By Lois Thomson, South Florida Hospital News, for ACHE of South Florida

Drew Tyrer’s father was a hospital administrator and his mother was a physical therapist. It’s only natural, then, that he would end up with a career in healthcare, right? Well, yes, but not right away.

Tyrer, chief executive officer at HCA Florida Westside Hospital, admits, “I grew up in a hospital. My dad was passionate about supporting the hospital in our community where I grew up in Frankfort, Kentucky, which was an HCA hospital. “He said throughout his life he realized that he’s very comfortable being in that atmosphere. “I enjoy it, I thrive on the energy and expertise that all of our providers and staff bring to the table.”

That’s why he began his career as a … college golf coach. “I played golf in college and thought I wanted to be coach and eventually an athletic director,” he said. “I loved it, l still love those four years of my life.”

However, practicality set in, and Tyrer said he began to realize that as a father with a young family, traveling 50 nights a year as a coach “was not as attractive as it once was.” In addition, he said he wanted to be challenged. “I was missing something that had meaning and purpose.”

He discovered that purpose when he talked with a family friend who worked at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, and made a plan to go back to graduate school for hospital administration at Xavier University. A series of moves over the next several years brought him to his current position.

Tyrer joined Westside earlier this year, and said he has already developed great appreciation for the Westside team. “Their focus and commitment to quality and safety, being around hundreds of doctors and colleagues who are truly focused on providing the safest and best care every day – to me it’s very inspiring.” He added that as a former coach, “I like being part of a team. As I tell our directors and our executive team, as leaders we are coaches; we’re in the game all day long and we’ve got to coach our teams through it.”

About the time Tyrer chose to make the career switch, he also decided to join ACHE, the American College of Healthcare Executives. “I joined in 2008, when I was a grad student at Xavier studying healthcare administration. I felt it was a necessary commitment to make to the profession I was seeking for my career, so I wanted to increase my awareness of what’s happening in healthcare.”

He said he appreciates the networking aspects of ACHE, being able to stay connected with peers in the community, even if they’re at competing hospital organizations. “I think it’s important to stay connected with each other. COVID proved the importance of that.”

Tyrer said healthcare professionals should be committed to remaining informed and involved in what’s happening in healthcare on a broader level, “and I think ACHE is a great vehicle for that.” He made an additional commitment by becoming a Fellow back in 2017. He said a division president and mentor encouraged him to do that to further his advancement in the profession.

Now, Tyrer is encouraging others to join, and said he has particularly noticed that the evolution of members has largely gone from hospital leaders to more medical group management executives, and third-party application vendors. “I think it’s a good thing that our vendor partners want to know healthcare even better. For them to invest their time in being around executives and understanding the challenges of hospital administrators is important. It helps streamline the work going on in healthcare.

“My hat’s off to other ACHE members of South Florida as we work to meet the needs of a growing community.”