“After Covid Took His Father, a Hospital Boss Leans on His Wisdom”

2020 was a challenging year for Tony Slonim, the Chief Executive of Renown Health, a regional hospital network based in Reno, Nevada. In late March, he received word that his father, back in New Jersey, was admitted and diagnosed with Covid-19.

2020 was a challenging year for Tony Slonim, the Chief Executive of Renown Health, a regional hospital network based in Reno, Nevada. In late March, he received word that his father, back in New Jersey, was admitted and diagnosed with Covid-19. Slonim was torn between heading back to NJ to be with his father or stay the course and plan for the next wave of the pandemic, including the construction of a new $11 million project to convert a hospital parking garage into an overflow ward with hundreds of beds. Slonim realized that there was not much he could do to change his father’s outcome, but there was work he could do to protect the people in his community.

In testing his physician leadership style, Tony Slonim sought guidance in memories of conversations. When he was ready to present the new Covid-19 ward to the press. He received the call that his father was gone.

Dr. Slonim’s basic prescription for crisis management this: Remember that you’re not omnipotent. You have biases and blind spots. But you’re also a human being with beliefs and values. When professional challenges crash into personal struggles, there’s no safety in theoretical constructs. “You could write the best white paper in the world about what to do in a pandemic until you don’t have any more beds,” he says. “And then what?” “Stay humble and keep your head down.”

Read the entire story here , published Dec. 19, 2021

Anthony (Tony) Slonim, Editor-in-Chief for the AAPL Physician Leadership Journal (PLJ) profiled in the Wall Street Journal