Dr. Brian Harte’s office at Cleveland Clinic Akron General’s main downtown Akron campus has one piece of furniture you might not expect.
Right in front of a window, where he can see patients walking to and from the hospital’s main parking deck, is a treadmill desk.
The treadmill maxes out at 2 miles per hour, enough to keep Harte moving while checking emails on his standing desk or talking on conference calls, but without getting him out of breath.
“I tell everyone in the office they’re welcome to use it when I’m not here, but shockingly no one takes me up on it,” Harte quipped during a recent interview.
When he’s not on the treadmill, Harte is likely logging lots of miles on foot as he leads Akron General’s main Akron hospital, Lodi Community Hospital, Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Institute, three health and wellness centers, a hospice and Visiting Nurse Service and Affiliates. Since taking over leadership last fall of one of Summit County’s largest employers, Harte has been getting active in the Akron community while integrating the hospital into the Cleveland Clinic system.
He’s spending time with other leaders and serving as the voice of Akron General and the Akron region at the Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland.
He jokes about his first day on the job in September, when he asked for a tour of Akron with Mayor Dan Horrigan. They had Swensons for lunch.
“I had never heard of it being from Cleveland, so I ordered the Salad Boy (a veggie burger). He looked at me and said ‘Really?’” Harte recalled of Horrigan’s response to the vegetarian’s choice at an Akron icon.
“It seems like yesterday I was riding around with the mayor and embarrassing myself at Swensons....but at the same time, it has been an intense and just amazing experience that sometimes it feels like I’ve never worked anywhere else.”
Local voice
Harte, 47, is Akron General’s first president since Dr. Thomas “Tim” Stover, who spent the majority of his career at the health system, abruptly retired. Stover had helped usher the deal in 2014 for the Clinic to become the minority owner and then take ownership after a year.
There was apprehension about integration from the Clinic, said Dr. Jennifer Savitski, residency program director and incoming department chair of the Akron General obstetrics and gynecology department. She also is the medical director for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program.
Savitski, a 16-year-hospital employee, said she’s been impressed with Harte’s hands-on approach to leadership. When her department members started talking to him about their needs, he came up to the floors to talk to the staff and examine the rooms. “I was very impressed for a hospital president to take the time and energy and to turn those around and act on those and advocate on those,” she said.
Harte, a native of Green Bay, Wisc., who spent some of his childhood in Cincinnati, has been with the Clinic since 2004. He came to Akron after three years as president of the 500-bed Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights. Before that, he was president of South Pointe Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic facility in Warrensville Heights.
He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
When Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove recently came to Akron to give his first community report and assure the community that the Clinic was “here in Akron to stay in Akron,” it was music to the ears of Dr. Titus Sheers, chairman of Akron General’s medical education and research program and on staff for nearly 20 years.
Similarly, Harte “has made it clear, ‘My job is to represent you and our community back to the main campus,’” Sheers said.
“It became clear over the course of the first couple of months that we really got their A team,” Sheers said. “If I had my top 10 list of things to do, he’s doing them.”
Sheers said he’s been impressed with a more robust “executive rounding” program that Harte has instituted, taking several hours to stop by patients’ rooms to “make sure the patients’ voices are understood. He’s very intentional.”
Since Harte is a trained hospitalist, or doctor who cares for patients within the hospital, it adds to his skill set when speaking to and observing patients and hospital operations, Sheers said.
Harte hasn’t had the opportunity yet, but said he plans to work some shifts and he would like to do some teaching of the medical residents. Harte said that’s part of the physician leader model at the Clinic, where administrators are also practicing physicians.
“It’s one thing to implement policy and try to lead change and its another to quite literally walk the walk,” he said.
Savitsky said she didn’t fully appreciate that model until seeing it in action. For Harte to want to take a call, that’s impressive, she said.
“It’s unique that they are able to carve out that time and still have their boots on the ground so that they can fully understand how the administrative decisions are affecting the daily clinical experience,” she said.
Goals
Harte said his goals for Akron General and its 5,800 employees include “first and foremost to make the Cleveland Clinic resources available to Akron General and the Akron community and to make it the best place to receive care and frankly the best place to work in all of health care and all of Northeast Ohio.” Akron General is considered the southern hub of the Cleveland Clinic system. It is the Clinic’s second-largest hospital and Akron’s second-largest employer, behind rival Summa Health.
Harte also wants to connect with the community and partner on “some clear and pressing needs” and what the Clinic can do to help with health care and wellness.
The Clinic is in the midst of a $49 million emergency room project being built at the Akron General main campus, which will triple the size of the existing ER. In addition, the Clinic is building a 72,000-square-foot, 60-bed Cleveland Clinic Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Hospital in Bath Township that is set to complete later this year. Edwin Shaw currently is located in Cuyahoga Falls.
Dr. J. Stephen Jones, president of Cleveland Clinic Regional Hospitals & Family Health Centers, praised Harte for bringing “a remarkable combination of integrity, intellect and common sense to everything he does.
“This was key to the successful integration of Akron General with Cleveland Clinic,” Jones said. “His focus on patients and our communities is always out front.”
Harte has quickly become very involved in the Akron community, said S. Theresa Carter, president of the Akron General medical center board of directors and president of Omnova Solutions Foundation.
He’s met with other Akron community leaders and spoken in front of the Akron Roundtable. Later this month, Carter will be interviewing him for a Leadership on Main event with Leadership Akron.
“We’re very excited about his leadership and his commitment to this community,” she said.
Harte said while he was familiar with Akron, he has appreciated the richness of the community in his time.
Harte, who lives in Shaker Heights with his wife and three kids between the ages of 8 and 13, said he hasn’t had time to consider whether to move the family to Akron. His kids started school as he started his new job.
Sheers said where Harte lives isn’t a “litmus test” in his opinion on his commitment.
“He’s regionally active and there’s a commitment locally,” Sheers said.
Harte said his commitment to Akron is to build the system “so patients can receive as much of their care in their community.”
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty