GLENDALE HOSPITAL HAS NEW LEADER, NEW MISSION ADVENTIST CENTER LOOKS TO IMPROVE.

Byline: EUGENE TONG Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- Morre Dean is taking the reins of Glendale Adventist Medical Center at a time when the hospital is positioning itself as a leading health care facility in the region.

As the hospital's new president and chief executive officer, Dean will continue to oversee the capital expansion that will increase the number of beds to 508 from 445 when completed, along with state-mandated earthquake renovation.

Meanwhile, he has a mandate from the facility's owner -- Rosemont, Calif.-based Adventist Health -- to expand services and develop specialties that will build the hospital's standing as a regional medical center.

``Medicine could be delivered anywhere, because it's actually a personal relationship between two people,'' Dean, 38, who started Jan. 1, said in an interview Tuesday. ``But we have a real prime opportunity to excel in some very specialized areas that will not only service Glendale, but will serve surrounding communities as well.''

A longtime Adventist administrator, Dean's last job was as chief executive at the 72-bed Walla Walla General Hospital in Walla Walla, Wash. During his seven-year tenure, he oversaw a $4 million financial turnaround and construction of a $20 million retirement center.

When the federal government proposed to close a Veteran's Administration hospital in the city two years ago, he worked with the local chamber of commerce to lobby against it. The issue is still unresolved.

Dave Warkentin, president and CEO of the Walla Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce, said, ``He's got a very calm and pragmatic approach, a very strong business mind, and not afraid to speak his mind. ... He's a visionary, and he thinks big.''

That may be why Dean was chosen to lead one of the medical group's largest hospitals in California. Besides buildings and size, it's what's going on inside that counts, Dean said.

``It's more than just buildings,'' he said. ``It's more service-oriented -- what's happening in these walls.

``With the seismic upgrade requirements, how can we, if we have to do that, make it better? ... How do we improve our technology, all the things that come with the opportunity of starting from a clean slate?''

The services that will ``make headlines'' are cardiovascular care, oncology and neurology, along with maternity and emergency services, Dean said.

``People will say, Glendale Adventist is the place for neuro care or maternity care,'' he said. ``You look at it more than just `That's the hospital I go to if you have a basic medical emergency.'''

Asked what he hoped to leave behind during his tenure, Dean said: ``I hope that people remember the hospital as being a place that delivered top-notch quality and the service standards were raised to a level that people raved about.''

Meanwhile, the first phase of the hospital's three-part expansion -- a seven-story, $108 million patient tower -- is expected to open in early April.

Phase two, which includes an inpatient radiology department and an access road through the hospital complex, will begin soon after. Two buildings now used as offices -- one from 1955 and another from 1974 -- will be demolished.

The third phase is a second patient tower on the former site of the two buildings.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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Morre Dean, new president and CEO of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, will oversee its expansion.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer