Matheson, Johnson seek new voices on hospital board

Dr. Duke Johnson was in the early stages of developing his medical practice at St. Jude’s Hospital in Fullerton, Calif., when a patient came through the emergency room doors and changed his perspective on health care.

“A patient came in, 38 years old, in full cardiac arrest,” Johnson, a Silver Valley native, said Wednesday. “I wasn’t taught in medical school that I’d see that. It totally changed my life. At that point, I thought, ‘He shouldn’t even be here. How did this happen?’ So I switched over to preventative medicine.”

That switch took Johnson through a professional journey that led him into the upper echelons of Nutrilite, the largest supplement manufacturer in the world. After traveling extensively and visiting countries grappling with their own health crises, the Coeur d’Alene High School graduate returned to North Idaho in 1999, where he now seeks a seat on the Kootenai Hospital District board of trustees.

“I’m passionate about saving lives,” Johnson said. “That’s why I went into emergency medicine.”

Johnson is one of three board candidates — along with Kootenai County treasurer Steve Matheson and information technology specialist Chris Nordstrom — endorsed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee for the nonpartisan positions.

Johnson and Matheson visited The Press for a joint interview Wednesday.

“I’m not a member of the KCRCC,” Matheson said. “I never have been. I don’t receive their communications. But, they are a group of individuals that get together, are well-educated and feel passionate about their community. If they want to participate in whatever they want to do, that’s their decision. I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to stand on the outside and say, ‘You, as an organization, shouldn’t be doing that.’”

Matheson, who serves as tax collector and public administrator as well as county treasurer, said the hospital board could use a trustee with his financial acumen: a Certified Public Accountant with experience in business, finance and the inner workings of big, beefy companies.

“As treasurer, I manage a $100 million portfolio, the treasury,” he said. “As tax collector, there’s about $200 million annually collected in property taxes that are distributed to over 50 taxing districts, including urban renewal agencies. As public administrator, individuals who die within the county and don’t have a personal representative, I take over that responsibility.”

Matheson said his work in commercial banks and investment banks had him managing a $40 billion portfolio that gave him particularly valuable insight he believes will make him an asset to the hospital board.

“I’ve dealt with hundreds, if not thousands of companies the size of Kootenai Health or bigger,” he said. “They’re financially complicated institutions.”

Matheson said he’s running because he’s not satisfied with the direction Kootenai Health is moving, and that the community hospital has become more focused on its hospital needs, rather than the community’s needs.

“I’m running because I think the board — and I don’t want to criticize any individual board members — I think they’ve lost sight of their role,” Matheson said. “They focus, I think, too much on what’s best for the hospital, rather than what’s best for the community. They’ve made some decisions that I question over the last several years.”

Matheson, who ran two years ago for a trustee seat, said his previous unsuccessful attempt should serve as evidence that his motives are not based on the KCRCC’s endorsement, but by his own desire to craft the direction of Kootenai Health.

“I personally think we should be an outstanding regional medical center,” Matheson said. “They want to seem to go toward a destination medical center … I don’t believe we can be a Mayo Clinic or a Cleveland Clinic. That’s my personal opinion. I think we need to focus on a referral hospital, making it the best possible we can.”

Matheson said the relationship between Kootenai Health and the urban renewal district helmed by ignite cda to shape the future of the neighborhood around the hospital deserves further scrutiny.

“Who on the board has the expertise to watch over, to make sure the execution of that plan is actually followed?” he asked. “My assessment of the current board: It lacks that expertise. Everyone on the board that I’ve met — every single one of them — are exceptional people … But we have two existing physicians on the board, we have three physicians running this time, we have two nurses, we have an ex-foundation president. We have a retired hospital administrator. I think the medical aspect is more than well-represented on this board.”

Johnson, meanwhile, said the board needs the voice of a medical professional willing to scrutinize the science that handicapped Kootenai Health’s capabilities during the pandemic, as recently evidenced by changing distancing standards from the Centers for Disease Control from 6 feet to 3 feet.

“All of the businesses that were closed, all of the schools [that were closed], they admitted just a month ago, [they] didn’t have the scientific data for doing that,” Johnson said. “SARS-1 ran its course in seven months. It went away after seven months, and there hasn’t been a case of SARS anywhere in the world — without a vaccine — since 2006. No one has seen SARS-1 anywhere in the world since 2006. That one went away. This is the closest virus to it of any virus in the world.”

While Johnson said he would have advocated against requiring masks in Kootenai Health had he sat on the board as COVID-19 emerged, Matheson stopped short of agreeing, saying he admired the hospital’s administration during the pandemic.

”I think we’re very fortunate to have Jon Ness in this community,” Matheson said. “… I think he’s fabulous, so much so that the board of trustees relies too much on him … I don’t think there’s enough on the board in personality to challenge some of the decisions he’s making. He’s probably making most of them well, but I don’t see that debate.”

Johnson agreed that he’s generally heard good things about Ness’s tenure, but the direction of the hospital needs to change for the better, not for the bigger.

“I’ve heard a lot of communication that bigger is better,” Johnson said. “I’ve worked in huge hospital facilities. The UCLA Medical Center complex is gigantic. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. In other words, let’s make sure what we do is really, really good for the people of the community.”

Election Day is May 18.