DENVER, Colo. -- Reporter Sally Sears is in Denver along with about 100 metro Atlanta leaders looking at how the Colorado city is solving problems such as traffic, water and explosive growth.

The dynamic CEO of Denver’s version of Grady Hospital is a NO-NONSENSE woman with an Italian grandfather, Patricia Gabow. She's a doctor herself. When Tad Leithead asked her if she had any qualifications to run a multibillion dollar business , she reminded him she herself is a physician. "My son was fourteen when we took over this change," she recalled. "And he asked me the same thing. 'Mom, what are you doing taking on a job for which you have no qualifications?' But the doctors can't b.s. me! They can say thousands will die if we don’t move the cat scan to that corner of the room, and I’ll say show me one outcome!" The room of politicians and businesspeople grinned.

She reminded us all that Denver is in the west. "Every man wants to ride his own horse here, but we have to tell them no, we’re in this stage coach together."

When she helped reform the failing hospital by taking it away from local government, she brought in consultants from Federal Express, the Ritz Carlton and Toyota to build a new system. Nurses walk less. Waste is discouraged. And there is no ethnic disparity in outcomes. The African American patients, the overwhelming Hispanic numbers of people, all walk out with the same statistical health as the Caucasians. One way? Nurses make 60% of the prevailing pay-rate for nurses in the area.

Alicia Phillip asked about remote counties sending patients to Denver, and Ben DeCosta asked who she's competing against. Calmly, Dr. Gabow outlined how she’s succeeded, with a list of money-making sources inside the organization that keeps the state, or outlying counties, from contributing much if at all. Her competition? Private hospital chains. Jeff Dickerson asked how she went from deficit to being in the Black. She says you can cut costs and help but you can’t grow by reducing. She says managed care helped, getting pay from their complex call center, and biggest was reaching out with high quality trauma care to remote parts of the state, like Vail.

Finally, she reminded us, losing revenue and wasting costs are everywhere, easy to find in a complex enterprise like a hospital. "If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it." And she's measuring everything, especially the raises for personnel. For instance, she personally handles each physician's annual review. With her knowledge of business and medicine, I bet those reviews are worth a lot.