Focus on growth was key to fixing ‘broken’ hospital

Published 1:30 am Saturday, January 31, 2026

By NATHAN STAGGS

WhidheyHealth CEO

After the WhidbeyHealth Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 22, I feel it is important that I share some of my personal thoughts and insights as the current CEO of WhidbeyHealth.

First and foremost, I want to thank the employees, medical staff, and the community members who spoke up in support of me, along with those who have reached out via text, email, and phone calls, and through comments on social media. The show of support on my behalf has been overwhelming, and I will never be able to express what it means to me.

For those of you who may not know much about me, allow me to give a summary of my background. I have been associated with healthcare my entire life. My parents owned and operated a retail pharmacy for nearly 50 years in a small rural community. After high school, I trained as a paramedic and firefighter and worked in Emergency Medical Services for 10 years. My hospital experience started during that time, working in the Emergency Room at a large hospital and continued across multiple departments within the facility over the next five years. I completed my undergraduate and graduate education during this time and started my career in Hospital Administration almost 25 years ago.

In that time, I had the opportunity to work closely with multiple hospitals of various sizes and classifications. These included for-profit, nonprofit, community-owned, privately owned, and governmental taxing districts ranging in size from 20 beds up to more than 200 beds. I have been in the CEO position for the last 20 years.

When I accepted the CEO role here at WhidbeyHealth, I was well-informed about the financial position of the hospital, and I had read all the newspaper articles about the challenges the hospital experienced over the several years prior to my employment. Having worked in financially challenging hospital situations for most of my career, I was expecting the challenges that come with being financially “broke.” Those situations are very common in rural hospitals.

During my initial few months in this role, I quickly discovered that WhidbeyHealth had a much deeper problem. Not only were we financially “broke,” the culture was broken. Our people were exhausted, both mentally and physically. Business-related financial pressures have an incredibly profound effect on the employees. Wondering if you will have a job tomorrow, wondering if you will receive your paycheck on time and for the right amount, wondering if today is the day you get fired or laid off – these fears create a tremendous amount of stress, especially when you have no control over what happens. The team had been dealing with emotional uncertainty for too long.

It did not take long for me to realize that the financial situation was a much smaller part of the problem at WhidbeyHealth than I initially thought. I believed that taking a cost-cutting approach would only make things worse and would potentially lead to the hospital failing completely and closing. I have seen that happen in other hospitals. I chose a different path: Growth.

I realized, even before arriving here, that WhidbeyHealth had an incredible opportunity to grow and to take care of a much larger population of the Whidbey Island community. Adding service lines, new providers, new specialties, and more access to our services was vital to the future of WhidbeyHealth.

Eliminating services or lowering costs by reducing the number of employees would have a negative effect on our ability to take care of more patients. This approach also limits access to care for our community. Any decrease in these areas ultimately leads to a decrease in revenue. A decrease in revenue leads to more cuts, which leads to less access. It is a downward spiral that is difficult to end and can easily lead to the complete shutdown of a hospital.

Growth takes time and patience. There are many opportunities for WhidbeyHealth to grow and to improve financially, but we are headed in the right direction – slowly, but steadily. WhidbeyHealth has faced many challenges over the last few years. Yet, because of our growth and increasing revenues, over the last two years we have invested more than $20 million into this organization. The installation of a new and upgraded computer system, the repair of many neglected areas of the building, the purchase of new and upgraded equipment, the addition of multiple new providers and service lines, a new call center to improve patient communications, and a new Scribe service to allow providers to spend more time with patients and less time on documentation are just a few examples. We have done all this while still managing to reduce our debt.

My leadership philosophy is simple, guided by two quotes that I have always loved:

“Be curious, not judgmental.”- Walt Whitman and “Leadership is not about being in charge, it’s about taking care of those in your charge.”- Simon Sinek

Over my career, I have taken those quotes to heart and have always tried to lead with them in mind. The employees here at WhidbeyHealth are tasked with taking care of our patients. As leaders, we are tasked with taking care of our employees and creating the best work environment possible.

My goal is for my leadership team to provide more data and financial information to the public over the next few months. I want our community to see and understand what we have accomplished and what we are striving to achieve in the future. I hope that we can provide explanations, interpretations, and insights into what we are trying to accomplish. It will take some time, but that is my goal.

During the COVID pandemic, we called our health care employees heroes. People made masks, donated supplies, and cheered from porches. Today, those same people are still showing up, dealing with the same emotional highs and lows, and providing the best care possible. They are still the same “superheroes” they were in 2020, even if the support has gotten a little quieter.

If there is one thing I ask of you, it is this: please show our health care workers the same support they showed me. They deserve it far more than I do. Health care is all about healing. WhidbeyHealth is finally in the process of healing itself. I thank you all for your support and for being a part of our healing process.