Members of MemorialCare Health System’s executive team laugh and smile with comfortable ease as they talk about how they do their jobs and work with each other.
Their camaraderie reflects a familiarity borne of longevity—many of the Fountain Valley-based nonprofit hospital operator’s executives have put in 10 years or more with MemorialCare.
“Most everyone on this team has actually been with the company for many, many years,” said Chief Executive Barry Arbuckle, himself a 20-year veteran. “Everyone has grown with the organization and has been promoted into higher and higher positions.”
Steve Geidt, chief executive of MemorialCare’s Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, has been with MemorialCare nearly 29 years.
Rick Graniere, senior vice president and chief financial officer, joined in 1983.
And Diana Hendel, chief executive of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital, started nearly two decades ago as a pharmacist.
“One of the strengths of the team is that we have that longevity,” Arbuckle said. “People see there’s an ability to be promoted within the organization and take on bigger roles.”
Grooming executives and promoting is big at MemorialCare, which runs five hospitals in Orange County and Long Beach and has yearly revenue of $1.6 billion.
MemorialCare employs 10,895 workers, including 5,591 in OC. Its hospitals include Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley and Saddleback Memorial, which has campuses in Laguna Beach and San Clemente.
Tammie McMann Brailsford, a nurse by training who earlier was chief operating officer of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, is MemorialCare’s second in command.
“She’s clearly No. 2 in terms of the ranking—a lot of the operations of the system and of the hospitals report up to and through her,” Arbuckle said.
Arbuckle, 47, said Brailsford is “certainly capable” of running MemorialCare if he ever were to leave.
MemorialCare doesn’t identify an heir apparent per se, according to Arbuckle. He said he meets with board members and talks about people who could move up.
The biggest challenge facing MemorialCare is how healthcare reform will play out, according to Brailsford.
“How things are going to be restructured just isn’t clear to anyone yet,” she said.
Executives at MemorialCare’s headquarters said they work closely with their hospital counterparts, as when they adopted an electronic medical records system.
Executives said they visited “command centers” set up to help the hospitals start using the records as a way of providing encouragement and cheerleading.
“We’ve prided ourselves on cross-pollination, so we don’t work in isolation,” said Hendel, chief executive of Long Beach Memorial.
The executives meet regularly and communicate via BlackBerrys and other forms of technology. They also take part in what MemorialCare calls task forces and “value-added teams” that seek to come up with effective ways of treating patients that can be adopted by all the hospitals.
Even as a nonprofit, business sense is key for MemorialCare’s executives, according to Arbuckle.
“The better we manage this business, the better the business does and all of that money goes right back into the community,” he said.
Like other hospital operators, MemorialCare’s executives are driven by a sense of purpose.
“Though we’re a business, every day we profoundly make a difference in the lives of others,” Hendel said. “We are committed to caring for one another—not just our patients, but each other.”
Executives said they are given room to do their jobs.
“Barry guides us as a team, rather than rules us as a team,” said Brennan James, vice president of business development.
Arbuckle leads in an “evidence-based” way, according to Geidt, head of Saddleback Memorial. He makes sure MemorialCare’s executives, doctors and managers find the best way to deliver healthcare, Geidt said.
David Lagrew Jr., MemorialCare’s medical director of physician informatics who also heads its physician society, called Arbuckle a “teacher” who is good with doctors.
MemorialCare grooms employees with its Memorial Academy, which started about 13 years ago. The yearlong program provides management training to roughly 20 handpicked managers.
Participants hear from ethics experts or, in one case, from a senior analyst from New York credit rating company Moody’s Corp.
MemorialCare also has a program to teach business skills to doctors.
The hospital operator holds retreats for senior executives, hospital officials and board members in places such as Indian Wells or in north San Diego County, “not Vegas or Hawaii,” Arbuckle said.
The retreats don’t have “a connotation of a boondoggle,” he said.
Outside the office, executives are involved in family activities, sports and hobbies.
Vice president of business development James spends time at soccer and gymnastics practice with her two daughters. Hendel’s 7-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son play soccer, basketball and Little League.
Brailsford summarizes her outside activities as “faith, family and fitness,” including riding a custom tandem bicycle made for herself, her husband and 10-year-old son.
Geidt, whose two sons are “grown and a bit off the payroll,” plays golf, goes to football games and enjoys cooking, which he finds “a release for me.”
Marcia Manker, head of Orange Coast Memorial and mother of twin college-age daughters, enjoys riding bicycles, hiking and cooking.
THE TEAM
Barry Arbuckle, 47, chief executive. With Memorial since 1989. Oversees executive team, five hospitals with $1.6 billion in yearly revenue. Earlier, ran Saddleback Memorial, Orange Coast Memorial. Serves on numerous boards, including Healthcare Leadership Council in Washington, D.C. Graduate of Missouri State University. Master’s from Arizona State. Doctorate from University of North Carolina. Married, four children.
Tammie Brailsford, 49, executive vice president, chief operating officer. With Memorial since 2003. Oversees five hospitals, shared services. Earlier worked at Long Beach Memorial, Miller Children’s Hospital. Master’s in healthcare management, Cal State Los Angeles. Nursing bachelor’s, Pacific Union College. Married to ophthalmologist Paul Brailsford. Enjoys riding custom triplet bicycle with husband, son.
Rick Graniere, 53, chief financial officer and treasurer. With Memorial since 1983. Previously was financial chief for Long Beach Memorial, Saddleback Memorial. Early on worked for Arthur Andersen. Bachelor’s in accounting from Cal State Northridge. CPA.
Karen Testman, 45, senior vice president, financial operations. With Memorial since 1998. Oversees financial operations at hospitals, overall financial functions. Earlier was CFO for Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. Started as nurse, spent five years in public accounting, focusing on healthcare. Accounting, finance degree from Loma Linda University.
Marcia Manker, 49, chief executive, Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center. With Memorial since 1996. Oversees Fountain Valley hospital’s operations, strategy development, business initiatives. Oversaw construction of patient care building that opened in October. Lives in Huntington Beach with husband, twin daughters. Family enjoys hiking, climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro.
Steve Geidt, 58, chief executive, Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. With Memorial since 1981. Runs hospital with facilities in Laguna Hills, San Clemente. Bachelor’s from Minnesota’s St. Olaf College. Master’s, hospital, healthcare administration, University of Minnesota. Earlier worked at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Methodist Hospital in Minneapolis, Francis Hospital in Wisconsin. Wife Ginger. Two sons.
Diana Hendel, 46, chief executive of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Miller Children’s Hospital since January. With Memorial since 1989. Has worked at all MemorialCare hospitals. Began career at Long Beach Memorial. Bachelor’s in biological sciences from UC Irvine. Doctorate, pharmacy, from UC San Francisco. Daughter, son.
Scott Joslyn, 55, senior vice president, chief information officer. With Memorial since 1979. Oversees networking, communications, staff of nearly 200. Earlier, was director of information services at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, executive account manager for healthcare technology outsourcing firm. Doctorate of pharmacy, University of the Pacific. MBA, UCLA.
Helen Cicino Fabian, 45, general counsel, senior vice president, human resources. With Memorial since 2006. Previously practiced law at Littler Mendelson. Earlier served as corporate counsel for Fortune 500 medical device maker. Law degree, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Bachelor’s in journalism, communications, USC.
