UH Elyria Physician Leader Adopts Bold Vision for Hospital, Gets Results
April 23, 2024
UH Clinical Update | April 2024
ENT specialist Marc Guay, MD, has been around hospitals nearly his entire life, tagging along with his orthopaedic surgeon father for hospital rounds starting at age 5.
Marc Guay, MDFifty-five years later, the fascination continues.
“I loved it then, and I love it now,” Dr. Guay says. “I’m blessed to do what I do and enjoy it. It’s been in my bones for a long time.”
Dr. Guay has been affiliated with UH St. John and UH Elyria medical centers for the past 23 years, and as a fully employed physician with UH for the last nine. He assumed the role of President of the Medical Staff at UH Elyria in 2020 for a two-year term and immediately communicated his enthusiasm for what hospitals can be.
“I’ve never wanted us to just be a good hospital,” he says. “I want us to be the best hospital. You keep talking like that, and people say, ‘I want to be the best hospital, too.’ In the end, that motivates people to drive the bus in the right direction. You pull them a little bit, and they do the rest.”
Impressive Metrics
This commitment to quality and communication has paid off at UH Elyria.
“During Marc’s two-year tenure as President of the Medical Staff, he was instrumental in improving the quality of care throughout the hospital by collaborating with the medical staff and the administration,” says Todd Harford, MBA, MSN, RN, Chief Operating Officer of UH Elyria Medical Center. “During his tenure, we have seen dramatic improvements in length of stay, % length of stay below GMLOS (geometric mean length of stay), mortality, Foley and central line days and overall employee/physician satisfaction. Dr. Guay has that internal drive to be the best he can be for his patients and he is always willing to go that extra mile when needed. He doesn’t know how to say no. No matter when you need him, he is always there to help.”
UH CEO Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair, recently recognized Dr. Guay for this outstanding work with a “Dinner with the Doc” honor.
No “I” in Team
In true humble fashion, Dr. Guay attributes much of this success to the team at UH Elyria – and hospitalists in particular.
“The majority of it comes from our conversations with the hospitalists and making sure they have what they need to get people moved correctly,” he says. “We also have our quarterly staff meetings where we remind people that length of stay matters and about getting central lines or Foley catheters out as soon as possible – or not putting them in at all. You keep reminding people and keep showing people the supportive studies for it, and it has an impact.”
Notes from ENT Practice
When he’s not fulfilling leadership roles at UH Elyria, Dr. Guay is well-known for his packed ENT clinics and full surgery schedule. What’s the secret for continuing to connect with patients, year after year?
“The key is just making yourself available,” he says. “Optimally, you answer the phone, and you say send them over. When? Send them over right now. The secret sauce is being available, and then on the back side, taking good care of the patients, making sure that people trust you and want to come see you.”
After a full career in otolaryngology, Dr. Guay says he’s both amazed by new advancements in medicine – particularly cancer care – but also convinced that traditional, time-tested means of treatment are sometimes best.
“From a guy who lost his dad to kidney cancer and his grandmother to breast cancer, I didn’t think we’d be able to cure cancer in my lifetime,” he says. “Now I say even if we don’t necessarily cure cancer, we can make huge advances and at a minimum stop progression of disease. As for new technology, there’s a growing opportunity to delve into them to see if they truly work. Some of them do, but not all of them do. I still do tonsillectomies that same old way – I’ve tried every other way. When you go back to efficiency and cost, you find out that it’s still possible to do the things we used to do with minimal instrumentation -- and still get great outcomes. That’s the important thing.”
Congratulations to Dr. Guay on his “Dinner with the Doc” honor.