After 10 years, a familiar face is back in the top job at one of Bendigo's hospitals.
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Michael Hogan has come back to his roots and taken on the chief executive role at St John of God (SJOG), ready with new ideas and a new outlook.
But this isn't the first time Mr Hogan has sat in the big chair.
"I've worked in the healthcare sector for 25 years and a number of those were in various roles at St John of God," he said.
"I was here when the hospital changed hands from Mercy Health to St John of God all those years ago and I can say, it's been a good fit."
In his time away from central Victoria, Mr Hogan has held senior executive positions with the organisation in Geelong and Perth.
He is also highly regarded for his effective leadership of healthcare services and for his commitment to the organisation.
Home is where the heart is
Mr Hogan is particularly pleased to be returning to his hometown.
"We have a great city that continues to grow and develop, as has SJOG Bendigo," he said.
"I believe Bendigo is a beautiful place with a lot of potential, it's a place close to my heart.
"I grew up here, a lot of my family is still here. It's just a wonderful place to live in and work."
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Despite having a background in finance and accounting, Mr Hogan always knew he had a passion for caring for people.
"The common theme always for me is there is always a group of people or patients who have a particular need," he said.
"When you're unwell, it doesn't matter where you live, you want to be looked after properly.
"And so that's always been something I've got a lot of satisfaction out of - developing services and developing our people so they do deliver good care."
Hospital changes with cityscape
Since leaving the health service in 2012, Mr Hogan said a lot has changed in the city.
"Our hospital has changed significantly, with a new senior management team in place, improved building infrastructure, enhanced medical technology and new and improved administration systems," he said.
"These improvements are most welcome, but of greater importance to me is evidence of our continuing delivery of high quality care to our community - a hallmark of this hospital that has not diminished over the years."
Mr Hogan said his focus in the initial months of his tenure would be to grow the hospital's nursing workforce and to encourage the community to access their healthcare needs locally.
"We have comprehensive healthcare services here in Bendigo and an array of competent and talented clinicians," he said.
"Most healthcare needs can be covered here without requiring travel to Melbourne.
"But fighting the loss of nurses and doctors to retirement or those who may have been tipped over the edge by COVID-19 can be difficult when trying to keep people local, but this is something I plan to work on."
For Mr Hogan, that quality of care is what he wants to ensure every person in the community has access to.
"We'll be treating people we know from the community, sometimes we're related to, or they're important people in the township," he said.
"And that's why we want to make sure we're putting our best foot forward."
A new outlook and vision for the future
As well as meeting the needs of privately insured and other compensable patients, SJOG Bendigo Hospital will also assist Bendigo Health with its surgical waiting lists and long wait times in their emergency department.
"The challenge always in the private health setting is making sure that people feel like there's value in taking out private health insurance," he said.
"Private health insurance is expensive, and not something I can change, but we can maintain a good level of care in the region and make this a hospital a place people want to go to."
In the long-term, Mr Hogan hopes to bring the hospital up to speed with the latest technology and facilities.
"I'm taking my time to sort of get a sense of what Bendigo needs now," he said.
"We will be looking to increase our commitment in all our key areas, so our key areas are surgery, rehabilitation, ICU medicine. They're the areas we have capacity to grow the amount of activity.
"And eventually we're hoping to move away from conventional surgery and invest in a robot we can use during procedures, but that's way into the future."
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