Paxson looking forward to taking the reins at UNC Health Blue Ridge

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gary Paxson, who will become the new President and CEO of UNC Health Blue Ridge on Sept. 1, recently sat down for an extended video interview with Editor Emeritus Bill Poteat in which he talked about his background and his hopes for the future of healthcare in Burke County.

The answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tell us a bit about your personal background. Where did you grow up, schools attended, and past professional positions?

I am 52. My dad attended three seminaries when I was very young and we moved a lot. I mainly grew up in a little town called Kokomo, Ind. (Sixty miles north of Indianapolis and 85 miles south of South Bend.) He wanted to be a pastor, but he ended up being a CFO for a mission agency that sent missionaries overseas. I went to college for a little while in Ohio and that’s where I met my wife.

She lived in northern Illinois and I followed her and I received my nursing degree from St. Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford, Ill. That’s where I got my bachelor’s degree, my BSN in nursing. (Paxson later received a master’s degree from Bellevue University.)

What led you to pursue a career in health care?

I love telling this story. I actually had two incidents when I was four years old. I broke my elbow. Six months later, I got out of the cast, fell off of a slide, and broke it in the exact same place. It healed very abnormally. When I was 7, my parents took me to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and he said, ‘We need to fix that.’ And so I had to have surgery. It was in-patient. I remember vividly being taken to the operating room, and the guy who transported me to the operating room. We’re waiting outside and he’s at the foot of the gurney, and he’s just swinging this huge pair of scissors. And I was thinking, ‘I’m going to die today.’ A terrifying experience.

Had surgery, went upstairs. The nurses and everyone involved were very kind, very gracious. They took me down to the play area. And they were all just very comforting. That whole experience, you’d think the fear would have driven me away, but it actually attracted me to health care. It gave me the idea that I want to help other people who are scared. I want to be their advocate. I want to help them get better. That resonated with me all through grade school, high school, and on into college.

We know that you began your career as a registered nurse. How does starting on the “front lines” impact your administrative decisions?

That has a significant impact on me. It’s difficult to quantify. Every month at our orientation I speak to our new employees and I tell them that what drove me into healthcare was the passion for taking care of people. That’s still what gets me out of bed today. And now, I have the blessing of not only fulfilling that mission of patient care, but I also get to protect and serve all those who are working to serve those patients.

What accomplishments are you most proud of during your service (the last six years) as leader of White River Health System (in Batesville, Ark.)?

We have made huge improvements in the quality of care. That’s very gratifying. We’ve also made dramatic improvements in the culture, both inside the organization and in our community. In health care, we all are servants. And I wanted to get back to the community seeing us again as servants. We’ve made huge strides and I’ve had multiple people thank me for what we’ve done. We also launched a rebranding campaign and it was very much symbolic of what we had done with the culture.

What made the top post at UNC Health Blue Ridge appealing to you?

When the recruiter reached out and I looked at the opportunity, I researched a lot. I saw an organization that was aligned very tightly with my passion. Not only for serving, but for doing it really well. I saw what had been accomplished here, for decades. I heard of how beloved Kathy Bailey is and what she had done in terms of building an organization. I saw an organization that had taken great strides in the past but who had an exciting future ahead of them.

How would you describe your style of leadership?

A couple of things come to mind. I would call myself a servant leader at heart. Again, back to the roots of being at the bedside, I know what people are going through. I’m also very collaborative. Whenever possible, I like to sit down and visit with people. Get their thoughts. Get their ideas. What’s working. What’s not working. On top of that, I’m also very data driven. I like to look at information and make sure that empirically it connects back to the message being sent. Sort of the old Ronald Reagan approach, ‘Trust but verify.’ You put those things together and I’d say that’s my leadership style.

Upon taking over the reins at UNC Health Blue Ridge, what will your method of discernment be for learning the organization’s strengths and potential areas for improvement?

That’s a good segue from the last question. As I said, my style is very collaborative. I will be meeting with as many groups as possible. The board, the executive team, the medical staff, front line staff. In those conversations, you look for patterns. What are messages that are being repeated consistently by multiple people and multiple groups? Is there any divergence by any one person or one group? You take that information. You figure out who your trusted advisors are. You take that information and you align it with data and see how this correlates to that. The goal is to put together a complete picture. A lot of collaboration, a lot of listening.

What are you most looking forward to about your new position at UNC Health Blue Ridge?

Wow! There are so many things I am excited about. Such an amazing foundation for the future has been built here. Kathy Bailey will leave behind such an amazing legacy. I’m simply looking forward to the future and to seizing new opportunities for growth and for continuing to strengthen our ties with the community.

Burke County’s unofficial designation is “Nature’s Playground.” Will you be taking advantage of and enjoying all that our natural environment offers here?

One of my favorite forms of recreation is simply to go for a walk. And I’m very impressed with what an amazing trail system Burke County has and how many beautiful places there are to go for a walk.

Unlike my wife, I’m also a fan of the water, and I’m really looking forward to catching up with some like-minded people and going rafting here.

Anything else you’d like to tell the people of Burke County?

I want to reiterate again just how honored I am to have been chosen for this position of trust. My whole family, my wife and my kids, are wired to serve. We’re looking forward to becoming engaged in this community and becoming a part of this community.