Charles Barnett was a 23-year-old, doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati when he woke up one morning with severe chest pains, certain he was having a heart attack. It actually was a collapsed right lung.

For the next 10 days, Barnett was a hospital patient with two chest tubes inserted into the collapsed lung until it healed and re-inflated. About 60 days later, the medical bills began pouring in.

“I didn’t have health insurance because I was a student, so you can imagine the hospital bills were quite substantial,” he says.” I went back to the hospital and offered to work off the debt as an orderly and they could just do a payroll deduction.”

Barnett got a slightly better offer. He was told that the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine was starting a class on operating room technology which paid $5.38 per hour compared to the $4.38 per hour orderly wage. After nine months, he became a certified operating room technician and later a surgery assistant. The latter proved to be exciting as Barnett assisted with a variety of operations: gallbladder removal, bowel resections, moving organs out of the way so the surgeon could access specific areas, tying off blood vessels and suturing patients’ incisions.

“It was great. We did the first and second assisting with moderate to difficult cases. We didn’t first assist with open heart surgeries. We did second assist with open heart surgeries,” he says. “But it is where my love for working in a hospital developed. Now it’s in a different capacity.”

Today, the 63-year-old Cincinnati native no longer scrubs up for the operating room, but instead wears a suit and tie as president and CEO of the Seton Family of Hospitals, a leading provider of health care services in Central Texas with 23 clinical locations.

Although Barnett’s duties as a former surgery assistant were vitally important, his role as head of Seton is equally so; and after being on the job since 1993, he’s comfortable sitting behind the president’s desk, which includes overseeing a $2 billion operating budget.

“The benefit is I’ve been here for 16 years, so I inherited some talented individuals and I have recruited some of the most talented hospital executives in the country who have come to Seton. I have such confidence in their leadership and abilities that I don’t get anxious over what we need to do. Because of that confidence it doesn’t cause me any great anxiety (of being CEO).”

He takes pride in knowing that the Seton Family of Hospitals is the lifeline to the community regarding its health care needs. In 2008, Seton, a member of Ascension Health, one of the largest not-for-profit health networks in the nation, provided more than $419 million in charity and community support to Central Texans.

“Seton has the broadest range of clinical services in the region of the state,” he says. “We also have a commitment to excellence, which translates to the best care you can receive in the United States. We have the best experience with reducing birth trauma to newborns. We are the health care system of choice for our community, and we are the largest provider of care for individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. They get the same quality of health care as those who have insurance.”

Sister Helen Brewer, Seton chairman of the board of trustees, has observed Barnett over the years at meetings, events and in the community. She is impressed by what she has seen, and describes him as a strong, innovative leader and strategic thinker.

“Charles has great capacity to hold numerous and diverse issues together. I am amazed at his capacity to hold so many issues before him and go into depth of detail with them all,” Brewer says. “He never loses an opportunity whether within the Seton organization or with the community of Central Texas to speak of Seton's mission to care for and improve the health of those we serve with a special concern for the poor and vulnerable.”

Brewer credits Barnett for steering the Seton ship into new territorial waters with the expansion of the hospital system into the far reaches of Central Texas and for many of its recent, groundbreaking achievements. Namely, the opening of Seton Medical Center Hays (SMCH) in October 2009; state designation as the only Level I Trauma Centers for adult and pediatrics in the Austin area; and the only hospital in the world to be LEED Platinum certified.

Prior to the opening of SMCH in Hays County – a historically, medically underserved area – about 58 percent of county residents traveled elsewhere to seek inpatient care. The $143.7 million facility in Kyle now offers a full-service emergency department, critical care, oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, women’s services, Level II nursery, day surgery center and other diagnostic and outpatient therapies.

“In terms of health care, the gap between what Hays County had and what the county needed was very dramatic. The scope of services Seton Medical Center Hays offers … will have a huge impact on the quality of health care here.”

In August 2009, the state officially designated two Seton facilities – University Medical Center Brackenridge and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas – as Level I trauma centers. UMC Brackenridge received verification for adult trauma, and Dell Children’s for pediatric trauma. Austin previously was the largest city in the nation without a Level I trauma center.

To move to the higher Level I designation, UMC Brackenridge and Dell Children’s have increased their trauma research and education activities, and have added special procedures such as microvascular surgery and digit/limb reattachment. The two medical centers have been providing many of the Level I requirements, such as 24/7 availability of specialists in neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, and oral and maxillofacial surgery.

“While the Seton Family of Hospitals provides state-designated trauma care at all of its acute care facilities, this is nonetheless a very significant achievement,” Barnett says. “The official designation of UMC Brackenridge and Dell Children’s Medical Center as Level I trauma centers means that Central Texas residents are receiving this sort of high-end medical care on par with any large city in the nation. In addition, more research has the direct impact of improving patient care, expanding treatment options and attracting top-level talent from across the nation.”

Last year, Dell Children’s celebrated its official designation as the world’s first LEED Platinum hospital. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) is the internationally-recognized benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

“We passionately pursued the LEED Platinum designation to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability, protect our central Texas environment, and most important, improve the clinical outcomes for our patients,” says Bob Bonar, president and CEO of Dell Children’s. “The connection between a healthy environment and improved patient outcomes is well established.”

There’s truth to Bonar’s statement. A 2004 University of Pittsburgh study showed that patients with access to plenty of sunlight required 20 percent less pain medication.

Despite all these accomplishments, Barnett says there’s still plenty of work to be done as the Seton Family of Hospitals, established in 1902 by the Daughters of Charity, moves into the future – and the population of Central Texas is expected to add another 1 million residents by 2020.

“We will continue to expand with three new hospitals with new capacity as the community continues to grow,” he says.

When Barnett mentions that Seton not only provides health care to the sick, but that the hospital system also focuses on prevention and wellness education, it’s nice to know that he practices what Seton preaches. He regularly lifts weights on his Universal home gym, and walks three miles around Westlake while carrying a 65-pound weight pack.

Away from the office, Barnett enjoys fly-fishing, basketball and golf, but even more so skiing which he does about two or three times a year on the snow-covered slopes of northern New Mexico. “I don’t miss the snow and cold weather of Ohio, but when I need my fix, I go skiing,” he says.

Barnett and his wife, Carol, an artist and volunteer at Dell Children’s Medical Center, have two sons. Christopher, 40, is an Air Force lieutenant colonel who flies helicopters and does search-and-rescue missions. Clayton, 30, is a pediatric intensive care nurse.

Barnett, who has been involved in hospital administration for more than 30 years, says he can’t see himself in any other profession. But if he wasn’t president and CEO of the Seton Family of Hospitals, he would be a physical therapist, pharmacist, surgeon or anesthesiologist.

He certainly has the passion – and the hands-on experience in the operating room – that would guarantee his success in any chosen field.