Mentoring the next generation of hospital leaders

by Raymond Hino I was recently contacted by a young man with a very impressive background. He has his bachelor's degree in political science and two master's degrees. The first is an MBA and the second is a master's degree in public health from UCLA. He also is a former White House intern and congressional intern. He's working as a quality improvement consultant for a large hospital within one of the largest proprietary healthcare systems in the country. I was extremely flattered when he reached out to me and asked for an hour of my time to learn about my journey to become an experienced CEO in a community hospital in a rural setting. He felt pulled towards the challenges and rewards of rural healthcare. As it turned out, his timing was excellent as I had an opportunity to demonstrate first-hand, how I value the importance of executives that remain "grounded" in their organizations. This was the day that I had chosen to spend the entire day working in our emergency department side-by-side with our excellent crew of doctors, nurses, technicians and patient registration personnel. I am not a clinician by background so I choose to spend time each month working as a gopher or doing whatever is necessary to help our staff provide excellent quality care, while I also am observing how the team works. I was able to relate to the young man that I believe the key to my success has been in making the extra effort to meet and know key stakeholders on their turf, and developi...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs