Powell Valley Healthcare boasted 479 employees as of Monday, which outgoing CEO Terry Odom said was higher than its been recently.

That has included a clinical educator in Julie Kennedy, a registered nurse from Oregon, and Kaitlyn Fyne, a registered nurse infection preventionist.

Kennedy, said Arlene Campeau, chief nursing officer at Powell Valley Healthcare, will be key in ensuring clinical staff are up to date on required trainings, among other tasks.

And the job Fyne will be doing to track infections, Odom said, may not seem like a big job until something like COVID-19 happens.

“When you go through a pandemic, it’s a very big job,” Odom said.

Those newcomers have joined other new clinical staff, which generally has turnover rates at or below the 16% range per month, and many new nonclinical staff.

It’s in the nonclinical staff where the turnover rate is more worrying, as nearly one in five left in the last month.

However, those gaps have all been filled, especially in nutrition services which lost a few positions, noted HR director Cassie Tinsley.

Tinsley said they try to do extra interviews as much as possible, but no clear connecting factor is driving the resignations. She said many are leaving because a spouse was transferred.

“We’re looking at the data, seeing if there’s a common theme,” she said.