Giddings to leave NCH by the fall
BY MARY LANCASTER
Last week Lucille Giddings, chief executive officer of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, experienced two milestones: She turned 60 and announced to her board of trustees that she will retire in September.

"It was the right time to make the decision," said Giddings, citing a desire to be closer to family.

"I hope I never have to work again," laughed Giddings, taking a few moments after Sunday's tremendously successful native baby reunion at the hospital where throngs of kids played with balloon animals, enjoyed a buffet lunch with their parents, had their pictures taken and all-around filled the hospital halls with a sense of joy.

Giddings, who came to Nantucket on April 29, 1996 specifically to become the hospital's new president, gives all the credit for her ability to make that career move to her husband Bill, whom she will rejoin this fall taking her effervescent smile and enthusiasm for life back to their home in Croton-on- Hudson, N.Y. Since she moved to the island, Giddings and her husband have had a commuter relationship with him doing all the traveling to be with her here as often as possible.

"Bill has been retired, so now it's his turn to go back to work," she said with humor and appreciation. "He made this possible. He was the one who always traveled. He did a lot so I could be here, so now it's my turn."

Giddings then pointed to a photo in her office that encompasses her primary reason to leave - her grandniece, who is two, and her grandnephew now four months old.

"We want to be closer to them," she said. "It was the right time to make the decision."

Giddings, who has a nursing background, came to NCH from Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Conn., where for seven years she served as its vice-president for ambulatory care.

"My goal in life was always to be a CEO," she explained, adding that though she loved her job in Greenwich, there were no opportunities for advancement there. "So to move up I had to move out, and what better place [than Nantucket] to move out."

When she arrived here, the greatest challenges facing the hospital included the number of previous administrators who did not stay long, as well as the fact that changes in the health care field were happening at a fast rate. With Giddings at the helm, the island's tiny hospital took it all on.

"Nantucket Cottage Hospital was ready to make the changes at both the administrative and board level. We just kind of held each others' hands and muddled through," said Giddings, looking back on her early years.

By June of 1996 the hospital had embarked on its first comprehensive strategic plan with an aggressive schedule for completion. At the close of that December, the plan was finished and 15 vital initiatives were identified. The most important, said Giddings, was to renovate and expand the emergency room and rehabilitation services, build a new maternity ward and accomplish critical upgrades to hospital equipment.

"And the day to day challenges of running a small hospital with changes in regulations and dealing with a fluctuating population," she added, explaining the need to provide adequate staffing and housing as greater needs. "Every day we ask ourselves what's coming down the pike next, and we have to be ready."

In retrospect, Giddings believes her accomplishments have included ensuring that the hospital is attuned to patient and community needs.

"Everything I've done I think is worthwhile, but I think [what matters most] is providing the highest quality of care to the community that they needed and regularly relied on," she said. "I didn't do that by myself. It was with a strong, supportive board, the physicians and our wonderful staff. It was a real team effort from every angle, and with the community having faith in us to do the job and supporting us with our fundraising efforts."

Before Giddings leaves, it is anticipated that an affiliation in progress with Massachusetts General Hospital will be finalized. While that will leave operations at NCH in place on a local basis, the partnership is intended to enhance patient services and infuse the island's facility with $5 million to use for capital projects, which will kick-start its new strategic plan finalized last May.

She also wants to be here to see installation of a new 40-slice CAT scan, a highly sophisticated and state-of-the-art imaging equipment, and to see the beginning of a computerized patient care system that will, among other things, electronically record information now logged by hand, such as test orders and results, medical data and diet plans.

Margaretta Andrews, chair of the NCH board, said the hospital will immediately begin choice of a search firm and look at least on a regional basis for Giddings' replacement. Though the hospital must move on in times of administrative change, the board will miss Giddings' presence and dedication.

"I was part of the search that brought her here," said Andrews. "At that time we had had a series of administrators who had been here a relatively short time and we wanted someone with a medical background and someone who would commit to be here. It has been a hugely transitional time during Lucille's tenure and she has stayed with it. I think the board is very appreciative of all of Lucille's accomplishments and wishes her well on her next endeavor, whatever that may be."

If Lucille Giddings has her say, her next endeavor

will be babysitting. I