McNitt to become next Platte Valley chief of staff
With a unanimous vote by the Platte Valley active medical staff in favor of his appointment, Will McNitt, MD, Emergency Medicine, will become the medical staff’s next chief of staff, effective Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2028. He replaces current chief of staff, Don Rabor, MD, Cardiovascular Disease, when Rabor’s term ends at the end of this year.
“During his time being at Platte Valley Hospital, Will has proven to be an outstanding leader, an excellent clinician and just an over-all great human being,” said Rabor. “I have no doubt he will serve well as the next chief of staff as we head toward the new joint venture with AdventHeath. As I've shared with others before, he's very soft spoken, but when he speaks, he talks from the heart and with true conviction.”
McNitt sat down for an interview with us to share what’s he’s learned from four years of leadership on the MEC, what our biggest opportunities are during his upcoming term, and what he feels is most special about the Platte Valley Hospital community and this medical staff.
Q: What would you say are the best features Platte Valley Hospital and the physicians who work here?
A: “What makes this hospital special is that we retain the small community hospital feeling despite intense growth over the last few years. You walk down the hall and know most of the faces, and patients ask about specific providers when they come back in after previous visits. I am proud of how our medical staff has persevered to continue to care for our ever-growing patient population despite multiple mergers/acquisitions, challenges coming out from under the strain of the COVID-19 years, and an overall shortage of providers in the Front Range area.”
Q: You've been on the MEC for four years. What have been your biggest learnings?
A: “When it comes to learning, the main thing is that we don't get much exposure in training to the absurd regulatory and legal complexity involved in the safe and prudent operation of a hospital. The first year or two on the Clinical Excellence Committee and MEC were eye opening, and very much an experience of sink-or-swim learning for me. I spent untold hours looking up the alphabet soup of regulatory terms, acronyms, quality programs and legal issues that arise, and I still lean heavily on our deeply knowledgeable hospital and system staff and leadership to help me understand how to approach some of the concerns that arise.”
Q: Why choose to step in as chief?
A: “I have watched this hospital grow tremendously since 2017, both the good and the opportunities. It is easy to throw stones and complain, but I am not somebody who likes to let recurrent problems be, and working on quality committees and with medical staff leadership gives me the opportunity to effect change and help us maintain and improve quality across the hospital.
“I am stepping into this role to make sure that the medical staff has a clear plan for leadership over the next year as we move through the changes that will inevitably occur with the joint venture that has been announced. We have benefited greatly from Dr. Rabor's strong leadership over the last few years, and I want to make sure that he has someone to hand off to as we move into another chapter for the hospital.
“My primary goal as chief of staff in the short term is to support the medical staff through the joint venture transition. We have been through a few of these now, and there is always a mix of good and bad any time a big systemic change like this occurs. I want to make sure our providers have an opportunity to be heard, and that we can advocate for the people providing the excellent care we expect here at Platte Valley. We are going to continue to experience growth during this process, and working with our medical staff to plan for that is a key part of the next few years. My driving mission throughout my time at Platte has been to provide the best service we can to all of the communities we serve, and I see many of our dedicated medical executive committee members working toward that same mission as our hospital and community have grown.”
Q: What do you see as our biggest opportunities during your term?
A: “The biggest opportunity that Platte Valley Hospital has right now is to chart a course to expand our services to meet the needs of this community. The hospital has worked tirelessly to bring back services we lost after the challenging year or two following the outbreak of COVID-19, and there are multiple needs we have identified in the community that I think we all would like to see brought into the hospital so our patients don't have to travel so far for care.”
Q: How can physicians help?
A: “This is always the hard question. Our medical staff deals with the usual pressures of practice — tight schedules, insurance nonsense, frequent changes in the healthcare system, inadequate time — exacerbated by rapid population growth in our area and a hospital that has become too small for the community we serve. Finding time to focus on the big-picture issues is always a challenge. Offhand, I think the biggest thing our providers can do right now is continue focus on providing excellent care, and keep up the honest, timely and detailed feedback and suggestions to any of us in leadership roles. Hospital leadership, medical staff leadership and community leaders all share a goal of getting care to the people who need it, so the challenge now is finding the way to accomplish that. There are some great opportunities ahead of us, and having that information flow from the medical staff is key to charting a course to success.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share?
A: “Yes! Dr. Rabor has done a phenomenal job leading the medical staff out of COVID, and through the challenges of integrating into the greater Intermountain Health system. It is never easy to be the leader when everything from schedules to food options is changing, and Dr. Rabor was a steadying force during this time, asking the hard questions, and working to get everyone the information we all needed. He found time during all of that to support provider wellness, and to restart meet-and-greet opportunities so that our medical staff could welcome new providers and feel a deeper sense of community again. I have learned tremendously from his leadership and look forward to continuing the culture he has set.”
When McNitt’s two-year term begins, Chelsea Ratliff, MD, Hospital Medicine, currently the medical staff’s secretary/treasurer, will step into the role of chief of staff-elect. Medical staff members can welcome them to their roles, ask questions or offer suggestions by emailing them at william.mcnitt@imail2.org and ratliff@mimdocs.com.