From Tough Times: To a Growing Success
Bob Olsen arrived at Parkview Baptist Hospital in 1972 just a few months before it became Yuma Regional Medical Center. He came to Yuma to be the director of the department now called Diagnostic Imaging, never dreaming that he would eventually become chief executive officer.
Financial times were tough for the hospital, and things were done quite differently in the early '70s. There was no budget. You asked if money was available to purchase what you needed, Olsen said.
"Some Fridays, they told us not to cash our checks until Monday," he recalled.
About 500 people worked at the one-story YRMC. Olsen's current office used to be the laboratory. The facilities and equipment were "inadequate and cramped," which led to construction of the first patient tower that now contains Pharmacy, Surgery, Lab, Imaging, MedWest, 2 West Medical, and 3 West.
Health care has changed quite a bit since Olsen came to town. There were no CT scanners, no MRIs, no ultrasound, limited nuclear medicine, no laparoscopic surgery, no computers, no faxes and no copiers. Today, computers are an integral part of all services at YRMC and digital X-rays, CTs and MRIs are routine. Text messaging and cell phones are so commonplace to the staff that few would imagine there was a time without e-mail, copiers or faxes.
Until about the early 1990s, the number of patients in YRMC fluctuated greatly between the summer and winter, with perhaps 80 to 90 patients each day during the summer. Now, those valleys have flattened and YRMC has consistently 200-plus patients a day during the summer.
For many years physicians did all their own recruiting, but as Yuma grew, YRMC became more involved in recruiting medical staff, including specialists, to meet the growing patient demand. YRMC has also been able to provide the tools physicians need to bring current standards of medical care to Yuma, Olsen said.
Olsen moved from a director to an assistant administrator (now called a vice president) in 1982, became chief operating officer in 1987 and then CEO in 1991.
Reflecting on the accomplishments of YRMC, Olsen said he points to the expansion of services over the years, outreach into the community such as the School Health Care program, Children's Rehabilitative Services clinics and Diabetes Education program and new services such as laparoscopic and heart surgery, interventional procedures, neo-natal care, hospitalists and intensivists.
"A building is just a place to do it all," Olsen said.
A critical aspect is YRMC's investment in its staff through support for advanced professional degrees through support of the Arizona Western College and NAU nursing and radiologic technology programs. Recruitment to YRMC is important but retention, making it a place employees want to stay, is something we work on continuously.
If you walk the halls of YRMC, you’ll hear staff calling out to "Bob," who has a reputation for being approachable. One thing hasn' changed over the years - the family atmosphere, even if it's a much bigger family.
It's unusual for a hospital CEO to stay in one place for 17 years as Olsen has done. He said his secret to success is the support he has had from Board of Directors, the Yuma County Hospital District Board, the medical staff and employees and sticking to his principles of "doing what's right for patients and the community."
