The heart of health care.

• Author: Kinney, David
• Position: UPFRONT

This, our annual look at the state's best hospitals, has always been a popular issue with both readers and advertisers, which is not surprising considering health care's importance not only as a business but its impact as an industry on the overall economy. But, personally, I've had my fill of hospitals lately.

Back in June, my wife broke her ankle, a mishap followed by four operations within six months. (Infection settled on the metal screws and plate that were used to set the shattered bone.) Having undergone back and knee surgery in recent years, I was no stranger to what goes on inside a hospital. But as an observer rather than being on the receiving end, it occurred to me that, though the ego of some doctors could fill even the most massive medical center, these places actually are run--in execution if not in the actual administration--by their nurses.

Last year, Senior Contributing Editor Ed Martin gave readers an inside look at what happens when the chief executive of a hospital finds himself at odds with his medical staff (cover story, April 2010). Since then, a doctor has been hired as CEO of that hospital and its health system, Mission in Asheville. What would it be like, I wondered, for someone who had trained and worked as a nurse to take on such a job? I didn't have to wonder long, and neither will you, thanks to the story...