Q&A: Robert Chaloner Reflects on His 16-plus Years at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital

After more than 16 years at the helm of what is now Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Robert Chaloner put in his last day in the office on Wednesday, June 21.

Starting July 1, Dr. Fredric Weinbaum, who headed up the hospital’s medical staff, will serve as the facility’s top administrator while Stony Brook Medicine conducts a search for a new chief administrative officer. “It’s wonderful for me having him move into the interim role,” Chaloner said of Weinbaum, “because it’s so seamless. He and I work so hand-in-glove that it’s been really easy to transition.”

Chaloner, who turned 66 on Sunday, June 25, took over the leadership of a small community hospital and guided it into a partnership with Stony Brook Medicine. He is leaving the area for a new job as president of Marshfield Medical Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin, which he starts on July 10.

He spoke from his local office at the hospital on his last day, via Zoom, in a conversation that has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Q: You came in at a really crucial time for the hospital. It was a time of real change in the air for all of the local hospitals. When you look back on this period now — and you were here 16-plus years — how has the hospital evolved? How is it different now from when you came?

Well, it has evolved. I mean, one, the hospital itself, the inpatient side of it, is much more stable as an organization than it was at that point. I think the fact that we’ve just had consistent leadership in place — and I’m not just talking about myself, I’m talking about the entire management team here, a really, really dedicated group of people who are all staying and I think will continue to ensure that there’s stability.

From a workforce, from just the culture of the place, from just an ability to deliver consistent results, we’re a much, much more stable organization as a result. And health care always works, always functions better when it is consistent, and certainly the results are consistent.

We’ve evolved, also … we’re a much more, I’d say, multi-layered organization. We were pretty much just a hospital, an inpatient hospital, at that point, but we’ve developed all of our testing services, we’ve added a whole physician enterprise, Meeting House Lane Medical. We’ve built a number of outpatient facilities, the Edie Windsor Healthcare Center, the Cancer Center, a variety of different programs.

The residency program — we’re much more engaged in medical teaching. It has become a big component of what we’re doing. And we’ve broadened our footprint in all of the communities, really from Westhampton all the way out to Montauk.

So we’re a much more complex organization, but we’re an organization, I think, where that complexity evolved as we stepped in to fill the gaps in service needs for the community. As a result of filling those needs, we also evolved with what the community needs, and we’ve become a much, much more complex organization. And, actually, that not only has allowed us to do a better job of delivering what the community needs, it’s also helped us from a stability perspective.

From a business perspective, we’ve kind of broadened our service offerings. So we’ve got a lot of different ways that we can serve the community and generate revenue for the facility as well. And that’s going to continue.

The biggest thing underway right now is the development of the East Hampton project, which will be another huge addition to the hospital’s footprint in the community as well.

Q: When you arrived, I think there was a perception that morale was a real issue on the staff. Do you think that’s changed?

I definitely think it’s changed. It was. The staff morale issues were pretty severe. And, again, part of it was the fact that there was so much leadership turnover and not a lot of visibility with leadership within.

And for people, health care jobs are really hard. Emotionally, they can be difficult. The hours are rough. And sometimes leaders just need to be there giving people that little pat on the back, the reassurance, making sure that their needs are being met.

And I’m not sure that was happening consistently. They’d been through a rough financial period, if you remember, with the managed care changes. And the attempt was to try and right the ship financially by making cuts in the staffing — and that never really works in health care. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but it creates a tremendous sense of anxiety. And couple that with a lack of leadership availability, I think created a tremendous anxiety.

I think the hospital had also had many years of stability previously, and to suddenly be thrown into a situation where there was financial uncertainty, frequent leadership changes, it was something people just weren’t used to and probably weren’t as accustomed to here.

So we, I think we’ve restored that. And not only have we restored it, I think, but we’ve actually grown our workforce. And I think people now view this as a really wonderful place to work. And I love the spirit and the vibe in the facility, and that’ll be something hard to give up, actually.

