For the heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.”-Proverbs 18:15
Over the last several weeks, there has been a lot of emotion and discussion surrounding Pioneers Medical Center (PMC), our administration, and our management company (Ovation Healthcare). The reason for this letter is to shed light on the truth about our administration and Ovation Healthcare as we head into the upcoming board election.
There are some in the community who believe we need to get rid of our current administration and our partnership with Ovation Healthcare. This would be a grave mistake for multiple reasons. The consequences of such actions would extend beyond the hospital and what we are striving to achieve, affecting many families and the economy in our community. Most of the drive to separate from Ovation and depose our administration is based on misinformation and falsehood. Here, we will attempt to share truths about our administration, our partnership with Ovation, and how well we are doing because of this leadership.
By the end of this letter, we (the physicians and surgeons) hope the reader will better understand why we unanimously support Liz Sellers (our Chief Executive Officer) along with the rest of our administration, managers, and leadership as well as unanimously support our partnership with Ovation Healthcare.
First, the reader needs to understand that running a critical access hospital is a goliathan task, requiring a vast array of expertise including (but not limited to) continually changing government legislation, the large number of specialties within medicine and how they function together, varying provider roles, insurance billing and collecting, the supplies and pharmaceuticals market, HIPAA and Medicare/Medicaid regulations, liability and lawsuits, licensing boards, and health outcomes tracking, to name a few. These prerequisite fluencies precede the typical skills required to run a successful business such as budgeting, marketing, payroll, strategic planning, standard operating procedures, personnel management, etc. To successfully run and grow a thriving hospital, it requires a much broader skill set and knowledge base than running a non-medical business, which is an extremely difficult task in itself.
Enter Ovation Healthcare. Pioneers Medical Center first partnered with Ovation Healthcare in 1997 (it was then called Quorum Health), and through this partnership, PMC has grown to where it is today. Ovation Healthcare’s mission is to help independent hospitals thrive and maintain their independence, providing a cornerstone for these hospitals’ communities. It accomplishes this mission by providing a vast network of resources including expertise, consulting, supply chain networks, highly trained leadership uniquely prepared for independent hospitals, strategic planning, and capital, amongst other perks and resources. Ovation’s average client facility has increased their cash on hand by 65%, has a 15% higher average market capture, 12% greater average supply chain savings, 25% lower average net days in accounts receivable, 30% lower average salary expenses as a percent of new patient revenue, and a 15% higher average HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) star rating. And this is exactly what Ovation Healthcare has done for us. PMC now has 152 days cash on hand. We capture a market across more than 30 states and three countries. We save a substantial amount of money in supplies. Additionally, under our current leadership, we employ 255 people, with 38 unfilled positions open to anyone in the local community. In 2024, we performed 508 total joint replacements, 113 total spine surgeries, and 882 total orthopedic surgeries. In the family medicine clinic, we had over 11,000 patient visits.
Liz Sellers, our CEO, works for this company. However, this has been a particularly hot area of misinformation. It has been stated in various forms that Liz runs PMC for the interests of Ovation Healthcare, contrary to the interests of our community. This could not be farther from the truth. As described above, Ovation Healthcare partners with hospitals like ours for the purpose of helping hospitals like ours maintain our independence. It does not purchase or sell hospitals. Consequently, it is in Ovation’s best interest that both PMC and the Meeker community succeed. In other words, PMC’s and Meeker’s best interests have been that of Ovation Healthcare’s and its leadership in our facility since 1997, and this continues to be the case as evidenced by the culture, growth, and comrarderie in our facility. This starts with Liz Sellers’ open door policy. Any staff member can enter her office to discuss questions or concerns. Mrs. Sellers is often found making rounds through the various departments to check in with managers and medical staff. She has supported leadership and medical staff through difficult seasons.
Which brings us to another area of misinformation — retaliation and toxic culture. It has been publicly stated that Mrs. Sellers fosters an environment of retaliation that has created a toxic culture. This, too, could not be further from the truth. On the contrary, Mrs. Sellers has often given second and third chances to managers and staff that, frankly, many other CEOs would not have. She listens to the needs and requests of the medical staff, and she allows us to share a pivotal role in leadership and decision making, which also does not happen in most facilities. She is fair, approachable, and kind. Yet, she also maintains high standards of excellence in the realms of patient care, business stewardship, strategic planning, and long term vision.
