER director at Renown along with the ER manager.
“We succeeded in building a great pediatric ER,” he wrote in an email to Moonshine. “I feel it works to benefit both the administrative and clinical teams. The clinicians have an opportunity to understand the business metrics of success for the hospital while the administrative team learns how the clinical team functions. Sharing each other’s experiences builds trust. And if their goals are similar, success follows.”
Alyce Wong
Like Barnett, Alyce Wong is running for her third term on the TFHD Board. A retired nurse herself, Wong believes it’s important to have a nurse on the hospital board.
“Nurses focus on caring, while physicians focus on curing,” she said. “As a nurse, I care about how people are feeling, how they are being cared for, and how they are being heard as far as their concerns with their health.”
Wong believes stability is necessary when going through a transition, like bringing in a new CEO; that is why she believes reelecting her would be a positive for the hospital.
In a new CEO, Wong is looking for someone who will be the opposite of Weis in terms of communication and relationship-building with the medical staff.
Nurses focus on caring, while physicians focus on curing. As a nurse, I care about how people are feeling, how they are being cared for, and how they are being heard as far as their concerns with their health.”
~ Alyce Wong
“I am looking for a unicorn, someone who is open to discussion, has relationships with the community as well as the organization, is engaged in listening to what employees, leadership, and the community is all saying,” she said.
Rather than looking back on what went wrong with Weis, Wong is focused on moving forward.
“I want to have open meetings so people feel safe to say things, small groups where people can come to talk just about their department and how things are going, and ‘can we try this’ and feeling safe without criticism,” she said.
Unlike Barnett, Wong is unsure if the dyadic leadership model is right for the CEO position.
“In Tahoe Forest’s 75 years, we have never had it before,” she said. “When you have two people at the top, I am still not sure about that. When something happens, who do you go to? All those things have to be lined up so the board understands who is doing what.”
She also understands that access has been a big issue since the pandemic. Her priority is getting people into primary care and hiring more physicians, although the hospital is facing the problem of limited space. Her number one goal is “to promote health and ensure the community has quality healthcare for all of us.”
