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People who meet Bill Leaver for the first time come away with the impression he’s a “real guy,” even though he heads one of Iowa’s largest organizations.

As president and CEO of Iowa Health System, Leaver leads the state’s largest integrated health-care system. Appointed to the top position in November 2007, Leaver replaced Sam Wallace, who retired on Dec. 31. For nearly seven years, Leaver served as president and CEO of Trinity Regional Health System, one of Iowa Health’s seven regional divisions. While he was there, he oversaw the construction of a new 150-bed hospital in Bettendorf, Trinity at Terrace Park, which has since been recognized as one of the top 100 hospitals in the country.

During his time in the Quad Cities, Leaver served on eight community boards and partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters to greatly increase the number of mentors in that metropolitan area.

Leaver spoke with the Business Record recently about leadership, community involvement and the state of health care in Iowa.

What are your initial impressions of Des Moines’ business community?

I think it’s a vibrant community; I’ve been impressed by the business leaders that I have met. They’re very interested in making sure there is a good quality of life here, and I am impressed by their commitment. I was very involved with United Way in the Quad Cities; that’s important to me, and I think that groups like United Way can make such a difference in the level of engagement by citizens, the vibrancy of the community and the quality of life, whether it’s a great park system or amenities like museums and theaters.

But it also has to be kids who are ready for school, kids that are ready to go to work once they get done with school, kids that are able to go on to college. All of those things are marks of what kind of a community you have. I see just all kinds of positives in Des Moines.

How do you see yourself getting involved here?

I’m still evaluating that. Part of my challenge here is that while my office is in Des Moines, we are a statewide organization. Certainly, I will be involved in the Des Moines community. I was recently elected to the Iowa Business Council and will be part of that statewide organization. I’m still evaluating what makes sense.

What steps is Iowa Health System taking to address the shortage of health-care workers?

It’s really both in physician supply as well as in nurses, pharmacists and other clinical people that will be critical down the road. The same demographics that are affecting business in general are affecting health care, in that much of our work force is aging and getting ready for retirement.

First, we are working with our own schools of nursing; all three of them have seen their enrollment increasing. So we are trying to reach out to high school kids and tell them about a career in medicine. Second, we are working with the University of Iowa to try to figure out how to get more of their medical students involved in our community hospitals. Third is to heighten awareness with state and federal legislators that this is a problem. Physician supply is not only a problem in Iowa; it’s a problem nationwide. It will be particularly challenging for us in Iowa because unless you’re from the Midwest, you sometimes don’t have an appreciation for what life can be here.

Longer term, part of the solution to the workforce challenge is going to be changing the environment in which we expect physicians and nurses to work. (It will require) changing how we deliver care so that we make better use of resources, so for example, we use technology to make caregivers more effective in what they do and we aren’t being redundant in what we do. We hear sometimes from patients, “You know, you asked me seven times while I was being admitted to the hospital my name and what my religion is; it hasn’t changed.” I think our challenge is to look at those systems and say, we could do this better.

What’s your leadership style? How do you get things done?

I think first and foremost, I’m passionate about what I do. I think that I have a sense that we do important work every day. The nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians and the physicians do incredibly powerful work every day. I’m very passionate about doing that right and doing it right for every one of our patients. Second, I am pretty focused. I think too often we can get distracted by hundreds of things that need to be done. Third, I’m pretty direct. I’m a person who doesn’t mince a lot of words. I think sometimes people maybe don’t appreciate that, but I am pretty much what you see is what you’re going to get. Fourth, I think we can all make a difference. I think that every person who works in our organization can do great things every day. And I ought to be encouraging them, recognizing their great efforts, inspiring them to continue doing those great things. Finally, I enjoy having fun. I think what we do is pretty serious work, but we ought to be able to laugh. I don’t mind poking some fun at myself in terms of stuff that I do. If the staff doesn’t point it out to me, I’m willing to point it out myself.

What do you see as your biggest challenges ahead?

I think for health care in general, what we do today I don’t believe is sustainable. I don’t think the federal government, employers, nor individual citizens will be willing to pay much more than they are today. I think that most of the general public is frustrated by health care; they don’t understand all our rules and regulations.

Twenty-seven to 30 percent of all the health care in Iowa is provided by an Iowa Health System affiliate or physician. We have a big responsibility. But I think that with that responsibility we have a great opportunity to be an innovator and a guide for what may be a better way to do things.

Do you think we’ll see more hospital construction in the next few years, or will things slow down?

I think we’re always going to have capital needs. We have within our system 14 hospitals that are all of various ages. As hospitals get older they have to either be modernized or replaced, and we are certainly doing that in all seven of our regions and all 14 hospitals. I don’t see that slowing down. We look very carefully at where we invest.

The other aspect in medicine that costs money is technology, and technology is rapidly expanding, particularly in the imaging arena. CT scanners and the MRI have become so important in terms of being able to assess the patient and make a diagnosis, that to be the best health system we can, we’ve got to continue to invest in that, and that will require capital to do that.

The new hospitals in Bettendorf and West Des Moines are examples of understanding that you want to provide access to people in areas that are growing. They want and need access to health care, and you want to provide that.