Make a difference.
Thats the reason Humboldt dentist Sean McReynolds agreed to serve eight years on the Allen County hospital board of trustees during a pivotal point in its history. Its the motto of the Kansas Dental Association, and as such he considers it a guiding principle in everything he does.
Thats kind of what my career is, improving the health of people in Allen County and in this region. This enabled me to expand that, McReynolds said.
As of today, the terms of McReynolds and chairman Patti Boyd officially expire. Theyre the last of the original board, formed after voters agreed to finance bonds to build a new facility, dissolve a lease agreement and take over the governance of the hospital.
Boyd and McReynolds last week reflected on their service, from those first difficult days when they needed a crash course in how hospitals work through the building of the new facility, up to the recent controversies surrounding a review of the management contract.
The learning curve, they agreed, was steep. And both found it difficult to leave in the middle of the contract review, as if theyre leaving a project unfinished.
And as they recalled the highs and lows of the past eight years, both echoed that dentist association motto. They hope theyve made a difference.
BOYDS PATH to the board began when her husband, Mark, was appointed to a committee tasked with deciding what to do with the former Allen County Hospital: build new or renovate? After the decision to build a new facility, Patti Boyd joined her husband in drumming up voter support to finance bonds for the project.
Mark and I would talk about what was going on, Patti Boyd said. We felt very strongly the hospital needed to stay here.
After voters approved the bonds, the county needed to form a new committee to govern the new hospital. Then-county commissioner Dick Works asked Patti Boyd and McReynolds to serve as trustees, among others. Commissioners wanted a cross-section of representatives, with different professions, different genders and from different geographic locations. Terms were staggered to allow fresh perspectives over time; Boyd and McReynolds were given the longest terms.
Boyd, an attorney and judge from Moran who had served on boards for her school district and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, checked a lot of boxes. But she believes her role as a judge gave her a unique perspective.
Almost every week in the courtroom, I heard someone say Im on my way to the hospital or I just got out of the hospital or I just had a baby at the hospital. The population I see, theyre poor. Theyre struggling. If our hospital wasnt there, theyd have no place to go.
McReynolds said his career helped him understand healthcare-related decisions, such as the importance of a specific piece of equipment or a type of procedure. And as a Humboldt resident, he knew it was important to expand the hospitals presence in the southern part of the county.
McReynolds said hes proud to see how new clinics at Humboldt and Moran have made a difference and that patronage at the sites has exceeded expectations.
IN THE BEGINNING, trustees met weekly, devoting 20 to 25 hours a week studying immediate demands.
The first was to find an architect, quickly followed by hiring an accountant and finding someone to underwrite the bonds to build the new facility. Along the way, they had to transition from a paper-based input system to electronic records, negotiate a management contract with former lease-holder HCA, learn how purchasing agreements work, decide how to provide health insurance for employees and much, much more.
Much of that probably sounds boring, Boyd admits.
