JOLIET – Kathleen Rhine, new CEO at Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center, said the death of her husband last year gave her a different view of health care.
“Before Doug’s cancer, I thought I knew a lot about health care,” she said. “When you become a patient, or a patient’s family member, you look at things with a whole new set of eyes.”
Rhine said she saw “things I’d like to see work better in health care.”
She did not know then she would become the chief executive of a hospital. But what she learned about health care during her husband’s battle with cancer became “an inspiration for this new role,” Rhine said last week.
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“The wonderful moments when people take some time with you mean more than you can ever imagine,” Rhine said.
Rhine has been on the job five weeks. She was named regional president and CEOat Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center and Presence St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee after the resignation of Beth Hughes.
Rhine did not shed any light on her predecessor’s unexpected departure.
“Beth was a colleague. Out of respect for her, I would not want to speculate about what went into her decision,” she said.
Rhine did say her new role as CEO was unexpected. A big part of her job will be to continue the work Hughes and the hospital had done before her.
“I’ve just been stunned since I’ve been here,” she said. She pointed to “the strength of the clinical programs. We have 100 patients a month that transfer here from other hospitals.”
The Joliet hospital, which has 500 beds, was the largest hospital in the Provena system when it merged with Resurrection Health in 2011 to become Presence Health. The Joliet hospital is the largest in Presence Health.
Rhine did not have much experience in Joliet before becoming CEO. But she had been to the hospital and knew much about it. She was the chief transformation officer overseeing the merger of the Provena and Resurrection systems.
“When we did the merger, it was almost like the two systems were bookends – six hospitals and six hospitals, 12 nursing homes and 12 nursing homes,” Rhine said.
Both also were Catholic health systems. There are five congregations of nuns that are part of Presence Health, having founded the hospitals that make up the network.
The Joliet hospital was started in 1882 by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, whose mother house is in Mokena. The sisters no longer run the hospital, but they remain in close contact. Rhine had lunch with a group of the Franciscan Sisters last week.
“They got into hospital work when nobody wanted to work at hospitals,” Rhine said. “They have a strong interest in seeing not only that the work continues, but the spirit.”
While Rhine’s new assignment may have come unexpectedly, her resume indicates she was prepared for the job.
Rhine was senior vice president of patient and family center care after joining Presence Health in 2010. She previously was with the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she was a chief operating officer and was responsible for redevelopment of a 537-bed hospital.
She is originally from the Philadelphia area and now lives in Chicago. Rhine has a master’s degree in business from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in health planning and administration from Pennsylvania State University.
Date: March 21, 2015