‘You’re moving from a flip phone to an iPhone,’ new Memorial Hospital CEO says

The public is still reeling from the abrupt announcement that widely respected Memorial Hospital at Gulfport CEO Gary Marchand has departed, but new CEO Kent Nicaud says he and the board knew this day was coming and the public hospital needs new leadership for a rapidly changing health care climate.

Marchand conceded in an interview Thursday that it was time for him to go.

“I loved my work,” he said. “I love Memorial. The industry is changing, changing, changing. The industry’s not the same industry it was 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago. I was beginning to think I was losing energy for the industry but not Memorial.”

Marchand, Nicaud and the two men who head the board of trustees — Chairman David White and Vice Chair Gary Fredericks — all said it was Marchand’s decision to retire, effective Aug. 1.

But they also said the hospital needed new leadership to continue transitioning to technology and software systems that help track and manage costs.

“You’re moving from a flip phone to an iPhone,” Nicaud said. “It takes awhile to get used to it, but once you get over those humps, it works.

“We’re strictly moving to the iPhone so that we can keep up with the times. We’ve always been a leader in our market. We have an amazing board and an amazing administrative team. My mission is to carry them into this changing time successfully.”

Success is all about using available technology to manage expenses. Nicaud said more than 50 percent of Memorial’s revenue comes from the federal government in the form of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Those reimbursements are shrinking.

Memorial’s bottom line has suffered as a result. The hospital’s expenses have exceeded revenue in the past two years — most recently by $5.6 million in 2017. But the hospital is on track for a turnaround for 2018 — with revenue set to exceed expenses by $4 million.

The hospital is watching costs more closely than ever. Nicaud said every expense will be scrutinized with the new financial systems in place, including why one physician’s costs might be higher than another doctor’s, and what the hospital is paying for food and supplies.

Patient bill payments also were lagging, so the hospital is working to shorten the “revenue cycle,” White said, meaning the time between when a patient schedules an appointment and is billed for services.

“Things we do today need to be different than how we did them 10 years ago,” said Nicaud, who was Memorial’s COO-operations before the board appointed him CEO. “That is a challenge in our industry. Period.”

He said he’ll be calling on Marchand for advice.

Marchand, 65, said he will remain on the Coast. He and his wife are remodeling their house in Long Beach.

Many people have reached out to him since he announced his retirement the day before he departed.

“It has been overwhelming,” Marchand said. “The pats on the back are just wonderful.

“Every day in my retirement, I’m going to do something for my health, something for myself and something for someone else.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2018 at 5:00 AM.