Joe Gilene
Throughout his health-care career, Joe Gilene, the new president of Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, says he’s preached a certain philosophy to his medical staff — namely, to consider the view from the other side of the stethoscope.
“We never know,” he said. “Tomorrow, I [or you] may be the person in the emergency room looking for the care of this hospital. How would I like that care to be for myself and my loved ones? That’s a responsibility I take very seriously.”
Gilene enters his new role at Saint Joseph Hospital just as its parent company, KentuckyOne Health, enters its second full year of operation in the state. KentuckyOne Health is a combination of the Jewish and Catholic health histories that include Jewish Hospital, St. Mary’s Healthcare and the Saint Joseph Health System. Also in the mix is a partnership with the University of Louisville Hospital and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.
On the job for a little more than a month, Gilene oversees Saint Joseph Hospital, billed as the city’s first hospital and home to a renowned heart institute. He said he has wandered the halls and offices of the hospital, trying to get to know the hundreds of professionals on staff.
“I am very pleased with the talent we have,” he said.
Gilene is still forming his impressions of the Lexington market, which also features health-care giants like University of Kentucky Healthcare and Baptist Health Lexington, plus numerous other hospitals, clinics and private practices.
“There are some fine institutions with the chief focus on providing the best for patients and their families,” Gilene said. “I see Saint Joseph as a proud member of the health-care community and one that brings some specific expertise here. There’s competition, but my focus as hospital president isn’t to be concerned about competition, but how we provide incredible care to patients daily,” he said. “If you do that … then I don’t have to watch the competition — the competition has to watch me.”
For Gilene, the move to Lexington is a coming home of sorts. He and his wife are Cincinnati natives. He earned his undergraduate degree in accounting and MBA from the University of Cincinnati.
Kentucky is widely known as an unhealthy state, with high rates of cancer (especially from smoking), heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other issues. The health-care executive spoke about the Affordable Care Act and how it could help improve the health of average Kentuckians. “There’s no individual in health-care leadership who doesn’t have a clear vision of a healthier Kentucky,” he said. “The main change in health care is how we can expand access to the uninsured. We’re well-read about Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion and the insurance exchanges. It’s about the ability of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 and beyond to get more individuals covered. That way, each of us has a medical home and assurance there’s preventative care and education on medical issues.”
Gilene said the changes could help provide more access to care and eliminate the specter of the uninsured clogging emergency rooms or going without necessary care. He acknowledged that the state and nation will “go through a rocky time of change” with the Affordable Care Act, which is part of the “reinventing and re-defining of health care,” he stated.
Gilene believes the nation is moving toward a new health-care payment system based more on the value and outcome of patient care, which are “good for health care and the nation,” he said. At the end of the next decade, he predicted, “We will see some very positives changes for health care.”
Like many of his colleagues at the top of health-care management around the nation, Gilene has risen up the ladder by tackling challenging jobs in other markets. Most recently, he helped manage nine hospitals in the Carolinas and Virginia for Quorum Health Resources. Before that, he held health-care management positions in Washington state, New Jersey and North Carolina. His first experience was at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
“All of that experience has given me the knowledge, wisdom, talent and leadership to take on this new role with confidence,” he said.
Asked what priorities he must tackle first in his new job, Gilene said every hospital leader wants the same things from his or her facility: to be first in providing quality, safety, high patient experience and satisfaction, and for the hospital to be financially healthy while delivering cost-effective and efficient care.