In some ways, Mike Abrams hasn’t traveled far. He was born at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s, when it was still located downtown, just five miles from where he now works as president and CEO of the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA).
But that’s deceiving. Abrams has followed a long path to where he is today, and now serves a vitally important role in Ohio’s health care system. OHA represents 250 hospitals and 15 hospital systems statewide. He’s also taken on a number of additional roles, including a position on Gov. Mike DeWine’s Executive Workforce Board.
All this, however, was not part of the initial plan. Abrams started off his career with an undergraduate degree in political science and a master’s in public administration, both from the University of Indiana.
“I really was not looking for a career in health care but there was an opportunity to do government affairs for the physicians of Indiana,” Abrams says. “I quickly fell in love with the subject matter. It’s an important matter of public policy and it’s almost the only job I’ve had since college.”
Health care proved a natural fit for Abrams. The work provided the opportunity to make an impact on what he considers to be some of the most impactful institutions within any community.
“I’ve always said that the local hospital is the crown jewel of every community it’s in,” he says. “I’m really privileged to have an opportunity to have a leadership role in an organization that represents all those crown jewels.”
After spending nearly a decade with the Indiana State Medical Association, and another 16 years with the Iowa Medical Society, Abrams finally returned to his home state.
Most of his family roots connect back to the southern portion of Ohio, leaving the question open of where to live near Columbus.
It was actually his wife, Mary Ann, that first attracted the family to Upper Arlington. Mary Ann, a physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, had lived in Upper Arlington while attending The Ohio State University College of Medicine. So when Abrams began at OHA and the family
began looking for a home in central Ohio, Upper Arlington was the clear frontrunner.
“Mary Ann was immediately romantic for Upper Arlington,” Abrams says. “There’s just a charm about our community that people find it difficult to replicate in other areas.”
The area proved a natural fit for the whole family – including their children Elizabeth and Thomas.
“The community of Arlington is one of the enviable communities in the state,” Abrams says. “Every community has a little bit of a personality or a chemistry. I think people are really appreciative of the chemistry that Arlington has been able to develop for itself.”
The Abrams family has found Upper Arlington to be an intimate community. That includes the easy walks to parks or church and the proximity to Columbus’ events, but it’s the community members that really make the city feel like home.
Good neighbors mean friends are always just a couple minutes away, and impromptu gatherings are a regular occurrence in Abrams’ neighborhood.
The walkability of the neighborhood took on a new meaning for Abrams when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Like many others, Abrams spent increasing time working at home – he says the neighborhood became his office as he regularly walked outside during phone calls. But for the health care system, it was a time of exhausting work and crucial decisions.
Abrams says that he worked seven days a week, communicating with DeWine and then-Director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton.
Experts, officials and other advisors were working to sort out highly public dilemmas, such as whether or not to cancel the Arnold Sports Festival, while dealing with the challenges of a new virus that scientists were still working to understand.
“There were large public policy questions, there were careful science questions that had to be addressed, there were specific constituent casework problems that had to be addressed and everything in between,” Abrams says. “And those problems were changing daily, hourly.”
From the macro perspective of OHA, those challenges included anticipating hospitals reaching capacity, helping to manage the limited supply of resources such as ventilators and advocating for hospitals as the pause in elective procedures limited financial resources.
“When you look back on this pandemic,” Abrams says, “the decisions that were made, … it feels like they were obvious decisions, but at the time they were not.”
As the impacts of the pandemic wane, new concerns have moved to the forefront of Abrams’ mind, workforce supply high among them.
DeWine’s Workforce Board is one place that Abrams has been able to confront those issues.
“When you talk to people who work in community colleges and you talk to people who work in really every other industry in the state, their problems are not that different from a workforce standpoint,” he says.
Abrams and Mary Ann also contributed to the creation of a healthcare-oriented classroom at Bishop Watterson High School, the school Thomas graduated from. They’re not alone in their efforts though. Abrams says Upper Arlington, and the Columbus area in general, fosters a generous and caring community that’s attentive to the needs of the future.
And health care is just part of the picture. For Abrams, it’s an indicator for society as a whole.
“I’ve always said if you want to know what’s going on in a community you should pull over and talk to the high school principal or the hospital CEO,” he says. “They can tell you what you want to know.”
Cameron Carr is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com.
