YRMC head announces retirement

Bob Olsen is looking to trade in his long days at the helm of Yuma's hospital for more family and fishing time. He recently announced plans to retire as chief executive officer for Yuma Regional Medical Center after 45 years in the health care profession. However, he intends to remain until the end of September 2008, giving the YRMC operating board a year to go through the process of finding a new CEO.

"I wanted to give the board ample time to find someone and allow some overlap in transition," he said. "The organization has been good to me, and I wanted to assure a smooth hand off to my successor."

Reflecting recently on the years and where they've gone, Olsen said he's been fortunate to advance his career in the community he embraced as home after moving here in 1972 to manage the YRMC Diagnostic Imaging Department.

He earned an associate degree in business administration in 1979 from Arizona Western College, then his bachelor's degree in applied science from Northern Arizona University in 1982 and a master's of business administration degree in 1985 from Webster University, St. Louis.

Promotions up the management ladder followed the degrees. In 1982, Olsen moved up to assistant administrator of professional services, then chief operating officer in 1987. He became president and CEO in 1991.

"Yuma has definitely been a great place to grow professionally and raise a family," said Olsen, who has three sons. Across the country, he said, the average tenure for a CEO is 3 to 3-1/2 years and people usually transfer to advance their careers.

Instead, he was able put down roots here and grow his career as the community and the organization grew.

His journey began in Minnesota, where he was active in school sports. A basketball injury landed him in the hospital. The experience convinced him he wanted to go into health care, so he attended the Francis School of Radiologic Technology in Breckenridge, Minn.

Along with learning how to be an X-ray technician, he had instilled in him that the patient comes first. That value has been Olsen's guiding principle throughout the years.

"We're all in this business for one thing," he said, "that's to take care of the patients. We must never lose sight of that. I've tried to instill a culture of treating every patient like they're family."

After all, he said, "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

During his tenure, YRMC has been in a constant building process - expanding the building, attracting staff and installing new technology to meet the health care needs of the growing community.

"Not that I had a magic wand," Olsen said. "My role is the coach. We work as a team. I'm surrounded with a lot of professionals. The CEO's job is to try to give them the tools to do what they do well and that is take care of patients."

Olsen said a typical day might be 10 to 12 hours long. "A good portion of my time is spent in strategic planning meetings with staff, the board and the community," he said. "In between are the phone calls and e-mail stuff."

Even with those full days, Olsen has found time to serve the community and the health care industry.

For several years, he was a 4-H rabbit project leader. "That was one of the fun ones," he said. "I loved those kids."

He also has been active in Rotary, the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, Amberly's Place, Safe House and Greater Yuma Economic Corp. More recently, he moved through the chairs for the Arizona Hospital Association.

As for future plans, he said he is looking forward to more time to enjoy his family, visit the grandchildren and get involved in hobbies.

"There are two groups," Olsen said. "Those whose work becomes their life and others who don't know how they found time to work. I want to be in that group."

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.