ENTERPRISE — Sitting in his office at Wallowa Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 6 — the office was just about cleaned out and ready for his successor — Larry Davy admitted that his pending retirement had a bittersweet taste.

“I’ve been in health care — counting training — for close to 45 years,” he said. “You know, I’ve enjoyed the ride, but at the same time there’s the pull to do some things while you still can, physically and mentally.”

After two stints as the hospital’s CEO that stretched over 15 years, Davy left his office at the hospital for the last time last week. His successor, Dan Grigg, started work on Monday, Sept. 11.

Davy’s career in health care — which started as a nurse at the old Wallowa Memorial Hospital — has been quite the ride. During his time as CEO, he stabilized the hospital’s finances, which were in a perilous state, and spearheaded the drive to build a new hospital. And he’s dealt with a flow of constant change in health care.

But at least two things have stayed constant for Davy: A relentless focus on mission, vision and values. And a deep faith in God.

‘Duty, you know’

It was in 2001 that Davy, then the chief nursing officer at Wallowa Memorial, was asked by the chair of the board of directors if he would step in as interim CEO.

At the time, the hospital was in a tough spot: It had less than a week’s worth of operating cash on hand. The lack of cash flow made it difficult to invest in new technology. It was landlocked at its previous location in Enterprise with no way to expand. Morale was down.

And Davy had an offer on the table to go to work as vice president of a larger hospital.

“I was supposed to give them the answer when the board chair said, ‘Can you please take over as CEO?’ So it’s interesting how God works,” he said.

Why did he choose to stay?

“Well, I had been here a couple of years, and I felt an obligation. Duty, you know. Friends.”

But he also knew he didn’t want to be part of a sinking ship. The board gave him carte blanche to turn things around, and he went to work, leading Wallowa Memorial to win designation as a critical access hospital, a program that allows rural hospitals to receive certain benefits, such as cost-based reimbursements for Medicare services. That helped ease the financial crunch.

New hospital

But Davy knew from the start of his CEO tenure that the hospital needed to build a new facility. So he and his leadership team started to build the case for a new hospital.

They didn’t know what they were getting into.

But they made it work.

“As I’ve gotten older, I look back and I “cringe at the naivete.” But, he said, “failure was never an option, and we learned as we went. … God blessed us and made this happen.”

Community support helped considerably, he said: “This community is phenomenal at being able to look at the big picture and recognizing that, with our remoteness, health care is foundational.”

The $21.8 million facility opened in 2007.

Later that year, Davy accepted an offer from Adventist Health to become the president and CEO of Tillamook County General Hospital, a much bigger facility. But in 2014, he was lured back to the CEO post at Wallowa Memorial.

Nick Lunde, chair of the Wallowa County Health Care District, said one of the things Davy encouraged the board to do upon his return was to pay off any debt that still remained from the construction of the new facility. The board followed his advice. Today, the hospital is debt-free.

“He has done an amazing job,” Lunde said of Davy.

Lunde gives Davy credit for building a strong leadership team at the hospital, and Davy is proud of that work.

Davy credits the hospital’s focus on mission, vision, values and commitment to excellence with allowing him to build that team. “And that feeds on itself,” he said. “Excellence attracts excellent people.”

So, when he recently accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, he was thinking about the people with whom he’s worked during his four-decade career.

As he accepted the award, “I said, ‘I can’t accept this as an individual. I’m accepting it on behalf of the people I’ve worked with for 40 years. We did it together.’”

Health care changes

Davy has seen plenty of changes in the health care landscape over his years in the business: The transition to electronic health records was a major change, he said. Changes in how government programs like Medicare reimburse hospitals for services also have had a dramatic effect; he expects additional changes in those reimbursement models over the next few years.

And he thinks artificial intelligence could become a major factor in driving health care change.

“If a computer can read test results, X-rays, CT scans, pathological specimens better than I can, what happens?” he said.

One possibility is that AI will help the health care industry with its workforce shortages. And, he said, it also could free up human providers to spend more time dealing with the total wellness of their patients.

AI, Davy said, has the potential to be a “game changer” in health care.

He’ll keep an eye on that in his retirement, but he has his eye on other things as well: Spending more time with his wife, Christy, for example, and pursuing his car-racing hobby. There’s a 1957 Chevrolet pickup to restore. There are books to read — he’s an avid reader of history and religion.

But first on his to-do list for retirement, he said: “For a while, stare at the sky and sleep.”