Gail Altekruse, vice president of operations, Parkview Southwest Outpatient Center, looks back on the lessons learned growing up in Fort Wayne and how they still apply in her current role, guiding the day-to-day decisions for the city’s southwest population.
My mom always wanted to be a nurse. She never got an opportunity to pursue that career, but she always wanted me to do something in healthcare. And so, as I got older, she pushed me towards science and math.
She also always wanted to make sure that I was thinking about being a working woman as I grew up, which was really kind of groundbreaking for that time. My dad was an entrepreneur, so he always wanted us to go to college.
Then, in high school, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at Byron Health Center in the physical therapy department, and I was hooked. Physical therapy just checked all the boxes for me. I got an opportunity to work one on one with and teach people.
Evidently, I made it look attractive because I have a daughter who's a physical therapist as well. And so, it truly has been kind of a calling.
Coming home again
Life changes being what they were, I left Fort Wayne. The joke was, at one point in time I could practice from Canada to Cuba because I had a license in every state.
I came back to Fort Wayne in 2001. Parkview was getting ready to build a new hospital called Parkview North (Parkview Regional Medical Center). And that's when I came back to Parkview. Knowing then that, you know, I had all this experience behind me.
Cultivating a leadership style
I was always kind of looking at what's the next thing? How can we make this better? I took advantage of as many things as Parkview was willing to train me on. And the other piece, that was kind of a skill that my dad taught me, was when the door opens, walk through it.
So, I just have had this progression of going from supervisor to manager, then manager to director, director to system director, and then that system director to VP. It's taken 20 years, but when the opportunity presents itself, you just have to say yes.
My leadership philosophy is let your experts be experts. Do whatever you can to facilitate their work. It's that old Walt Whitman saying, be curious before you become judgmental. When I say, so help me understand, dot, dot, dot. It's kind of like, uh oh, Gail's asking questions again. But, that's changed my leadership style. When I was in private practice, I was kind of a benevolent dictator. I had to completely change that style as I moved through Parkview.
Reflection
I think that both of my parents, but especially my dad, would be extraordinarily proud. One of the things that my parents imparted to me was a deep love for the community that I live in.
I was always told that, whatever community you live in, or that you're a part of, you need to participate and raise the level of that community whenever you can. And that's kind of the way I feel here. That's what I love about Parkview. We participate. We are part of the community that we live in.
And, you know, there's not a lot of health systems that are like that. We are driven by the people that we live with. And I just find that extraordinarily special. And that's why I'm still here. I love what I do and I love our mission.
