Don Pabst, VA Director: He Requested This Assignment and Says He's Here to Stay

              SHREVEPORT JOURNAL Tuesday PM Your Health SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA., MARCH 1<5, 1982
Journal Photos by Ralph Fountain
VA director Don Pabst checks in with admitting clerk Mattie Sneed
Don Pabst, VA director:
He requested this assignment
and says he's here to stay
By BETH SMITH
Journal Medical Writer
Don Pabst came to Shreveport by choice,
and he's going to stay here "no longer than the
next 100 years."
"I asked for this assignment," said the new
djrector of the Veterans Administration
Medical Center located here. "I intend to stay
-r if the VA lets me."
| He came in mid-December from
Washington, D.C., where he was director of
facility engineering, planning and
construction for the VA's department of
niedicine and surgery on a nationwide basis,
bjit he began his 21-year career with the
Veterans Administration as an engineer in
Little Rock, Ark. — he holds a degree in civil
engineering from Mississippi State University
and is a registered professional engineer.
; After serving in engineering positions in
Seattle, Wash., the central office in
Washington, D.C., and Tuskegee, Ala., Pabst
was selected for hospital administration and
went to Charleston, S.C., as assistant hospital
director trainee.
He was the assistant director for VA
hospitals in Alexandria, Louisville, Ky., and
the Bronx, N.Y., and was medical center
director in Northampton, Mass., before going
td the post in Washington.
During those years, through the U.S. Army,
he earned his degree in health care
administration from The Academy of Health
Science, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; he is a
fellow in the American Academy of Medical
Administrators and a member of the
Association of Military Surgeons of the United
States.
But he wanted to come to Shreveport. Why?
Because he's just an easy-going Southern boy,
the youthful-looking director said, the twinkle
inhis eye glinting through his dark-rimmed
glasses. Approaching 43, he's slim, trim and
handsome, and gray barely sprinkles his
neatly combed dark hair.
"I was born in New Orleans and reared in
Gulf port, Miss. I wanted to be in the South,
close to home, but far enough away to enjoy it
— my mother still lives in Gulfport, and I'm
related to half of New Orleans. I had been
stationed in Alexandria and had been in
Shreveport on visits, so I knew I would like the
area."
At the conclusion of a "hot line" conference
call with directors of other VA hospitals in
this district — New Orleans, Alexandria,
Little Rock and Fayetteville, Ark. — Pabst
explained that the budget for fiscal year 1983
was being "cussed and discussed."
Throughout the budget conference, Pabst
was attentive, but relaxed; his desk chair was
tilted far back, the telephone receiver hung
over his shoulder as the voices of the other
directors came over the speaker. Five
members of his staff had gathered in his large,
sunny office and seemed at ease with their
new director; as the bartering continued via
telephone, they communicated through raised
eyebrows, the exchange of smiles, an
occasional wink. When it was over, all seemed
satisfied with the results.
Simply put, X-number of dollars is divided
among the five hospitals in the district, with
the allocation for each hospital determined by
a numberof factors, including work load.
"The 'hot line' gives us (the directors) the
opportunity to compromise. We may meet on
the budget a couple of more times, and we'll
all be going to Memphis for a regional
meeting and we'll discuss it there."
The local VA facility, which employs
approximately 885 people, had a total budget
of $41 million for fiscal '82. An average of
9,400 bed patients are treated in the hospital
each year, with an outpatient work load of
61,000 per year. The center has an authorized
bed capacity of 449, and an operating capacity
of 300 beds. "One reason for the difference in
those figures is that we have two wards
unoccupied because of ongoing construction,"
the director explained. "We have a normal
occupancy rate of 85 percent."
Pabst said no increase in bed load is
anticipated in 1983, but outpatients are
expected to increase to 72,000.
As director, Pabst is responsible for the
. . . then strolls across the hospital grounds . . . to his quarters, where he relaxes with his guitar.
total operation of the medical center, which
serves North Louisiana, East Texas and
Southern Arkansas. "In a federal hospital, the
director is where the buck stops. The
professional and administrative staffs are
separate in private hospitals, but we have
jurisdiction over the professional people, too."
Although he does have certain guidelines to
follow, Pabst said the application of those •
rules and regulations is pretty much left up to
the individual directors. "We have a great
deal of autonomy," he said.
