New hospital CEO engages in community, likes oysters

Bill Masterton, new chief executive officer of Coastal Carolina Hospital, wants his new neighbors and staff to know two things: he intends to work hard to continue to deliver high-quality healthcare with compassion, respect and dignity; and he likes Bluffton oysters.

As a newcomer to the area, Masterton said it was important for him to get out and become engaged in the community. He has attended community events, neighborhood meetings in Sun City and Business Expo sponsored by the Hilton Head Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, and he joined the Bluffton Rotary Club. His first activity with the club was to volunteer at the annual oyster roast.

There, in the rainy cold, he learned how to shuck and eat Bluffton's favorite delicacy, her May River oysters. "I liked them, really," he said.

Community engagement will be a continuing theme of operations at Coastal, Masterton said. In determining which services to offer as a community hospital, "you have to go by what people need here," he said. "I do want people to think of Coastal Carolina as 'their' hospital. When they hear or read something good, they will identify with it and think 'That's my hospital.'"

Masterton comes to Coastal from Atlanta Medical Center, another Tenet property, where he had served first as chief financial officer and later as chief operating officer. Atlanta Medical is a 460-bed teaching hospital that handles 2,000 traumas a year, he said. With 16 years of hospital administration experience, this is his first position as a CEO and he is up to the challenge.

Masterton's goals for Coastal Carolina include increased community wellness programs. Rather than quarterly screenings for heart health, lung capacity, balance and diabetes, for example, Masterton increased the frequency to monthly.

The top two concerns for any hospital, he said, are quality and safety. Especially with new healthcare regulations and increased accountability, these two items must remain at the top of the list, he said. "If you don't do that, you won't stay in business."

At a time when citizens and politicians are debating about adequate access to healthcare, Masterton said Coastal is ahead of the curve. In terms of care for the uninsured, he said Tenet offers a "compact" with uninsured persons, with a discount based on other payors.

Another part of the equation regarding access is the range of doctors' specialties offered. At Coastal, he said, there are specialists in many areas, including a new orthopedic surgeon who has just joined the team, a general surgeon who arrived just six months ago, and a fully functioning emergency room that operates 24/7.

The challenges facing Coastal, he said, are similar to those of other healthcare providers in the Lowcountry. The economy and its ensuing financial difficulties are hindering the population growth that was expected in this area. "It's a major challenge," Masterton said. "With patients and the population not being there, doctors don't come. If doctors don't come, there are fewer services."

However, "another great thing about Coastal," Masterton said, "is that for services we don't offer, patients can go to our sister hospital on Hilton Head," which is another Tenet facility.

New programs at the hospital will help to build more community connections, he said. For example, Coastal now offers digital mammography, which a new approach to the annual breast cancer screening method. A new program for stroke diagnosis and treatment is underway in partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina. With the program, a stroke patient at Coastal can have access, via computers and a robot, to a neurologist at MUSC to help diagnose the condition and prescribe treatment. "This is an amazing service that we are offering," Masterton said.

Masterton said at Atlanta Medical, an established and well-respected facility, he used to greet new staff members with a speech about the history and legacy of the 95-year-old institution. When he arrived at the five-year-old Coastal in November 2009, he realized that he and his staff would be part of the history-writing. It's a challenge he embraces with excitement.

"Now I tell our staff that we have a unique opportunity here to write our own history," he said. "We are defining what they're going to talk about 95 years from now."