Q: Other than the pandemic, which very clearly was its own thing, what was the biggest challenge you faced during your tenure?

I think my biggest challenge, at least personally … From the day I walked in here, I saw tremendous potential in this facility. I thought, it’s in a beautiful community, it was providing good care. It needed some improvement. But there was a lack of belief both within the organization and in the community.

And getting the community and the people to start believing, the workforce here and all of it — the medical staff and the community and the employees — to start believing in the hospital again. And that links back in some ways to that sense of morale.

It wasn’t just only poor morale here, but also in the community. And the feedback I got from people … I had people stop me in the street and say, “You just ended your career by coming out here. Things aren’t good.”

Q: Wow.

And the sense of perception was just so down in the dumps. And at times I found it frustrating, because it was, like: You’re not seeing what I see. I’ve been in other hospitals. Everybody’s got similar challenges. We’re not that bad. We can really overcome this.

And it took a while, a long time, for that perception, I think, to turn around and for people to start to believe in it.

And there were times where I just wanted to be frustrated, but it was more I had to … just keep saying the same mantra over and over again about how we’re improving and what we’re doing. And that took a tremendous amount of energy.

And I finally started having people in the community, and also in the hospital, saying, “Well, it’s a really, really great place. We’re really, really, really doing well over there.”

And I was, like, “Finally that message is kicking in.”

But we had tough financial issues. But I’ve done a lot of financial work in hospitals before. We had recruitment issues — that’s something that is always there and you always overcome. But overcoming that down-in-the-dumps perception was very unique. And, for me, I found at times the most discouraging also. But, ultimately, when it turned around, it’s been the most rewarding.

Q: Do you ever have second thoughts about the decision to go with Stony Brook Medicine? Because there were other options on the table.

There were other options. And, I don’t. No.

And I know that there’s always going to be changes, and people feel that we lose something when you go from being a small sort of independent community hospital to being part of a system. And I led that movement to bring the hospital into Stony Brook.

First of all, the “standalone hospital” days are over.

We weren’t really standalone even before that. We were part of the East End Health Alliance, which was an alliance that wasn’t large enough to stand on its own.

[Stony Brook] was a partnership that made the most sense for us here for a lot of reasons. Number one, we already had a lot of good clinical linkages. Our OB program, which is the main obstetrical program for the East End, we linked to them for neonatal services. They do a great job for us. Our cardiology program, developing the cardiac cath lab, we wouldn’t have that without our relationship. The Cancer Center, which is spectacular, and the linkages to their radiation oncologist and their chemotherapy program.

And, frankly, from a revenue perspective, the ability to take advantage of their better reimbursement rates, and also coupling our teaching programs with them.

There’s so much value with all of those programs that, yes, becoming part of something, it certainly has put me in a more bureaucratic kind of environment than I had been in previously. But, to me, it was definitely worth that price, because it will provide access to resources we could never have had on our own.

And right now I’m actually especially glad about it, because in this recruitment environment for health care, to be on our own, I think, would’ve been a real challenge. And I think Stony Brook, given the fact that their medical school is in the county, their teaching programs are in the county, I think they’ve still got a leg up over all the other health systems, which don’t have that university presence.

So one of the things I feel proud of, frankly, is having made that affiliation happen.

Q: It must be disappointing for you to be leaving sort of on the cusp of the big project. There’s obviously a long way to go. But it’s got to be frustrating to have brought a new hospital onto the table, and you won’t be around to see the fruition of it.

Yeah, definitely. It’s kind of like they plan the Transcontinental Railroad and then you don’t get there to drive the Golden Spike in. (Laughs.) I had the opportunity to potentially stay on in the fundraising-only role and focusing on that. And I feel some sadness about not doing that.

On the other hand, my heart is really in operations, hospital operations. And this opportunity [in Wisconsin] that’s come my way, one, I’ve been here a long time and it’s a chance to, while I’ve still got some years left in my career experience, do something new. It’s a different kind of a health system, which is a larger facility for me.

