Both Mayo Health Systems and Winneshiek Medical Center Board of Trustees will have input on the next WMC boss

Wednesday's resignation of Winneshiek Medical Center Chief Administrative Officer Dan Werner has kicked off the search for a new CAO at the hospital.

The WMC Board has signed a contract with Mayo Health Systems for Mayo to manage the hospital.  That means the new hospital Chief Administrative Officer will be a Mayo Health Systems employee, as Werner was.  So Mayo Health Systems officials will be the first step in the hiring practice.  They will screen applications for the job, drawing up a list of candidates they deem qualified.

It is at that point that the Winneshiek Medical Center Board of Trustees takes over. The board will do interviews with the qualified candidates for the position.  Those candidates would not have to be Mayo Health Systems employees.  In fact, a national advertisement for the position has just been written.

All seven hospital board members are expected to participate in the interviews.  All seven will also make a decision on which candidate should be offered a contract--even though that contract will call for the new CAO to be a Mayo Health Systems employee.  Since Winneshiek Medical Center is publicly supported in part, state law gives the publicly-elected hospital board members the hiring and firing authority.