An Important Opportunity for Change at Richmond Clinic

The employees of OHSU’s Richmond Clinic have a well-documented history of speaking out against racism, discrimination, favoritism and the silencing of employees who raise these concerns. Despite years of advocacy from employees and a variety of direct actions, including a rally, an unsuccessful attempt to meet with Dr. Jacobs and a public forum, many of these issues remain unaddressed. Some progress to support meaningful change has been made, however: specific leaders have left the clinic and an external consultant specializing in DEI and culture-change work has engaged with the Richmond leadership team. 

Richmond Clinic is a federally qualified health center, meaning that the clinic is designated by the government to provide primary-care services in underserved areas. As an FQHC, Richmond Clinic offers health care to anyone, regardless of their insurance status, income, background or ability to pay. This also means that staff at Richmond are strongly mission driven and always work together to support FQHC core values, which center on partnering with communities that have been systematically marginalized and oppressed. With these roots in advocacy, many staff are vocal proponents of deep cultural change at Richmond, despite being silenced, ignored and at risk of retaliation. 

Richmond Clinic is currently in the final stages of hiring its next executive director. A change in the executive-director role is a rare opportunity to course-correct — to improve clinic culture and create a more equitable and just workplace — and the opportunity must be seized. Unfortunately, the hiring process thus far has been rife with missed opportunities and misalignment with staff and patient needs, perpetuating the culture of silencing we’ve seen over the years at Richmond. 

Richmond staff — including a majority of clinic leadership, who are also deeply invested in hiring the right person for this role — were not included in the hiring process (other than being asked to complete a short, thoughtless survey that included oppressive language) until the final stage of interviews. On Monday, Jan. 9, staff-led workgroups collaboratively sent a letter to the Richmond Clinic board of directors, Department of Family Medicine leadership and OHSU Human Resources to express concern over the lack of staff involvement and the hiring committee's awareness of Richmond's needs in its next executive director. Staff had to prompt the recipients for a response, receiving only piecemeal communication and off-the-record attempts to silence a leader of the staff groups — ultimately only receiving a full response to staff’s requests after the final interviews were complete, on Friday, Feb. 3. 

Of the staff who were fortunate enough to attend the executive-director interviews, many reported being unsatisfied with the candidate pool. Out of 80+ applicants, two of the candidates who advanced to the final stage of interviews appeared to not meet the position description’s minimum requirements, including having no experience working in FQHCs, a vital element to adeptly fulfill the role. This left only two candidates who met minimum qualifications, one of whom withdrew from consideration. Having one qualified candidate does not constitute a true choice, and Richmond Clinic patients and staff deserve a robust pool of well-qualified applicants from which to choose the clinic’s next executive director. Many staff raised this concern, and on Friday, Feb. 3, sent another message to Richmond's board, Family Medicine leadership and HR, demanding that a hiring decision not be made until there is more than one well-qualified candidate to consider. 

Without a staff-informed, anti-racist, equitable process for hiring its next executive director, Richmond is destined to perpetuate the same pain and trauma its staff have experienced over the years. This crucial hire is a unique and timely opportunity for the Richmond board of directors, Family Medicine leaders and HR to hear staff and work collaboratively to find the right candidate for this role. In their most recent message, the two staff-led workgroups outlined a variety of recommendations, including a demand that the Richmond Clinic board of directors return to the original applicant pool of 80+ individuals and involve multiple Richmond staff members in the hiring process from the beginning.

It is crucial that every executive-director candidate who moves past the initial screening meets all the requirements outlined in the position description, particularly centering FQHC experience. Ultimately, it is the Richmond Clinic’s board of directors that has the authority in making this decision, aided by Family Medicine and HR, but clinic patients and staff deserve a hiring process that is trauma informed, anti-racist and centered on lived experience — the same principles that guide our clinical practice. There are subject-matter experts at the board’s disposal: Richmond clinic staff! They are ready and willing to engage in the hiring process and hold a wealth of knowledge to help ensure a hiring decision that sets the clinic up for success and healing. 

You can help our coworkers at the Richmond Clinic by emailing HR and telling them you support clinic staff’s demand to return to the executive-director applicant pool and recruit for the role by intentionally involving multiple clinic staff — from a variety of workgroups, experience and relative “rank” — in the hiring process from the beginning.