Dateline: March 13, 2003

Hospital board takes no action on administrator

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The Donley County Hospital Board took no action last Friday night regarding the position of District Administrator Alan Graham.

The administrator was arrested March 2 and charged with Driving While Intoxicated while he was driving one of the district’s ambulances in response to an accident.

The hospital board met for 2½ hours in closed session, speaking one at a time to Graham, department heads, and district employees about the situation.

After the closed session, board president Don Thornberry said the board will await an evaluation of the incident by the Texas Department of Health and said the legal charge must be given time to work through the judicial system. He also stated the board will be reviewing all board policies and will implement any warranted changes.

The health department’s investigation is expected to take about two weeks.

Graham resigned as a volunteer driver for the ambulance authority following the incident and has said he doesn’t want the incident to cast a bad light on the service given by the local paramedics and EMTs.

Meanwhile, several employees of the Medical Center Nursing Home, while not condoning the incident, have expressed a desire for Graham to be kept on as administrator of the hospital district.