WASILLA -- Norman Stephens starts work June 1 at Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho, a move that brings the Mat-Su hospital chief executive to a different state, but similar professional terrain.
Stephens leaves Mat-Su Regional Medical Center after five years as CEO and after presiding over the construction in 2006 of a new $101 million hospital.
The Idaho job makes the third time in Stephens' career he's helped guide a community-run health care facility making the switch to a for-profit company.
Portneuf, until recently a county-run operation, in February entered a joint venture with Texas-based Legacy Hospital Partners Inc. much like the one that Triad Hospitals Inc. started in 2004 at Mat-Su.
Before coming to Alaska, Stephens was CEO at a Lutheran Health Network facility in Indiana when the network bought a major Catholic hospital chain.
He joined the Mat-Su hospital in 2004 as it switched from a community, not-for-profit operation to the joint venture with Texas-based Triad.
A new, 74-room hospital opened in 2006 along the Parks Highway between Palmer and Wasilla, replacing the smaller Valley Hospital in Palmer, since converted to state offices.
In 2007 Community Health Systems Inc. -- the country's largest network of publicly traded hospitals -- bought out Triad.
A statement from Portneuf praises Stephens as successfully recruiting physicians for the Mat-Su hospital and also increasing overall medical staff by 33 percent.
Still the hospital's change to for-profit status gave rise to some rumbling in the community about staff reductions.
The hospital did reduce staff to patient ratios when Triad took over, Stephens said.
The hospital had four patients for every nurse on the medical/surgical floor when Stephens came on board in 2004, he estimated.
That ratio dropped to six patients for every nurse, he said, though cutbacks were achieved by not replacing departing nurses rather than anything "draconian" like layoffs.
Stephens blamed any grumbling on a disgruntled minority and said CHS unfairly took the blame for solid business decisions Triad made. The hospital's ratio now matches those in Anchorage, he said.
Stephens said he's excited about presiding over the $240 million renovation project in Idaho that will add a six-story tower to an existing 250-bed hospital.
The project wouldn't be possible without the kind of investment that privatization brings, he said. And that's why, he said, he prefers the private-community partnership model for hospitals.
"You have access to capital," Stephens said. "It's become my niche."
Stephens' last day of work at the Mat-Su hospital is Friday, when he starts two weeks of vacation to host relatives coming to Alaska for his daughter's graduation from Palmer High School.
CHS will conduct a national search for his replacement, with the company's division chief serving as acting CEO until an interim chief executive can be appointed, Stephens said.
Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander.
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
zhollander@adn.com