By John Fredericks / STAFF

Famous U.S. World War II General George Marshall once said, “Military power wins battles, but spiritual power wins wars.” For Army veteran and Emory Johns Creek Hospital (EJCH) CEO John D. Quinlivan, it’s a matter of importing his learned military doctrine into the everyday management of a sprawling health care facility. His unique approach has enabled him to propel his upstart hospital to take commanding positions in both medical leadership and market share in record time. Or Army time, if that’s your preference.

Quinlivan, nearing the completion of his first six months at the helm of EJCH, didn’t envision a career in the Army, much less running a major hospital. He went to the University of Alabama on an ROTC scholarship, and upon graduation took his obligatory four-year enlistment. Twenty years and a Masters Degree from Baylor University later he retired a Lieutenant Colonel.

“My wife, oddly enough, took to the military life,” Quinlivan said. “She liked moving around and seeing different parts of the world.”

Quinlivan chose the medical service division of the Army as his career tract and was in charge of setting up makeshift hospitals on battlefields, much like the characters of the award winning television show of the ’70’s, “MASH.”

“We flew in our equipment in helicopters with tanks often serving as our cover,” Quinlivan said. He said the procedures for set-up were sometimes hair-raising. “Time was always of the essence,” he said. “Mistakes could cost lives, or prevent us from savings lives – or limbs.”

Quinlivan was named CEO of EJCH hospital last September, coming from Gainesville, Fla., where he had served a similar five-year stint for North Florida Regional Medical Center. EJCH is co-owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), a Nashville, Tenn., based company, and Emory Healthcare Inc. of Atlanta.

For Quinlivan, the opportunity in North Fulton County was a return home of sorts. He was stationed in Atlanta while serving in the U.S. Army as Battalion Commander of the Medical Professional Recruiting Battalion.

Quinlivan took over a new hospital in a new city with a new staff in one of the most hotly contested medical markets in the country, where competition over patients – and doctors – is fierce. 

“One thing you learn in the Army is that you have to deal with the hand you are dealt,” Quinlivan said. “In my capacity I directly can influence the quality of our staff. In the health care business, your staff is your most crucial and coveted resource. You build good services around good doctors."

His hospital is an all-private room 110-bed facility featuring some of the most advanced medical technologies available.

Quinlivan put his money where his mouth is. His wife had major surgery at his hospital a few months ago. He says he trusts his doctors with his family’s life.

ARMY’S INFLUENCE

“I have been blessed with some great mentors,” Quinlivan said. “The army ingrains two things in you above all else: responsibility and accountability. Lives – and sometimes nations – depend on those simple tenets,” he added. “Accountability is not always fun. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions.”

Quinlivan has made significant changes in the hospital’s top brass since he took over. He’s also a realist. One case in point centered on the hospital’s original vision of capturing a large share of the orthopedic surgery market. That didn’t materialize, and Quinlivan had to make changes. He met with his surgeon team and was told point blank that the hospital didn’t have enough equipment to do the job in the operating rooms nor did they have sufficient trained staff dedicated to the specialty field. Worse, Quinlivan learned his hospital wasn’t dealing with patients very well either on the floor or in rehabilitation. Their orthopedic numbers dived as a direct result. “We had a series of candid discussions and the doctors told me they were missing the mark across the board,” Quinlivan said.

Since that “come to Jesus” meeting, Quinlivan got his boss to agree to double his equipment, add two completely dedicated orthopedic teams in the operating room, and significantly increase the number of orthopedic coordinators in the emergency room and on the hospital floor. Quinlivan said he asked his corporate supervisors to allow him to make the necessary changes needed to turn it around.

“I told them that if I didn’t deliver then they could change me.” The result? October and November were record months for orthopedics at the hospital. “Today we are an around the clock rehab,” he said.

COMPETITION FIERCE

When the hospital first applied for a Certificate of Need (CON) – the authorization by the government that a new hospital needs to open a facility – there were three area: North Fulton Regional Hospital, Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center, with a total of about 450 beds. Fearing the new competition might cut into their market share, and to buy time, Northside Hospital executives fought the new hospital’s CON application.

“They kept throwing up obstacles at every turn and bottling up approval,” claimed Johnel Reid, EJCH’s Director of Marketing. “These bureaucratic hold-ups delayed our opening for nearly three years, and bought them time to decide what to do from a market share perspective.” 

“We applied for the CON in 2001,” Quinvilan concurred, “And naturally our competitors opposed it. This bought them precious time to expand their market share within our target geographical areas before we were operational.” The hospital target date to open was 2003 or 2004. It opened its doors in 2007, more than three years behind the original plan.

This lag gave Northside hospital the window they needed to dramatically expand their community outreach to North Fulton County. They also increased their bed count from 235 to over 500. “The delay put us behind in our market share projections right from the start,” said Reid.

“This caused a short term over-supply,” said Quinvilan. “There were expectations that this hospital would take off immediately, but the delay in opening caused a glut of bed inventory and we have had to play catch up as a result,” he added.

BUSINESS NOW GROWING

EJCH is now serving about 80 patients a day and is maintaining a better than 80 percent patient to bed inventory ratio, despite the fact that, “A lot of people still don’t know we are here,” Quinlivan lamented.

Reid is trying to change that and has launched a new social networking campaign to engage the community in health care discussions. “Health care marketing is traditionally stiff and stodgy, and we are attempting to break that mold. We have over 170 two-minute video clips with our physicians on line now, and prospective patients can see what they have to say and then interact with them directly. It gives our community a first hand way of meeting and communicating with our staff on-line,” Reid said.

The hospital had 4,500 admissions and 20,000 emergency room visits in 2008, generating $60 million in revenue and made an operating profit, a huge turnaround from the losses it incurred in 2007, its first year. The hospital has also applied for a CON to add a state of the art cancer center.

THE BIG PICTURE

Quinlivan said his ultimate goal is to make EJCH an integral part of the community it serves. “I have two objectives,” Quinlivan said, “To control pain for our patients and to control growth for our facility.”

The hospital’s 58-acre campus ultimately will allow it to grow to 300 beds as market demand warrants it, said Reid. “We have the capacity to add two floors and grow upward,” she said.

Quinvilan summed up his management philosophy. “Its simple. I never want to hear a patient tell me someone at this hospital, ‘didn’t care.’ That’s why our business is called health care.”