The Powell Valley Hospital board and CEO search committee are taking their time with finding a new hospital leader.

In my view, as someone who has made good and bad hires during my career, it’s the right course of action.

At its monthly meeting March 27, board of directors Vice President Chris Cox announced that the search committee was set to start a third round of searching for applicants after the second round ended with one of the two finalists dropping out for another opportunity, and the second being deemed not the right fit.

That round only occurred because in the first round, the candidate the committee did want to hire wouldn’t agree to a salary in the range the hospital had offered, even though the candidate knew the range ahead of time, Cox said.

That first round included two other finalists, but as with the second round, the committee wasn’t 100% sold on either.

The committee clearly knows a valuable lesson that it took many years in management for me to learn: not just any candidate, even one well qualified and willing to take the job, is a good hire.

That’s especially true for a top leadership role. These are jobs where that applicant you pick may stick around for decades, which is exactly what you want if you’ve chosen the right candidate.

Cox, speaking on behalf of the board of trustees due to chair R.J. Kost being on vacation, said it’s well worth it to take the time to find the right CEO. His example? Beartooth Billings Clinic in Red Lodge went through several rounds of candidates to find the right choice.

While Powell may not be as small as Red Lodge, it’s still a community far away from a big city. We’re in a rural area, an area that gets bad wind, cold and snow, so it’s not for everybody. So even applicants from other areas who say they could handle it may not really know what they’re getting themselves in for.

Again, the goal is to find the right person for the job, not simply the most qualified candidate, because the next CEO of Powell’s hospital needs to, like retiring CEO Terry Odom, not just do good work, but stick around and embrace the community.

So, if finding someone with all that takes a little while, it’s almost certainly well worth it.