THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110255
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Glenn R. Mitchell doesn't believe in executive perks.
But on Thursday, his next-to-last day as chief executive officer of Sentara Health System, Mitchell gave in to a long-standing wish and took a ride in Nightingale, Sentara's air ambulance.
Strong winds buffeted the chopper as it rose into the air, but the pilot compensated and maneuvered above the medical complex surrounding Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The sunny weather afforded a marvelous view.
Mitchell looked down at the roof of Norfolk General, so much bigger now than when he started 24 years ago. The jewel in Sentara's crown, the first facility from which sprang a network of hospitals and other health care institutions.
So, what did he see?
He half-shrugs - an economical gesture. ``It looks about like you would imagine it looks.''
And so Mitchell, who built a local medical empire without building a cult of personality, is retiring with little public fanfare and a plan to read a few good books.
Mitchell grew up on a farm in South Dakota, a place of expansive horizons and hostile weather. After graduate school, he entered the equally temperamental climate of health care. His first job was in Minnesota, a region at the forefront of changes in the business.
He came to Hampton Roads from the medical center of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1971 as head of then-Norfolk General. He helped pilot the 1972 merger with Leigh Memorial Hospital, the first link in what became Sentara Health System.
Among other things, he oversaw the company's move into the insurance business with the formation of the Optima health maintenance organization in 1984, the merger with Hampton General Hospital in 1988 and the 1991 purchase of Sentara Bayside Hospital in Virginia Beach.
Mitchell avoids publicity, and he credits most of Sentara's gains to others: the board, doctors, junior administrators. Sentara's prescient move into managed care, he said, was because of the good advice of a consultant.
``The whole thing probably is not as carefully planned out as people think,'' he says.
But even competitors acknowledge that Mitchell has left his mark on health care in Virginia. Sentara was ahead of the curve on at least two fronts: the move to managed care, in which health delivery companies take on insurance medicine; and vertical integration, in which one company owns every aspect of care delivery, from clinics to ambulances to nursing homes to hospitals.
Mitchell, who turns 66 this spring, insists that his retirement will be just that, and not a move into a new business.
He'll continue to live in the same house in Virginia Beach's Larkspur neighborhood; to attend Our Saviour Lutheran Church; to fish; to jog on weekends around the lake at Mt. Trashmore, listening to ``Car Talk'' through headphones. He and his wife of 33 years, Shirley, want to travel while he's still spry enough to walk up to the Acropolis, he says with a laugh.
But he will maintain a small office at Sentara Norfolk General. He plans to spend about 10 hours a week writing for professional journals. He'll be replaced at Sentara by Chief Operating Officer David L. Bernd.
Mitchell is moving out of the company headquarters near Military Circle with just a few boxes. Most of his paperwork belongs to the company. Yet he's sentimental enough to remember that his first day was March 10, and to choose that date to retire.
He's ready. He says he could stand a break from the stress.
Still, ``I'd like to have 10 more years, and I'd like to be 20 years younger,'' he says with a smile. ``The new era is going to be much more exciting than anything I've ever seen.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Tamara Voninski, Staff
Glenn R. Mitchell...
by CNB