So it gives me a chance to spread my wings a little bit and also keeps me in operations, and I’m ready for that change.

And as much as I enjoy the fundraising challenge, I think I’d rather be keeping my heart in operations. And I just hope I have the opportunity to work with a community and folks that are as wonderful and helpful to me as everybody has been here.

Q: What do you think will be the biggest challenge for your successor? Because it’s a different scenario now than what you’ve dealt with in 16 years. Going forward, what do you think is going to be the bigger challenges?

I think probably one challenge is that this is not a job where you can just focus on the internals of the hospital. And probably the biggest message I would give to my successor is get out there and get to know the community. And not just “the community” — it’s actually, what I’ve discovered, it’s the communities of the South Fork and East End.

Whether you’re thinking Westhampton, Hampton Bays, Southampton, the Shinnecock Nation, East Hampton, Montauk — you need to get out there and be visible. You need to be available. You can’t just hide in your office in this job. And you need to be available both within the hospital, to your coworkers and the medical staff, but you also have to be out there with the community.

And the community has a right to expect access, I think, to leadership here. And the new person has to provide that. And some people are really good at the external and not as focused on the internal. Others want to just focus on the internal, and it’s easy sometimes to hide in the office, but you can’t do that.

So really pushing yourself. That availability is, I think, the greatest challenge.

And I think that’s the piece I’d hate to see fall apart, too, because I think we’ve done a good job here with the team of really reaching out and establishing those relationships. And I’m just hopeful that my successor can continue to build on that.

And it’s important not just for fundraising, but it’s important just to keep a finger on the pulse of what the community needs, because you can’t just read the data and assume what the community needs — you really have to be out there and listening to people.

Q: Are you planning to come back to cut the ribbon on the East Hampton ER?

If I’m invited, I would love to come back and help cut the ribbon on it, or at least stand there and watch somebody who’s involved with it cut the ribbon.

I’m going to stay very much in touch. I’ve got lots of friends out here who are going to keep me posted on what’s happening.

Q: And you’re confident that the new hospital is still on the docket? With your departure, it may lose a little momentum …

I’d be very upset. It might lose a little bit of momentum for a time, just like with COVID, but I don’t think there’s a reason why it should. When you think about the groundwork that’s already been laid for this, we’ve got a 15-acre parcel of land in the Hamptons to build on, for no money, essentially — a free piece of property to build on. That’s superhuman. It took us years, if you remember, we were back and forth looking for possible sites. We’ve got that.

We’ve got a partnership with Stony Brook from a clinical resourcing side of it. We have the Southampton Hospital Association board that’s just as committed, who raised all the money for East Hampton, is just as committed with their board leadership to go out and raise that money. And we’ve got a significant chunk of money already raised and committed toward the project.

So there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. I’m confident that it’s going to happen.

And the other thing, we’re sitting on a tremendously valuable piece of property already that can be monetized and put to it. So we’ve got a lot of the pieces in place, and now it’s closing the fundraising gap. And this isn’t exactly a community that’s lacking in philanthropic resources, either. I think this community has the wherewithal to make this happen. So I’m convinced it’s going to happen.

Q: When you arrive in Wisconsin and people ask you about here, how will you describe this area?

I’m going to describe this area as a place where I put my heart and soul and fell in love with it.

I came out here not knowing it. I’m going to describe it as a place that, if anything, I’d only heard these stories about the Hamptons. And I was kind of reluctant, because I’ve never thought of myself as a “Hamptons guy.” And I thought I’d be here maybe five years.

It’s a place where I just discovered a variety of people and a physical environment, friends, and just a place where I put my heart and soul into it and loved it. And I think it’s a really, really unique community, and I’m hoping I’m going to have another shot in my life to do that again somewhere. And that’s what I’m looking forward to.

And I actually kind of like cheese, so I think Wisconsin will be a good place to explore that.