Every autumn for at least a decade (until COVID) Mark Evans would climb into his car & make the long drive from Columbus, Ohio to Nashville. Just to wish me a Happy Birthday.
We would lunch & often review memories of our decade (update 1995) as members of the leadership team that guided Riverside Methodist Hospital from average to exceptional. That dream team laid the foundation that lifted RMH to top ten status & enabled it to become the flagship, in 1984, for the U.S. Health (now OhioHealth) multi-hospital system.
After lunch, despite entreaties that he stay over night, Mark would climb back into his car & make the long drive home.
"Why," I often asked him, "would you drive so far just for lunch." His answer was always the same. Gratitude.
He would tell me I gave him his finest opportunity & brought out the best in him. In fact, the credit goes to him.
One hundred percent of great organizations have great cultures & great Human Resources leadership. The seeds were there (along with weeds) when I hired Mark. By the time he & other leaders left, Riverside was a thriving garden offering nourishment to hundreds of thousands.
Some facts. By 1995, turnover had dropped from from over 20% to 8%. Employee & patient satisfaction was at an all time high. Riverside was picked as "One of America's Best Places to Work" by Working Mother Magazine, referenced in the book The Service Edge as one of America's top three best service organizations & honored by ABC News as a top ten hospital.
Back then, it seemed everyone wanted to work at Riverside & no one wanted to leave. Openings were filled as fast as they appeared because there were sometimes ten applicants for open positions.
When I expressed that the first job of leaders was to take care of the people who take care of people, Mark took me seriously. He would be the first to credit his team. They included, among many others, Carol Stanley, who, with Mark, led the effort to create a world class day care center on campus & coordinated the establishment of on-campus shopping via a Kroger's, Dry Cleaners & video rental facility in the middle of the parking lot; the late, wonderful, Marcy Alton who developed the best employee recognition program I've ever seen, & Colleen Pero, who labored to ensure fair benefits for all staff.
HR oversaw the whole process for hiring, promotions, terminations & training at RMH. Gene Rhodes, Mary Alice Rice, Diane Schaub & Sharon Smeltz were key team members. Because we were looking for certain personality types in our culture, outside psychologists Thaddeus O’Brien & Andy Passon were important guides. Ron Cadieux (who passed away very recently) offered wonderful guidance to ensure that our training & orientation programs were integral in developing a culture of what is now called Radical Loving Care®.
Mark, along with our magnificent Chaplain, the late Bob Davis, supported the entire effort to deliver loving care that honored RMH's mission as a faith-based hospital.
If you are making a list of leaders who made Riverside great during that period be sure & include Mark Evans...& put lots of gold stars next to his name! Across 45 years of healthcare leadership, he is the best HR leader I ever encountered. That is because he is also one of the finest men I know.
On behalf of everyone in our great Riverside of those days, & everyone who wonders how Riverside became the best of what it is today, thank you, Mark.
-Erie Chapman
https://www.eriechapmanfoundation.net/
Photograph of Mark Evans by Barb Schwartz. @1993 http://www.barbschwartzphotography.com/
