A high-flying career; HCA's Bovender feted for his outside contributions.(Special Feature: ACHE Awards)(American College of Healthcare Executives)

Byline: Alice Hohl

Jack Bovender, a longtime HCA executive who has been the for-profit hospital chain's chief executive officer since 2001, isn't sure why he is being singled out for honors now, but he thinks it may have to do with helicopters. It was Bovender who authorized a heroic mission to rescue patients and staff from Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans, an HCA affiliate, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The American College of Healthcare Executives awarded Bovender, 61, a 2007 Gold Medal Award for going outside his own organization to improve healthcare and the community, according to its announcement.

Hospital executives in New Orleans and leaders at HCA headquarters in Nashville, including Bovender, called on everyone from professional helicopter pilots in Chicago to amateur, or HAM, radio operators in Florida to pull off the rescue in August 2005.

Bovender describes an operation that involved 24 helicopters and saved 254 patients and about 1,400 staff and family members. Once Tulane Hospital was completely evacuated, and the helicopters helped rescue the few remaining staff at nearby Charity Hospital, a public hospital not affiliated with HCA.

The helicopters were hovering two and three deep, waiting to land atop Tulane's parking garage, with most traditional communications knocked out. A team of volunteer HAM radio operators from Tallahassee, Fla., were transported to the hospital's roof to coordinate the pilots.

"It was kind of an interesting logistical endeavor,'' Bovender says.