Richard Boggess, the new chief financial officer at Morton General Hospital, talks about how he has criss-crossed the country working in the healthcare industry his entire career.
Morton General Hospital Chief Financial Officer Richard Boggess talks about his past experiences working in financial sector of the healthcare industry and how it will help in his tenor at the hospital.
Before coming to Morton to serve as the chief financial officer for Morton General Hospital, Richard Boggess lived in Denver, Colorado. While in the Mile High City, where he was the director of finance for a physician group with more than 500 members, Boggess, his wife and two sons summited two 14,000-foot peaks in the nearby vicinity.
Now that they have relocated to the morning shadow of the Cascades, Boggess and his family hope to do a bit more peak summiting.
“Hiking and camping,” said Boggess. “We are excited to get out and do those things here as well.”
Boggess says one of the first peaks that caught his eye was Mount Adams.
“I said, ‘Honey, I think we can do this one.’”
Boggess has been all around, up and down, the country during his adult life as the demands of his job and family have dictated many moves, but he grew up just south of Portland, so winding up in Morton feels like a return home of sorts.
“When I think of home I think of the Pacific Northwest,” said Boggess. “I know it’s going to rain all winter long.”
Boggess grew up in a family dedicated to the practice and advancement of health care. His father was a doctor; his mother and sister both nurses.
“Growing up we had some interesting conversations around the table,” noted Boggess.
Now 52 years old and boasting a family of his own, Boggess is excited to settle down for a bit and positively influence health care in East Lewis County. Boggess and his wife, Janet, share two sons, Andrew, 12, and Aaron, 10. Boggess says he has every intention of staying in Morton at least until his youngest son has graduated from high school.
“I would say that being healthy is part of my lifestyle. It’s part of my religious experience to be a healthy person,” said Boggess, a Seventh-day Adventist.
Boggess, who began his tenure at Morton General on May 9, said that he enjoys being in the hospital every day and working hands-on with the staff, as opposed to being just a representative cog in the system. He says he feels that he can affect more positive action by being present and in the mix day in and day out.
“Morton fulfills that desire for me,” explained Boggess.
Formerly, Boggess was the financial director for Centura Health, which covered 15 different hospital organizations in Colorado and western Kansas. In that position, Boggess was in charge of financial reports. As Morton General’s new CFO, his duties have now expanded to include not only financial reports, but also patient access, billing, materials management and everything else that can have a dollar sign attached to it in a hospital.
“This organization is meeting my dreams,” said Boggess. “It’s a change in scope that I’ve been looking for in my career.”
Boggess explained that his first 90 days on the job have “been more about meeting people than trying to rebuild something.”
Boggess noted that the hospital recently changed over its internal computer system and as a result there is plenty of day-to-day troubleshooting required to fix the kinks that inevitably arise.
“Besides that systemic change, I don’t know that we have any big changes coming down,” said Boggess. “We’ve been through plenty of changes in the past six months, with a new CEO and CFO. Now, it’s more about stabilizing things.”
Although this is his first extended stint in Washington, Boggess says the region feels familiar to him professionally thanks to time he spent on the job in Manchester, Kentucky, a rural community tucked up against the Appalachian Mountains. Despite their geographical separation, Boggess says that the hospitals are similar in that they are both smaller, community-access type hospitals.
“I think it’s a much tighter community when you get to these smaller towns. You impact people’s lives much more,” said Boggess.
With that in mind, Boggess is already busy looking toward the future.
“It’s not just about making a profit this year. It’s about going forward and purchasing new equipment that will last into the future,” explained Boggess.
One challenge that Boggess sees in that future for Morton General is a result of the limited surrounding population base in rural East Lewis County.
“Not only is it limited but it’s an older population base and they need more services,” said Boggess.
In order to fulfill the future needs of the community, Boggess says, the hospital will need to do a better job of bringing local youths back into the fold once they have attained their higher education and received a taste for the big world beyond the mountain valley. He is hoping to work closely with Centralia College, including the satellite Morton branch, and to have a regular presence at school career planning days. He calls the process “succession planning.”
“For me, I like to give everybody the opportunity to do their best each day and bring all the correct people to the table,” said Boggess. “Anybody who’s looking for a job in health care, there is going to be an opportunity here at Morton General Hospital. I think that if we can do it through our community then we will have people who are invested in our community.”
Early in his career, Boggess amassed a wealth of experience working for nonprofit and faith-based health care organizations that helped him to understand the importance of a well-tended bottom line. “If there’s no margin, there’s no mission,” said Boggess.
That balance is at the heart of his mission as the CFO at Morton General Hospital.
“It’s a dual system. The hospital exists to take care of people but the hospital also exists to provide employment,” explained Boggess, who noted that if one of those components gets out of whack, both could cease to exist.
To Boggess, those challenges are just another mountain to climb.
“If we’re not growing we’re stagnating,” said Boggess.
In financial terms, Boggess considers stagnation to be a warning sign that would warrant immediate bedside attention.
“If you’re not finding new ways to take care of your customers’ needs then you are going to slip away into obsolescence,” he said.
Boggess’s arrival at Morton General signals the second new leader to arrive this year after the hiring of Leianne Everett as CEO.
Former CEO Seth Whitmer received a settlement from the hospital after he filed a lawsuit against the district seeking nearly $1 million in reparations. Whitmer’s suit claimed that he was fired by Morton General for being Mormon, and hiring a homosexual.
Former CFO Eric Carlson, who alleges he was fired because he is gay, filed a complaint against the hospital district and members of the board in federal court in December.
