HOSPITAL CEO enjoys community atmosphere

At 35, he is among the youngest executive officers in the industry.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA STAFF
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- One thing Rob Jackson likes most about heading a small community hospital is the community.
"When you come to United Community Hospital, you most likely will be taken care of by one of your neighbors," said Jackson, 35, who was named interim chief executive officer in November and officially given the post in April.
And, Jackson believes, it's that sense of community that will help the hospital as it undergoes some major changes in the next few years, including a new name.
In January the hospital officially will be known as Grove City Medical Center.
Jackson said the new name reflects the hospital's purpose. It was coined United Community Hospital in 1978 when Bashline Memorial Hospital and Grove City Hospital merged.
"We have evolved a great deal since 1978. At that time United Community best represented what we were then, but now Grove City Medical Center best speaks to what we are now," Jackson said.
Work on the name change started in the spring with contacting vendors, the Internal Revenue Service and others and should culminate in January with the unveiling of the new logo, he said.
Jackson's story
For Jackson, it's an exciting time. He's among the youngest hospital chief executive officers in the country. He is a Monroeville, Pa., native who got his undergraduate degree at Westminster College. He later went on to get his master's degree in business administration at the University of Pittsburgh.
According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, Jackson is among only 1 percent of its membership holding chief executive officer positions in hospitals nationwide who are 40 years old or younger.
"We consider this level of achievement in someone Robert's age to be quite remarkable," said Thomas Dolan, president and chief executive officer of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
But Jackson says it's not age that matters but commitment.
"It's not your age that matters but your ability to facilitate the work that needs to be done," he said.
Jackson came to United Community in 1998 and advanced through the ranks to vice president of Administrative and Physician Services prior to becoming chief executive officer. He says he spends a good deal of his time on the hospital floor talking to the staff to see their needs as well as working on physician recruitment. The hospital employs a total of 475, which includes 35 physicians.
Meeting many needs
While serving the community is the hospital's main mission, it also has to contend with any number of extra visitors each day with a college, large outlet mall and major interstate highway nearby.
Jackson was only in his current position a few weeks when a major pileup on Interstate 80 last winter sent dozens of people to the hospital. He was notified while grocery shopping and quickly activated the hospital's emergency plan to handle the large numbers.
He says it was gratifying that a small hospital could handle such a crisis.
And it also strives to make the daily patient care better. By January the hospital will have a $1.2 million picture archiving and collecting system that will allow employees to pass things such as X-rays and CAT scans on a digital network throughout the hospital, Jackson said.
"It will allow us to communicate with other facilities in a more efficient manner," Jackson said.
Jackson said he also expects the hospital to add more outpatient sites throughout its coverage area, which includes portions of Mercer, Lawrence, Butler and Venango counties, in the future.
Even with the new technology and plans for expansion, Jackson says the hospital is still about people.
"Almost all of what we do take people to do it. We spend a lot of money on technology, but it takes people to run the technology. It's the people who do this day in and day out that make it special," he said.
cioffi@vindy.com