Hospital salutes late CEO for his passion, humor
It wasn’t the typical setting for a memorial, but in the midst of a pandemic, nearly 150 people gathered Tuesday on the rooftop level of a parking garage to pay respects to a beloved hospital administrator.
Instead of rows of parked cars, rows of white chairs — 6 feet apart — lined the roof of Baptist Medical Center’s parking garage. Some were the suits associated with such occasions, while others came still dressed in their scrubs or lab coats and surgical caps.
They were there to remember Jorge Anthony Trevino, who as CEO of Baptist Medical Center led the charge against COVID-19. Friends and colleagues shared stories of times when he had motivated them to persevere amid hardship or told a funny joke, punctuated with a wink.
Trevino, 51, died Nov. 16 of a heart attack.
At the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Trevino was the Baptist system’s liaison with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, also known as STRAC, which oversees management of emergency services for a 22county trauma service area.
“It was just incredible to see his passion, and the long hours he put in, doing what’s right for the patients,” said Dan Cooper, chief operations officer of the downtown Baptist hospital, adding that Trevino’s collaboration with city and state leaders helped save lives while making the hospitals and the community safer.
The day before he died, Trevino visited the hospital’s COVID-19 unit and learned from staff that it had been a tough day. He returned with Krispy Kreme donuts, personally thanking each staff member for their hard work.
Trevino trained to be a registered nurse at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and was a flight, emergency and pediatric intensive care unit nurse before working his way up to hospital CEO.
Trevino met his wife, Amy, while
working for air ambulance company San Antonio AirLIFE. She was a helicopter pilot and he was a registered flight nurse.
He’s also survived by their children, Priscilla, Clayton, Crew, Christian, Vale and Lincoln.
Baptist Health System President Matt Stone said he was the first to offer Trevino a hospital administrator job.
Trevino worked at several Tenet hospitals, including Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. Trevino was chief operating officer when the hospital established the first comprehensive stroke care pro
gram in the Rio Grande Valley.
“He was all business when work needed to be done,” he said. “Some people said he followed me around (to different facilities), but there wasn’t a place that I didn’t need him.”
Stone said he misses Trevino already and feels blessed for the time they had together.
Eric Epley, executive director of STRAC, said he first met Trevino in 1990 on Trevino’s first day of work for AirLIFE.
“Jorge has been a shining light and a leader, and I believe it’s because he was a nurse,” he said.
The memorial closed with a medical helicopter flying overhead and a balloon release.
A planter dedicated in Trevino’s honor will be added to a memorial garden being built just outside the emergency department at the downtown hospital.
Also, a hospital committee has decided to continue an initiative Trevino had been working on — a program to help struggling hospital employees provide gifts for their families. The committee renamed it “JT’s Annual Holiday Giving Tree.”