“These are exciting times”… Mr. James O Donoghue’s Inaugural CEO Blog Post

29th Jul 2016

I was greatly honoured to be named CEO of Blackrock Clinic earlier this month. The appointment has particular resonance for me as I have spent most of my career at the hospital. I joined the hospital 29 years ago, one year after it opened, when a private hospital was a very new concept in Ireland.

During my time here I’ve worked with some great leaders.

The Founders of Blackrock Clinic were, and still are, particularly inspirational people. They ignored the naysayers, pursued their vision and pushed the boundaries of medicine and surgery in Ireland over the last 30 years.

Also, the shareholders are admirable business people who have had both the vision and acumen to work alongside the remaining Founders to grow the hospital and its facilities in the last decade.

And let’s not forget Bryan Harty, our departing CEO: an accessible leader, who I have worked closely with, particularly on the hospital extension. His professionalism, integrity and results-driven approach will be missed.

This hospital is a living and constantly-evolving entity. It must keep up with the fast paced developments in medicine and surgical procedures in order to deliver the best possible outcomes for our patients.

Our standards are high and we benchmark ourselves against international outcomes.

For nearly 15 years the hospital has been recognised by the Joint Commission International which works with hospitals and clinics across the globe to ensure the best patient safety and quality of healthcare. A JCI recognition is an extremely important mark of our reputation and expertise.

A lot happens at Blackrock Clinic. Regularly we are the first in Ireland to perform certain procedures or use new technologies.

Earlier this year, the world’s smallest pacemaker, the Medtronic Micra, was inserted into the first patient in Ireland at Blackrock Clinic. In the last year we were the first to perform a percutaneous, endoscopic discectomy. The hospital opened a 12-bed, state of the art ICU and also tripled the size of the Emergency Department at the hospital due to high demand in the five years since it opened.

In my new role as CEO, I will continue to work closely with the Founders, the Board of Directors, the consultants and our staff to bring new procedures, techniques and facilities to our patients.

Some of the upcoming developments include delivery of a new Da Vinci Robot allowing surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures with enhanced vision, precision and control.

Also, we have recently installed an Omnicell which is a medication management system designed to reduce errors in dispensing medications to patients.

Further developments are planned on a recently acquired site, next door to our own, in which we plan to develop a day surgery unit. This will release for other uses the floor in the hospital which currently houses that service.

These are exciting times – not just in medicine, and in surgery, but at Blackrock Clinic overall. And I am looking forward to seeing where the next ten years will bring us.