GILLETTE, Wyo. — Election season is well underway and County 17 has sent a list of questions to candidates who have filed to run for office.
These questions are designed to give our readers a better understanding of the people behind the names on the ballot. All candidate responses submitted to County 17 are published as they are received.
Below, get to know Dr. Mark Hoskinson who is running for a position on the Campbell County Health Board of Trustees:
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1. Who are you?
I am Dr Mark Hoskinson and have practice medicine for the past 35 years. I live on a 50-acre slice of heaven with my wife and love living in Gillette. My passion is providing high quality health care for all.
2. Why have you decided to run for office and what do you hope to accomplish should you be elected?
I want transparency in the Hospital Board decisions and clear information on how these board decisions impact the health of the people of Gillette and Campbell County. I want collaboration with the medical providers in the community. I want the Hospital to be financially stable to be able to provide high quality health care for the people.
3. How do you plan on accomplishing your goals?
The first step has to be financial stability. You will not have a hospital if you continue to lose 25+ million each year. Unfortunately, the balance sheets for CCH have not been released since April of 2022. We do not know even where we stand in the first quarter of the hospital’s new year. I would insist on monthly reports so that we can stem the losses instead of finding out that we lost another 25 million at the end of this financial year.
4. What experience do you have that qualifies you for the office you are seeking?
I also worked for Kaiser, the largest nonprofit Healthcare organization in the USA.
In addition to seeing patient, I did population management, running a 40 RN team that
developed and successfully implemented a post discharge follow up program that saved Kaiser 10’s of millions of dollars. Kaiser started EPIC the new electronic medical record in 2005 and I am very familiar with its use and benefit. I understand how to do effective high-value health care and reduce costs.
5. Do you feel you could be a good steward with taxpayer dollars? Why or why not?
When I ran the 40 RN team for 15 years I was always on or below budget and saved Kaiser
millions of dollars. Tax payer money belong to the tax payers and they deserve to get a benefit from their money that the board spends.
6. On the issue of transparency, where you stand on ensuring all public business is conducted openly and in a manner that encourages public attendance?
I believe for every decision made, the Board should explain how they got there and this should be easily to understand and easy for the public to access.
7. Do you believe the office or board position you seek has been open and honest with the public? If yes, how can the entity remain open and transparent when conducting public business moving forward? If not, what changes would you implement to ensure that all future dealings are open and transparent?
First, I would make all of our plans open to the public. Then, I would value the people I work with and their opinions. I would ask the front-line people and residents of Campbell County how they would solve an issue both to get their buy in and also to learn new ideas. So being transparent allows people input and help get better results.
8. If you are presiding over a meeting and a topic was being discussed that you didn’t fully understand, would you ask for a more detailed explanation during the meeting or would you seek the information after the meeting?
I would ask about the issue until I understood enough to be able to consider it and then after the meeting, I would also seek out domain experts to help me get the full picture.
9. Should you be elected, or re-elected, do you plan on seeking any major policy changes in your chosen office? If yes, what would those changes be? If not, why not?
Yes, transparency of how and why we make decisions, how our decisions impact the people of Gillette and Campbell County, and Collaboration with the medical providers in the community and most importantly I would show that we value every person employed by the hospital. In addition, I would strive to fix the billing issues that plague the hospital.
