Executive Session with Lynn Mergen

Executive Session with Lynn Mergen

CEO of Lakewood Ranch Medical Center

PERSONAL

AGE: 37

FAMILY: Married, with two children, 7 and 4.

HOMETOWN: Grinnell, Iowa

EDUCATION: Bachelor of science, sociology/anthropology, Northeast Missouri State; and a master's in hospital administration, University of Missouri.

WHY SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY? "I was pre-med for the first two-and-a-half to three years and I think it was when I got to organic chemistry or I just had enough I decided I didn't want to be a physician.

"Quite honestly, they said if you're going into business, accounting ... it doesn't really matter, study what you want. So I did and it was interesting.

"When I got to grad school I viewed it as a negative because most of my classmates were marketing or accounting/finance so I had to study a little bit harder. Now I think it helps me more in dealing with groups of people and relationships and the things you get by studying other people, it probably served me just as well as a business degree."

WHY DOES AN IOWA BOY WANT TO BECOME A DOCTOR? "Doesn't everyone in high school want to be a doctor? My dad wanted to be a doctor. He worked in a small town, was very poor and just never thought he could get enough funding. He grew up on a farm and from there he kind of knew that's what he knew and back in the '50s stretching out and leaving a town of 200 people and going to medical school was a big stretch so he never did. I remember him telling me the stories and I just found medicine very interesting."

HOW DO YOU ESCAPE? "I love to play golf. I've fished and I enjoy it but I don't wake up saying 'Boy, I've got to go fish,' but I wake up saying, 'Boy, I've got to go golf.' "

WHEN DID YOU START GOLFING? "When I was 5. My dad gave me a set of clubs and I learned it by watching. I used to watch it on TV and when there were commercials on I'd run outside and hit shots like I thought they hit them.

"On Saturdays my dad used to play with his buddies and we'd go out and he'd have breakfast and I'd chip and putt. He'd go play nine holes and I'd chip and putt that whole time. When he made the turn he'd come and get me and I'd play three or four holes on the back if it wasn't busy. Then they'd go in and play some cards and I'd chip and putt. I played a lot until I was 13 and then I got into organized football, basketball, track and baseball so it didn't leave me a lot of opportunity to play."

DID YOU PLAY GOLF IN COLLEGE? "I played (football) in college, outside linebacker. It was nice. I was a pretty good player but I knew I wasn't going to make it to the draft, I knew I was going to have to have an education."

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

TIME WITH COMPANY: June 1, 2005

POSITIONS PREVIOUSLY HELD: Administrative officer for the Department of Medicine at the Des Moines, Iowa, V.A. Medical Center; then analyst with Rehab Care in St. Louis for about eight months; then ran a unit in Poplar Bluff, Mo., for rehab care for two years and during that stint also worked for the hospital in Poplar Bluff as assistant administrator. Then was promoted within the hospital and stayed for a couple more years. Then was COO at Doctor's Hospital in Dallas, was then asked to a build a hospital in Frisco, Texas, and became CEO after it was completed.

THE POSITION

IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES OF NEW POSITION: "Understanding what I've got. In other words, I wasn't here from the startup. New hospitals are different from established hospitals. They're not better or worse, they're just different. My challenge right now is setting some direction for the hospital and getting the individual and the employees and the physicians and the community to understand once I've conveyed that message, where we're going, why we're going in that direction and get those people on the train."

WHAT IS THAT MESSAGE? "I'm still trying to formulate that. Right now, I'm still evaluating the operations, which are pretty good. There are always opportunities for improvement in some areas. Once I get an understanding, meet the doctors and get involved with the community a little bit and find out what everybody is saying, along with some of my own thoughts of where we ought to be, I'll be putting something out in the next couple of months."

WHAT'S AHEAD? "I think Lakewood Ranch has tremendous potential. I see a lot of opportunities here to bring a lot of services closer to the people of northeastern Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton.

"The biggest thing for a new hospital is two things, creating awareness that the hospital is here and letting people know the services they have available. You're creating an identity for the hospital and that's what I'm working on right now."

- Adam Hughes