by Andrew Barna

I am the guy that always sat at the front of the class. I wasn’t always the best student nor did I make the highest grades, but I was always engaged. In these early days of my career as a hospital administrator, I find myself again in the role of eager student. I am not the professor. I don’t have all the answers, but I have a long career in healthcare ahead of me and I am interested in how healthcare and hospitals evolve over the next few decades.

My front-row-sitting started at Baylor University, where I studied psychology (B.A.) and philosophy (M.A.). My interest in ethics, the experience of illness, and technology steered me toward bioethics. Fortuitously, it wasn’t until after I attended a hospital bioethics meeting that I realized that I wasn’t cut out for a career in bioethics. At that meeting, I saw the role of the hospital administrator and took a leap of faith. That led me to the University of Iowa for my MHA, where I discovered the complex world of hospitals and healthcare.

My current role, Director of Strategic Development for a hospital in the Bay Area of California, has given me a front row seat to an organization that shares many of the same challenges as other urban hospitals across the country. I have been blessed in this role to take on a number of projects around the hospital and to be a part of an executive team that is transforming a hospital. My hope is that my posts will encourage discussion on where hospitals and healthcare should be headed and how we can get there.

Note from Tony: look for Andrew's hospital leadership insights every Wednesday here on Hospital Impact (and every Tuesday at Healthcare Tomorrow). Email Andrew at andrew[at]hospitalimpact[dot]org

UPDATE 12/2005: Andrew has moved on to the next chapter in his healthcare career.