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Dr. Mike Schatzlein leaned back – feet kicked up on a chair in front of him – with the look of someone mulling over a joke.
The relaxed posture fits Schatzlein, who has climbed his way up the corporate health care ladder but still prefers sweaters over suits and ties. Although he would sit more straight-backed to answer serious questions, Schatzlein regularly uses humor to undercut any illusion of pretense.
A self-deprecating sense of humor is one of the hallmarks of the veteran executive who assumed the top post at Lutheran Health Network last year. Schatzlein replaced Tom Miller, who became president of Division V Operations for Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, which owns the network.
In his latest role, Schatzlein draws on his diverse knowledge, mentoring skill and knack for collaboration, colleagues say.
His hybrid medical/administrative background has helped inform his leadership at the network, which operates eight hospitals and more than 1,000 inpatient beds. Schatzlein performed the area’s first heart transplant in 1985 and led a team that developed Lutheran Hospital’s heart transplant program. He’s also played a leadership role at part-physician-owned Dupont Hospital – where he is CEO – since its inception.
In his office at Dupont Hospital, he recently reflected on the past year.
One major change in process is an initiative handed down from the network’s new owners, Community Health, that’s meant to enhance customer service, staff development and accountability. Started in August, it’s a top-down project that when fully implemented – perhaps by year’s end or early next – will ensure all 6,000 of the network’s employees know the organization’s most important goals and how they measure up against metrics related to these goals.
“People expect their health care environment to be safe, and they expect courteous treatment,” Schatzlein said. He believes Lutheran Health Network does well in these areas and thinks the program will improve upon a good thing.
Goals for improvement, such as patient safety, will be gauged against widely accepted measures, like those used by Medicare & Medicaid Services to compare hospitals. After everyone understands the organizational goals, employees will get feedback on how they are doing and will be rewarded accordingly, whether with an award, money or a promotion.
Even with such top-down initiatives, Schatzlein insists that hospitals in the network retain their unique identity, both on superficial levels – keeping their own names and logos – and in the services they provide. Health care providers from St. Joseph Hospital in Fort Wayne to Bluffton Regional Medical Center know best how to address the specific needs of the communities they serve, he said.
Retaining some autonomy is balanced with organizationwide best-practice measures, Schatzlein said. He’s working to increase the level of collaboration among network hospitals.
Open-ended brainstorming is one of Schatzlein’s strengths, said Kirk Ray, CEO of St. Joseph Hospital, who considers Schatzlein a mentor. He’s not the typical guy just looking to fix things right away, Ray said.
“I think Mike is a very good listener.” The advice he does give is usually followed up with a “What do I know?” The undercutting humor “tends to put you at ease,” Ray said. His experience and broad knowledge make him a good resource, colleagues say.
Schatzlein’s wide-ranging interests spill over into his blog, which can be linked through Dupont Hospital and covers subjects such as gun violence in Fort Wayne to the early death of bloggers. But he wasn’t always a surgeon turned administrator.
The former president of the Indiana University Student Foundation served on the National Advisory Committee that recommended a lottery draft process in 1970. Following the committee’s recommendations, Selective Service instituted a lottery and eliminated student and occupational deferments, something Schatzlein believes made the process fairer. But Schatzlein said he hasn’t studied the issue enough to say whether he’d advocate a draft today.
That job led to a staff assistant position in the Nixon White House after his graduation from IU in 1970, before he started medical school. He worked under Peter Flanigan, one of five assistants to President Nixon.
And he was in a rock band, which under the name Reformation cut an album that hangs on Schatzlein’s office wall.
The album tanked and with it the record company; the group bought the company and built a studio in Indianapolis in 1973. While attending medical school, Schatzlein – who played piano and trumpet – produced and recorded jingles for companies such as Kroger and McDonald’s, who used them on a regional basis. He remained a silent partner in the recording studio until his brother, Gary, died in 2001.
A man of many interests, Schatzlein says balancing work with family and personal time can be a challenge. He finds it hard to count the hours he works because he always has his BlackBerry with him and stays plugged in through other technological outlets as well.
“I am very bad at compartmentalizing. I don’t keep anything from Liz (his wife); she is my best adviser. The only way for me to stop thinking about work is to get immersed in a book, music, or a computer project (either programming or construction).”
Personable, engaging, with a keen wit, “he’s over-the-top bright,” said Dr. Todd C. Rumsey, chairman of Dupont Hospital. He described Schatzlein as someone who jumps into whatever he’s doing with both feet.
Schatzlein balances that initiative with a studied approach to addressing challenges, Rumsey said. He takes a step back, gathers necessary information, then it’s “let’s hit it head on.”
Among the problems hitting the health care consumers and administrators head on is ballooning costs.
Schatzlein believes “lean engineering” – like that employed by manufacturers to standardize processes – can help. Dupont Hospital has tripled the number of surgeries started on time in the past few months by standardizing certain pre-operation processes. That’s improved efficiency and reduced the likelihood of error, he said.
Schatzlein calls process improvement the “holy grail” – the only way you can get something out of nothing. But he doesn’t think any amount of process improvement will be enough to solve the overarching problem of containing cost while providing care to the nation’s uninsured.
“We can’t afford all the health care we want as a society,” Schatzlein said.
mschroeder@jg.net
