SMHD HAS A CLOWES
Alec Clowes (pronounced Clues), is running for a second term on the Southern Mono Hospital District board this November.
Clowes moved to Mammoth in 2019 with his wife Jolynn Khamky. The couple met as undergrads at Stanford University. They have a three-year old son named Sasha.
Clowes moved to Mammoth pre-pandemic – both he and his wife had jobs they could do remotely – so he’s a man ahead of the curve.
His remote job at the time was with Clover Health, a company which provides Medicare Advantage insurance plans. Clowes, a software engineer by trade, works on quality measures and is well-versed in healthcare industry issues.
He says his impetus to continue on the board is to see the North Wing project to completion, while continuing to focus on financial management and quality care.
As Clowes notes, the past five years have been hugely profitable for Mammoth Hospital, which has allowed the District to embark on the North Wing project without going to the voters for a bond.
He agrees with fellow board member Ryan Wood in that it’s important for the board to have diversity of membership. If you have people on the board tied to the hospital, you get tied to operational matters and “inside baseball.” He’s concerned that SMHD candidate Jennifer Burrows wants to interfere in operational matters, and as a board member, he says “that’s not our job.”
“I think the CEO [Tom Parker] is doing a great job and I am confident in his decision-making.”
Ms. Burrows husband, Dr. Craig Burrows, formerly served as the Hospital’s Chief Medical Officer.
The CMO position, which had paid $450,000/year, will be reduced to a half-time position.
Clowes says the CMO also typically is a working physician with his/her own practice – the implication seeming to be, don’t fret, we’ll find a half-time CMO and he/she won’t starve.
Clowes disagrees with candidate Burrows’ opinion that the new hospital wing should have more in-patient beds.
“The national trend and the trend in Mammoth has been towards shorter in-patient stays.” – largely due to improved technology and surgical techniques – “In the high season, we might have five people on average [staying overnight].”
The hospital currently has 13 in-patient rooms. The new wing will have 18. And Clowes thinks 18 accommodates projected growth for the next 3-4 decades.
Some things the hospital is doing well: Adopting best practices, quality teaching, more pro-active scheduling and follow up … overall, says Clowes, the place is growing up, professionalizing, and that’s always going to meet with a certain resistance from those who liked the old ways.
On the to-improve list, Clowes says SMHD and NIHD are still working out the kinks of the labor and delivery handoff. “There hasn’t been as much coordination between providers as we’d like,” he says.
That said, he still thinks it was the right decision, particularly from a safety perspective (Mammoth wasn’t delivering enough babies for providers to keep their skills up). Secondarily, it wasn’t financially viable.
In addition to their remote jobs, Clowes and his spouse own Station 81 (office rental space on Old Mammoth Road) and within that space, Bevi Bene wine bar, which operates during the ski season.
