Community Leadership Award, Honorable mention: Oostra

When Randy Oostra was 30 years old, he stumbled upon his career epiphany. Oostra, who grew up in a small town settled by Dutch immigrants in northwest Iowa, was a healthcare consultant traveling across the Midwest. He worked with small safety net hospitals that were the lifeblood of their respective communities. But he and his wife, Barbara, were getting to a point in their lives where they wanted to stop traveling.

So they hit the reset button.

They quit their jobs and went back to college for graduate degrees. Oostra, wanting to get more involved with a single hospital system and help enhance the health of a defined community, studied hospital administration. But it was a big risk.

At the time, Oostra and his wife had two children (now three) and were living in an apartment building that they cleaned in exchange for free rent. Neither one had health insurance. They held various other part-time jobs—cleaning a bank at night, doing income taxes—to get by.

“Our parents thought we were completely nuts,” said Oostra, 59, president and CEO of ProMedica, a health system based in Toledo, Ohio. “It was probably some of the simplest and greatest times of our lives.”

When Oostra first arrived at ProMedica, he thought he would stay only a couple of years. Oostra has been there now for almost 18 years, and he's led the 13-hospital system for more than five years.

Barbara Petee, ProMedica's chief advocacy and government relations officer, said Oostra has been a driving force to improve healthcare in Toledo. Oostra spearheaded the idea of a downtown population-health center that will open next year. The building will include a full-service grocery market and kitchens to teach people how to cook healthy foods. ProMedica also has hosted summits with the Alliance to End Hunger to help shine a light on the role hunger and poor nutrition play in the physical and mental development of community residents.

“It's Randy who has stood up at these summits and has said the healthcare industry can and must have a role in addressing the social determinants,” Petee said.

ProMedica is slogging through a heated battle with the Federal Trade Commission to retain ownership of a small hospital in town. Oostra said the acquisition of St. Luke's Hospital had nothing to do with gaining leverage over private payers. ProMedica had planned to build a competing hospital several years before, and it decided to bring in St. Luke's rather than duplicate services in the area.

“Healthcare is local,” he said. “It's all about doing the right things for the community.”

Follow Bob Herman on Twitter: @MHbherman