Thomson Named to Board

by Starla Smith

October 15, 2009

Chris Thomson may be a heart services visionary, but he is also a pragmatist.

Thomson, Executive Director of The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, was recently invited to serve on the board of the Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium. He considers it an honor, and the feeling is mutual. The Colloquium feels Thomson’s administrative expertise, backed by his impressive record of accomplishments, promises to be a significant asset to their mission.

Because of his 30 years experience in the cardiac care field, Thomson understands not just the technical procedures but also how those procedures mesh with the over all success of the hospital along side the community it serves.

At The Christ Hospital, Thomson is currently responsible for operations of diagnostic and therapeutic services. He also facilitates physician relations, strategic planning of the service line, marketing and quality improvement.

But his first challenge as cardiovascular administrator of The Christ's heart failure program was to secure accreditation from the Colloquium, and he hit the ground running. “I arrived here in December 2008,” said Thomson, “and the program was accredited by St. Patrick’s Day. And now the goal here is to establish The Christ Hospital as a destination center for structural heart disease, heart failure and rhythm disturbance.”

He knows how get it done. As early as 2000, Thomson envisioned a network of top-of-the-line chest pain centers, that would be accessible to every rural community in the United States. He first tested a mini-version of his concept at Swedish Health Services in Seattle. He then went on to initiate and implement a full-scale version at Saint Thomas Heart Network in Nashville. As a result, Saint Thomas Health Services now boasts the largest network of freestanding, affiliated chest pain centers in the nation. Soon, hospitals across the nation started emulating his program and following his original concept.

Thomson deserves his reputation as a visionary. He came to Cincinnati with an impressive list of accomplishments. He ran the largest cardiac programs in Illinois, Maryland, Washington, Tennessee and the nation. At St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, he nearly doubled the size of the cardiac program. In three years, it went from 832 to 1,496 open-heart surgeries, plus he more than doubled the Cath lab volume. He developed the Robert Wood Johnson-funded Ozarks Health Network in Springfield, Missouri, and was an integral part of a group that reduced the neo-natal death rate. He went on to establish two aero-medical transport services—in Springfield, Missouri and Beaumont, Texas. He even signed the first AHA Go-Red contract in the U.S. when he was working at Medical City Heart in Dallas.

Thomson has now turned his innovative instincts to the issue of heart failure, America’s number one health care challenge, and he stresses that hospital-level treatment alone cannot be the only solution. And because he is convinced of this, he’s especially gratified to become a board member of an institution that acts on this premise.

"The accreditation offered by the Colloquium,” Thomson emphasizes, “is focused on a continuum of care, not just on specific episodic events, which too often is the focus of conventional treatment. The Colloquium's program offers hospitals a comprehensive model —not just a revolving door.”

Thomson envisions his role on the Colloquium board as offering his input into governance policy and operations monitoring. Most of all, he’s honored to be working with such a quality team. “The Colloquium attracts the top hospitals, physicians and administrators in the United States. It’s a very prestigious group.”

Thomson insists that any vision must be a collaborative effort. Everyone is important--from the housekeeper to the cardiac specialist. Everyone must understand and know what we are trying to accomplish. They have to believe it. They have to see it. They have to live it.”

By his own self-description, Thomson is a builder “I’m a change agent--a catalyst. I come in and I effect change.”

This is exactly what the Colloquium does. It’s a perfect fit.