Patton Leadership Institute visits UPIKE, PMC during Pike County leadership session

For its March session, the Patton Leadership Institute class visited Pikeville Medical Center and the University of Pikeville in a session centered around education and health care in Pike County.

During the visit to PMC, the class heard from the hospital’s President and CEO Donovan Blackburn. Blackburn discussed several topics, including leadership and creating a more community-driven workplace for employees.

Blackburn said that over the course of the last year the hospital has entered a “renaissance,” or a new beginning, with eight out of 15 board members having been on the board for less than one year and new leadership including the CEO and COO.

“One of the things we wanted to do was not to just talk about ‘together, we rise,’” Blackburn said, referring to the organization’s mantra, “but also look at ways we could communicate and bring our employees in as part of the organization.”

He said several initiatives were launched to reach this goal, stretching from the public relations department to human resources. One initiative to connect employees is a mobile application similar Facebook called Workplace. Another involves regular updates to employees from the hospital’s executive staff. Other connection activities includes rewarding employees with awards for exceptional work.

The class also toured the PMC main campus, heard from Dr. Fadi Al Akhrass about the flu, as well as a discussion of retail and hospital pharmacy with Joel Thornbury, of Nova Pharmacy and Lina Abdallah, Todd Samples, Robin Walters, and Roy Reasor, all of PMC Pharmacy.

During the second half of the day, the class visited the University of Pikeville, with Gov. Paul E. Patton kicking off the discussion.

Patton initiated a “question and answer” discussion with the class, during which he was asked about his leadership style.

“I am definitely a participatory leader. If I hadn’t been able to bring in people here to get two or three sides of the subject and come together to make decisions, we would not have been successful,” said Patton.

He discussed the difference between government and business, in terms of how it relates to leadership.

“When you get down to it, the purpose of business is to make money … your accountant will tell you every month, every year, how much you made, how successful you were,” he said. “In government, it’s exactly different. Your object is to provide the services that a modern society needs.”

Patton said business and government are two different focus areas, but he said having business experience is invaluable when dealing with government.

Before embarking on a tour of the UPIKE campus, including an in-depth look into the Health Professions Education building, which houses the Kentucky College of Optometry, the class heard from Danny Driskill, UPIKE’s director of simulation, who allowed the class to interact with UPIKE’s simbulance, an ambulance used to train students in the medical field. A discussion focused on the Coleman College of Business and the importance of a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), with Dr. Howard Roberts, dean of the Coleman College of Business, wrapped up the day.

The Patton Leadership Institute will visit Johnson County in April. To learn more about PLI visit, www.pattonli.com.