{"id":75582,"date":"2021-09-19T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/hospital-ceo-resigns-after-6-months-on-the-job\/"},"modified":"2021-09-20T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T00:55:10","slug":"hospital-ceo-resigns-after-6-months-on-the-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/hospital-ceo-resigns-after-6-months-on-the-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital CEO resigns after 6 months on the job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

With just six months in the top job, Bartlett Regional Hospital chief executive officer Rose Lawhorne resigned from the top job on Saturday, according to a news release from hospital officials.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

City and Borough of Juneau City Manager, Rorie Watt, said Lawhorne resigned amid news of an inappropriate personal relationship with a subordinate staff member, which violates city policy.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We have a complex conflict of interest code that the city attorney is required to enforce,” Watt said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Robert Palmer, CBJ city attorney, said that the hospital is part of the city, in the same way as the school district and Eaglecrest Ski Area. As a result, hospital employees are city employees.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“All city employees have to comply with the ethics code. We call that our conflict of interest code,” Palmer said in a phone interview Monday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

In a Monday news release, hospital officials announced the resignation of chief behavioral health officer Bradley Grigg.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I’m not making any comments on whether there was a connection,” Watt said in a phone interview on Monday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Watt said he did not know if the CEO search process had included questions about personal relationships.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Watt said that he had talked with Lawhorne and said she’s having a “tough time.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It’s difficult. She’s remorseful and she is trying to move on with her life,” Watt said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Bartlett Regional Hospital’s new CEO is focused on stability<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Board appoints Interim CEO<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Bartlett Regional Hospital Board of Directors appointed Kathy Callahan to serve as interim CEO and will meet on Friday, Sept. 24, to discuss the recruitment plan for a permanent CEO.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

According to the news release, Callahan has a long history of service at Bartlett Regional Hospital, recently retiring as director of physician services.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I have always admired the incredible work you do, especially during this particularly difficult time in healthcare,” Callahan wrote in an all-staff email on Monday. “Leadership changes can make us feel uneasy, but I want to assure that you have the support of our leadership team.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

In the same email, Callahan also noted that all health care services, including behavioral and mental health programs, will continue with no interruption.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“During this time of transition, everyone at Bartlett remains dedicated to serving the community of Juneau with high quality, patient-centered care,” said Board President Kenny Solomon-Gross in a news release.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"The<\/a>

The Bartlett Regional Hospital Board of Directors appointed Kathy Callahan to serve as interim CEO after the resignation of Rose Lawhorne. (Courtesy Photo\/Bartlett Regional Hospital)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Search for the new Bartlett CEO enters final phase<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

About Lawhorne<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Lawhorne was named CEO earlier this year after a nationwide search. As CEO, she earned an annual salary of $320,000.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Lawhorne replaced Chuck Bill, who retired from the post. Chief financial officer Kevin Benson served as interim CEO during the hiring process.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Lawhorne started her career at the hospital in 1993 when she joined the accounting staff and worked her way up the ranks.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

She’s spent her entire career at Bartlett. She served as the chief nursing officer, assistant chief clinical officer, senior director, emergency department director, staff nurse and data entry\/registration clerk along the way.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

In a March interview with the Empire, Lawhorne said she was surprised to find herself in the hospital’s top job.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It was never a specific goal,” Lawhorne said. “My goal was to serve the community. I’ve just taken opportunities and prepared myself to focus on advancement.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

• Contact<\/em> reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneauempire.com or 907-308-4891.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathy Callahan to serve as interim CEO <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":716,"featured_media":75583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-75582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75582"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=75582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}