Profile: Michael Girone

New position: Interim chief executive, Edward White Hospital, St. Petersburg

Previous position: Interim CEO, West Florida Hospital, Pensacola

Michael Girone, who retired in 1997, is making a new career of unretiring for four to six months at a time to fill in as interim chief executive at hospitals across the United States.

His two decades in hospital administration have made him a key substitute to lead hospitals as they seek a new permanent CEO. Girone began Oct. 28 as interim CEO at Edward White Hospital, his 11th interim CEO position since "retiring."

"Hospitals are run with meetings," he said. Girone said his job is "taking care of the daily business, working very closely with assistants, the COO, CFO and chief nursing officer -- senior management." At Edward White, that means overseeing approximately 300 employees.

All of the hospitals where Girone fills in are part of the HCA network, which has 185 hospitals throughout the United States and in England and Switzerland. HCA is an $18-billion-a-year company with corporate headquarters in Nashville.So far, all of Girone's assignments have been in the United States, including stints at Bartow Memorial, Fawcett Memorial in Port Charlotte, East Pointe Hospital in Lehigh Acres, Tallahassee Community Hospital and West Florida Hospital in Pensacola.

Girone, 70, retired in 1997 as CEO of an HCA hospital in Raleigh, N.C. "It was time," he said, laughing. "I didn't want to embarrass the company by having a CEO on Medicare."

There have been a few downsides to his role as interim CEO. The first several assignments were at hospitals in New Hampshire and Ohio -- in the winter. The first request, Girone said, "came out of the blue. It wasn't in my plans." But he has quickly adapted to the lifestyle.

For the four to six months Girone acts as a hospital's interim CEO, he also helps the hospital find a permanent chief executive and stays for two to three days as the new CEO gets settled, he said.

Each time, after a permanent CEO is found and installed, Girone goes home and awaits the next call. "If they don't call," he said, "then I'm truly unemployed. If they do call, I've got some diversion from retirement.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for me," he said. "It's fun."

Girone said he enjoys partial retirement. "It's enough to get me out of the house and learn how to retire," he said.

Girone earned a bachelor's degree in management from the University of Maryland in 1962, followed by an MBA, also at the University of Maryland, in 1964. He went on to receive a master's degree in hospital administration from Baylor University in 1966. He is a life fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

He also spent 26 years in the Army, in hospital construction and administration, retiring as a full colonel in 1978. For example, Girone oversaw the construction of a 400-bed hospital for U.S. personnel and their dependents in Italy. He joined HCA two years after leaving the military.

Girone said he has always enjoyed hospital administration: "It's a people business. Everything we do, we're very, very much in contact with people, be it our staff, our medical staff, our patients, their families. There's a great, great sense of personal satisfaction working with people, helping them get better or being part of giving them a good job and keeping them motivated," he said.

As a hospital administrator, whether interim or full time, Girone said, he "always must be aware of the working conditions, of competitive salaries, realizing we're in a business (where) finding good employees is difficult due to nursing shortages, technical shortages. . . . We're competing for very tight skills."

Girone and his wife, Margaret, have four children and nine grandchildren. Their home is in Wilmington, N.C., "right on the coast," and Girone said he manages to get home every other weekend.

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