UH Rainbow Orthopaedic Surgery Chief Heals Both Bones and Staffing Schedules
August 18, 2023
UH Clinical Update | August 2023
Michael Glotzbecker, MD, grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York – a town famous for its horses and its mineral springs. But already as a teenager, Michael’s interests were highly focused on medicine.
“The only person in medicine in my family was my grandmother, who was a nurse, and I was pretty close to her,” he recalls. “So I started working as a nurse’s aide in high school, with the idea that I’d like to go to medical school. I thought it would be a good idea to already have clinical experience in direct patient care.”
He was right. When he applied to medical school after getting his undergraduate degree at Duke University – double majoring in biology and history -- he had some perspective on healthcare he otherwise wouldn’t have had. He proceeded to get his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine.
When it came to selecting a specialty, he chose orthopedics. “I saw the ability to change people in a positive way,” he says. “Orthopedics is very tangible – someone has a broken bone, you fix it, and there is a definitive outcome.”
While a medical student, he worked at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and he made another decision: to work in pediatrics. “A lot of it is shaped by the people who mentor you, and my first mentor was at a children’s hospital,” he says. “I noticed that the average happiness level is higher at a children’s hospital, and that taking care of kids is fun.”
He did his residency at Harvard’s Combined Orthopedic Residency Program, followed by a clinical fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Arrival at UH
Then, after nearly 10 years at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Glotzbecker came to University Hospitals in 2019. As a pediatric surgeon, he was by then already a national expert in pediatric scoliosis and spinal deformities. He was named the Division Chief of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
Most recently, he was selected as an honoree for the “Dinner with the Doc” award, part of the “Cliff Appreciates” initiative. It rewards and recognizes extraordinary contributions by UH caregivers who advance systemness, demonstrate a commitment to value and exhibit extraordinary professionalism.
Dr. Glotzbecker was nominated for the award by Ethan Leonard, MD, the Chief Medical Officer for UH Rainbow Babies’ & Children’s Hospital and UH MacDonald Women’s Hospital.
The nomination notes that Dr. Glotzbecker demonstrated superior leadership during UH Rainbow's staffing crisis. “He worked with all pediatric surgical divisions to re-distribute block times, establish a release policy and improve metrics such as on-time starts, block utilization and staying within allotted block time; he partnered with OR/PACU nursing leadership, scheduling and anesthesia to minimize the impact of OR closures,” wrote Dr. Leonard.
During and after COVID, staff shortages affected the Prentiss OR, so only 70 percent of the typical number of surgeries could be performed. He is quick to credit his team, including Drs. Edward Barksdale and Tiffany Frazee, Nurse Manager Cheryl Hoover and Sami Placer, Director of Preoperative Services, among others.
“We had to balance a lot of things – expectations, balance, the desire of surgeons and being respectful of nurses who were short-staffed and overworked, as well as finances,” says Dr. Glotzbecker.
Optimizing Outcomes
The results were excellent, says Dr. Leonard. “The conversations with the other disciplines were not easy because all of them had to surrender time, rearrange clinics and improve their operative efficiency,” he says. “Dr. Glotzbecker handled the pushback with aplomb. He also partnered closely with OR and PACU nursing leadership, scheduling and anesthesia to help minimize the impact of the closure of 33 percent of our ORs.
“Although our cases were below budget, they were not 33 percent below budget thanks to improved efficiencies and concerted efforts to decant low acuity, safe cases to the ambulatory surgical sites.”
A Dedicated Leader
Dr. Glotzbecker is also known as fierce advocate for his patients, making sure they receive timely and effective care, in the most pleasant way possible.
In addition to his UH responsibilities, he is in his second year of an executive MBA program, one that focuses on people and change management.
“I think having some leadership training and experience is important to what I do,” says Dr. Glotzbecker. “I chose a non-healthcare MBA, which means it is not about hospital finances, but instead about how do you manage people, how do people work, what are their soft skills?
“In my position, I should be striving and learning every day. At a minimum, it makes be better in my day-to-day job skills, but it could also apply to administrative leadership in the future.”
Congratulations to Dr. Glotzbecker on his “Dinner with the Doc” honor.