Career choices do not always point to a clear path, but, for some people, there is an underlying purpose.

The new president and CEO of St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Imran Andrabi, is one of those people. He officially assumed his new role Dec. 15, after heading up the administrative responsibilities when former president and CEO Michael McEachern left in July 2007.

Dr. Andrabi

“For a while, I have been thinking about being a CEO and being a part of the administrative process within a health system. Because of my unique background, having worked as a private physician, having worked in education and having worked in administration, I felt I had something unique to offer,” Andrabi said.

Andrabi received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of the Punjab and King Edward Medical College in Pakistan, respectively. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Managed Care Medicine. He is also a fellow of the National Institute for Program Director Development and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Andrabi’s association with Mercy Health Partners, the parent organization of St. Vincent, began 17 years ago during his residency, and he joined the staff in 1995. Andrabi has continued his practice during his career, and most recently was senior vice president of operational transformation at St. Vincent and chief academic officer for Mercy Health Partners.

In addition to his role as St. Vincent president and CEO, Andrabi will serve on a council with other CEOs to develop the strategic and operational direction for the Mercy system.

Barb Martin, vice president of nursing services for St. Vincent, has known Andrabi for nearly 20 years and has worked with him for about the past 10. She said his levelheaded demeanor and “calming effect” on others will serve him well in his new role.

“He definitely has a very calming effect, which is very important in our environment. He’s a great listener and a relationship builder,” Martin said. “The health care environment can be very stressful for those in a position to lead the changes that are necessary. When he pulls a team together, people relax and focus on what they really need to do.”

Looking to the future

Though still early in his tenure at the helm of St. Vincent, Andrabi has a vision of what he is looking to accomplish. That vision includes maintaining St. Vincent’s “anchor” position within the Northwest Ohio health care community, continuing to serve as a tertiary care, level-1 trauma center for the local and regional community and to “further enhance” the hospital’s specialist teams, such as cardiovascular surgery, cardiology, neurosurgery, and pulmonary and critical-care medicine.

“While we do that, we have to make sure we are cognitive of and welcoming to our primary care physicians,” Andrabi said.

“From a health care perspective, we need to have that kind of focus of how do we provide the best possible care to our patients in a quality manner every time with as few defects as possible, the first time around,” he said.

To achieve those goals, Andrabi said the hospital will emphasize providing the best level of service and care to patients, every time — and gauge those efforts by surveying patients, physicians and reviewing its overall business.

Andrabi plans to better evaluate, maintain and improve the education of the care teams, including physicians, nurses and support personnel. With the Mercy College of Northwest Ohio also being a part of the  Mercy Health System, Andrabi said his staff can take advantage of those close ties to improve their skills while also being able to attract other skilled medical professionals.

While Andrabi is looking to maintain some of the current strengths of St. Vincent, he’s looking to add others and address industry-wide challenges like the shortage of physicians and open access to health care. For example, to strengthen St. Vincent’s OB/GYN offering, the hospital added two maternity fetal medical physicians, as well as a pediatric neurologist.

Andrabi said the area’s physician shortage is one problem impacting all hospitals. Northwest Ohio has approximately 80 physicians per hospital compared to Ohio’s average of 170 per hospital, and the U.S. average of 151 per hospital.

“We continually recruit we continually reassess our situation, and we continue to be very committed to education. That’s the way we can bring in a fresh group of physicians every year that can be a part of the community,” Andrabi said.

One aspect he said should improve the hospital’s ability to attract physicians is becoming part of more health insurance plans to ensure open access to more facilities. In October 2007, for example, Mercy Health Partners, which includes St. Vincent, became part of Medical Mutual of Ohio’s Network. The day after Mercy’s announcement, ProMedica did the same.

“There are many physicians who are able to be a part of this community because they do no have open access,” Andrabi said. “Ultimately, patients benefit from it, employers benefit from it, and it will ultimately drive out the waste in the system because everybody will be competing on the basis of quality and cost.”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 3:00 am and is filed under Community, Featured, Health Care.
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