Interim CEO position nothing new for Putnam

Larry Putnam is no stranger to taking a position as an Interim CEO of a hospital and took on that position at the Phillips County Hospital and Family Health Clinic in Malta following the departure of Ward VanWichen last February.

What is new for Putnam at his latest Interim CEO spot in Malta is, as many of you well know, he has held the CEO position in Phillips County before. That said, Putnam told the PCN he is happy to be back in Phillips County, but by no means wants or can have the job full time.

"Absolutely no chance I will become the CEO again," he said. "I cannot stay as interim CEO beyond June 15th. We have several applicants for the position."

Putnam is a fifth-generation Montanan and grew up in Billings, Mont., where he met his wife of 53 years, Mary. He was commissioned an Air Force officer at the University of Montana during the Vietnam conflict and the couple spent five years in Alaska before returning to Montana for Larry to complete his MBA with an emphasis in accounting and finance. After completing his MBA, the couple resided in Helena for 10 years, five of which he served as CFO and then hospital administrator at Boulder River School and Hospital, a behavioral and clinical facility in Boulder, Mont., with 900 residents and 1,000 employees serving the needs of patients with developmental delays. He also served five years as the Administrator for Centralized Services at the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

In 1994, the Putnams moved to Malta from Monticello, Utah, during a February blizzard.

"Jim Sandsness was the Hospital Board Chair," Putnam recalled. "I checked into the GN, walked across the street to First State Bank, and reported to Jim that I was ready to go to work. He said, 'How in the heck did you get here? They've been reporting on KMMR all day that Highway 2 is closed from Havre to Malta.' I told him I followed the snowplow most of the way and that I'd told the Hospital Board I'd be here and thought I'd better show up no matter the weather."

Putnam has held Interim CEO positions six times before returning to Phillips County - including Big Timber, Jordan, Livingston, Superior, and Harlowton, Mont, as well as Lovell, Wyo. - and he also served for two years as Project Director for a federal grant for the Frontier Community Health Integration Project for the Montana Hospital Association.

Before 1994, Putnam said he changed jobs about every five years. When they came to Malta, he thought his family would stay here for about five years and move on to a bigger hospital.

"That didn't happen," he said, "because of the great people in Phillips County, we stayed 14 years. It was a wonderful accomplishment for the entire community that a new hospital was built in 2004 during my stint as CEO."

Putnam remained in Phillips County as CEO until 2007 when he retired, and he and Mary moved to Helena to be closer to their children and grandchildren. (The couple has a son, Jon, and two grandchildren in Helena; a son, Tom, and five grandchildren in Pocatello, Idaho; and a daughter, Lisa, and one grandchild in Akron, Ohio.)

Putnam said that he has "failed retirement" seven different times and was happy to come back to Malta.

"First, because of the good people of Phillips County," he said. "Second, because I had hired or worked with nearly all of the Leadership Team at the hospital. It's a great team and it's by far the best Leadership Team I've worked with in my seven interim CEO assignments."

No later did Putnam take over at the Phillips County Hospital than everything in Phillips County, The United States and across the world would be changed as people were forced to deal with the COVID-19 virus. Putnam said he had never seen anything like it in his 37 years of rural hospital management experience.

"The Leadership Team and employees at the hospital shifted into Emergency Disaster Crisis Management one week after I arrived in early March," he said. "It's like drinking from a firehose with all the information coming at us from CDC, FEMA, state and federal disaster officials. And everything changes 5 minutes later. As they say, the COVID-19 crisis situation is "fluid" and it looks like it might last a while. But I'm especially proud of the Leadership Team and our employees keeping up with it."