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HAY RIVER - After answering the call for help twice before when the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority needed an interim chief executive officer, Al Woods returned again late last year. However, Woods is planning to stay awhile this time.

After previous stints as interim CEO of the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority since 2004, Al Woods returned late last year and will be staying for at least 18 months. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"Now, I've come back for a minimum of 18 months," he said, adding he will be 65 years old at the end of that time and may stay longer if he feels he is still doing a good job. "I'm going to see what my energy level is like."

Woods answered the call for help at the Hay River health authority in 2004, in 2007 and again late last year, each time when a CEO left.

Woods is not sure why there has been such a turnover at the CEO position, adding the authority is a great organization with great staff.

"They need some stability here," he said of the CEO's position.

Woods, who is originally from Manitoba, has spent 20 years on and off in the NWT. Eighteen of those years were in Yellowknife, first as director of material management at the Stanton Territorial Health Authority, where he eventually became director of operations and then CEO.

In 1998, he moved to the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, where he was CEO.

For a year, he was CEO of both the Stanton and Yellowknife health authorities.

Woods retired in late 2003 and moved south.

However, in May of 2004 he received a phone call asking if he was interested in coming to Hay River.

"They were looking for an interim, not a permanent," he said.

His first time working in Hay River was supposed to be for three months, but turned out to be nine months and he said he enjoyed it.

"It worked out perfectly," he said. "I was actually finding retirement pretty boring."

Before returning to Hay River in late 2008, Woods was the public administrator at Stanton from March to December of last year.

Woods grew up next to Brandon General Hospital, where his mother was a nurse and his father operated the power plant.

"It was just kind of a natural connection," he said of his ties to the hospital, adding he worked in its laundry room during the summers when he was in high school.

When he finished school, he worked as a telephone lineman for 10 years.

When he was about 30, he returned to Brandon General Hospital to work in material management.

As a CEO in Hay River, Woods has a number of main duties.

"It's my responsibility to make sure the staff are qualified for their jobs. That's number one," he said.

Secondly, he makes sure staff members have the resources to do their jobs.

Along with a hospital and clinic, the health authority oversees such programs as social services, community counselling and victim services.

Woods faces a number of challenges as CEO of the health authority, which has operated under a public administrator for two years.

"The single biggest challenge is recruiting full-time physicians," he said, although he noted the health authority has an excellent group of locums - doctors who work in communities for short periods.

"I don't know what we would do without them."

Hay River has positions for six physicians, but currently has no permanent doctor. Instead, the community has three or four locums at a time.

Woods said the health authority will try to convince some of the locums to settle down in Hay River.

Another of his roles is helping to plan for a new hospital in five years or so.

Woods said his job requires a number of skills.

"You do have to be extremely organized," he said. "There's a lot of stuff going through here."

A CEO also needs an outgoing personality, he said. "You have to have the ability to bring the best out of people."

Woods said healthcare basically involves teamwork. "Nobody can do it alone, including the CEO."