Whidbey Watchdog

It’s nearing filing time, a time when the Whidbey News-Times asks local political incumbents if they plan to run again. Hospital board incumbent Nancy Fey told them she will run for re-election. Board president Ron Wallin says he’s undecided – after more than twelve years on the job, he still can’t make up his mind? Having myself once run for a seat on the board, I can tell you that there are plenty of people willing to become board members, so long as it’s by appointment – which happens when a board member resigns before the end of the 6-year term. The trouble with that is the remaining board members do the appointing. This is why the board keeps being occupied by like-minded people. There haven’t been many times a newcomer has defeated an incumbent seeking re-election. For this reason citizens are reluctant to launch an election campaign against incumbents like Wallin or Fey – no one likes to lose. It’s my fervent hope some do so anyway. I’m on record as saying all board me...

I was extremely active when Geri Forbes arrived from Florida to take over leadership of our community hospital. She assumed her post in April 2015. I was a candidate for a seat on the hospital board at the time. I expressed nothing but good will and hope for the future to Geri – as she was replacing an inferior CEO who had run the place for the prior six and a half years. The voters had their say, and they chose not to have an independent reform-minded person on the board. I attended board meetings for a while thereafter, but eventually closed down my web site and dropped out of the public discussion, except for an occasional letter to the newspapers. In her first year here, I closely observed Geri, and we had one hour-long face-to-fact chat – just the two of us. After that, I kept abreast of hospital doings through newspaper articles that covered the latest controversy or publicity plant. From the first, my primary impression of the new CEO was that she was a highl...

The bottom line, as it were, to any discussion or review of the health of our community hospital isn’t number of surgeries, cash on hand, popularity polls, quality of service rankings, or – as we have come to find - even year-end profit/loss statements. It is the hospital’s long-term financial condition. I believe the best, and most unbiased, way to assess that condition is to look at WH’s bond rating history and current status.  Note: For those who don’t wish to go through all the gory details of bond ratings, please skip down to the “Summary” heading . I’ve consulted Moody’s Investors Service, a bond ratings agency. Standard and Poor’s, Fitch, and DBRS are other well-known bond raters. I presume they would all have fairly similar opinions as to the state of WH’s financial well-being. I’m far from a financial expert – I’d love to get some comments on the subject from readers with more knowledge about bonds. But here goes. WH (formerly Whidbey General Hospital, AK...