Mickey Smith meets staffers and makes plans to ease tensions at Oak Hill Hospital.
By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published May 6, 2003
Mickey Smith has officially been on the job three days but has already logged a week's worth of work at Oak Hill Hospital.
A self-avowed "hospital junky," the new Oak Hill chief executive was at the hospital by 5 a.m. Friday, and returned over the weekend to talk with overnight and weekend staffers.
"They had a lot of suggestions. Unfortunately, most involved spending money," said Smith, 48, who is in the process of moving to the county from Augusta, Ga.
Smith is taking the helm of a hospital recently plagued by some financial strains. Oak Hill Hospital laid off 14 employees last month in an effort to better stick to its budget, which was squeezed by lower hospital admissions during the first quarter.
However, Smith's biggest challenge, according to several Hernando County physicians, will be smoothing the tensions that have built up between the hospital and county physicians.
"As far as I see it, easing tension between physicians is Oak Hill's only problem," said Dr. Sadras Shanmugham, chairman of the Oak Hill Hospital Board of Trustees.
That's exactly what Smith has spent the past seven years doing as an HCA physician services consultant for the Charlotte-based health care firm Larson Allen-Cherry Bekaert LLP.
"I can talk hospital, and I can talk doctors, and it's two very different environments," said Smith, who recently resumed a dermotology practice in Mobile, Ala.
Smith said he's familiar with the tug of war between physicians and hospitals over lengths of patient stays and the amount of services provided. Smith said such tensions are not unique to Hernando County.
"We can't totally avoid all the tension, but through communication, we can work at it a little better," Smith said.
Smith also plans to be active within the Hernando County business community, including in the chamber of commerce, because he sees "getting outside these walls" as the best way to determine what kind of job the hospital is doing.
He will also be left with the task of calming any existing tensions left over from the recent battle to relocate Brooksville Regional Hospital. In December, Oak Hill lost its bid to block Brooksville Regional Hospital from moving further west, closer to Oak Hill turf.
"It would be great if there was only one hospital in the community, but I think competition makes everyone better," said Smith, who has yet to meet Brooksville Regional Hospital chief executive Tom Barb.
At this point, Smith said, he's still finding his way around, meeting hospital staff, learning the status of projects such as the emergency room expansion and the new open heart surgery program. He even gets lost in the hospital now and then, he said.
"It's been like drinking water from a fire hose," said Smith, a ruddy-faced, bespectacled man who speaks with a soft Southern accent and a sharp wit.
Smith has run several smaller hospitals throughout Georgia and has taught at the School of Business Administration at the University of South Carolina, Aiken.
He and his wife, Kathy, have been checking out different neighborhoods and are considering houses in Brooksville, Spring Hill and Hernando Beach.
"Everybody has just bent over backward to help. It's been great," said Smith about his relocation efforts from Augusta.
Smith replaces Jaime Wesolowski who left in March to run Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, Calif., which is also owned by HCA Inc., the nation's largest hospital chain.
