A new calling

PALMER — Much of the first decade of John Lee’s 22 years in the military consisted of parachuting out of airplanes and crawling his way through jungles of Central America as a medical platoon leader.

That sort of thing is bound to lead a man to ask himself certain questions.

“Do I really want to be doing this the rest of my life?” Lee still recalls asking himself. “I was asking for guidance and what would be my purpose. I knew health care was it. I knew I always wanted to do something to help me and serve the health needs of the community.”

Not a physician, Lee found the administrative path to be his best way to serve that desire. The last seven years of that climb have had him as chief executive officer of the Mat-Su Regional Health Center, but that run will come to an end on May 5 when he steps aside to begin working in Anchorage as the executive director of ResCare, the nation’s largest provider for home and community services for people with special needs and disabilities.

“I’ve always had a passion for people with special needs,” Lee said. “I’m at the last part of my career where, financially, I’m able to step down from a role such as this and be in position to serve in a capacity the community of those with special needs.”

Lee’s replacement is expected to be announced this week.

Lee’s seven-year run at MSRMC was one of exponential growth likely not seen anywhere else in the country, as the hospital scrambled to keep up with a growing population and growing demand for specialized health care. All told, the hospital added 115 providers in his time as CEO, including specialists from all across the country, and it added state-of-the-art equipment to supply that talent.

“We’ve grown as an organization in many ways,” Lee said. “We’ve been able to recruit and bring some exceptionally talented people in.”

Technological firsts for Alaska included robotic assist and stealth navigation spinal surgery equipment, and in terms of distinction in treatment, MSMRC became the state’s first accredited chest pain center, as well as its first primary stroke certification and senior services facility.

MSRMC was the only hospital in Alaska to get top performer and key quality measures certification, the only hospital out of more than 430 nationwide to earn that distinction three years in a row. Twice in the last three years MSRMC has been named one of the ‘best places to work in health care.’

Growing up in a military family, and enlisting in the army as an adult, moving was anything but strange to Lee and his family. That was until they arrived in Alaska.

“In the industry, the average time for CEOs is three years. I had every intention of beating that average, but I didn’t really envision how long that would be,” he said. “I knew I liked Alaska and within months of getting here, we realized Alaska was home.”

Lee said the move to the Valley was the 21st of his life, and his 16th since he was married.

“We’ve always loved the outdoors and the seasons, so we instantly fell in love with Alaska,” Lee said. “I had every intention from early on of making a home here as the CEO until I was able to step down.”

Among the programs Lee kickstarted at MSRMC was Project SEARCH, which, through a one-year internship at the hospital, trains and enables intellectually and/or physically challenged people to join the workforce. When that launched shortly after Lee’s arrival, it, too, was an Alaska first.

“That’s really allowed us to be connected to the community,” Lee said. “It really permeates everyone on the leadership staff and it’s part of the culture here I’m just so proud of.”

While Lee’s seven years in Alaska have coincided with an unprecedented explosion of medical care and growth statewide, those years have also seen costs continue to rise.

“A lot of (higher Alaska prices) are based on a shortage of providers,” Lee said. “And at the end of the day, our costs are higher. Labor costs are significantly higher than in the lower 48; so are transportation costs, so there are a lot of drivers that make Alaska very unique. Longer, colder winters mean higher utility bills… but a lot of it is dealing with a shortage of services.”

As to whether the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, which Congress failed to repeal last week, was good for Alaska — one of the state’s to expand Medicaid under the law — that’s a more complicated matter.

“The ACA has done some good things for Alaska. It’s allowed some people to access insurance, and again, that was a good thing because otherwise they didn’t have it,” Lee said. “But the ACA had some fundamental flaws needed to be fixed if it’s going to survive and be a model to serve Alaska. It did result in increasing health care premiums for the population, so there are areas of improvement that need to be made to the ACA.”

Lee said, all in all, it was probably for the best that the American Health Care Act did not become law.

“In the near term it’s good for Alaska in that it allows some stability,” Lee said. “A lot of state laws were passed based on the ACA. If the federal government changed that and made unique laws, that would be a challenge to manage in all the uncertainty.”

Whatever the political wranglings at the federal level, Lee said it full speed ahead for his successor and the staff he leaves behind at MSRMC.

“The last three years we’ve grown at about 10 percent a year, well ahead of community growth, so now we’re at the point that we need to expand,” Lee said. “We’re going through the design phase at the hospital… we have two new urgent care centers opening shortly, a new medical office buildings of the hospital, expansion doubling in size the next two to three years, so we’ll be able to situate ourselves to be really viable to provide several decades of top-notch care.”

Just a month away from handing the reins to his successor, Lee has pretty easy advice to offer.

“Have a great time and enjoy Alaska and really, that’s it,” Lee said. “Enjoy this organization because it’s a great organization… Being the CEO in this organization is like I’m the backseat rider in a two-up snowmachine. Just provide encouragement, support, direction because the other people are really making it happen.”