Cover Story
Second opinions
How Mina Ubbing did full-scale evaluations to build a collaborative culture at FMC
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business Columbus | August 2009
Page 1 of 4
Go ahead and have a seat in Mina Ubbing’s office and, you know what, just call her Mina.
She doesn’t want you or any of her roughly 2,000 employees to call her Mrs. Ubbing, even though she is Fairfield Medical Center’s president and CEO.
Courtesy titles were always used for the bosses she had while she was working her way up the system at the $189 million, not-for-profit health care system. So when she took over in June 2001, she took the formalities out of it, because she wanted to take FMC’s culture in another, more collaborative direction.
“Since I was promoted from within, I had always gone by my first name and typically the hospital administrator is referred to as Mr. or Mrs., well forget that, I was Mina the day before I got the job, I’m Mina today,” she says.
And so she is. But while she may just go by Mina, her effort to build a friendly and collaborative culture wasn’t just about smiles and more employee outings. Collaboration from employees equals more effective patient care, and that, after all, is the reason FMC is around. So while she wanted a happier culture, she worked to put the proper systems in place to keep that culture moving forward. It started by evaluating what kept employees from doing their best through balanced peer reviews. To make sure the evaluation process is truly effective, Ubbing has also done assessments of her own strengths and weaknesses to make sure she’s giving FMC the right push from the top. And, along the way, she’s taken to hearing out just about anyone who has advice on ways to improve evaluation processes to keep FMC on top of its game.
