Spring 2014
How has your career led you to Children’s? My family and I lived in Atlanta from 1994 to 2007. I was previously
How is working at Children’s different from other organizations?
a senior executive at BellSouth, and after AT&T acquired BellSouth,
We are very mission driven, meaning we are service oriented, and
I was transferred to the Northeast to run the east region for AT&T.
we try to spend dollars in as prudent a manner as possible. Every
I had been interested in healthcare and had an opportunity to
company likes to think it is mission driven, but there’s no greater
be a COO of a Fortune 500 healthcare company in Tampa, Fla.
mission than that of Children’s. In fact, I remember finishing an
I then had a chance to serve as COO of a private-equity-owned
end-of-year budget meeting in December and like many end-of-
benefit management company that was striving to be at the
year budget meetings, I was a little worn out. After leaving the
forefront of home health management and post-hospital discharge
meeting and walking down the hallway at Egleston hospital, I saw
coordination of services.
all the children. Seeing our patients lined up to meet Santa Claus
I was contacted about the Children’s opportunity, and it was a great chance to return to Atlanta, which is a wonderful community.
put everything in perspective and reminded me of why we are all here working at Children’s.
I had been familiar with Children’s through BellSouth executives
I also think the quality and dedication of the employees here
who are on the Board, and I knew people whose children had
and their focus on the mission makes Children’s unique. We
been treated here, so I had a lot of respect for the organization
have employees who are highly skilled, motivated, incredibly
and the mission. I think it’s an exciting part of healthcare delivery,
giving, with strong service orientation. All of these attributes
as opposed to the payor side or the benefit management side. It
make it a pleasure to interact with them. No one questions why
was a great alignment of opportunities to serve an organization
we’re here. We just see the benefit of helping these children.
with an incredible mission and a tremendous history. The focus on healthcare delivery is so critical to saving the lives of children, in addition to helping America compete in the 21st century.
What is your role at Children’s? I’m responsible for the smooth operations of our three hospitals and 20 neighborhood locations, ensuring that our patients and their families have a high-quality experience. That includes managing the multiple service lines and resources that Children’s offers to make sure they’re meeting the patients’ expectations— and to make sure we’re financially viable. My role is to work with the entire team to ensure that we deliver the best care for every individual child who interacts with Children’s. In addition, my role is uniquely focused on making sure that we manage costs and deliver those services so that every dollar that we receive—whether from a donor or another source—is used with the child as the focus.
What do you think donors should know about Children’s? The first thing is that we put children first. The clinical outcome, their recovery and their maintenance of long-term health is the No. 1 priority and is everything we think about. Amid the evolution of healthcare, the funding sources to help all children are going to continue to be constrained, and in that environment, philanthropy becomes even more important. I think our desire to serve a broader set of children is really exciting. We will continue to distinguish ourselves through programs such as cardiac services, hematology/oncology and others that are saving lives daily. At the same time we are developing plans to help more children with less critical needs through our ambulatory locations. And I think the application of cutting-edge research at Marcus Autism Center is incredibly exciting. We all know a family who has been affected by some
Also, with the increasing complexity of healthcare and our
of those life challenges, and Children’s will continue to play an
healthcare delivery system and the stresses being placed
important role in trying to minimize and mitigate those challenges
on families in those situations, it is my job to ensure that
so that every child can live a long and fulfilling life.
coordination occurs across all of the resources that affect children and their families. I want to make sure that resources are well coordinated so that every child gets great care and every dollar is spent appropriately.
13