Adventist Health eliminates Dennis Knox's position at TD Hospital
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., April 19, 2024 — The president that led to the reorganization and then the sale of Mid-Columbia Medical Center just a year ago appears to be moving on as his position is being eliminated.
The news came from a letter from President Dennis Knox on April 18 addressed to his Adventist Health Columbia Gorge (AHCG) Colleagues.
“Furthermore, as of next Thursday, April 25, the position of President of AHCG will be eliminated, and I, accordingly, will no longer be at AHCG,” Knox wrote in the letter. “More information around local leadership support will be communicated very shortly from Adventist Health…”
Knox was hired by the Mid-Columbia Medical Center Board 7 years ago after the retirement of Duane Francis in 2016.
“I never thought that four years of that tenure would be the toughest of them all with being faced with the Pandemic. I have seen extraordinary people in action and have been in awe,” Knox wrote… Thank you all for the experience.”
Not all were happy with Knox’s tenure as many alleged a lack of transparency as the financially-strapped Mid-Columbia Medical Center whittled away at agreements with Oregon Health Sciences University and eventually was sold to Adventist Health.
Back In 2021, Jack LaFond found out his cardiologist was leaving as MCMC and OHSU terminated an agreement to provide cardiology at Mid-Columbia Medical Center.
Agreements for Cardiology with OHSU were axed in August 2021 and were replaced by one with Adventist Health.
Knox’s affiliation with Adventist Health was also called into question as his wife Jody Knox was the President of Regional Physician Services at Adventist Health, raising questions about whether there was a conflict of interest involved in the new contract with Adventist.
CCCNews asked Mid-Columbia Medical Center public affairs department if Jody Knox had played a role in the cardiology partnership and if so, what exactly was her role? MCMC denied any conflict of interest.
“The agreement was negotiated between MCMC and the Northwest Regional Heart & Vascular team,” wrote MCMC Public Relations Manager said in an email. “Jody Knox is not on that team and was not involved in the negotiation or signing of this agreement.”
There was also disagreement on who ended the Cardiology agreement.
“In recent weeks, MCMC publicly expressed its intentions to end its existing contractual relationship with OHSU and establish new contractual relationships with other health systems and cardiology providers,” said Tamara Hargens-Bradley Senior Director with OHSU Strategic Communications in May of 2021.
“We did not terminate it. It was OHSU,” said Knox on Friday, May 21, 2021. “That is not true - not true… That is the first time I am hearing this. It is simply not true. I refute that.”
Neither Knox nor OHSU gave a definitive reason for the discontinuation of service.
In 2022, agreements with OHSU for primary care, general surgery, orthopedics, and endocrinology were eliminated.
During the pandemic and the transition from OHSU employees, dozens of staff and medical doctors left Mid-Columbia Medical Center, leaving some patients without a primary or specialist.
The Lund Report, a nonprofit, non-partisan news site, published a well-detailed report in September 2022 on the finances of both Mid-Columbia Medical Center and its possible future partner Adventist Health as the two could have agreements in place to join forces by the end of 2022.
The Mid-Columbia Medical Center sign still stood this morning, April 19, at the hospital on east 19th Street.
From the Lund Report:
“Mid-Columbia racked up operating losses totaling $20 million in seven of the last 10 years. That more than erased the $12.5 million in operating profits eked out in the other three years, the hospital’s annual filings with the state show.
With scant surplus cash, the hospital has been unable to build up a big investment portfolio, so it has largely missed out on the stock market boom of the past decade that has fueled a meteoric rise in the portfolios of so many large and wealthy hospital systems.
And with much of its campus more than 60 years old, Mid-Columbia needs a major makeover. Last year, hospital officials declared they would like to build a new campus but were hazy on funding.
In the first quarter of 2022, it reported an operating loss of $4 million.
In Adventist, Mid-Columbia found an eager taker. With a $2 billion investment portfolio, Adventist is raring to grow. It says it wants to double in size by 2030, to $10 billion in annual revenues, and become a streamlined West Coast powerhouse that achieves close to 10% annual profit margins. It already owns two other hospitals in Oregon: the 302-bed Adventist in Portland, the 25-bed Tillamook hospital.”
In February of 2023, a publication of documents detailed the Adventist Health Systems’s plan to purchase Mid-Columbia Medical Center, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) website.
Documents laid bear that Adventist will own Mid-Columbia Medical Center if a deal is reached and approved by OHA. Adventist Health promised $100 million in investment into MCMC over 10 years.
Adventist celebrated the aquisition in June 2023 with the announcement of the renaming of MCMC facilities.
In his letter to colleagues on Thursday, Knox details incoming administrators.
“… Joyce Newmyer, who has ably served as the President of the Oregon State Network, will be transitioning to be the full-time Adventist Health Cheif People Officer,” Knox wrote. “Kyle King, in addition to his responsibilities as President of Adventist Health Portland, will take over for Joyce as President of the Newly named Adventist Health Oregon Service Area.”
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