BMC’s Foster to Leave Position

New CEO Sought

by Barbara Mastriania

Thomas Foster
Thomas Foster

SOUTH RENOVO – Thomas Foster will finish his job as Chief Executive Officer of Bucktail Medical Center this month when a new administrator takes over the facility.

The board of directors of BMC is currently working at finding a replacement for Foster.

Harriet Nuss, who was named president of the BMC board at their reorganizational meeting Monday evening, said the board is “working diligently and still in negotiation” to find an administrator.

Foster resigned from the position, he said, over a difference of opinion between him and the medical center board of directors. He and the board did not agree on the direction the center should be taking. He had planned to leave the job April 11 but has agreed to stay on until April 23. The facility must have an administrator in place to operate.

“We’re working very diligently to keep things the same. This is a critical access facility,” Nuss said. The center provides health and emergency health care and employment for area people.

Foster came to Bucktail in mid-2012. His goal, he said at the time was to instill a sense of stability and to make the hospital facility viable; to keep it in western Clinton County. BMC was and is vital to the western Clinton County community both as a health care facility and as an employer in the area. The nearest hospital facility in any direction is 30 miles away.

Under Foster’s leadership, he said, the center’s financial health improved. In 2010 the medical center was in dire financial straits and there were concerns the center would close. Personnel changes, community fund raisers and a concerted community effort helped save BMC.

Since he’s been in charge, Foster said, the center now has emergency room coverage by physicians 24-7and in-house therapies for residents and outpatients, keeping that income in Renovo rather than going to Jersey Shore. He said he has also brought stability to management and developed managerial skills among department heads.

He said he will take a vacation.

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