In August, when the Powell Valley Hospital board announced CEO Terry Odom was planning to retire in early 2023, Trustee R.J. Kost — now board of trustees president — said she would be difficult to replace.

That’s turned out to be very true.

The search committee in charge of finding a new CEO for Powell Valley Healthcare is going back to the drawing board — again — board Vice President Chris Cox announced at Monday night’s monthly board of directors meeting. The listing for the CEO position was on the hospital website March 28.

But Cox, speaking on behalf of the board of trustees due to chair R.J. Kost being on vacation, said it’s well worth it to take the time to find the right CEO. He noted that recently, Beartooth Billings Clinic in Red Lodge went through several rounds of candidates to find the right choice and the Powell board is hoping for similar results.

“From the start, the hiring committee has been in agreement that our No. 1 priority is to hire the very best candidate available to us to lead PVHC, and we firmly believe that we will identify that candidate even though it is going to require additional rounds in the hiring process,” he said. “We will be patient and we will be diligent because we are 100% committed to getting this right. In the meantime, we are fortunate to have the continued leadership & guidance of our current CEO, Terry Odom. Undoubtedly, part of the challenge in finding a suitable replacement is due to the fact that she has set the bar incredibly high.”

Since the process began in the fall of 2022, the hiring committee has sifted through just under 20 candidates across two separate rounds. The committee narrowed the field to three candidates in the first round and invited each candidate for an on-site visit/interview with the PVHC board of directors, hospital staff and leadership in early December. That process yielded a very clear-cut favorite, and the hiring committee made the decision to recommend only the top candidate with no second choice. 

“Unfortunately, we were unable to agree on compensation as the candidate’s salary demands fell well outside the established salary range for the position (a range which had been clearly communicated to the candidate at various points in the interview process), and so the committee decided to move on to a second round with all new candidates,” Cox said.

In January, to allow for the time necessary to do the search without being absent a leader, the board had voted to extend Odom’s contract through the end of June.

At the time, Kost cautioned previously that even on acceptance it would be four to six weeks before a candidate could start as they would likely have to wrap up their current job and move.

“At earliest it would be the first to second part of June to wrap this up if everything goes as planned,” he said.

Odom announced last summer she would be retiring in 2023, with plans to help with the onboarding of a new CEO.

Interviews for the second round commenced around the middle of February and the committee again narrowed the field down, this time with only two candidates making the final cut. Cox said on-site interviews were conducted in mid-March, but the search committee was again unable to make a successful hire as one of the candidates chose to withdraw their application at the very last moment due to other advancement opportunities becoming available within the organization for which they currently work.  “The hiring committee considered the lone remaining candidate but ultimately decided they were not an ideal fit after listening to feedback received during the on-site visit/interview,” Cox said.

The timeline for the third round is flexible. Cox said the position will remain open until a “suitable number of qualified candidates are identified, however long that may take.”