*Laurie Eberst Named Healing Hospital
CEO of the Year
Arizona Hospital Chief is model of Loving Leadership
Laurie Eberst, President and CEO of Mercy Gilbert Hospital, part of the
Catholic Health West Health System, has been named Healing Hospital CEO of the
Year for 2008 by the Nashville, Tennessee-based Baptist Healing Trust (The
Trust.)
“The six-member national panel was unanimous in selecting Laurie Eberst,” according to Erie Chapman, President & CEO of the Baptist Healing Trust. “Ms. Eberst is the epitome the kind of leader this award was designed to recognize. She is simultaneously strong-minded and compassionate. Her leadership has enabled the growth of an exception culture of radical loving care at Mercy Gilbert.” Chapman continued.
Ms. Eberst is the second CEO to receive this recognition from the Baptist Healing Trust. George Mikitarian, President and CEO of Parrish Medical Center,Titusville, Florida was last year’s recipient.
Eberst’s
loving leadership is contagious. As Kim Hashim, vice president and chief
nursing officer at Mercy Gilbert said in NurseWeek
magazine, “We have learned that providing a loving and compassionate
environment that is aesthetically pleasing promotes healing.”
This
loving contagion spreads to frontline staff as well. “Radical loving care is an outflow of an
inner reality of love, compassion, kindness, peace, patience, goodness,
self-control, and joy,” says Libby Pierce, RN. “As a pediatric nurse, I look
and listen to the whole heart of a person, of a child and their family and I go
the extra mile to meet the spoken – and the unspoken – needs.”
Throughout
her career, Eberst, originally trained as an R.N., has established a strong
reputation as a loving leader who knew how to integrate her nurse training with
superb leadership ability. Integrity, compassion, and caring are hallmarks of
her leadership style. She stays in close touch with first line staff by
rounding regularly, conducting question and answer sessions, and visiting
patients.
Eberst
was
an early advocate of the concepts of Radical Loving Care and Sacred
Work
advanced by the Trust. Her assistant, Jan Reed, even designed a
lapel-pin
version of the three-part symbol of Radical Loving Care which is now
distributed nationally by the Trust. As one travels with Eberst around
Mercy Gilbert, it is easy to see why she's been successful. Her
interactions with employees are a model of loving leadership.
The
Baptist Healing Trust extends its congratulations to Laurie Eberst for winning
recognition as Healing Hospital CEO of the Year for 2008. We believe she will
always represent the best in what hospital leadership should be for
organizations that care about both mission and overall excellence.
-Erie Chapman
