[C]opley Hospital is losing its top administrator.
Chief Executive Officer Art Mathisen, who has led the Morrisville hospital since 2016, informed staff and board members on Thursday that he is leaving later this year to become president of Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire.
Copley, like other Vermont hospitals, has struggled financially in recent years. But Mathisen said his departure has nothing to do with those struggles; rather, he said he’s moving closer to his Maine roots and will lead “another excellent critical access hospital in an area similar to what we have here in Lamoille County.”
“Being at small hospitals in rural America is what I know and what I love,” Mathisen said in an interview Thursday.
Prior to being named Copley’s CEO in spring 2016, Mathisen worked for a brief time as the hospital’s chief operating officer. He previously had served as chief operating officer at two military health care centers and had been an administrator of a medical group in Virginia.
In recently announced financial results for fiscal year 2018, Copley was one of eight Vermont hospitals that posted operating losses. Copley’s loss was $2.2 million, for a negative 3.3 percent operating margin, according to state documents.
It was the third straight year of operating losses at Copley. The hospital’s difficulties reflect those seen elsewhere in the state as workforce shortages, insurance reimbursement and increasing costs have taken a toll on budgets.
Copley has cut expenses in response to those pressures, but Mathisen said such measures only go so far. “It’s going to continue to be a challenge when you continue to have medical inflation that far surpasses what you’re producing for revenue,” he said.
But Mathisen also said the current fiscal year is looking better, and he believes Copley has “some very strong service lines” including orthopedics. “We’ve been working hard, and I’ve been really proud of our staff,” he said.
In an email announcing his pending departure, Mathisen said the move “comes with mixed feelings as I love so much about Copley and the community.” But he was born in Portland, Maine, and still has relatives there, and the new job in New Hampshire gets Mathisen closer to that area in more ways than one.
That’s because Memorial Hospital is part of the Portland-based MaineHealth organization, which has 19,000 employees and 11 community hospitals in two states. While Mathisen will be leading a small hospital, he said being part of a larger network is “very appealing to me in my professional growth.”
Mathisen said details of his departure and Copley’s transition plan will be discussed at upcoming hospital board meetings. He estimated that he would be leaving in somewhere between two and four months but said that decision is up to the board.
“We want to make sure that we have a good transition,” Mathisen said. The New Hampshire hospital “would like me as soon as possible, which is understandable, but I’m working with (the Copley) board to determine what makes sense.”
Leadership change has become a common theme among Vermont hospitals. In addition to Copley, six other hospitals – Grace Cottage, North Country, Northeastern, Porter, Rutland Regional, Springfield – either have had recent changes at the top or are going through those changes now.
Additionally, University of Vermont Medical Center President Eileen Whalen is retiring this year.
