Bob Main’s dream became hospital

Bob Main recalled Wednesday that when he first was contacted about coming to Chattanooga to help start a hospital, he declined to leave Chicago.

“I had Blackhawks tickets and Chicago Bears tickets,” he quipped. “Why would I want to go to Chattanooga?”

But a recruiter continued to press Main, and finally the hospital executive agreed to become the first employee of Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation.

“I accepted with the full knowledge we had total assets of $297,000. It wasn’t even cash in the bank, but the value of the land,” said the hospital’s chief executive. “But we had that dream.”

Main, 67, who has led the 109-bed hospital for 23 years, on Wednesday accepted the Chattanooga Area Manager of the Year Award, citing the vision of brothers Mose and Garrison Siskin.

“They had incredible foresight,” he told several hundred people at the Convention Center. “For they knew that in the rehab process, it is very, very important to have a family support system right there.”

They died before realizing the hospital dream, but the Siskin Memorial Foundation board kept it alive and in 1986 formed a corporation and started a capital campaign, Main said.

He said that in October 1987, he was offered the post in Chattanooga and took it, redesigning the hospital and getting working drawings.

While there were good times in the first few months, there were nights when he wondered about the decision, Main said.

“I’d sit there [in my apartment] and think to myself, ‘You just left a job in Chicago to come to a job, a corporation, that has no money, that has no employees, but it has a dream.'”

In the fall of 1988, the hospital hired three employees, Main said.

He said that as the opening of the hospital approached, it was important to develop a philosophy of service. That included house rules that it could give employees for direction in carrying out the hospital’s mission, Main said.

When workers start, they’re given copies of the philosophy of service and the house rules, and by their signature and having it witnessed, they commit to follow them, he said.

Businessman Grady Williams, last year’s award winner, said the city is fortunate to have Siskin Hospital, which now employs nearly 400 people.

“Those who do recuperate there do so much quicker and better,” he said.

Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said Siskin is one of the top hospitals of its kind nationally and cited Main’s work.

He said Main has “pioneered programs which bring a level of specialized care … that we would not have without your vision.”

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.