Board voids remaining HMS contract, appoints interim CEO

After an executive session at a special meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Trustees for Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD) moved to void the remaining 120 days of its contract with Health Management Services (HMS) effective May 1. The motion also included confirmation that CCMSD would issue payments to settle outstanding bills from its management company.

With CEO Nathan Hough’s departure, the board retired again into executive session the next day during its regular monthly meeting.

“We need to have leadership. With that, we have decided that we are going to…have a discussion about how we are going to move forward,” said chairman Mark Erickson.

Erickson announced that, in his opinion, “We should look at an interim position covering the next six months, which would allow us time to do a search for a permanent CEO in the district.”

This was met by agreement from his fellow trustees.

The question was then posed by Erickson: do we have anyone in mind who we could ask? Trustee Trish Habeck suggested clinic manager Micki Lyons.

“That would also allow us the ability to have someone that is in the process of getting an LTC license, which would fill that need of making sure we are taking care of our residents in the long term,” said Erickson.

A motion was made to appoint Lyons as interim CEO for six months. Trustees Sandy Neiman and Connie Lindmier abstained from the vote due to familial relationships with the candidate.

In a press release after the meeting, the board described Lyons’ background in the district.

“Micki has spent her entire adult career involved iworked for the Crook County School District as a registered nurse,” it said.

“Several years later, in addition to working for the school district, Micki also took a job with CCMSD. Micki’s desire to better serve the citizens of Crook County led her in 2013 to becoming certified as a family nurse practitioner while completing her master of science degree. Just this year, Micki has completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Organizational Leadership which she will most certainly use in guiding the dedicated staff of caregivers that are CCMSD.”n providing healthcare for citizens of Crook County. After graduating from University of Wyoming with a degree in nursing, Micki