Since he was a child, Ryan Gibney, an associate medical director and emergency medical doctor at UCI Health at an Orange, California facility, wanted him to be a doctor.
But before that happened, he worked in the service industry for many years and played in bands, but he studied at Med School. After he took the plunge he had a “meteor rise” from residency to leadership. This includes serving as the next medical director for the new Irvine Insights for Health Systems, which is scheduled to open later this year.
Healthcare Brew spoke with Gibney about his career and what he wants to achieve in his new role.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How did you go from working in the hospitality industry to the hospital industry? What did it teach you?
I moved to California. There, my mother moved temporarily, but returned to the service industry with bars and restaurants in the area. I didn't get married until 2007, so after seeing my longevity I decided to raise my family. And I said I was going to go back to university with a very thorough self-reporting attitude.
We are actively looking for people with experience in service. It tells you a lot about people. It teaches you a lot about the behaviors that exist in need prediction, multitasking, and emergency care. And if you want to be a reductionist in medicine in general, I think it's the service industry.
What was one of the most unexpected parts of the transition to the healthcare sector?
I think it was almost unpleasant as it is very similar to working at a bar.
I would say this meteor rise to meteor and leadership is something I didn't expect this fast. I'm taking part in a full-scale attendance career (this is my fifth year), already in charge of opening a new emergency room and hiring staff, and I'm involved in the overall hospital leadership strategy. It's very quick learning, but I think a lot of it comes from the route from the service industry and my life experience. I think the ability to talk to people, interact with them, anticipate needs and see them differently was lending to building this skill set quickly.
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UCI Health – Tell us about your new role at Irvine Hospital and how it will change compared to what you are currently working on.
From clinical lenses, the work is similar. In other words, an emergency room is an emergency room.
In the service industry, we carry out soft openings, friends and family, and all policy steps. That's what we're doing now. It's really about the best preparation strategy we can. So, on the first day, when we are open, it really represents what we can do here at UCI.
What do you think is the most important thing to change in the larger hospital world?
The amount of patients who get sick and have the challenges to access brings this important national problem with patients who are doing all their care in the emergency department (care for hospitalized patients), and forces more work from the physical space designated as emergency care, to where they are doing things in the waiting room. Nationwide, this is a problem. Locally, this is a problem. There is a lot of downward pressure to do all of these things that are almost impossible in the primary care field.