Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/508485
The Healer JOANNE C. SMITH, MD With its world-renowned clinical care, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has long been considered the finest in its field—earning the top spot in the U.S. News & World Report rankings every year for almost a quarter- century. For Dr. Joanne C. Smith, however, being the best isn't good enough. After getting tapped as RIC's head in 2006, Smith successfully turned around the organization's then financial troubles at breakneck speed. Now, Smith, 53, intends to turn around rehabilitation medicine itself. RIC's new $550 million hospital in Streeterville, set to open in early 2017, will "redefine the field of rehabilitation medicine," the Detroit native says, by taking clinical and research teams that traditionally have been siloed and bringing them together to provide patients with cutting-edge care. MEASURING SUCCESS: "Our colleagues every year say we're the best there is, but if even we can't prove with a defined metric that we get a better outcome for patients, then who are we? We must prove with complete certainty that patients who are given care at RIC do, without question, get better outcomes." GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: "Other than my family, this vision for RIC has taken off with all 2,000 members of the team in ways I never could have imagined." A STRONG LEADER IS: "Someone who has clarity of vision, who is doing everything ethically and legally possible to make the organization succeed." CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY: "Right now we value cost more than quality in medicine. That is a perilous journey. Value has to include quality." WHAT I HOPE MY LEGACY WILL BE: "I don't think about my legacy. I have too much work to do." MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 115