Patrick Sharp, the new CEO at Mercy Regional Medical Center, said his leadership style and management priorities focus on one thing: listening.
“Patrick understands the importance of having two ears and one mouth, which allows him to listen a little bit more than people perceive executives in the C-suite to do,” said Richard Miller, a member of the Mercy board of directors.
Sharp joined the hospital in January after working at a rural medical center, Fairview Range, in Hibbing, Minnesota, for about 13 years. He arrived in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when some staff members faced work fatigue and the community fiercely debated the best response to the pandemic.
His first priority, Sharp said, was to dive into staff member and stakeholder meetings to get feedback and start building relationships.
“We’ve got a lot of great opportunities here, just developing strong ties into the community. Listening, being transparent,” Sharp said. “Getting constructive feedback, both on things that are going well and things we need to be more mindful of here at Mercy.”
His experience at Fairview Range taught him the importance of community relationships, he said.
Sharp rose from director of clinic operations to president/CEO during his time at the medical center. Before that, he earned a Masters of Business Administration at Augsburg University in Minnesota.
Fairview Range is a rural hospital with primary and specialty care clinics and is tied to a larger hospital system, much like Mercy. But 175-bed Fairview Range hospital is more than twice the size of Mercy, which is an 82-bed acute-care nonprofit hospital that is part of the Centura Health network.
Both medical centers are also among the largest employers in their areas.
“What I learned there was the extreme importance of being connected to the community,” Sharp said. “Being humble, but also being willing to be a little bit vulnerable, and making that personal connection is so crucial. I think that’s played well here so far.”
Sharp’s experience working in a hospital similar to Mercy helped him stand out from other candidates during the CEO search, Miller said.
The board was also looking for someone quick on their feet and ready to be fluid with leadership decisions. As the only regional medical center in the area, people can’t just go to a different hospital to get a certain procedure. Mercy needed someone who could keep service lines open, Miller said.
“One thing the board was excited about was Patrick’s experience, and his openness and candidness,” he said. For example, Sharp met with the board of directors. That didn’t happen in the past.
“He was trying to get a sense of where Mercy’s relationship was with the community,” he said. “That’s really impressive.”
One of Sharp’s top priorities is to better inform the community about what’s happening at Mercy, particularly after high-level leadership changes over the last two years.
For example, for patients in the community, “we need to make sure there’s crystal clear knowledge about the services we provide, who is here and how do we help maintain proper access,” he said.
In Durango, community stakeholders have questioned Sharp about transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic and how long he intends to stay, he said.
When people ask how long he intends to stay, an important question in a community that values long-term residency, Sharp says he would not have moved his wife and four children across the county “for a quick in and out.”
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercy was slow to share information about conditions inside the hospital – whether hospital beds were filled, whether there were ventilators – as the community searched for a way to understand the impacts of the novel coronavirus.
“I heard a lot about that when I first came in. A lot of those issues had occurred prior to my arrival,” Sharp said.
Since then, he has talked with community members about how they define transparency. The solution seems to be having meaningful dialogue about whatever the issue is, he said.
“Maybe there might be a disagreement of opinion, but if the trust and relationship is there, I think that relates to what people are saying about transparency,” Sharp said.
Another top priority for the CEO: operational excellence. That means hearing and seeking constructive feedback, fostering a culture of learning from feedback and supporting a high level of operations inside the hospital.
“We need to make sure people are in a safe environment where they can learn. It’s OK to fail, as long as we’re learning from that,” Sharp said.
He seeks that feedback by being present on the “front line” to understand the daily realities of staff members.
“About the only thing Patrick does in the C-suite office is have a desk there,” Miller said. “The rest of the time he’s either in the hospital or meeting with folks to get a sense of where Mercy serves the community best.”
Just recently, he had a listening session with the operating room team to hear about their challenges and successes. His day Thursday went from one meeting to the next, a safety huddle leading to a hospital leadership council meeting. The meetings help him stay in tune with challenges and concerns among staff members.
“If you don’t take the time to focus on the people who are doing the work, you never fully understand what’s going on inside your four walls,” Sharp said.
Medical staff, particularly those working on units with COVID-19 patients, have had a stressful year with intense, long hours and few, if any, vacation days. Across the country, health professionals have been experiencing burnout and fatigue.
“We’re not immune to that,” Sharp said. “It definitely has affected staffing across the nation. ... COVID has really impacted people’s viewpoints of life, family, worldviews – and those are all things we need to be very sensitive to.”
He focuses on listening and creating experiences that change beliefs. For example, if someone has not had a strong interaction with the CEO, just being present can create a new experience for staff.
“I think it’s important to be a leader that doesn’t overpromise and under-deliver,” Sharp said. “Strong leaders can’t give you everything you want. But we can listen, engage and make sure we’re giving you the ‘whys’ of our decisions.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
