MELANEE TIURA

LAURIUM — Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital and Clinics have announced a new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Melanee Tiura, a Lake Linden native who has an extensive background in medical practices and healthcare leadership in the Keweenaw and Alaska. Tiura began her duties as CAO on June 2 after overseeing Providence Valdez Medical Center in Valdez, Alaska as the Hospital Administrator.

Tiura earned her education in Michigan, receiving her undergrad in clinical dietetics from Northern Michigan University, a master’s human nutrition from Eastern Michigan University, and a doctorate in health administration from Central Michigan University.

Tiura began her healthcare career in 1997 as a clinical dietitian and certified diabetes educator. She worked clinically for 12 years at Portage Hospital before it became a part U.P. Health Systems. There she conducted inpatient and outpatient work along with community programing, dialysis and long-term care. Tiura said the educational aspect of the job was something she greatly enjoyed. “So I think it was really good for me, it was a really good learning environment for how to deliver healthcare in a variety of settings, and I loved health and nutrition and seeing people come to better health really is my passion.”

When her husband Brian wanted to practice ministry in a more rural area, that took the couple and their children to Alaska in 2010 where Tiura worked as a Health Education Director of a tribal facility which served 34 villages. Most of these locations were only accessible by plane or boat. Tiura said this experience taught her how to deliver services to rural communities and overcome the logistical challenges. Along with learning how to work in a remote setting, Tiura expanded her knowledge beyond nutrition with other health programs. “I was promoted into a division manager quite quickly, and so I was then expanding into areas like behavioral health through a residential substance use disorder treatment center, a dental program, and again, with that same challenge of how do we deliver great services in small communities with all of the logistical challenges that went along with it,” Tiura said.

She would be called back to the Copper Country at U.P. Health System Portage to work as the director of physician services for five years. During her time in this position, Tiura managed the multi-specialty clinics and a division of hospital services. She said she built some additional specialties while at Portage and during that time she earned a doctorate in healthcare administration. She completed it in 2018 and was seeking a CEO position, and once again was brought to Alaska. This time her workplace was the Aleutian Islands. During that time the COVID-19 pandemic occurred.

“We were at an international fishing port and on an island with limited resources. So similar challenges; it’s just kind of rural on steroids. Very rural, very limited. Our resources were few, and yet we had boats, commercial vessels of positive COVID [cases], which made the papers. That’s not news to anybody, but we had some really big outbreaks and were managing those. And I think in those years, the value of collaboration within a community, it never hit me so hard that we need each other, and so working with our fire department and EMS service working with our city, so I think those relationships helped us in that community to really do incredible things.”

Tiura would then transfer to Vadlez where she and her family could access the road system in Alaska. She said her children were reaching college age and needing access to certain programs, which sparked the move. Tiura served there as the Hospital Administrator until being hired by Aspirus. Tiura and her family have always kept a house in the Keweenaw and she said her children would always want to return for vacations while they lived in Alaska, so the move back is a familiar one. Tiura said she has nothing but love for the U.P., and believes she will be a benefit to the area with her experiences running rural medical facilities.

“We are very rural. We’re far from a lot of things. And so I would say that recruitment can be challenging, especially when we’re looking at certain specialties, certain technical skill sets. It’s a challenge. If you’re not from the U.P., that can seem really far from home. So I would say that’s a logistical challenge, but once people get here, they love it, and so I would say recruitment, for me over the years, has really gone quite well in the U.P.,” Tiura said.

Tiura said the nation has seen challenges recently citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the current financial hardships. She said closures of medical facilities in the U.P. is a challenge along with the nationwide increase in healthcare services. She explained there are challenges with reimbursement regarding billing insurances and high denial rates. Tiura said insurance rules continue to change and each patient’s insurance can have different rules and multiple plans. She said this is where her efforts come in to ry to help patients get the services they need, but to also get them covered by their insurances.

“So we work really hard to make sure those claims get paid by those payers for the sake of our patients. And so that requires a lot of work, and it takes a lot of time. So the time from a service to to us being paid for the services can be very extensive,” Tiura said. “So we work really hard to make sure those claims get paid by those payers for the sake of our patients. And so that requires a lot of work, and it takes a lot of time. So the time from a service to us being paid for the services can be very extensive.”

Tiura said when a patient pays for a service, they expect excellence and she believes Aspirus delivers on that. “Our patient satisfaction scores are fantastic. We’re doing a really good job, and that that does my my heart good when I go from department to department,” she said. “I’m only two weeks in, but so far I’ve been just really pleased with with how warm and kind and compassionate our team is, and they’re really dedicated to meeting the needs of patients.”

Tiura also expressed excitement regarding the recent expansion of the hospital and Houghton clinic. She said she sees the expansion of the facilities as part of assessing what the community needs, and the extensions will allow for increased specialties and increased primary care. While Tiura was not present for the planning of the expansions, she sees them as a significant need especially with an expanded pharmacy.

“The mission of Aspirus is ‘we heal people, promote health and strengthen communities.’ I couldn’t have said it better. That’s what I went into healthcare for. I have loved to see people come to better health, whether it’s managing their lipids, or assisting with coming to better health with an eating disorder. There’s so many complex medical situations that people have and to see them come to a healthier place, and even in the prevention realm, right when you’re giving outreach and education programming to help support good health.”