Please join Harney District Hospital (HDH) and HDH Family Care clinic in welcoming Dr. Linda Selby.

Dr. Selby, who joined the team on March 13, will serve as the new Chief Medical Officer (CMO). This is a brand-new role for the hospital and clinic. As the CMO, Dr. Selby will split her time between seeing patients at HDH Family Care and serving as an administrator for the health district.

As an administrator, Dr. Selby will act as a liaison between medical staff and administration. All hospital and clinic providers will report directly to her. She will provide medical oversight, expertise, and leadership to ensure that the health district continues to deliver affordable, safe, and high-quality healthcare services. Dr. Selby will also be responsible for collaborating with Chief Nursing Officer Elaine Wulff and Chief of Medical Staff Dr. Heidi Vanyo to develop and implement a comprehensive vision and strategy for the clinical aspects of the organization. Together, they will establish annual goals, performance targets, and metrics to maximize the organization’s culture of patient safety and quality.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Dr. Selby will care for patients at the clinic. As a family physician, she provides a wide range of medical services to a variety of patients, ranging in age from birth to end-of-life.

When asked what she would like the community to know about her practice, Dr. Selby replied, “I want to get to know my patients and their families and understand where they are coming from.”

Dr. Selby is especially passionate about caring for patients who have diabetes. Her brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 5 and died from the disease at the age of 45.

“I don’t want to see that happen to anyone else,” Dr. Selby said. “I want to do what’s right for them and with them,” she added, explaining that she pushes patients with diabetes to make healthy choices to help manage the disease.

Dr. Selby also completed a fellowship in sports medicine and will be working with Athletic Trainer Kaitlin Patterson to care for student athletes.

Originally, Dr. Selby planned to become a physical therapist. However, when she realized that it would take about the same amount of education to become a doctor, she decided to pursue family medicine. As a family physician, she is able to broaden her scope of practice, which keeps her engaged and interested.

Dr. Selby has practiced medicine for nearly 25 years and has been working in Prineville since 2002. This is where she met Tami Noble, who currently works as a registered nurse at Harney District Hospital.

When asked what drew her to Harney County, Dr. Selby laughed and said, “You can blame Tami. I worked with her when St. Charles Prineville was Pioneer Memorial Hospital. She was an Intensive Care Unit nurse over there, and she was the very best!”

The two reconnected when Tami organized a Pioneer Memorial Hospital reunion.

“At the time, I was finishing up my third term as president of medical staff at St. Charles Prineville, and I was looking for new leadership opportunities and ways to use my experience,” Dr. Selby said. “Harney District Hospital seemed like a good fit. My husband grew up in Lakeview and loves small towns, so he was totally on board.”

Dr. Selby’s husband, Bill, is retired from the Forest Service where he worked as a smokejumper. He also served as base manager for more than 10 years. Smokejumpers are specially trained wildland firefighters who parachute in to the site of a fire to perform initial attack. The Forest Service currently employs about 320 smokejumpers who work from seven bases located in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, and Washington.

Dr. Selby’s medical career has taken her all over the United States. She grew up in St. Louis, Mo., which is where she graduated from high school. During her senior year of high school, she completed a service project in Southern California and fell in love with the area. After high school, she moved across the country to attend California State University, Long Beach, earning an undergraduate degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. She then moved back to Missouri to attend medical school at the University of Missouri-Columbia before completing a residency in family medicine and a fellowship in sports medicine at Palmetto Richland Hospital/University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.

She spent the past 21 years working in Central Oregon, gaining extensive medical and leadership experience. She began her tenure as the president of medical staff at St. Charles Prineville in 2016. She also worked several shifts at St. Charles Redmond during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was the same hospital system, but a different environment,” Dr. Selby said. “I got to see what works better in different hospitals.”

Harney District Hospital is thrilled to welcome Dr. Selby aboard and excited to see how the hospital and its clinics will thrive under her leadership.

When she isn’t working, Dr. Selby can be found spending time with her husband, Bill; daughters, Samantha (age 13) and Savannah (age 9); and dogs, Max and Bonnie. The family enjoys gardening and hopes to put down roots at their new home in Burns.

Dr. Selby is now accepting new patients. Call HDH Family Care at 541-573-2074 to make an appointment.