Lawrence L. White, Jr.
(Missoula)
Larry White, who lived in Germany as a boy, joined the Clark Fork Valley Hospital Governing Board in 1996 as the designee from St. Patrick Hospital when St. Pats and Community helped acquire the Clark Fork Valley Hospital facility from Brim. After his retirement in 2003 from St. Pats, he was selected to be on the board as an independent board member. His background and experience derives from his BA in Accounting from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, his Masters degree in Business Administration from St. Louis University as well as many years in the healthcare industry.
When asked his opinion on what the biggest challenge hospitals would face in the future, White answered, "It is difficult to identify the biggest challenge facing hospitals. In any list of challenges/issues, these will be near the top:
- Financial management – Maintaining rigorous control over costs as revenues from government payers drop and uncompensated care grows. This will be particularly important to be able to buy the technology needed to stay up-to-date.
- Quality and patient satisfaction - The public and government will increasingly demand both high quality and high patient satisfaction. Our performance today will not be good enough tomorrow.
- Staffing – The shortage of health care workers will only grow worse. To compete for good people will require major attention to all aspects of the workplace and organizational culture."
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