PORT TOWNSEND — After a nationwide search, the Jefferson Healthcare hospital commission found its top candidate for chief executive officer in its own neighborhood, selecting an administrator who served in a similar position at Olympic Medical Center, based in Port Angeles, from 1999 to 2006.
Mike Glenn — who is senior vice president of business development for Valley Medical Center, a 303-bed, public hospital district in Renton — was chosen from about 40 applicants as a possibility to replace Vic Dirksen, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Glenn, 48, who lives in Sequim, has not been offered the job but was selected by the board as the best candidate of five finalists.
“Jefferson Healthcare is an outstanding organization with excellent leadership,” Glenn said Tuesday.
“It has a progressive attitude toward community health care.”
Position discussions
Glenn will visit Port Townsend next week for discussions about the position, which will include interaction with hospital staff and the public.
His salary has not been determined but is expected to be part of the discussion immediately, said Jill Buhler, commission chairwoman.
Dirksen earns $140,000 annually.
Glenn will attend the commission meeting scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Aug. 11 in the hospital auditorium, 834 Sheridan Ave., at which time he will meet the public, Buhler said.
More meetings with the hospital staff and the public will be scheduled before the commission makes a final decision about offering him the job.
“He knows the area, and that’s a big plus,” Buhler said of Glenn.
“Some candidates need to bring in their families for a look at us to see if they like us. He won’t have to do that because he has already been our neighbor,” she said.
If he is determined to be unsuitable, commissioners will re-examine the other four finalists, none of whom have been identified.
Health care funding
Glenn said that much of the discussion with Jefferson Healthcare officials will be about how to continue to fund the health care system.
“Under the current model, we provide adequate health care to a select group but at a very high cost, and we need to find a way to open it up to everyone who needs it,” he said.
“If this sounds like a cliche, it is something that every administrator in every community is now facing.”
Glenn’s wife, Kristin, is an attorney for the state Attorney General’s Office in Port Angeles.
The couple has a 6-year-old daughter.
Jefferson Healthcare officials said that Glenn made significant contributions to OMC, including the development of a new state-of-the-art cancer treatment center in Sequim and negotiation of a partnership with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance that has enabled cancer patients to receive care in their own community, rather than having to travel to Seattle.
He also led the recruitment of 25 new physicians into the community, built two outpatient physical therapy centers, a sleep lab institute, added multiple imaging centers and acquired two private home-health care agencies, they said.
Glenn left OMC for a job with Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
At OMC, Glenn succeeded Tom Stegbauer. Glenn also has worked at four hospitals in Texas, North Carolina and California.
In May 1990, he earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
