Steck CEO Reflects on First Year at Helm

Melody Edgington’s first year as chief executive officer at Steck Medical Group has been quite the ride thus far.

Hired in March 2013, Edgington has overseen a staff of 96 across three locations while working to revamp background processes at the clinic and trying to maintain the same level of patient care Steck has offered. The second-year CEO came to Steck from Western Washington Oncology Inc. and now makes the commute from Olympia to Chehalis.

When she first started, Edgington said, she knew Steck was a place she wanted to be, but also that she would have to spearhead several changes.

“There were several issues in the previous administration that needed to be addressed,” Edgington said. “Because the same administration had been in place for the past 10 years, there was a lot of complacency. Our background processes and approach were just antiquated.”

The CEO noted the 2011 case in which Keith Mohoric, the company’s then chief financial officer, pleaded guilty to fraud after stealing more than $25,000 from the clinic. In that case, Mohoric was sentenced to nine months in prison upon his guilty plea to the two counts against him.

Though Edgington came aboard two years later, she said that incident serves as a consistent reminder about the importance of a system that monitors and tracks all transactions — and she meets with a consultant, the current chief financial officer and the clinic’s owners each month to go over finances and plans.

“We’ve continued to ensure checks and balances are in place,” Edgington said. “I require that I see all invoices, financials, and that everything ties to the penny.”

Steck Medical Clinic is also upgrading its medical records software and placing a greater emphasis on an online patient portal in an overall effort to streamline its record and data keeping. A more streamlined system allows patients and physicians alike to work together to better provide the needed level of care, Edgington said.

“The only way to sustain a good level of medical care is to have good data,” Edgington explained.

Edgington said a major challenge to the clinic is the need to upgrade the facility while operating with a small budget. The plan going forward is to freshen up the building wherever possible.

“We want to keep familiarity while at the same time updating the building a bit,” Edgington said.

Edgington said her goal is to help Steck maintain independence as a practice, offering quality care to Lewis and Thurston counties. She said the clinic is looking to possible impacts from the Affordable Care Act in terms of how many additional patients they might add, although she says the “tidal wave” of patients originally projected hasn’t come in yet.

Her secondary goal, she said, is to look at what markets Steck serves where they could possibly put a clinic.

“It would be dependent on economics. The capital cost is huge,” Edgington said. “It would have to be the right opportunity.”

The second-year chief of the clinic believes she is in the right place, and hopes to continue serving a clinic and a staff among which she feels at home.

“We really want to keep our community and the staff happy,” Edgington said.

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Christopher Brewer: (360) 807-8235