The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Community members reacted with mixed emotions to the announcement that Columbia County Health System CEO Charlie Button has resigned from his position for greener pastures in May.

The district released a statement Monday saying Button, whose contract was up for renewal in early April, is moving on to take a top job at a larger and undisclosed critical access hospital in another state.

Button, whose tenure as CEO has been controversial, has held the position for the past four years after leaving his post as chief financial officer at a larger hospital in Wisconsin. His departure takes effect May 9.

"I'm going to miss the people," Button said. "It has been a great experience."

Button grew up in Montesano, a small town near the coast, and in Little Creek, Ore.

"I came to become a CEO and come back to the West," he said. "I was intrigued by the opportunity and the community."

Button's family includes his daughter, Elise Button, who is a junior at Dayton High School. He said she has mixed feelings about the move, but is supportive. His son has already left the nest and serves with the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C.

He insisted his resignation had nothing to do with his management style and direction that caused mixed emotions among hospital staff, patients and community members in Dayton and Waitsburg, particularly two years ago.

"We worked through the issues and are a better hospital for it," he said. "I wasn't out looking for another job. This was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

The reaction to Button's unexpected resignation from members of the board was mixed.

Board member Lisa Naylor applauded Button for his accomplishments. In addition to promoting critical access hospitals and rural health care across Washington State, she said he has been instrumental in bringing in a CT scan machine, MRI machine and he's working on updating the hospital's emergency room.

In the release from the health system, it describes how Button has also challenged the staff to be more efficient and caring, installed an information technology system and bone densitometry services.

"I think he has made some great improvements financially," Naylor said. "He has improved the climate for health care in the Dayton and Waitsburg areas."

Board Member Jim Kime said Button changed the culture of the hospital by giving more responsibility and authority to department heads.

Despite going through a rough financial patch recently, Kime said Button helped the health district "survive that and moved on nicely."

But newly elected board member Colleen Sproul, a former nurse who said she listens carefully to feedback from the district's medical staff, claims a number of hospital workers, patients and community members feel Button wasn't properly vetted and wasn't the right person for the job.

" I learned a lot about Charlie in the past three months," she said. "He's actually a very caring man - much more so than I thought. But he's more of a financial juggler. We need a CEO with more of a medical background, someone who has been in the trenches. He just doesn't get it."

Former rural clinics director Julia Mead, whom Button fired from her position shortly before the resignation of Virginia Romine, director of nursing, in June of 2010, said many in the Dayton community and at the hospital breathe easier after Monday's announcement.

"It's a collective sigh of relief," she said. "People have been working under such duress."

Sproul and Mead said despite some changes after the controversy two years ago, many on the district's staff are still reluctant to speak up about staff management issues for fear of being fired.

Mead hopes the departure of Button, whom she said was uneasy about board members soliciting feedback about the district directly from staff and patients, will make publicly elected trustees more comfortable listening to community-wide concerns.

She also hopes the screening process for the next CEO recruit will be more inclusive and in-depth.

"Let's get a good solid recruiting committee together," she said. "We need some good solid leadership."

Naylor said the search for Button's replacement began this week. She and other board members are attending a conference in Spokane where she hopes to "rub shoulders" with some potential candidates.

Button said he will be around for the next two months to help the board find a new CEO and tie up loose ends.

"I will be involved in this process as much as they want me to be," Button said.

Naylor said the board members should have updated information to report at their monthly meeting later in March.