Williams starts job as hospital CEO

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

Brian Williams is settling in as the new CEO of Winner Regional Healthcare Center.

He has been here for two weeks and has had a meeting with the staff, met individually with the healthcare center directors and took time for an interview with the local newspaper.

Williams said Winner has been very gracious, kind and polite to him. “They are excited I am here. They have given me various pointers about different things going on in Winner,” he said.

Williams says it is an awesome opportunity to be the CEO. “I feel lucky the healthcare center board asked me to be a part of Winner Regional Health. I also feel lucky that I get to work with so many good people from activities, nurses, nurse aides, environmental services, maintenance and the providers. I am excited and I feel honored I was asked to be a part of this team,” he explained.

Williams says he has two goals wherever he goes. The first is to become the employer of choice. The second is to become the provider of choice. “Why would people want to go anywhere else for healthcare? We want members of the community to come here because we are giving them the best patient outcome possible for their primary care services.”

Williams has been in health care for 15 years. Prior to choosing healthcare, Williams

worked in telecommunications for 10 years. He started out splicing fibers and worked his way up to overseeing construction, working in the Washington, Oregon and Idaho areas.

He did not start his college career until he was 28 years old. He went to Eastern Oregon University with a major in administration and has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Gonzaga in Washington.

Seeing how caring the staff were in a hospital when his daughter got RSV lead him into healthcare.

“I told my wife I would like to go into hospital work someday and three years later I got that opportunity,” he explained.

A friend told him a small hospital was looking for a clinic manager. Williams applied for the job and was hired. “I loved it,” he said.

He began is healthcare career at Midvalley Hospital in Washington as a clinic manager. Then he worked at a clinic in the tri city area of Washington.

This led to a move to Morton, Wash., where he was the chief operating officer at  Arbor Health, a 25 bed critical access hospital. His next move was to Northern Montana Hospital in Havre, Mont., where he was vice president of professional services.

Prior to coming to Winner, Williams was CEO at Coal Country Community Health Care in Beulah, N.D. and Sakakawea  Medical Center in Hazen, N.D. He was the CEO in North Dakota for two and a half years.

When the Winner job came open he and his wife were looking for a place that had similar values to his family. The couple looked at the community and the schools and liked what they saw. Williams said he decided to apply for the job in Winner.

Williams sees healthcare continuing to change. “It used to be a patient had to come to the hospital or clinic for everything. Now we are seeing technology providing patients different avenues. As our communities continue to grow and develop we are going to have to do everything we can to ensure patient’s needs are being met where they need to be met,” he said.

Williams plans on spending the next few months learning, listening and meeting people.

Williams and his wife Linda have five children. Brandon graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah  and is ready to obtain his master’s.

Trevor is finishing his bachelor’s degree in business from Brigham Young University–Idaho  and would like to go into healthcare. Joshua is going to vet tech school in Boise, Idaho.

Their daughter, Alyssa, will be a senior at Winner High School and their son, Michael, will be a freshman at WHS.