FORKS –– After two months of paid administrative leave, now-former Forks Community Hospital Administrator Bill McMillan has been fired by Clallam County Hospital District 1 commissioners.
Interim Administrator James Chaney said Friday that McMillan, who was placed on administrative leave Nov. 21, was “terminated without cause” by a unanimous vote from commissioners Jan. 16.
Commissioner Don Lawley said the firing was not attributed to any specific action by McMillan. Lawley said McMillan and the board had differing visions for the hospital’s future.
“It was more of a difference in the direction we wanted to take the hospital that was irreconcilable,” Lawley said.
McMillan was paid two months of his $176,010 annual salary while on leave, Lawley said.
The hospital brought in an investigator during McMillan’s leave, but neither Lawley nor Chaney would say what was being investigated.
Chaney, who was the hospital’s chief operating and financial officer prior to his appointment to act as administrator, will continue to serve as the hospital’s CEO on an interim basis.
The hospital’s governing board has not decided when or if it might seek a permanent chief executive, Lawley said.
“Long term, we’re just going to wait and see,” Lawley said. “We’ll go with this model for a while, and then we’ll see where we want to take it from there.”
Heidi Anderson, chief nursing officer, has been serving as acting chief operating officer since McMillan was placed on leave.
McMillan took over as the hospital’s administrator Dec. 3, 2012, with an annual salary of $176,010.
He succeeded Camille Scott, who retired.
Prior to Forks, McMillan was CEO for the Curry Health District in Gold Beach, Ore.
He told the PDN in January he left that position after a conflict with a director of the district’s board.
In the June 20, 2012, edition of the Coastal Curry Pilot, then-hospital board Chairman Dugie Freeman said the board of directors had “lost confidence that McMillan was capable of supervising the financial condition and the staff.”
The Oregon hospital then hired a Tennessee-based consulting firm to oversee its operations.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
