Outgoing North Shore Hospital and Care Center Administrator Diane Pearson. She will be stepping down on August 20, 2010 after 21 years in her current position, having helped the facility navigate many changes, challenges, and improvements.
Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center Administrator Diane Pearson has seen a lot of changes in the field of health care since she started her job in July of 1989. She reflected on those changes as she prepared to step down after 21 years at the helm.
“We’ve moved along with the world of business into technology,” Pearson said. No more hand-written ledgers and hardto decipher patient notes. Computers were rare in small organizations like this one back in 1989. Pearson now finds it hard to imagine how hospitals could function without technology, both on the business end and the patient care end.
“It feels to me like we are more heavily regulated,” she added. Employees spend more time documenting and justifying what they do, and that takes a lot of time.
Another change is that the Care Center is no longer a moneymaker. “Nursing homes used to be, if not profitable, at least able to carry their own weight,” Pearson said. The reimbursement system has flipped, however, with hospitals getting the better end of the deal now.
Nursing homes once cared mostly for people whose main problems were challenges related to their advanced age, Pearson said. Now, many Care Center residents have complex physical illnesses that would have put them in the hospital years ago. Fortunately, more options are available today, from in-home senior care to assisted living facilities.
Pearson’s last official day on the job is Friday, August 20, 2010, but she will be available to answer questions beyond that date. Her replacement, Kimber Wraalstad, will be in her place Monday, August 23 (a future Cook County News-
Herald
article will feature an interview with her).
Pearson earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics from the University of Minnesota and then moved to Cook County where her husband, Floyd, had grown up. She worked as a nursing assistant for a time but then took a position as the hospital’s financial administrator, a job similar to that of current Controller Yvonne Gennrich, prior to replacing former administrator Craig Kantos. She took graduate courses in geriatrics and earned licensure in longterm care.
When Pearson started, it was common for people to move into administration from other positions within a hospital. By contrast, Wraalstad, the new administrator, is coming in with a master of health administration degree and experience as president and CEO of a medical center in Rolla, North Dakota.
What does Pearson hope for North Shore Hospital and Care Center? She hopes that “it will continue to be an organization that has very competent, very caring people working for it.” Over the course of the hospital’s 51-year history, people have received quality care, Pearson said. “I would certainly like that to continue.” She hopes it will continue to be able to respond to the needs of the community. She was not sure whether everyone even knows the breadth of services that are available here now.
In addition to lauding the hospital’s staff, Pearson expressed gratitude for the commitment of hospital board members who have served unselfishly over the years. “They’ve served out of a desire to make this a really good community,” she said.
Pearson is not sure what she will do next. “I’ve never not worked,” she said. She has plenty of energy and lots of interests. “I still enjoy working in health care. I think it’s an exciting field.”
What will she plan for her future? “Thatwill be on my list for next week.”
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