SEBASTIAN — Sebastian River Medical Center has a new CEO: Steven Salyer. Former Sebastian CEO Emily Holliman has moved to Massachusetts to begin a new job as president of Norwood Hospital, which is more than twice the size of Sebastian River Medical Center.
Norwood Hospital is just outside of Boston, and, like Sebastian River, has a reputation for excelling in care for stroke and cardiac patients.
Salyer came from Shands Medical Center in Starke, Fla., the epicenter for state prisons and Florida’s death row.
As CEO of Shands in landlocked Starke in the middle of the state, he served a patient population mostly made up of corrections officers and inmates for a year and a half.
“It was a very, very different environment from here,” said Salyer.
When he brought his wife and three small daughters to Sebastian and Vero Beach to look around, they went to the lagoon and immediately saw five dolphins and two stingrays.
“I didn’t have to do any convincing. They were totally sold,” he said.
The family rented a house on the Indian River lagoon and bought a boat.
While most hospital CEOs are traditionally in their 50s or 60s, Salyer is 36.
When he walks in a room, it’s as if Tim Tebow’s brother, minus the pro football bulk, has entered. Like Tebow, he has a natural charisma – a selflessness coupled with confidence.
It doesn’t hurt his image, either, that he rumbles up to appointments in a bright orange Jeep Wrangler.
Salyer played football and ran track at East Tennessee State University. He still runs every morning at 4:30.
A former Marine raised in a military family, discipline is a way of life for him – discipline, he said, that comes from the Marine creed of putting honor first.
He was an active duty captain in Iraq in 2004, serving northwest of Baghdad.
“After being a Marine, I knew my civilian career had to be something where I could contribute to something larger than myself – something where I was accountable to make the world a better place,” he explained.
He found that path in hospital administration.
In college at East Tennesssee State, he majored in exercise science with a plan to be a physical therapist. He took courses in everything from anatomy to leadership to psychology – a curriculum that gave him a solid base for healthcare work.
Then, he got an MBA at New York Institute of Technology.
He met his wife-to-be Katy while at East Tennessee State, where she also ran track.
For Salyer, his leadership role at Sebastian River Medical Center is about supporting.
“I think of myself as being at the bottom of things, not the top,” he said, “ My job is to help doctors, nurses and staff help patients.”
Angela Dickens, communications director at the medical center: “We’re small but we take great pride in what we do here.
“Our overwhelming focus is using innovation to save our patients. And, at this little hospital, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
On an overcast day, Salyer’s morning schedule was fairly typical: He met with a team of local physicians to discuss patient-need patterns in an attempt to discern what training hospital staff could use to better serve patients.
He also met with a local doctor to discuss a partnership that would bring the physician’s specialized ultrasound training to the hospital.
Then, he had a meeting with lab reps to talk about the possible purchase of more state of the art equipment. The medical center already has the latest in endoscopic, robotic and catheterization equipment.
Sebastian River Medical Center was recently rated one of the top 100 hospitals in the country by HealthGrades, a Denver, Colo., company that ranks hospitals.
“We’ve been quiet about our accomplishments in the past but we’re getting louder,” said Dickens. “With Steven’s help, we hope to get even better and let the public know just how good we are.”
For Salyer, it means calling on his past training: “When you lead Marines in combat, you can’t fail. It’s the same thing here. I’m completely dedicated to providing the discipline and passion needed to accomplish our mission.”
Prior to being CEO at Shands in Starke for a year and a half, Salyer was chief operating officer at Harton Regional Medical Center in Tullahoma, Tenn., for almost five years — a position he advanced to while still in his 20s.
He confessed to being used to people – doctors, nurses, staff and patients, as well as consultants and lab reps – being surprised by his youthful appearance when they meet him.
But he said it doesn’t faze him.
“Do they look at me as if I’m a kid?” he asked.
Then, he answered his own question: “They might.”
“But they’re quick to see me as a kid who is completely dedicated to what they want to accomplish.”
