McKee names infectious disease specialist as latest interim state health director. What to know.

PROVIDENCE - Gov. Dan McKee is in the "final stages of the hiring process" for a permanent new state health director, but on Thursday he named Dr. Staci Fischer – the former director of Transplant Infectious Diseases and Graduate Medical Education at Rhode Island Hospital – as the interim director.

The appointment comes days before the March 29 retirement of interim Health Director Utpala Bandy, the latest in a series of interim directors since the last permanent director, Nicole Alexander-Scott, and her deputy, Thomas McCarthy, resigned more than two years ago.

Bandy had previously been the director of the department's Division of Preparedness, Response, Infectious Disease, and Emergency Medical Services, with a central role in the state's Covid-19 response.

Will Dr. Staci Fischer be the permanent health director?

Fischer has most recently held the $207,136 title "chief administrative officer" of the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. She also serves as one of the medical directors within the Rhode Island Department of Health.

At that salary, she makes more than the $175,000 base salary that the health director's job currently pays. But that is changing. Barring an unexpected legislative veto, McKee's bid to raise the base pay for the health director's job by $75,000 to $250,000 a year will take effect in about a month.

It does not appear; however, that Fischer, despite her impressive resume, has the required credentials, wants the job on a permanent basis, or that McKee has ended his search for a new health director.

"While we move through the final stages of the hiring process for a permanent RIDOH director, Governor McKee is appointing Dr. Staci Fischer as acting director," McKee spokeswoman Olivia DaRocha told The Journal, in response to inquiries.

Under state law, the new health director must be "a physician graduated by an acceptable medical college." The person must also have at least one year of graduate-level instruction in public health, "as evidenced by a certificate of graduation or a degree in public health," or board certification in a medical specialty, and at least five years' full-time experience in health administration.

Before going to work for the state, Fischer practiced at Rhode Island Hospital for 15 years and has vast experience in healthcare quality and safety and academic medicine, according to a statement by McKee's office.

She "oversaw the training of medical residents and fellows for Lifespan in a prior capacity as the Director of Graduate Medical Education, and was the Director of the Infectious Disease Fellowship Program at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She also held positions with the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education and is board-certified in infectious diseases."

It is unclear what, if anything, came out of the panel of local health-care professionals McKee named to help him select both an interim and a permanent director of the Rhode Island Department of Health after both Alexander-Scott and her deputy resigned in early 2022.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Dr. Staci Fischer will be the interim RI health director