Cathy Conant, Eastern Plumas Health Care’s Director of Human Resources, is retiring after 34 years. But, this sentence does little to impart the true meaning of Cathy’s presence at the hospital all these years. As CEO Tom Hayes will tell you, “Cathy’s loyalty to this organization is second to none.” For a third of a century, Cathy has believed that it’s her duty to be a “caregiver” for this hospital, its staff, and its patients. “You don’t find healthcare, she said, “it finds you. There’s something about the honor of caring for another that goes beyond a job description.”
Since 1995, Cathy has been the face of human resources. Back in May 1972 at age 22, however, she started off in the business office, and she was also an admitting clerk. Cathy left the hospital temporarily when she had her first child, as she didn’t want full time work away from home. So, for 2 ½ years, she worked at the Portola Reporter, working up from a few hours of writing to the position of editor.
In 1981, Cathy said, the hospital called and asked her if she’d come back and do billing on an on call basis. By March of 1983, however, they convinced her to come back full time as a biller. She loved billing, she said, because she was working hard to get insurance companies to pay patients’ claims. In fact, of all the positions she’s held over the years, Cathy said billing was her favorite. “It wasn’t always easy, but there was a great sense of satisfaction …directly helping patients get their claims paid and resolving issues for them. And, I was good at that.”
She went on to become business office supervisor and then manager. For a short time, in 1991 – 92, she helped manage the Portola Clinic, and then in 1994, she returned to administration. She was a jack of all trades, doing staff credentialing, public relations, and whatever other administrative duties were asked of her. “I was really just happy to serve. Wherever they put me I tried to do my best…and I learned along the way.”
Then, in 1995, she “became HR.” That is, she stepped in to head what was then a department of one. Cathy said she felt she’d come full circle, because her first job out of college was at a hospital in West Covina in human resources.
She’s been in HR for the past nineteen years. In 2004, she became a Director, which means she is part of the strategy group of four to five who, along with the CEO, steer the course of the hospital.
Over the years, Cathy’s job and the organization have seen a lot of changes. And, somewhere along the line, what was initially just a job became recognized as a vocation. This is the truth underlying Cathy’s long tenure at EPHC. It has been something she’s felt called to, and she takes that calling very seriously. “My attitude toward EPHC is one of stewardship. EPHC is not something that was mine or belonged to me, but I came to see myself as a steward. As [Director of] HR, I advocated both for the employee and for the organization because each without the other cannot survive.”
It’s this sense of unswerving loyalty that underlies everything Cathy has ever done or hoped to accomplish at EPHC. And it will be her legacy when she retires—a sense of caring for this organization, combined with an integrity that means she’s sometimes had to protect the hospital from serious harm. “I wouldn’t let something go that was detrimental—whether that be a process or a person,” she said. This included letting the Board of Directors know when something was going very wrong as she did on at least one occasion years ago.
Growing up in a military family with both parents serving in the Marine Corp gave Cathy an “understanding of what it is to be loyal and to serve.” It was an easy transition for her to take those same values on board when she embarked on her EPHC career. “This organization, for me, was where I grew up. I learned the good qualities of the Auxiliary—their dedication and commitment to community, their code of service. I looked at nurses who’ve stayed for decades and physicians who have come to make their homes in our community in order to serve our patients. I knew how important EPHC was for our community. I wanted, as much as I was able, to be its caretaker, to look out for it.”
Cathy has seen a lot of change during her tenure here—buildings built, services expanded in Portola, clinics added in Loyalton and Indian Valley, as well as two skilled nursing facilities, expanded ambulance services, and more. Since she’s helmed human resources, the staff has grown from just under 100 to 250 employees. The additional staff and, more than that, the maze of state and federal regulations, has seen her department grow and her duties multiply in complexity.
In addition, she’s managed to survive working for fourteen CEOs. She credits Charles Guenther, CEO here for fourteen years, for teaching her “HR processes.” Of current CEO, Tom Hayes, Conant is highly complimentary. “He’s by far the nicest CEO I’ve ever worked for, and the most effective. He’s very good for this organization…I wish our paths had crossed sooner.”
Though this hospital has indeed been Cathy’s life in many ways, she is ready now for retirement. She and her husband, George, who retired from the railroad seven years ago, finally will have time to take the little Airstream trailer they bought out on camping and fishing trips. They also have plans to visit their children and grandchildren in Japan and Illinois. Cathy also loves quilting and combines her love of art and story in the quilts she creates. She also hopes to get involved in the local historical society.
Her personal history seems as dedicated to steadfastness as does her work career. She met her husband, George, when they were in seventh grade in Southern California after Cathy’s father retired from Camp Pendleton. George was born in Portola and moved to Southern California when his father took a job with Southern California Edison. He and Cathy met again at La Puente High School and started dating their senior year. Their first date, she said, was a golf date. They both graduated from California State College, Los Angeles, in the Fall of 1969, where they played for the golf teams. In Janary of 1970, they were married, and thirteen days later George got his draft notice. After his military stint, served in Alabama, they returned to California and moved to Portola, George’s home town.
Because she had grown up in a military family, Cathy said she “lived with stickers on everything all my life.” She’d never felt like any place was home, which it turns out was something she longed for. “I didn’t feel like I came home until we drove into Portola,” Cathy said. “The sense of homecoming was wonderful—because I hadn’t had it. A small town just made sense. … I became a part of something when I came to Portola—at EPHC and in this community.”
She said that people ask if they’ll move when they retire, but it has never even occurred to them. “This is our home. You can’t trade that feeling for anything.”
That strong sense of home and family compliments her unflagging sense of loyalty; these things have shaped Cathy’s perspective. When asked for parting words of advice, she said, “Don’t forget that we’re family and we’re a team, and when times get tough, we just need to turn to one another for greater support.” She added that even though she’s retiring, she plans to “hover.” “There are relationships I hope to keep. This is my second family. I can’t think about walking away from everybody, and I’m going to continue to support the hospital and the people here in any way I can.”
In summing up her 34 year career, Cathy had this to say: “Healthcare finds you, because you find a truth within yourself…there are certain people who are just natural caregivers, and everyone who works in healthcare is a caregiver—serves the patient and serves the mission of healing. And I didn’t know that I would find that within this organization and within myself. I’m grateful that I found this path.”