The CEOs of both area hospitals spoke at the Cape Chamber's First Friday Coffee on Friday, December 1, 2017 and shared a little about themselves.
First up, Ken Bateman, CEO of SoutheastHEALTH:
“I went to Seton Hall University, primarily for two reasons. One, they had a really good business school and two, they were only about an hour from where I lived so I could commute there because my father also believed in the value of you will pay your own way. So, I paid my own tuition, I couldn't afford room and board, I had to work my way through college. But again it was a great life experience.”
“When I first came to SoutheastHEALTH, there was a lot of turbulence, a lot of turmoil. There was a consultant in that had recommended that the organization let 200 people go in order to get back to a healthy bottom line. And my first board meeting, I had to tell my board that I'm gonna go against our consultant's recommendation because I said if you let 200 people go, this organization won't survive. Because the people didn't put them in that situation, a billing system put them in that situation. And it was gonna be the people that get us back out of that situation.”
“When I came to town people would ask me, I'm sure they've asked Maryann [Reese] about the competitiveness between Southeast and St. Francis. And both of us coming from the outside, we don't really see it as competitive. Our commitment is really in the future to keep the competition healthy and to do what we can together for the community.”
Bateman has done an incredible job righting the ship at SoutheastHEALTH and he shared one piece of his formula for success.
“Really there’s not a magic formula…if you communicate, you will build a culture of trust with your employees and if you work hard and have a good attitude you will get through any situation."
Next week, we heard from Maryann Reese, CEO of St. Francis Healthcare System.
