This opinion was contributed by Director-Elect, San Benito Health Care District — District 5, Roxy Montana. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. Lea este artículo en español aqui.
Over the past several years, our community has been through an extraordinary period with Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. We faced financial uncertainty, bankruptcy proceedings and difficult questions about the future of an institution that belongs to this community.
During that time, I kept returning to something I learned through many years of Civil Grand Jury service: never make assumptions. Ask questions. Listen to all sides. Examine the facts. And when something doesn’t make sense, keep asking questions until it does.
That philosophy became an integral part of the Thursday healthcare group I began organizing during the hospital crisis. What started around my kitchen table eventually outgrew my dining room, then my living room, and ultimately moved to a larger meeting space downtown.
Physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, elected officials, businesspeople, legal advisers and community members participated in our public focus group. We did not always agree—and we weren’t supposed to.
Although our Thursday group was never a Civil Grand Jury investigation, I facilitated the meetings using many of the principles I had learned as a Civil Grand Jury foreperson: be fair, hear the different parties, allow people to ask questions, follow the facts and give everyone an opportunity to be heard.
Two people I came to know particularly well through this work were Dr. Parveen Sharma and Greg Swett.
Today, I am preparing to serve as the Director-Elect for District 5 of the San Benito Health Care District. Dr. Parveen Sharma is a candidate for the District 2 seat, and Greg Swett is a candidate for the District 4 seat. I have sometimes referred to the three of us as a “trifecta.”
I don’t mean a political voting bloc, nor do I expect us to agree on every issue. We are three independent people with different backgrounds and different skill sets. What we share is attention to detail, a passion for serving our community and a willingness to do the work necessary to understand difficult issues.
Parveen brings the physician’s and patient’s perspective to the table.
She has spent her professional life caring for patients, but her experience extends beyond medicine. Parveen is also a businesswoman who has managed her own clinics, worked with the San Benito Health Care Foundation and previously served on the San Benito Health Care District Board. She understands healthcare from the examining room as well as from the boardroom.
Parveen also served on two San Benito County Civil Grand Juries on which I was foreperson. I had the opportunity to observe her ability to listen, evaluate information and participate in a process requiring fairness, independence and careful consideration of facts.
That combination of medicine, business, hospital governance and community service gives Parveen a perspective that I believe is particularly valuable to our hospital.
Greg is what I have come to call our “numbers guy”—or, perhaps more fittingly, “Mr. Metrics.” What particularly impresses me about Greg is that he digs into the numbers. He wants to know what is behind a financial figure, how it was calculated and what it means. For a public hospital district entrusted with healthcare services and substantial public assets, that kind of scrutiny matters.
Many people know Greg as a farmer, but that description represents much more than working the land. He has more than 35 years of experience in agricultural growing, harvesting and farming-operations management. That means managing people, equipment, expenses, production, risk and payroll.
Greg also has a strong financial background. He holds a degree in Accounting and Finance from UC Berkeley and earlier in his career worked for a major airline in financial management and other operational areas, with responsibilities that included constructing billion-dollar budgets.
His commitment to San Benito County also goes back decades. Greg served as President of the San Benito County Farm Bureau from 2008 to 2010 and was involved years earlier in community discussions surrounding the “3-in-1” highway proposal. He has continued to participate in issues affecting agriculture, transportation and the future of our county. He also brings experience in public-board governance through his service on the Willow Grove Union School District board.
There is another connection among the three of us: we are all businesspeople.
Parveen has managed healthcare clinics. Greg manages agricultural operations. My own business experience is in property management. Different businesses require different expertise, but they teach a common lesson: decisions have consequences. You have to understand operations, people, expenses, obligations and the bottom line.
A hospital, however, cannot be viewed simply as a business.
Financial strength matters because a hospital that cannot sustain itself cannot continue caring for patients. But behind the numbers are people—a nurse, a physician, an employee, a piece of needed equipment, a patient waiting for care or a family waiting for answers.
That is why I believe a strong hospital board benefits from people who look at the same issue through different lenses.
Parveen may first see an issue through the eyes of a physician and a patient.
Greg may see it in the financial statements and ask what the numbers are telling us.
My instinct, after years of Civil Grand Jury work, is often to ask: What are the facts? Have we heard all sides? What questions haven’t been answered? And is the public receiving the information it deserves?
Those perspectives should not compete with one another. They should challenge and strengthen one another.
That is what I mean when I call us a “trifecta.”
Not three people who will necessarily agree. Not three people who will simply vote together.
Three independent people. Three different skill sets. One mission: to help provide the best possible healthcare for the community we love.
Roxy Montana
Director-Elect, San Benito Health Care District — District 5
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