Keith A. Parrott, FACHE, joined AMITA Health in Chicago as president and CEO in January 2020, one week before the first COVID-19 patient in Illinois (and the second patient in the United States) arrived in one of AMITA’s medical centers. With that as a backdrop, Parrott reflected on his 30 years in healthcare management and pinpointed two instances in his leadership career that he now sees as his breakthrough leadership moments. These two experiences helped prepare him for the challenges he would face in his new position at the onset of the pandemic and continue to guide his leadership decisions.
Delivering Great Patient Outcomes
A mission-focused leader with nearly three decades of experience in large, integrated health delivery systems, Parrott had his first aha! leadership moment in 2000, when he was an assistant vice president at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, Houston. There, he oversaw several areas, including cancer services, and along with several other colleagues, he started a multidisciplinary breast cancer conference.
While reviewing a patient’s chart during the first session of the conference, he remembers being struck by the magnitude of his role as an administrator: to help assemble and support a group of clinical experts, all of whom were using their focused expertise to deliver a great outcome for a patient. The group, which consisted of radiologists, radiation therapists, surgeons, hematologists and medical oncologists, each had different approaches to solving a problem. And everyone’s input was equally valued.
“It wasn’t a contest to see who was the smartest or who was right,” he said, adding, “The experience taught me what being a leader is all about—bringing together really smart, really talented people to collaborate to improve the health of patients.” Parrott got goosebumps that day and still does when he recalls that moment and how it reinforced his choice of profession. “This is why you get up and do this on a daily basis.”
Elevating Leadership
Parrott’s second breakthrough leadership moment came later when he was at Memorial Hermann Northwest in his first CEO role from 2003 to 2007. It was not a feel-good story like his first leadership moment, but it was pivotal, nonetheless. Having “grown up,” as Parrott puts it, within the Memorial Hermann Health System, where his career began, he had great relationships with senior executives, including the CFO at the time. The organization was struggling across all indicators in 2004, including financial, and the CFO had requested a financial review with Parrott’s group.
Parrott provided what he believed was a “very good explanation” of the challenges his team faced and why they had missed the budget; however, at the end of the presentation, the CFO—who had always been supportive of Parrott—looked him in the eye and said, “Keith, we asked for a turnaround plan. This is not a turnaround plan. We’re going to meet again in one week, and if you don’t have a turnaround plan, don’t come to the meeting.”
Until that moment, Parrott had been successful in his career. He had fostered organizational growth and new programs, such as the multidisciplinary breast cancer conference. A bit shocked by the feedback he had received, Parrott realized he had tough decisions to make. With “a great deal of soul searching,” he worked hard with his team during the following week and developed a more aggressive plan. The CFO, pleased with the new plan, indicated it was what was needed.
However, the actual aha! moment for Parrott in this experience came a couple of years later when Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital had moved from being “dead last” on its balanced scorecard—compared with other hospitals—to being first and maintaining that position for years after he left. Because of the tough love he had received from the CFO, Parrott elevated his leadership skills to deliver what was needed to fulfill the mission of Memorial Hermann Health System: to be a nonprofit, values-driven, community-owned health system dedicated to improving health.
Witnessing the success of the hospital years later, and the team effort it took to get the organization to that point, was the second of Parrott’s breakthrough leadership moments. Like his first aha! moment, it was the “thrill of a team victory” that struck Parrott. And, this time, it was more than the success of a breast cancer conference to help one patient—it was the success of a hospital serving many patients.
Giving Back
When Parrott began his new position at AMITA Health, he had a 90-day plan in place to fill several vacant leadership roles. However, the emergence of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 forced him to scrap those plans and transition to crisis mode. He hired five key positions virtually—chief strategy officer, CFO, head of human resources, chief technology officer and chief advocacy officer for government relations—and didn’t meet many of these new hires in person until several months later.
Parrott worried at first about how the team was going to come together and manage through the health crisis virtually. But, reflecting on the two breakthrough leadership moments from earlier in his career, he is confident that he has the necessary experience and knowledge of what to look for in a person who will be a great team member, and who will help the organization achieve its goals.
As Parrott takes his team forward, it’s crucial they don’t lose sight of what it means to be leaders. That is why AMITA Health brings its top 450 leaders together once a quarter for a leadership development session. Parrott says the session is less about operational performance improvement and more about “how do we develop as leaders, and how do we live our values?”
Although it is rewarding to succeed as a team, one of the most fulfilling experiences for a healthcare executive is to see people on the team succeed individually. As a leader, it’s important to Parrott to ensure he provides opportunities for growth to the people who have helped him succeed.
“We have to give back and develop other leaders,” he says, adding, “that’s an obligation.”
Biography
Keith A. Parrott, FACHE, is president and CEO of AMITA Health, a joint operating company in Chicago formed by AdventHealth, Altamonte Springs, Fla., and St. Louis-based Ascension. It is one of the largest health systems in Illinois, consisting of 19 hospitals and more than 230 sites of care. With 900 providers in its medical groups, more than 26,000 associates and 7,000 physician partners, the system serves over 6.6 million residents in the greater Chicagoland area.
Before joining AMITA Health as president and CEO in 2020, Parrott was CEO of the Alabama/Tennessee Group of Tenet Healthcare, Birmingham, Ala., from 2017 to 2020. Previously, he was CEO of Brookwood Baptist Health, a joint venture between Tenet and Baptist Health System of Alabama, consisting of a five-hospital enterprise with more than 1,600 beds. Earlier, he held executive leadership positions with Baptist Health System in Alabama and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston.
Parrott served as the ACHE Regent for Alabama from 2018 to 2020. He earned a Master of Health Administration degree from the University of Houston at Clear Lake, Texas, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Baylor University, Waco, Texas. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Hospital Association.