Under this current leadership, our culture has become one marked by success and comradery. PMC has recently received recognition as one of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. for Joint Replacements by Healthgrades. Additionally, PMC has secured the Joint Replacement Excellence Award, placing in the top 10% for Joint Replacements. PMC was honored with a five-star rating for Total Hip Replacements for two consecutive years (2024-2025) as well as a five-star rating for Total Knee Replacements for three consecutive years (2023-2025). In 2023, PMC was awarded the Performance Leadership Award for excellence in Quality, Outcomes, and Patient Perspective, as compiled by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. Awards like these are extremely rare in facilities like ours, and it requires much more than just incredible surgeons to obtain these awards. It requires an incredible culture of excellence and comradery composed by the staff, nurses, managers, and administration. We not only love the work we do, but we love the people we get to work alongside with. Liz Sellers and Ovation Health have made this possible.
Besides awards of excellence in orthopedics, PMC is also growing other service lines with the same goals of excellence that will provide improved access to healthcare for our community, fuel our local economy, and improve our hospital’s ability to remain independent. These service lines include specialty services such as nerve conduction studies/EMG’s, general surgery, endoscopy, urology, cardiology, cardiac rehab, sleep studies, outpatient pharmacy, and sports medicine coverage for our local school district. Regarding the sports medicine services, most other school districts either need to pay athletic trainers directly or contract with a hospital to receive the services we provide. In Meeker, PMC provides these services pro bono for our school district.
Our incredible family medicine clinic provides care across the entire spectrum of life. We strive to excel in the preventative measures such as annual physicals, well child checks, Medicare Annual Wellness visits, as well as management-based care of chronic diseases for the patients we serve. We have expanded our same-day appointments in order to further help the community in their time of need. We provided the sports physicals free for athletes with their well child checks, offered those without insurance the opportunity at a discounted price, and collaborated with Rio Blanco County Health to provide free well child checks. We provide diagnoses and management for sleep disorders through our sleep center. We provide prenatal care to mothers up to 32 weeks to minimize the required travel to outside facilities prior to delivery. We offer onsite and telehealth care for Behavioural Health services five days per week, which is very rare for facilities like ours. Our family medicine clinic also offers visiting nursing services for patients unable to safely leave the comfort of their homes. All of these services are provided within the regulations of a Certified Rural Health Center and have only been possible to build and provide because of leadership and the current culture in our facility.
PMC’s future is very bright right now. We have nearly maximized our capacity and need to expand as we continue bringing in more services, physicians, and surgeons. We are bringing in a new total joint surgeon to join Dr. Borchard this fall. We are now booking out two to three months for our spine surgeries as our reputation for excellence continues to grow and more and more patients are coming to us from surrounding communities including Grand Junction, Rifle, Craig, Rangely, Aspen, Vail, Wyoming, Denver, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah for their spine care. Our spine surgeon, Dr. Sielatycki is nationally known for pioneering and improving motion-preserving spine surgery, and he is putting Meeker on the map with a growing excellent reputation in spine care. We fully expect awards in spine akin to our total joint replacement awards in the near future. To quote Dr. Sielatycki: “PMC is a remarkable facility and is uniquely positioned to become a nationally renowned hospital for excellence in cutting edge orthopaedic and spine care; which is directly a result of the work and support given to physicians by Liz Sellers and Ovation Healthcare.”
As we approach this election, we encourage everyone to step back, seek the truth, and use this knowledge when we all go vote. The truth is that PMC is doing very well because of our partnership with Ovation Healthcare and our current leadership under Liz Sellers. We have a great culture of excellence and camaraderie. We enjoy coming to work, doing what we do, working alongside who we work with, and serving our patients and community in the process. Please understand that as a medical staff, as the ones who work here, we stand with our current partnership with Ovation and our current leadership. We hope that you, as the reader, strongly consider this when you vote. The outcomes of this election can help us continue in our current direction, or not. We hope you help us keep moving towards progress.
Dr. Grant, Dr. Borchard,
Dr. Sielatycki, Dr. Anderson,
Dr. Turner, Dr. Ross,
Dr. Griggs and Dr. Frye.
