Whidbey General Hospital’s new CEO Geri Forbes demonstrated a new brand of leadership Saturday when she attended a community event at Fort Nugent Park.
Forbes was on hand for presentation of portable defibrillators to a youth football team and its coaches.
“This will save lives,” Forbes said at the event.
For Forbes, being accessible to the community is a main pillar of her leadership style.
“Part of my role is to be the face of the hospital,” Forbes said in a Monday interview. “I take that very seriously.”
“Will I make it to every event? No, but I’ll try to make as many as I can.”
Forbes, who started in her new role three weeks ago, takes the helm of a hospital that has been troubled financially and has taken a few hits to its reputation. The hospital has operated in the red for the last few years and the 2015 budget adopted in November estimated a $5 million short fall.
Forbes said a Monday interview that the financials are looking better this year than last and that it is a main goal to bring the public hospitals back up to a “neutral” or break-even status.
“We’ll have peaks and valleys but as long as the trend is moving up, I’m satisfied,” Forbes said.
Hospital critics have complained over the years about the inaccessibility of former CEO Tom Tomasino and his administration. The hospital district was further rocked last year when its chief nursing officer was accused, and then acquitted, of assault on a mentally ill patient.
During her first three weeks, Forbes said she has spent a lot of time “rounding” or spending time getting to know the nurses and doctors on staff, according to Anne Tarrant, president of the hospital’s board of commissioners.
Forbes describes herself as a “collaborative” type of leader who aims to listen to staff on the front lines in order to build strong teams that can initiate improvements.
Forbes said her hope is that, between outreach to staff and the community, she’ll be able to find ways to best improve services.
“We’re a small hospital,” Forbes said. “We need to be there for the community, not just when they’re sick but also to keep them well.”
Forbes said she has already begun efforts to reach out to other community organizations, including Island County Public Health, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and Oak Harbor Naval Hospital. Her aim is to initiate programs that encourage health and but also help the publicly funded agencies do more with less.
“The base is going to be growing,” Forbes said of the new squadrons arriving over the next couple of years. “We’ve all got to have a program for that.”
Given the county’s large retired population, Forbes said she wants to see more services geared toward the elderly.
Very few adults want to move into a retirement home as they age and would rather stay in their homes, Forbes said.
In keeping with the “age in place” trend, Forbes said she believes “there are more things we can create and help the elderly stay in their homes.”
Tarrant said the board agreed during its Monday meeting that Forbes’ “fresh perspective” will be a boon for the public hospital.
“It’s nice to have someone who doesn’t have a history,” Tarrant said. “She can look at the organization as a whole and offer a whole new set of solutions.
“And she’s doing that.”
The new CEO is also playing close attention to the upcoming construction of the new hospital wing, Tarrant said.
“She’s been through this before” at previous hospitals, Tarrant said, adding she’s impressed with Forbes’ “total grasp of our project even though she’s only been here three weeks.”
“Over all, we’re just pleased to have her on board as our CEO,” Tarrant said.
