2013 Rising Stars in Banking: Christie Obenauer

During the last 10 years, Mercer County, N.D.'s 25-bed hospital has faced problems familiar to many rural health care institutions: a struggle to fill beds, control expenses and retain talented management while providing as many services as possible. If it weren't for the dedication of Christie Obenauer, senior vice president of lending at Union State Bank of Hazen, N.D., these challenges might have been the end for the county's access to local medical care..Obenauer has leveraged her education in economics and political science at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., into a 20-year banking career that includes a heavy dose of community involvement. She worked at Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Meridian, Idaho and at Wells Fargo Bank in Bismarck, N.D., before joining the bank her father, Harvey Huber, led from 1978 to 1998..In 2001, Sakakawea Medical Center in Hazen became a critical-access hospital, a designation governed by special rules under federal law. In order to receive federal reimbursement for the cost of services rendered to the community, the medical center is limited to no more than 25 in-patient beds. A patient's annual average length of stay cannot exceed 96 hours, a policy meant to encourage the hospital to focus on providing care for common conditions and out-patient care, while referring other, more complicated conditions to larger hospitals. It is limited in the services it is allowed to offer, which makes it difficult to cover the cost of remaining open 24 hours a day, seven days a week..Shortly after Obenauer joined the Medical Center board in 2003, the hospital's chief executive resigned, leaving it in dire financial straits. The hospital lost about $377,000 on patient revenue of nearly $5 million in fiscal 2003. The board of directors found that it takes a talented CEO to manage the hospital; it also takes a special person to handle the stress..During the next six months, Obenauer and the rest of the board kept the hospital running while searching for a new CEO. Hiring a management firm in 2004, the board brought a permanent CEO back to the hospital and set up procedures to control expenses..Tighter financial controls paid off. At the end of Obenauer's first year as chairman of the board in 2007, the hospital earned nearly $370,000 on patient revenue of $7.2 million..With the operations of the hospital in line, Obenauer led the board in the creation of a strategic plan which called for unified local control of the county's health care facilities. The goal was to reduce overlap in services and eliminate competition for federal funding. By the end of 2007, the board had arranged to take over the management of two other clinics in the area, one in Hazen, the other in neighboring Beulah. But, by taking control of one of the two clinics in Beulah, Sakakawea Medical Center came into competition with a clinic funded through another federal program. The competing Buelah clinic responded by ramping up its services to cover procedures already provided by the Sakakawea Medical Center. "There are only so many people who need these procedures each year," Obenauer said. "Spreading out the federal funding coming into the community like this increased the financial strain on the medical center.".By 2010, the CEO position at the hospital was vacant again, with two CEOs having left in three years. "With the contention between the clinics and the strain of managing cost-based reimbursement, we had trouble retaining talent," Obenauer said. "We needed someone who understood this type of reimbursement as well as someone who could build a relationship with the competing clinic. We also needed someone who made a good manager; we couldn't have them driving away the doctors we had worked so hard to attract to the area.".Obenauer spearheaded the candidate search over a sixth-month period, spending 10 hours a week reviewing resumes, contacting and interviewing candidates with the board, and giving tours to candidates' spouses. She and her fellow board members also took on the job that had been too stressful for the executives that had left: managing the day-to-day cost management, personnel and business operations of the hospital..Obenauer knew she must take up these responsibilities if the hospital was going to attract the needed chief executive officer. "The problem with attracting talent here is that we cannot beat Bismarck on salary or bonuses. If we want to attract people, the hospital has to look like it's ready for the CEO to just sit down and run it. We also have to make their life here as comfortable as possible when they are not at work," Obenauer explained..By the end of 2010, the board hired a new CEO whose responsibilities quickly grew to include the competing clinic when its CEO resigned. Ultimately the competing clinic was closed; the three remaining facilities complement each other so there is no overlap in services or conflicts over funding. "By working together we have brought all the services we can to the community," Obenauer said..When asked how she was able to accomplish so much as a full-time banker and mother of three, Obenauer points to the example of her father, who served on the same hospital board from 1975 to 1982. "Giving back to the community has always been central for our family," Obenauer said. "Dad set that example for me."Other 2013 Rising Stars in Banking include:Chris Conrad, First Bank & Trust, Sioux Falls, S.D.Karen Brekke, Frandsen Bank & Trust, East Grand Forks, Minn.Ty Lucas, Nebraskaland National Bank, North Platte, Neb.James Klein, Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, Cedar Rapids, IowaKorey Schow, Bank of Keystone, Neb.Jeff Gilbert, Frontenac Bank, St. Charles, Mo.Matthew Howrey, North Salem State Bank, North Salem, Ind.