Dr. Arnold Loera "a great doctor," says CEO Robert Clark, who did not renew Loera's contract for employment. Clark says the decision was his to make, not the health corporation's board of directors.
KDLG: Dr. Arnold Loera has been let go from the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation. Dr. Loera is well respected family physician and also served as the clinical director for most of his twenty year tenure.
BBAHC CEO Robert Clark said Tuesday that the decision not to renew Dr. Arnie Loera's contract was his to make, not the board of directors. Clark added that Loera is a "great doctor," but offered no reason for his dismissal as per the corporation's personnel policy.
Loera's termination coincided with the passing of longtime chairman Sally Smith, so acting chairman Mark "Eddie" Angasan confirmed Tuesday that it was "solely" the decision of the CEO, not the board, which would expect an update on why the clinical director was fired at its next meeting.
Dr. Loera offered only positive comments about his twenty years practicing medicine at Kanakanak Hospital.
“This has been an amazing experience," he said by phone Tuesday, a week after losing his job. "You know as a physician, you’re involved in patient care, and that’s really a privilege and an honor. I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I’ve also helped a lot of people at the end of their life, and either of those experiences for me as a family practitioner are intimate, are personal, and are fulfilling. Working with the people here has been outstanding, plus living in the really the prettiest country I can think of ... so Bristol Bay will always be my home.”
The clinical director is a doctor elected by medical staff to be the representative to the hospital's board and administration. It's a job Dr. Loera held for most of his time with BBAHC. Other staff doctors speak highly of Loera, and he offered the same of them.
"I’m really extremely proud of the med staff that is currently employed by Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation," he said.
"It’s an outstanding mix of seasoned professionals like Dr. O’Connell, who has practiced medicine longer than probably anybody in the state, and is a source of mentoring for young physicians. And then you have people, Dr. Powers, Dr. Asher, people that know the patients, patients love them, and providing a good level of care. We're short a couple of positions, and family physicians who do what we do here are very hard to find. So my hope would be that they filll the couple of vacancies that they have so they're not working so hard, and they're able to retain the docs that they have."
Arnie Loera is originally from California, and attended medical school at UC San Diego. He served for ten years at the Crownpoint Health Care Facility on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico before starting at Kanakanak in 1997.
He and his wife Rose Loera, the retiring Dillingham city manager, say Dillingham will be their permanent home but they may travel to work in other areas of the state in the years ahead.
Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org or 907-842-5281.