A write-in candidate has emerged for an uncontested seat on the Whidbey Island Public Hospital District board.

The Island County Elections Office confirmed that Linda Gipson filed as an official write-in candidate against Dr. Mark Borden. She served at WhidbeyHealth Medical Center as chief nursing officer, interim chief operating officer and chief Quality and Transformation Officer “as the need arose,” she wrote in an email. She resigned in 2020 after providing the board with nine months notice.

As is circulating on social media, both candidates have hospital-related drama in their backgrounds.

Voters on Whidbey Island will see Borden and Juliann Althoff on the ballot for the Position 4 hospital commissioner position, but Althoff announced she was withdrawing from the race; she didn’t make the decision early enough to be removed from the ballot.

Elections Supervisor Michele Reagan explained that by filing as a write-in candidate, Gipson essentially alerted the election staff to the fact so that variations on her name — like a simple misspelling — would be counted in the event write-in candidates are tallied. She said the write-in candidates won’t be counted unless there are enough to make a difference in the election.

In a contested hospital race in 2021, a total of 18,854 ballots were cast. James Golder won with just over 10,000 votes.

Borden, a longtime emergency service physician and director, said he welcomes another candidate in the race because it’s too important for a position to go unchallenged. While he is seeking to make positive changes to the hospital, he said he expects Gipson is more of a “no change” candidate.

“I’m running because we need a good hospital on Whidbey Island,” he said. “We need a hospital we can trust and that is accessible to everyone.”

In a letter to the editor, Gipson wrote that she entered the race just three weeks ago at the request of people in the community who know what she has accomplished when she was in executive leadership at the hospital

“I am not expert at campaigns, but what I am expert in is building award winning smart, efficient, effective and successful health care delivery systems built on the needs and priorities of the community and teamwork,” she wrote. “Ask staff and physicians about the tremendous progress that had been made and the progress lost when poor decisions are made.”

Social media posts on Whidbey encourage voters to support Gipson. One media post explains that Gipson has a master’s degree in nursing, a PhD in Public Health and retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Army Nurse Corps.

Grethe Cammermeyer, South Whidbey resident and former hospital commissioner, endorsed Gipson in a message on Facebook.

“Her nursing, administrative, military and WhidbeyHealth background and experience fit perfectly with the needs of the hospital and the community,” Cammermeyer wrote. “She will do us well as she has in the past.”

Borden objected to a social media post that focused on a News-Times story about the hospital stripping him of his medical staff membership and clinical privileges 15 years ago for violating hospital bylaws. He encouraged people to read the story in context with other stories about his time as the emergency department director.

Borden said he was hired to improve a hospital ER that was rated very low and had a “terrible reputation,” but he was immediately able to make major improvements because of his experience and skill as a physician and manager. After five years on the job, he ran into trouble with hospital administration after a new CEO — whom Borden felt was completely unqualified — started dismantling the medical staff and insisted that Borden cease his improvement program. Borden spoke out against the administration, which did not sit well with hospital leaders.

According to Borden, a prohibition against criticizing the administration was part of his contract with the hospital. In fact, he said hospital CEOs wield the power to destroy doctors’ careers for just speaking their minds.

In his case, Borden said he chose to leave Whidbey General to work at Swedish hospital in Seattle after he was offered jobs at three other regional hospital districts. He said the Whidbey hospital revoked his privileges a year and a half after he left in an unsuccessful attempt at retribution.

Gipson, on the other hand, was accused of assaulting a patient who suffered mental health problems and was in four-point restraints 10 years ago. She was charged with gross misdemeanor assault for allegedly grabbing the patient’s chin, according to court documents. She denied any wrongdoing. In 2015, a jury found her not guilty after a trial at which several nurses — her subordinates — testified against her.

“I was found ‘Innocent,’ which completely exonerates me from the allegation of assault such that an assault was determined never to have occurred,” she wrote in an email. “This determination resulted in the county being responsible for all of my legal expenses in excess of $200,000 as a meritless allegation. The jury foreperson apologized to me having been unable to understand why the charges had ever been brought. Three prominent medical experts and a police officer present in the room all testified that my actions to avert injury were completely appropriate; Specifically, the short facial touch used to redirect the patient gaze from the staff she was attempting to injure is the recommended next step intervention to de-escalate these situations when verbal redirection has failed.”

As reported in the News-Times, a superior court judge directed in 2017 that Gipson should be paid $256,000 from a special state fund — not a county fund — for people who are acquitted of assault on the basis of self defense.

Borden said he remembers the case and that he felt sorry for Gipson. He said emergency rooms can quickly become chaotic, especially when patients are violent, and the staff has to do what’s necessary to safely control the situation.

As for Borden, the longtime Coupeville resident said he now works part-time for a service that provides medical assistance in marine situations, such as the “Deadliest Catch” crews, while pursuing his hobbies in fishing and falconry. He said he always felt bad about leaving the Whidbey hospital and wants to do what he can to improve things.

The story has been updated to include more of Gipson’s biography, comments from her about the campaign and her clarification of a court case.