911

Chapter 2 of Healing A Hospital

by David Herdlinger

On a warm day in January 2001, unseasonably warm even for south coastal Georgia, an unshaven man in a T-shirt and shorts entered the front door of the Southeast Georgia Regional Medical Center in Brunswick. He reached to take an informational flyer from the "Take Me" rack, but it was empty.

The visitor walked across the lobby and proceeded down a hallway, entering areas where he should not have been permitted to go. Finally, a nurse approached him. "May I help you?"

"I'm from out of town and I'm contemplating a move to this area," replied the stranger. "Can you tell me what kind of healthcare is available for my family? What's this hospital like?"

The mysterious man was Gary R. Colberg. That morning he had flown into Jacksonville, Florida, from Birmingham, Alabama, rented a car, and driven an hour north to Brunswick. Tomorrow the hospital's board of directors would interview him for the job of president and CEO. Gary regarded interviews as two-way conversations, and he had come a day early to do his homework.

Colberg had not been actively searching for a job. He was satisfied and successful as the senior vice president of Eastern Health System in Birmingham, where he served as the chief executive officer of its flagship 365-bed hospital. But when a leading executive search firm called him about the opportunity in Brunswick, he decided to at least check it out. He had emerged as one of five front-runners from an initial pool of several hundred applicants.

Gary likes to tell people he's from the South. He is…sort of. He's from south Jersey. He graduated from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he played football. After six surgeries on his knees, he decided he'd rather be on the other side of the medical relationship. He entered the healthcare field as a unit manager of a hospital.

Over a ten-year span, Colberg served in two different hospitals in Williamsport, advancing rapidly from unit manager to materials manager to director of primary care to vice president of outpatient care. While working full time, he earned a Masters in Community Health Administration from Vermont College / Norwich University in Montpelier, Vermont.

In 1986, Methodist Evangelical Hospital convinced Gary to move to Louisville, Kentucky, to become vice president of professional services. Within four years he had become the hospital's chief operating officer.

In 1990, Colberg moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, to become the chief operating officer of the Ohio Valley Medical Center. In 1992, he was lured back to Louisville to become the vice president of the Jewish Hospital Health Care System, with its 300-bed flagship hospital. He served there ten years, eventually becoming chief executive officer, before moving to Birmingham in 2000.

Colberg's twenty-five years in healthcare had been busy. So busy, in fact, he didn't even know before the search firm called him that Georgia bordered the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a day before his interview, he was on a steep learning curve.

Over the next couple of hours, Gary asked the same open-ended questions to six other hospital employees. He noted that they frequently began their answers with the words "our hospital." That was encouraging evidence of loyalty.

But, alarmingly, the employees ended virtually every sentence with something negative.

"Our hospital is short staffed."

"Our hospital's equipment isn't up to date and a lot of it doesn't work."

"Our hospital doesn't have enough doctors."

The employees talked freely about the hospital's numerous problems - too freely, considering Colberg was a total stranger.

Later that evening Gary visited two local grocery stores and questioned random shoppers. A picture emerged of a hospital in need of leadership. He had learned from experience that seemingly little things, such as empty literature racks, indicate more significant issues are probably being overlooked. Now his talks with employees and citizens confirmed this. At his interview tomorrow he'd share his observations with the board. Whether they hired him or not, they should know these things.

But he'd also encourage them. He'd tell the board that he thought the medical center had loyal employees and tremendous potential. And he'd commend them for initiating a nationwide search for a new CEO. They were on the right track. They recognized that they had a medical emergency and they had called 911.

"We interviewed several candidates," recounted board member Tim Chandler, "and Gary clearly emerged as the frontrunner. The whole board came together; the vote was unanimous. We hired him and gave him the authority to do what was needed to turn the hospital around."