In his previous position, Pabst visited many
VA facilities. "The Shreveport Veterans
Administration Medical Center is one of the
finest I've ever come across — in physical
condition, employee morale and patient
acceptance. My predecessor did a superb job.
I inherited the fruits of his labor," he said with
one of his frequent smiles.
He does have plans of his own, however.
An outpatient addition already was in the
planning stages when he came, and those
plans will be carried out. "This hospital was
designed by the Corp of Engineers and
constructed in approximately 1950. Then, the
VA was not in the outpatient business, and the
facility is not sufficiently laid out for the
number we have.
Pabst, who admits to being "one of the most
organized persons you'll ever come across,"
had a study made of the outpatient admitting
process after he arrived at the medical
center, and said the process has been
streamlined by changing the method of
admitting, "working within the physical
confines we have now."
The central office has put a freeze on all VA
construction, Shreveport included, until the
justification can be reviewed, Pabst said, but
he expects approval of the outpatient project
when it is reviewed. "We're hoping for funding
in fiscal '84."
He also wants to develop a facility for long-term
care, specifically nursing home care, but
said that is some years away.
Vietnam veterans are another area of
concern, and Pabst said he anticipates "in the
near future" the development of a contract
for the establishment of a veterans center
somewhere in the Shreveport service area "to
provide a place for Vietnam vets to seek
guidance and counseling."
He feels that the local VA facility has a
good relationship with the community and
said the staff would strive to continue that
relationship and improve it in any way
possible. "The VA should not operate in a
vacuum. Whatever we do will be done with
full consideration for the medical community
in and around Shreveport." With that in mind,
he is visiting all the other medical centers.
"I have visited the Barksdale Air Force
Base Hospital, and vice versa, to encourage
the mutual exchange of information, use of
equipment and other common resources. The
recommendations and discussions were
favorable, and I look forward to a much closer
relationship there," Pabst said.
"We do have an affiliation with the LSU
School of Medicine. Their residents rotate to
the VA, where they receive some of their
training," he continued. "We also have a
sharing agreement with LSU on the use of
certain medical equipment."
As a Shreveport resident, Pabst plans to be
involved in what is going on in his chosen city.
He asked to be a member of the city's
ambulance contract committee. "We provide
a large chunk of money under our contract
with Shreveport Amublance Service. I feel our
contract is a great part of their income, and
we wouldn't want to make the decision to stop
and go on our own." He also is a member of
the Northwestern District of the Louisiana
Hospital Association.
• * *
When his secretary called to announce the
arrival of two Gold Star Mothers (mothers
who have lost a son in the service of their
country), Pabst rolled down the sleeves of his
light blue oxford shirt and went to the closet to
retrieve his jacket. "I really don't like
wearing a coat," he said as he shrugged into it
and crossed to the door to welcome his visitors
graciously. The women were there to present
the hospital with a check, and when they
requested that it be used to purchase some
needed item for the hospital — "We want it to
stay here" — he assured them warmly that it
would. During a picture taking session, he
chatted leisurely with the two women, then
walked them to the door and returned to
discuss candidly Donald A. Pabst, the man.
• * *
He prefers being called Don — "only my
mother and my enemies call me Donald" —
and while he is very serious about his work, he
believes that life can't be taken seriously all
the time.
Home is rented quarters on the VA grounds,
which he shares with his 20-year-old son
Michael, a student at Mississipi State
University, during holidays and breaks. He
also has a 15-year-old daughter, Michelle, who
lives in El Paso, Texas, with her mother, from
whom Pabst has been divorced for four years.^
He sees Michelle two or three times a year,
and keeps in frequent touch by mail and
telephone.
Most of his evenings are spent with the
newspaper and television or cooking. "I
picked up cooking out of necessity, and now
it's a hobby." What he cooks is determined by
his mood, but he has a preference for Italian
food.
"I normally eat a very well-balanced meal.
I cook on weekends and use my Seal-A-Meal to
put it up for use during the week," said the
self-professed organizer whose kitchen is
arranged by food categories.
Hobbies include canoeing, fishing and oil
painting — "I have one (painting) drying now"
— and he likes to tinker in the garage. Then
there's music. For listening, his favorites are
country/western and — "you're going to think
I'm contradicting myself" — classical. He
plays the guitar, clarinet, saxophone and
drums and is teaching himself to play the
organ.
And there's one other thing he plans to do
"in the next 100 years." He would like to
remarry. "It is very possible, and very likely,"
he said. "I really wasn't meant to live alone."
B