PCHC Hires Malta Grad as CEO

Earlier this month, the Phillips County Hospital and Family Health Clinic hired Jo Tharp, a 2005 graduate of Malta High School as their newest CEO.

Tharp is the daughter of Mac McGinty and Willie McGinty, who is the Head Teacher at Malta's Head Start. Tharp now joins her sister Skye McGinty in becoming a CEO. McGinty is CEO of Indian Health Services in Missoula. Both Tharp and McGinty are enrolled members of the Little Shell Tribe.

She is married to Rhei Tharp and the couple has four children Mackayla, Blake, Kaiden, and Mira. Jo and Rhei will celebrate ten years of marriage in December.

"It feels good," Tharp said about becoming CEO. "It has kind of been a whirlwind going from doing Clinic Manager duties one day to going Interim CEO, the next. There is a lot of change within that but the team that I have and their support has made a big difference. I couldn't have done it without them for sure."

Tharp's hiring as CEO was made official on Thursday, November 3, after having served as Interim CEO since Thursday, September 15. The board decided to install Tharp in the interim capacity since former PCHC CEO Andrew Riggin was placed on administrative leave. Riggin no longer works at PCHC.

Tharp was asked about the current state of PCHC and about what she wants to focus on.

"We are continuing to provide rural frontier healthcare as we have been doing," Tharp said.

She also said that they are continuing to work on projects that they have started in the last calendar year. Many of the goals on PCHC's list are to expand on Healthcare options for locals.

"A major focus within the last couple of years has been to get more services to Phillips County so that our patients aren't having to travel long distances because I know that's hard," Tharp said. "We are always looking at avenues and working with other facilities in terms of what they can provide."

Tharp's hire as CEO from her interim position was unanimously approved by the PCHC Board of Directors. The Phillips County Hospital's Board of Directors consist of Board Chairwoman Susy Johnson, Vice-Chairman Rick Starkey, Dina Meneely, Sharon Young, and PCH's newest members are Howie Hammond, Shonda Jenkins, Melissa Moog, Craig French and Lance Hould.

Tharp originally moved to Malta during her eighth grade year and graduated from Malta High School in 2005.

"It's kind of neat because I went to school with a lot of the leadership team," Tharp said.

She went to MSU-Bozeman for one year before transferring to MSU-Northern in Havre. After two years at MSU-Northern, Tharp started a family. She continued her education online in 2017 after moving back to Malta in 2015.

At one point, Tharp was working full time, going to school full-time, raising a family, and taking EMT training courses. She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Administration in 2019 from MSU-Northern.

She was asked how it felt to be back in Malta in 2015.

"It felt good. When I first moved back to Malta, it was because I wanted to be back home," Tharp said. "I wanted to be closer to family. We were living in the Havre area and that was too far away with having four kids. We wanted to be closer to the grandparents and great-grandparents."

Her first job after moving back to Malta was at Hi-Line Retirement Center. Later in the year, she would work at Valley View Nursing Home in Glasgow with the job promotion as a Social Services Director.

"That was a lot of traveling, especially during the winter," Tharp said. "I wanted more family time. So I looked for a job in Malta."

In 2017, Tharp was hired as the Ward Clerk at PCHC. At the time, it was a brand new position.

"They had not had a Ward Clerk before," Tharp said. "That was mostly clerical work in the Clinic."

She became a CNA in late 2018 and then was named Clinic Manager at the end of 2020, the infamous year in which COVID-19 became the primary focus of medical facilities around the world. Though most of the world was directly affected earlier in 2020. Malta didn't see many of the affects until later in the year.

"That was a really challenging time for the facility because there were new guidelines coming out from the CDC almost daily," Tharp said. "During that time, it was about keeping your staff informed. It was working with infection control. There were a lot of moving parts at that time, but I think what helped us was communicating with each other, trying to come up with plans that would take care of our employees as well as our patients."

She also pointed out that a lot of changes were made at the clinic that included screening procedures and pre-planning for patient arrival.

"It was a lot of juggling during that time," Tharp said. "It wasn't just us. It was throughout the nation, just the frustration of having to change things. But we got through it."

The PCHC facility has recently lifted their mandatory mask requirement, which had been in effect for the past two years, and Tharp said that it is nice to see people smile again, as well as see the new faces they haven't been able to see.

"We had new patients here but we didn't know what they actually looked like for the longest time, we could only see their eyes," Tharp said.

Tharp was asked what it meant to be at the forefront of Healthcare in her hometown.

"I've always been one for trying to make a difference," Tharp said. "Learning as much as I can. If I don't know how to do something then I will find out how to do it and do it to the best of my ability so that I can make a difference with any community."

Tharp said that is why she also served as an Emergency Medical Technician member (EMT), though she isn't able to serve the Phillips County Emergency Medical Service given her new position. Her husband Rhei Tharp served as EMS Coordinator for two years.