Q&A: James Rohrbaugh, Tapped To Guide Hospital Expansion

James Rohrbaugh last month took the post as new assistant vice president of operations and chief growth officer at Inova Loudoun Hospital.

The new role involves oversight for security, plant operations, guest services (food and environmental services) for the hospital and the Loudoun Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and physical medicine and rehabilitation departments. Rohrbaugh now also oversees the clinical services at Inova Loudoun Medical Campus in Leesburg and serves as the primary contact for the revitalization of the former Cornwall campus and Inova's planned medical services in Lovettsville, Purcellville and Middleburg.

Rohrbaugh has served in a variety of leadership roles since joining Inova Loudoun Hospital in 1988, gaining experience in finance, patient accounts, decision support and information systems. Prior to that, Rohrbaugh spent part of his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, in Washington, DC as manager of its health care consulting practice. Rohrbaugh also serves as chairman-elect for the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, president of the Leesburg Daybreak Rotary and advisory board member to the Loudoun Community Health Center.

LB: What is your current role? What are your new roles and responsibilities?

JR: My title is chief growth officer and assistant vice president of operations. My responsibility is several-fold. The most exciting part is really to oversee the growth and development of the new health care issues that we have going on in the county, relative to expanding to make sure the health care needs of the residents are met. Focusing on a couple things...one is the revitalization of the Cornwall campus here in Leesburg. For many years on this campus, we've had a nursing and rehab center and an impatient unit here. A couple years ago, we opened a radiology center. And three years ago, we opened an emergency department here. At the end of this month, we have a 100,000-square-foot medical office building opening up, which is on the front side of the campus where over the ensuing months we'll have over 100 physicians moving in. That will revitalize this campus in a big way. We will eventually expand the emergency department and radiology. In the communities in Loudoun, we're focusing on developing healthcare services in Lovettsville and Purcellville. The building we're leasing will be going up in late summer. We've also got a building I helped develop on Rt. 50. We've got physical therapy, radiology and urgent care. The most important part of my job is making sure we've got healthcare accessible to citizens. I can't see the traffic situation getting better any time soon and so we need to make sure people have access close to where they live. At Lansdowne, I also have responsibility for security, plant operations, food services, and housekeeping. Those departments physically report to me.

LB: What was your most recent role? How did the change come about?

JR: My last job at the hospital was chief information officer. I actually came back to the hospital in 2001 as VP of information services after leaving here for three years. I was responsible for a process where we went through and replaced all of the technology and put in 40 new systems. Previous to that I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers in charge of their healthcare decision support practice. Previous to that I was at Loudoun.

LB: How long have you worked for Inova Loudoun Hospital? Can you talk about how you worked your way up the ranks to where you are now?

JR: I started here during my summers in high school and college. In total, it is 17 years, actually. My first job here was to carry files to the shredder. At that time, we had to throw out the old files every seven years. After three or four months, someone said maybe you should do something else, so they put me in patient accounts.

My next job I answered the phone where people called about billing complaints. That was my best experience learning about customer service, helping people fix their problems to help them navigate through the health care system. From there, I went to finance and got my accounting degree from Shenandoah University.

I eventually became a CPA. [In accounting,] I was the project accountant, then the payroll manager, then eventually the corporate controller. I was responsible for the whole finance function. When I started here, from the very beginning I've had opportunity after opportunity to be promoted and work in other departments. If you're going to retain someone in an organization you've got to find ways to help them grow and develop. If you don't, they're going to go somewhere else to find that. Because I left for three years, I was able to look at other healthcare systems around the country and understand, what are some things we can do differently here? I think that has personally helped me grow.

LB: What made you want to come back?

JR: I really enjoyed the county. I grew up in western Loudoun. When I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, [I realized] one of my personal passions [was] being involved in a lot of civic organizations. That was one thing I really missed. I was doing a lot of traveling with consulting. I wasn't here. I was starting a family. I wanted to be off the road and back here. There's such an opportunity here for ... helping people, some of the issues we struggle with locally-transportation, healthcare. Those were all things I wanted. Since I've been back, a good portion of my time outside of work has been devoted to being involved in things like Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce and a number of other civic organizations.

LB: Will you talk about the transformation of the hospital? How has the size and technology changed the hospital?

JR: Just as the county has changed, the hospital has had to change to meet the needs of the county. I think we've been fortunate in that we're a nonprofit community organization. Our board of directors are volunteers, who live and work in this community. From the very beginning, I've focused on how to meet the needs of this community. Their focus to us as leaders here is: how do we make sure the healthcare needs are met? Again the county is very big, it's 519 square miles. What do we do to make sure people have access? The other part is that when we talk about healthcare and the services that aren't in this community, certain services people have to drive to Inova Fairfax for right now, maybe heart surgery or tertiary services. The focus is how do we make sure those services are delivered here in Loudoun County? The opening of the ED here at Cornwall is one good example of where we felt like we needed to have a better presence. The complexity of the organization has changed. It's always neat to be a part of something that's growing and developing.

LB: What has made you want to stay at the hospital all of this time?

JR: I feel like I'm contributing to the community. Health care really is a service. I feel every day I'm contributing to the community in a very positive way. It makes what I do very rewarding to me personally and want to get up in the morning and come to work. At the end of the day, if we've opened an emergency department, I feel like I'm helping people. That's what has kept me in the organization. Our mission is to be the best in the world. It's exciting to be a part of an organization that wants to be that good. We spend a lot of time and effort and money on making sure that we're doing the things we need to do. Instead of just staying still, we're doing the work on this campus to revitalize it. Same for Rt. 50, Lovettsville, Middleburg and Purcellville. Just as the county is changing, we're growing and changing with it.

LB: What do you see as the hospital's next new exciting change?

JR: I think in the immediate future, the medical office building will put 100 physicians on this [Cornwall] campus. Those are the kinds of things that will help you grow. The more things we can do on this campus to meet patients' needs is a good thing. At the end of the day, we want to be the place where people in the county can go to get all of their health care needs met. Not that they have to get in their car and drive somewhere else to get some other service.

LB: What will take place at the Cornwall campus? What other expansions are planned for the hospital?

JR: The medical office building opens [in May]. The next change, the emergency department is seeing 20,000 patients a year. So it's pretty busy. The space today is a space that was a part of the original hospital. So we're building a new state-of-the-art emergency department on this campus. We'll be expanding the radiology center, the lab, and a number of other outpatient services. Those are the most immediate things.

LB: What do you like most about your new position?

JR: It keeps me very actively involved in the community. My personal passion has been being involved in community organizations. I'm currently president of the Leesburg Daybreak Rotary Club. One of the nice things it does is keep me really engaged in the local community. That's how I like to spend my free time.

LB: What do you see as some of your largest challenges?

JR: I think in terms of challenges, the amount of stuff there is to do. We have a lot we've committed to doing. My largest challenge will be to make sure I get done everything I need to get done. I'm confident we can do that. It's a very time consuming process but fortunately the good part of it is, because our organization has such a rich history in this community, we have a lot of people committed to our success between all of the volunteers through our Ladies Board and community volunteers. That type of commitment and dedication makes it easy to get stuff done. Fortunately we've seen a lot of success but we still have a lot to do.