“We celebrate that. They come to the front of the room and share their secrets for success with us — and we give them a round of applause and we give them a check that they can use to purchase equipment for their patients or help support their unit.
“We want to celebrate those successes with the people that have earned that recognition,” he says.
Yes, it took investment to implement a lot of these changes, but Gabbe says they knew the ROI was going to be significant.
“By reducing the complications, we reduced length of stay, we reduced the cost of care, so that means that we can make better use of our hospital beds,” he says. “It means that insurers will want us to be part of the network because patients recognize us as being the best place for care in the community and beyond.”
These changes, however, weren’t just about the dollars.
“It’s really a matter of people’s pride in being part of an organization that they know is among the very best in the country,” Gabbe says. “And they know it because they hear it from their colleagues at other hospitals, whether it’s local or national.”
Gabbe’s thoughts on …
The next phase of his career ➜ I’m going to be involved in faculty mentoring and development. One of my major areas of interest for a long time has been physician burnout.
I’m going to be involved with working with the Greater Columbus Infant Mortality Task Force to reduce infant mortality. My wife, Dr. Pat Gabbe, is part of that.
I’m going to be involved in the development of the Health Sciences Academy in the Near East Side schools around University Hospital East where we are working with the Columbus school system to develop a curriculum in the five grammar schools, Champion Middle School and East High School that will help students learn more about a career in health care.
I’m going to be involved in fundraising through our Grateful Patient Program and outreach to our Ohio State Health Network hospitals. We now have 14 hospitals that are part of that network.
I am going to go to the Diabetes Pregnancy Clinic as much as I possibly can. That is one thing I’ve really missed.
And finally, we are working on the seventh edition of our obstetrics textbook. Three of us, two of my dear friends and I began this in the early 1980s, and it’s now become the most read obstetrics textbook in the country. The three of us have agreed that this will be our last edition, and we have six editors who will then take over the reins going forward.
What he’ll miss the most ➜ I think I’ll miss being part of the strategic planning for the organization and being involved in the decision-making as we go forward. That’s just been so exciting and really a privilege to be part of that process.
How his leadership evolved throughout six and a half years as CEO ➜ I had to focus more on the bigger overriding issues and realize that I had to rely on my leadership team.
When I was the dean at Vanderbilt (University), yes I had the medical school to focus on but here as the CEO of the medical center, it’s a much, much larger enterprise. And I found I had to rely much more on my leadership team.
I clearly couldn’t be everywhere at every time. I depended on them to communicate with me — to make sure we were up to date and in agreement with where we were headed.
How much of his time the medical expansion consumed ➜ There wasn’t a day that I didn’t have some conversation, discussion or visit the construction site during the course of this project.
It was just something that went on regularly over the last four and a half, five years.
It’s a very complex project that’s a million square feet of space, and there was a lot of time and effort devoted to that. I’d probably spend at least half a day to a day a week, if you averaged it all out.
His legacy ➜ It’s the people. It’s the people we’ve helped develop their careers — Dr. Ernest Mazzaferri who is running the (Richard M.) Ross Heart Hospital. The people we’ve recruited like Dr. Ali Rezai who is one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons and is leading our neurological institute.
And it’s the students and residents we’ve trained like the two medical students, Kelly Copeland and Hillary Landon [two babies Gabbe delivered], because long after I’m gone, they are going to be practicing medicine and making a difference in people’s lives.
