Silver Lake Daily Newsletter.com

Mark Wright has Healthcare Background in Accounting & Finance:

Wyom. Cty. Community Health System welcomes new Chief Financial Officer

• By MALLORY DIEFENBACH, mdiefenbach@batavianews.com

MARK WRIGHT

The Wyoming County Community Health System has  announced  Mark  Wright  as  its  new  chief  financial officer. Wright joined the WCCHS yesterday, Monday. Officials  said  he  has  extensive healthcare leadership  experience  with  more  than  30  years  in  healthcare finance.

Most recently, he had served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer for Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, a position he held since August 2019.

Wright served prior to that as vice president of finance for A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta for 22 years. He was also controller at St. Joseph Hospital in Elmira and director of finance at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt.

Wright was born and raised in the Catskill region near Oneonta. He holds a bachelors degree in business administration from Siena College in Albany.

Following his graduation from Siena, he joined the accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand in Albany, during which time he obtained his Certified Public Accountant license.

“We welcome Mark’s arrival to WCCHS and are excited about the experience and financial expertise he brings to the health system,” said Chief Executive Officer David Kobis of the WCCHS in a statement. “Mark has deep roots in rural hospitals and healthcare, knows the Western New York market well, and will help the organization transition through the end of the pandemic.”

The WCCHS is facing significant financial challenges.

Wright will be coming in to a hospital which had nearly $7 million in losses through April 30. The interim CFO Merlyn Knapp told the WCCHS Board of Managers Finance Committee last month that there needs to be more money to keep the hospital going.

If WCCHS does nothing, problems will worsen in August, when operational funds would likely go into the negatives, Knapp said at the time. From there, the situation would build itself up to a deficit of more than $3 million by the end of the year.

Payroll is $1.5 million of the operating funds.

The WCCHS includes the 62-bed Wyoming County Community hospital, the adjacent 138-bed Skilled Nursing Facility, and outpatient offices in Arcade, Attica, Castile, Perry, Warsaw and Mt. Morris.