'One of the hottest trends is the move toward consumerism'
Q: How do you describe your company?
A: We are a locally responsive, regionally relevant health care organization that is committed to improving the health of the communities we serve.
Q: What's new at the hospital?
A: We were recently named one of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. by both Truven Health Analytics and Becker's Hospital Review. We were also named by Truven Health as one of the top 50 Heart Hospitals in the nation. Clinically, we continue to add state-of-the art procedures, particularly in our cardiovascular, oncology and neurosciences areas. We are also continuing our ambulatory growth, by adding new immediate care centers, primary care centers and walk-in clinics.
Q: You recently started here. What did you do before?
A: Prior to this role, I was the system vice president of physician and ambulatory network as well as the president of Edward-Elmhurst's joint venture division.
Q: What are your goals in starting this position?
A: Essentially, I'd like to maintain the phenomenal culture that Pam Davis has developed in this organization and help prepare it to meet our future challenges.
Q: What will your main challenges be in the next year?
A: Reductions in reimbursements for health care services, changes in payment methodologies: moving from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance models, and further consolidation of health care providers in the Chicago area.
Q: What's the hottest trend in your industry?
A: One of the hottest trends is the move toward consumerism. Consumers (patients) are much savvier as they shop for health care services. We understand their needs and are responding to them. We are developing a wide variety of tools and programs such as online scheduling, walk-in clinics, real-time wait time updates for our ERs and Immediate Care centers, e-visits, video visits and price-shopping tools.
Q: From a business outlook who do you look up to?
A: Locally, Pam Davis is a tremendous role model. Nationally, there's no singular person that I look up to, but I do try glean wisdom from a variety of business leaders across industries.
Q: If you had to give one tip to a rookie CEO or president, what would it be?
A: Tap into the experience and wisdom of your colleagues.
Q: Do you have a business mantra?
A: Think bigger.
Q: What is one interesting fact about you or your company that most people may not know?
A: We have the second busiest (by number of patient visits) emergency department in the state of Illinois.
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: In addition to spending time with my family, I usually like to remain fairly active, so I enjoy working out, golfing and traveling.
Q: What book is on your nightstand?
A: I'm currently rereading "Being Mortal," by Atul Gawande. As health care providers, I believe we need to do a better job of helping patients and their families with end-of-life decisions and helping patients die with dignity.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: It depends on the day, but usually I'm wondering how I can better prepare for tomorrow's challenges.
Q: What was your first paying job?
A: I was a newspaper delivery boy. I got my first route when I was 11½ years old (I told them I was 12, so I could meet the minimum age requirement).
Q: If you could put your company name on a sports venue, which one would you choose?
A: Soldier Field (Go Bears!).
Q: What is one funny thing that has happened to you in your career?
A: When I first joined the hospital, and was fairly new to health care, I was the "administrator on-call" during one of the bad floods that we experienced in Naperville.
In evaluating the difficulty of getting patients and staff to the hospital, I made the erroneous decision to cancel all elective surgeries, which put many of our surgeons in an uproar. That decision was rather quickly overruled by our CEO (Pam) and everything turned out fine.
And no, my colleagues have not let me live that down.
Bill Kottmann
<b>President & CEO, Edward Hospital</b>801 S. Washington, Naperville, IL 60540
Industry: Health care
Annual Sales (revenue): $700 million
Number of employees: 5,800
Website: www.eehealth.org
Age: 62
Family Information: Married, with two married daughters and two grandchildren.
Hometown: Naperville