Falconer new big wheel at St. Mary’s General Hospital
KITCHENER — Andrew Falconer, incoming president for St. Mary’s General Hospital, is a self-diagnosed spin doctor.
“Cycling has been a lifelong passion,” said the 57-year-old Ottawa native, who will wheel into his new post on Feb. 4.
“I started when I was in medical school. I used to cycle a lot faster than I do now but that’s never really mattered. It’s more about getting out there.”
Falconer — vice-president and chief of staff the past decade at Ottawa’s Queensway Carleton Hospital, with 284 beds and a staff of 2,000 — likes to tour around scenic countrysides like Niagara-on-the-Lake and even commutes to work in the nation’s capital.
“In Ottawa, we have a fairly well-developed bicycling network,” explained the 30-year emergency physician who will fill the vacancy left by the retired Don Shilton at 153-bed St. Mary’s. “They’re old railway tracks that have been paved for bicycles.”
Sounds a lot like the Iron Horse Trail from Waterloo Park to Victoria Park in Kitchener — Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and region boast 500 kilometres of cycling lanes and bike paths.
“That was one of the things I checked for,” said Falconer, who is looking for a home in this area for him and his wife. “I wanted to make sure it looks like a bicyclefriendly place. You also have some amazing-looking recreational trails along the river.”
Falconer has other reasons besides the cycling paths for coming to St. Mary’s, selected to fill the vacant president’s job after a national search by the hospital’s board of trustees. His contract will be posted soon on the St. Mary’s website, a hospital spokesperson said Friday.
“They’ve got a very good reputation nationally — for both the cardiac program and also overall safety as a hospital,” he said of St. Mary’s with its staff of 1,300. “They really are a compassionate group of people.”
Waterloo Region, with its hightech entrepreneurial community, is similar to the west-end Ottawa neighbourhood Falconer now lives in, he said.
Besides being an avid cyclist, Falconer is also a Yellow Belt — not in martial arts, but in “Lean” management. In health care, Lean means eliminating parts of the process that have no value to the patient.
“You can go all the way up to Black Belt,” Falconer said. “So it does seem to follow the karate colours a little bit.”
Falconer prefers to pedal, not kick, his cares away. “It helps focus my thoughts,” he said. “It’s a really healthy way to relax.”
Marco Terlevic, chief financial officer at St. Mary’s, will continue as acting president until Falconer arrives in February.