
How a West Virginia hospital’s retiring CEO is shaping its subsequent chapter
As John Frankovitch prepares to retire as president and CEO of Weirton (W.Va.) Medical Heart, he’s main the group into its subsequent main chapter.
Mr. Frankovitch will step down on the finish of 2024 because the hospital plans to hitch Morgantown-based West Virginia College Well being System. David Artman, the hospital’s COO, will succeed Mr. Frankovitch as president and CEO on Jan. 1.
Since turning into CEO in 2016, Mr. Frankovitch has targeted on securing the hospital’s long-term success. After his retirement, he’ll help with strategic and integration efforts as president emeritus of the board of trustees and a strategic adviser.
“It is typically forgotten, however hospitals — notably group hospitals — are actually the financial engines for many communities all through the U.S.,” Mr. Frankovitch instructed Becker’s. “For Weirton Medical Heart, we are the largest employer within the counties we serve. So there was a eager focus to make it possible for now we have a imaginative and prescient for long-term success for the group, not simply when it comes to making healthcare accessible, however the financial base of the group.”
Upon evaluating the native and nationwide healthcare environments, it grew to become clear that group hospitals equivalent to Weirton would seemingly have to pursue some type of affiliation to stay viable, he stated.
For instance, an IT system for a hospital the dimensions of Weirton Medical Heart might price greater than $70 million over a 10-year interval, Mr. Frankovitch stated. This doesn’t embrace the prices of protecting tempo with medical know-how and capital bills, he added.
In 2020, the hospital started collaborating with Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medication by way of a scientific partnership.
“A whole lot of the time, hospital affiliations are born from disaster, however that is probably not the case with our affiliation,” Mr. Frankovitch stated. “This affiliation is considered one of alternative.”
Whereas many giant hospital methods purchase group hospitals to develop into sources for sufferers to be referred to its foremost hospitals, he stated WVU Medication’s objective is to ship superior specialty care regionally, aligning with Weirton Medical Heart’s objectives.
“It expands on the notion that we are able to deliver further, higher-level specialty care to the sufferers we serve by working in collaboration with WVU Medication,” Mr. Frankovitch stated. “Our objective is to make it possible for sufferers can keep within the area and be handled for all the things that may be completed regionally, and so they solely want to depart the area for issues that may’t be completed regionally.”
After about 20 years within the healthcare business, Mr. Frankovitch joined an insurance coverage brokerage as an fairness associate, which broadened his perspective.
“Industrial insurance coverage is retail-oriented and customer-driven, and it actually allowed me to grasp the worth of making urgency within the choice course of,” he stated. “In healthcare, this may typically transfer very slowly. One of many largest roles that any CEO has is to create urgency round actions that get us nearer to the general mission.”
Mr. Frankovitch’s insurance coverage expertise additionally taught him to put money into growing distinctive customer support, which he has built-in at Weirton Medical Heart by addressing affected person issues and requests in actual time relatively than relying solely on post-discharge surveys.
“As hospital professionals, it is essential that we all the time create these alternatives for them to be heard in susceptible moments,” he stated.
Reflecting on his greater than 30 years with Weirton Medical Heart as each an worker and board member, Mr. Frankovitch highlighted the collaborative nature of hospital operations.
“If the CEO of the hospital would not present up on a selected day, it would not actually cease something we’re doing,” he stated. “But when the particular person chargeable for cleansing the OR between instances would not present up, it is a huge deal, and it impacts affected person care. It is this stunning symphony that goes on daily, the place all these particular person components come collectively to ship care. My focus has been on ensuring all of us perceive this can be a workforce effort — that with none member of that workforce, the entire thing stops.”
He additionally expressed admiration for the hospital’s staff.
“The dedication and dedication of each worker that comes into this constructing, typically in moments of absolute disaster, it is fairly humbling to stroll by way of the doorways and work with folks like that daily,” Mr. Frankovitch stated. “It is fairly particular to have the ability to say that you just spent your profession working with folks which can be that selfless.”