The fortunes of David Stark, long considered a rising star at Central Iowa Health System, are burning brighter these days.

Two weeks ago, the 31-year-old hospital administrator was named chief operating officer at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, one of the biggest hospitals in Iowa. Stark’s new responsibilities come on top of those he already has held for four years as chief operating officer at Iowa Lutheran Hospital, Methodist’s smaller sister hospital.

The management restructuring marks a streamlining by CIHS Chief Executive Eric Crowell, who said he is tightening his administrative team at a time when health-care costs are rising and more nursing staff is needed. The opening was created when Sharon Simmons resigned as Methodist’s COO in December.

“It’s appropriate to lead by example,” Crowell said. “We need more nurses.”     In his new role, Stark will have plenty of challenges. Chief among them will be adjusting to Methodist’s size. The hospital is twice as big as Lutheran in nearly every respect, including the size of the building, the number of employees and the volume of patients it serves.

Last year, the hospital handled more than 75,000 visits to its emergency room, 33,000 patients and 7,500 births, making it busier in some respects than cross-town rival Mercy Medical Center.

In addition, Stark will have to balance performing his new duties with maintaning the trust and loyalty of the staff at Lutheran. He main office will remain at Lutheran, he said, but he intends to spend the majority of his time at Methodist over the coming months.

Though he has long enjoyed strong relations with the Methodist staff – which is partly the reason he was given the job – he will have to work to make those bonds stronger, he said.     He clearly relishes the opportunity. As COO, Stark is responsible for “everything from the maintenance shop to the OB floor,” he said.

Stark acknowledges that he is relatively young to have been given such responsibilities, but says his age has no bearing on his abilities as an administrator.

“Yeah, I am young,” he said. “Leadership has no age.”

Stark, who with his wife, Becky, has two children, came to Lutheran in 1996 as an administrative fellow, an exclusive management training program that CIHS offers. The Fort Dodge native had just received a master’s degree in hospital administration from the University of Iowa.

He credits two mentors with introducing him to hospital management. The first is an older sister, who is currently an executive director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The second was the chief executive of Fort Dodge’s Trinity Regional Medical Center, who was a close friend of his family.

“I loved watching what they did all day,” he said.

To keep in touch with activities in the hospital, Stark makes weekly rounds. He has spent time in most of Lutheran’s departments, from the cafeteria to the emergency room, either doing the work that needs doing in each department or observing.

That hands-on activity helps him understand how the business works and it helps him build trust and relationships with the staff.

“I have such respect for what the staff does every day,” Stark said. “They’re doing miracles every day.”

This is the second time in the past six months that Crowell has expressed his confidence in Stark’s abilities. In September, Crowell tapped Stark to head CIHS’s efforts to build a new hospital in West Des Moines. With Stark’s promotion, those responsibilities have been shifted to Sid Ramsey, CIHS’s vice president for business development, Crowell said.

Having one person serve as COO for both hospitals is nothing new for CIHS. Prior to 1998, one person handled the job, Stark said. James Skogsbergh, who was Crowell’s predecessor, split the job between two people.

With Stark’s promotion, Crowell said he has arranged his management team just the way he wants it.

“We’ve got all the right people in the right places,” he said.