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Once, when Mike Corso was director of the imaging department at the hospital now known as UPMC Altoona, he was walking through a corridor and encountered an elderly woman on a gurney.
The woman was waiting for someone to take her in to run a test.
As department director, Corso had no obligation, but he stopped, asked how the woman was doing and, after she told him she was cold, fetched a blanket from a warmer and covered her.
The incident helps illustrate why UPMC promoted Corso recently to vice president of operations, according to hospital Vice President Kevin Hockenberry, who was with Corso that day and has known him since Corso began working for predecessor Mercy Hospital as a college intern in 1994.
Corso was born in Altoona and raised here by parents who both taught special education in the Altoona Area School District, apparently instilling in him the conviction that everyone deserves the kind of care and attention he showed that patient, according to Hockenberry.
In his new post, Corso is responsible for hiring and firing, budgeting, strategic planning and general financial analysis for radiology, cardiology, radiation oncology, respiratory, physical medicine, the Breast Health Center and the Heart and Vascular Institute.
"It's complex and exciting," Corso said. "Different every day."
He has taken as a guiding principle advice he received from Dan Duggan, former CEO of Bon Secours Holy Family Hospital -- the hospital's successor to Mercy -- after receiving his first promotion.
"'Put the patient first,'" Duggan told him. "'Work from there, and you'll end up making good decisions.'"
That dictum would, for example, lead him to order a test at the Howard Avenue campus for a patient who mistakenly came there instead of the Station Medical Center -- especially a patient who lacked a car, he said.
In his new job, he's responsible for about 300 people, with 15 reporting to him directly.
He tries to interact with all 300, he said.
"It's important to be as visible as possible," he said.
Email is fine, but "it doesn't replace looking at someone in the eye," he said.
"Mike walks through the halls of UPMC and greets everyone with a smile," said Grace Beere, the outpatient clinical coordinator for UPMC imaging, who first met Corso when he had just finished his internship. "He takes time to make sure you have all the things you need."
Suggestions welcomed
Employees like having the chance to ask him questions or tell him their thoughts about work issues, he said.
Often, those encounters result in good ideas and other valuable information, because staffers know their own jobs better than he does, he said.
Helpful suggestions from employees may include moving equipment to improve workflow and alerts when equipment isn't functioning as designed, he said.
He can appreciate a good suggestion when he hears one, because he educates himself about their work "intensely," according to Beere.
His responsibilities include employee evaluation, a task he equates with coaching.
He's the father of two young boys and coaches fifth-grade basketball at Ebner Elementary School.
Such employee coaching is year-round, with encouragement for good performance and nudges where there are shortfalls, according to Corso.
He does it with respect, underlain with trust, Beere said.
Because the coaching is constant, annual evaluations aren't a surprise, Corso said.
Over the years, Corso has taught Beere about budgets, spreadsheets, obtaining quotes and "most of all, how to be a better leader," Beere said.
Corso is analytical, honest, gets along with everyone and has a sense of humor, Hockenberry said.
He's also compassionate, Hockenberry said.
He hates the responsibility for firing, because "it's a hurtful thing," Corso said.
When it's necessary, however, it's best to "just be honest," he said.
He tries to avoid it by hiring "the right person in the first place."
With hiring, he takes into account "more than technical ability," he said.
Attitude, the sort that ensures kind and respectful treatment of patients, is the extra dimension he looks for, he indicated.
"When your mom comes in, you want her to be comfortable," he said.
Not to be treated by someone who's "gruff," he added.
He works collaboratively with physicians and, like most administrators, is acutely conscious of -- and doesn't try to compete with -- their specialized expertise.
"Know what you don't know," he said.
Searching for equipment
The collaboration sometimes involves equipment purchases, so physicians have the tools they need, he said.
"I do the legwork," he said.
Currently, he's looking for a higher-end CT scanner to upgrade the current one at Station Medical Center.
He first consulted with the clinicians on their need for that machine, and since then, has been working to ensure the equipment they may buy will fit the available space and meet environmental requirements, in addition to meshing with staffing and legal limitations, he said.
His abilities were apparent from the beginning, according to Hockenberry.
"He did such a stellar job" as an intern that his boss offered him a temporary full-time slot even as he finished his degree requirements for Penn State, then a permanent full-time job as soon as he graduated, Hockenberry said.
Over the years, he "continued to get more responsibility because of demonstrated ability," Hockenberry added.
"I am not sure he realizes the positive leader he is, because it is so much a part of his being," Beere said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.