GARDENS CEO: ‘HOSPITALITY’ NEW ROLE FOR HOSPITALS
With so many choices, CEO says patients expect to get five-star hotel treatment.
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Of course the quality of the medical care matters. That hasn’t changed.
But in today’s hospital industry, Trey Abshier finds a patient’s positive review can turn sour surprisingly fast based on the quality of the mashed potatoes. Or because an employee simply pointed to where a patient needed to go instead of walking her there.
Abshier, 37, took the reins in May as CEO at 199-bed Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. It’s a world where patients have choices, and more of them than ever express their views on the web.
“Most of our patients come through the emergency room,” Abshier said. “We spend considerable time training the ER staff about customer service because the ER has become the first door for us and it’s extremely important that those individuals receive great care and service.”
By traditional measures, ER doctors and nurses might be excelling under demanding conditions when they see a lot of people quickly.
But a customer might remember, and write online comments about, the “rudeness of the nurse,” Abshier said. “The physician didn’t spend much time with me. One-star rating. I’m not coming back.”
It’s a changing reality compared to when Abshier began work in the industry in 2005, he said. Customers in today’s environment come with heightened expectations for what he calls “hospitality.” A Louisiana native, Abshier got his first taste of working in a hospital by transporting patients in wheelchairs or gurneys while in college at LSU. He went on to earn a master’s degree in health care administration from Trinity University in Texas.
After administrative roles in California and Texas, he served as chief operating officer at Delray Beach Medical Center and chief executive officer at Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Mark Bryan, the CEO of Tenet’s Palm Beach Hospitals, calls him a “strong leader.”
Abshier was selected as one of the South Florida Business Journal “2016 Power Leaders in Health Care” and named one of Becker’s Hospital Review “50 Healthcare Leaders under 40” for that year.
“Quite honestly, I lucked out,” he said of his career choice. “I chose the right fit for me.”
Name: Trey Abshier
Age: 37
Hometown: Baton Rouge
Where you live now: Parkland
About your company: Tenet Health owns 68 hospitals across the U.S., 10 of which are located in Florida. We own 470 outpatient centers across the country. This is my third Tenet hospital, all of which have been in Florida.
How your business has changed: It’s changed dramatically, but the biggest change in our industry has been that it shifted to more of a hospitality industry, where customer service is more paramount than ever before. When I started in 2005, patient satisfaction was certainly an important thing but the focus was more on quality of care. Now patient experience has caught up with quality.
Increasingly the expectation is you should operate like a five-star hotel. Customers want private rooms. People who are trying to find their way around the hospital expect any employee will walk you to a location rather than point how to get there.
People go to Google and make a decision based on a star rating. I read the comments 100 percent of the time. You might see a patient had an incredible medical experience, the doctor was fantastic, but the mashed potatoes weren’t good. The rating can go from a 5-star to a 1-star.
It has truly become a customer-service, patient-experience driven industry more than it ever has been.
First paying job and what you learned from it: When I was 18, and a senior at Baton Rouge Senior High School, I got a job at a company making mall directories (the physical structures that hold the directory signs in malls). We’d paint them, we’d sand them, grind them. I learned that manual labor wasn’t for me and the importance of getting that degree.
First break in the business: I was transporter for four years in college. A transporter helps move people around the hospital, in wheelchairs, stretchers and gurneys. I had the opportunity to meet the CEO when I was there, and ask advice about graduate school. I needed a job. It was near my college and close to campus and had flexible schedules with students. I did it because by then I knew I wanted to go into hospital administration but this was one way I could get inside the doors at a hospital.
I had a best friend whose mom is in the hospital administration business. I remember a conversation about it: you know, you get to travel, you get a cell phone, which seems funny to say now but was a big deal at the time, you’re financially secure. Quite honestly, I lucked out. I chose the right fit for me.
Best business book you ever read: “Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change” (by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler). Everyone is motivated by different things. Fear of not getting the job done, that’s mine. Reward and recognition for some. Money. Some want public recognition. Some people respond to a thank you note to their home. Over time you find out what motivates people and each one’s a little bit different. Some people like it when you give them more work to do. They feel recognized as capable and needed.
Best piece of business advice you ever received: Hope is not a strategy. My peer is a CEO of a hospital in Virginia now. We basically grew up in this business together. He was in my wedding. He was notorious for saying it. It stuck with me. Hope is not a good strategy. When putting a strategy in place you need specific tactics, initiatives, ideas of how you are going execute that strategy. Hope is not enough.
What you tell young people about your business: It’s very different than what you learn in class. You will need to work hard to be successful. You will not be successful working eight hours a day. You must like change, challenges, a fast-paced environment and building relationships. I know going in my day is likely to be 10 hours. If I go 12 or 13, OK it happens.
What do you see ahead for Palm Beach County? I am not sure Palm Beach County is any different than most counties. We are seeing a shift to more outpatient procedures being performed in surgery centers, more urgent care facilities opening and better care being delivered in the post-acute setting. I think you’ll see the hospital census (meaning patients in beds across the county) go down.
Where we can find you when you are not at the office: Home with my wife and two kids, ages 2, and 6 weeks. Life is crazy. Luckily, I have a great wife. I married up.
I moved to Delray five years ago. I bought a condo. I didn’t know anyone. My Realtor was (my future wife’s) neighbor. Now we’re trying to sell the house in Parkland and get closer to the office.
Favorite smartphone app: It was Open Table (for restaurant reservations) before I had my second child and was going to dinner. Now it’s Waze for my commute.
What is the most important trait you look for when hiring? Work ethic. The times when I would get most frustrated with my team members was when I felt they were not putting in their best effort. I need to surround myself with people with incredible work ethic or I’ll go nuts. I hire for fit but I value work ethic more than anything else.