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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – November/December 2015
– that’s the height of the challenge. Mike is just so adept at that.”
Or, in Pierce’s words, “Mike has a great ability to take a broad
vision of the future and concentrate that on to a fine point. He’s done
it for Parkview Health System; he’s done it for the Northeast Indiana
economy.”
More than a game
The potential of building a downtown baseball stadium for Fort
Wayne’s minor league baseball team in 2008 was not universally
popular. Presented with the opportunity to invest in the naming rights
for the ballpark and to spur economic development, Packnett terms it
the most difficult decision in his tenure at Parkview.
Following the determination to move forward and after carefully
crafting a memo to Parkview Health stakeholders, Packnett
remembers hitting send on the email and being bombarded with
negative responses. The volume and the intensity of the messages were
unprecedented.
“For us, it wasn’t about baseball. We believed so much in this
type of catalytic project that it was the right thing for us to do for
downtown economic development,” he contends. “Fast forward five
years and you’ve got 400,000 to 500,000 people going through there.
Excellence pervades throughout that facility.
“It has exceeded everyone’s expectations. It’s more about an
experience downtown than a baseball game,” Packnett reflects. “It
helped change our psyche. That is part of what we were hoping, but
you never know. People are proud of Parkview Field, the restaurants
downtown, the mayor’s vision for the riverfront. It was that rallying
project that brought people together like never before.”
Mayor Henry cites the convention center expansion and updated
library as other important developments in a similar time frame, but
adds, “There’s no question that Parkview’s presence served as a
catalyst for new development downtown (Courtyard by Marriott hotel
and a mixed-use housing/office/retail complex to name a few). They
served as a foundation; it turned our downtown around significantly.”
And, to their credit, some of those same critics who lamented the
original Parkview investment sent Packnett another email a few years
later. This time, they talked about their great family experience and
even inquired about some tickets to do it all over again.
Healthy approach
Parkview, of course, is primarily focused on the business of
health. One of the primary factors that lured Packnett from Oklahoma
was the opportunity to be part of building a major medical facility
from the ground up. Parkview Regional Medical Center (which
opened its doors in March 2012) is a state-of-the-art facility that is part
of a system that includes hospitals in six Northeast Indiana counties,
specialty facilities and a 500-member Parkview Physicians Group.
“Our facilities are just bursting at the seams,” Packnett reveals.
“Every day, Monday through Friday, our regional medical center is
above capacity. The number one reason for our success is our
physicians. They’ve come together with this idea of how we can have
the best personalized health care journey for everybody we serve. We
have about 1.8 million contacts with people every year.”
Packnett is equally as comfortable walking through the medical
center greeting long-time employees and others he encounters as he is
in the board room. The big smile and warm handshake – what Chodak
Packnett acknowledges the critical role of all team members – from
nurses and Parkview Samaritan emergency pilots to Tina Colwell, his
assistant and administrative manager.