New CEO, future looks promising

The News Virginian / News Virginian
Published: January 28, 2008

Augusta Medical Center's criteria for finding a CEO to replace the recently retired Richard H. Graham were instructive. Board members searched for a leader who could provide "quality, compassionate care for our patients" and build a strong relationship with the facility's staff and physicians.

The translation: AMC wanted a leader who knew well the administrative and medical aspects of running a hospital. That is a divergence from the past, when hospital leaders frequently were heavy on administrative experience and expertise and light on an understanding of providing care, the nuts and bolts of what a hospital does.

New CEO Mary Mannix appears to be a good match for AMC's model. She was the president and chief operating officer at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa., tucked in the Keystone State's northeast corner. Mannix holds degrees in both nursing and business administration. In other words, she understands the core work of providing care and the bottom line impact of how that care is provided.

AMC so far has been a paradigm for community hospitals. Opened in 1994, AMC has been named among the nation's top three mid-sized hospitals in the South Atlantic region. The facility is recognized for its outstanding intensive care unit, superior geriatric services and its treatment of digestive and hormonal disorders. In just more than a dozen years in business, AMC has emerged as one of the Valley's jewels.

Much of that, we suspect, is attributable to the same kind of forward thinking that helped shape the facility's search to replace Graham, who helped put AMC where it is in the first place. Keeping alive Graham's legacy will be no small task for Mannix, given the competition for patients and the health care industry's continuing struggle with costs.

Given AMC's track record, one built on finding the right people as well as building a world class facility, we are confident that both Mannix and the hospital's larger working community will be up to the task.