Nancy Field chosen by Olympic Medical Center board to fill vacant seat

Published 5:00 pm Friday, March 6, 2026

After 2½ hours of public interviews, the Olympic Medical Center board of commissioners unanimously appointed Nancy Field to fill a vacant seat on the seven-member governing body.

The appointment on Wednesday, Feb. 25 fills the unexpired Position 3 term of commissioner John Nutter, who died Dec. 22.

Commissioners deliberated in executive session for just over an hour after interviewing the six applicants and then returned to open session to vote.

President Phil Giuntoli said selecting just one candidate from a strong applicant pool was challenging, and the board anticipated inviting those who were not appointed to perhaps contribute in other ways.

Field retired to Sequim in 2023 after a 40-year career in hospital and healthcare administration and consulting, including work with OMC, Evergreen Hospital and Medical Center, Mason General Hospital and Skagit Valley Hospital. She led strategic planning efforts for Providence Medical Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital, organized executive teams, developed performance metrics and guided long-term operational and financial planning.

“I bring experience with a wide range of providers, including the largest systems and some of the smallest rural hospitals, so I have a perspective that can help from both standpoints,” Field said.

“I’ve helped with a lot of the startup of a lot of new health care services and programs, but I’ve also been involved in budgeting and tracking performance to vision for some of the very large organizations.”

As for her role on the board, Field said she would emphasize pairing long-term planning with measurable performance data.

“You have to move from data to information,” she said. “Information is when you can look at the data and see if you’re making progress toward your stated goal.”

Field will be sworn in at the board’s March 4 meeting and immediately take her seat.

The other candidates for the position were Tara Coffin, Scott Fitzgerald, Laurie Force, Patrick Murphy and Gary Smith. Former board president Ann Marie Henninger, who had applied, withdrew from consideration.

Each candidate responded to the same set of 14 questions and was given time for opening and closing statements. Among the questions were why they applied for the position, skills relevant to the role, what the current board did well and areas for improvement, if they had any conflicts of interest and what they saw as the hospital’s greatest internal and external challenges.

Candidates consistently identified financial instability tied to a Medicare-heavy payer mix, workforce retention challenges — particularly among nurses — and rebuilding community trust as the most urgent issues facing OMC, and they described how they could contribute to address them, if appointed.

Board members emphasized that the role requires a substantial time commitment — including regular meetings, committee work and other responsibilities— and pressed candidates to demonstrate they could realistically meet those expectations.

Nutter’s term ran through December 2029. However, his seat will be on the general election ballot in 2027 to fill the remainder of his unexpired term.

Field said she would consider running.

Hospital commissioners are responsible for governance of the public hospital district and for adopting broad policies to ensure the delivery of quality, safe patient care. They may receive $161 per day for attending meetings and performing official duties, not to exceed $15,456 per year.