Working in a darkroom brought health care into focus for Vincent J. McCorkle.
When he got his start in the industry years ago developing X-rays, McCorkle got to see the behind-the-scenes workings of a hospital and its employees.
”In the darkroom, I really had a sense of how the organization worked,” he said. ”I saw people and their true behaviors, not how they acted in front of senior management. It taught me a lot in terms of the importance of everyone in the organization.
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”I sometimes say I had a better understanding of how the organization worked from the darkroom than from the president’s office.”
McCorkle takes over today as the new president and chief executive of Akron General Health System.
He succeeds Alan Bleyer, who retired a year ago as the health system’s leader.
Michael Rindler, a national health-care consultant, served as Akron General’s interim leader since June 2009. He will remain a consultant to the health system until June 2011.
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In a phone interview on Wednesday, McCorkle said he’s looking forward to meeting employees and ”hitting the ground running.”
”I’ll be putting tremendous emphasis on focusing on our mission, meeting the needs of our community, having superb clinical outcomes and excellent services,” he said.
McCorkle previously served as president and chief executive of the Sisters of Providence Health System in Springfield, Mass., since 1997.
The western Massachusetts health system includes Mercy Medical Center, which has 355 licensed patient beds for acute-care, rehabilitation, behavioral health and maternity services. It also operates a home-care agency, six nursing homes and other services.
McCorkle’s appointment comes after a yearlong national search, which attracted about 400 applicants.
In his new role, McCorkle will oversee Akron General’s entire health system, which includes the 511-bed Akron General Medical Center, Lodi Community Hospital, Visiting Nurse Service, physician practices, Health & Wellness centers in Bath Township and Stow and other outpatient facilities scattered throughout the region.
Akron General Health System has about 5,700 employees, making it one of the largest private employers in Summit County.
McCorkle led a Massachusetts hospital at a time when that state was enacting health-care reform, well before the recent national reform.
He also has experience leading hospital collaboration with doctors, something he said he wants to continue in his new role at Akron General.
When Rindler took over the helm of Akron General a year ago, the health system was trying to rebound from financial troubles through revitalization
efforts that initially included job cuts.
Since then, Akron General has turned its finances around. Last year, the health system posted a 1.4 percent positive operating margin on operating revenues of $553.4 million after losing money the previous year.
The health system is moving forward with expansion plans, including the recently announced construction of a new Health & Wellness Center with an attached emergency department in Green.
”It’s moving in a good direction,” McCorkle said. ”It will be accelerating in that direction. I really think it’s important to try to look several years ahead, not just at what’s happening this year or next year.”
Cheryl Powell is a health reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal, the daily newspaper in Akron and a syndication partner of MedCity News.
