The path to the head job at Humboldt General Hospital for Art Frable has wound through Pennsylvania and the mid-west. Frable hasn't always been in healthcare. He was a pastor in eastern Pennsylvania for ten years.
The local hospital CEO was attending the church he pastored and he saw the opportunities and influence he had in the community. Frable said, "I was very impressed."
He earned his Masters of Business Administration degree in Healthcare Administration at Temple University in Philadelphia. He was hired as the Administrative Coordinator for the department of Internal Medicine at ORU Medical School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He wanted to be in rural healthcare so he next accepted the Administrator position at Fairview Regional Medical Center in Fairview, Oklahoma. He was there for 12 years.
He then worked for a hospital management company and became the CEO at Tri Valley Medical Center in Cambridge, Nebraska. After two years there, he moved to Howard County Medical Center in St. Paul for seven years.
"I left there to be part of a group opening a physician-owned hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma." After it was opened and licensed, he moved to Ulysses, Kansas to become the CEO at Bob Wilson Memorial Grant County Hospital and was there six and a half years.
"After our hospital became part of Centura Health, I elected to not continue with the organization," Frable said. "I was in Oklahoma for 17 years, Nebraska for nine years and Kansas for six and a half years."
In summary, his career has included a medical school, a city hospital, two county hospitals, an independent community hospital and a physician-owned hospital.
After a brief experiment with retirement, Frable said he knew it wasn't yet for him. "I wanted to be part of a rural community with a viable healthcare system. I missed the community and staff interaction. Winnemucca and HGH had both components: a good rural community and a remarkable local healthcare system."
