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Childhood summers at her grandfather’s book-filled cottage shaped her future.
Judy’s biggest inspiration was her maternal grandfather, a printer and self-taught man with no formal education beyond eighth grade. She spent summers at his rustic cottage on Lake Erie, a magical place with no hot running water, a 12-inch TV, and a room filled floor to ceiling with books. Her grandfather studied these books, shared them with his granddaughter and quizzed her regularly.
“He had more books than anybody I’ve ever seen,” Judy said. “He was probably one of the most educated people I ever knew, because he was a voracious reader. We would study together, and he would push me to read faster and think harder.
“When I had to take oral boards in medical school, there was no intimidation, because I was used to having oral exams from the age of 8. In college, writing 20-page papers didn’t scare me, because I was doing that at 12 with Grandpa.”
She graduated at 20 from Johns Hopkins with a degree in the History of Medicine.
Judy started taking classes year-round the summer after eighth grade. The daughter of an accountant and a teacher, she took college courses throughout high school.
When she went to Johns Hopkins University, she decided on a less conventional path. She didn’t major in biological sciences, chemistry or psychology. She chose the history of medicine.
“That liberal arts education I received deeply influenced who I am as physician and as an administrator, because I have a curiosity about people,” Judy said. “It made me better able to communicate because I had an understanding about humanity. That is what history teaches us.”
She found Emergency Medicine was the best specialty to combine communication, compassion and clinical skill for maximum impact.
Judy enjoyed every specialty she experienced during her rotations in the third year of medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry OB/GYN, it was all interesting. She told her mentor, a plain-spoken ER doctor intent on teaching his craft, that she just couldn’t decide.
“I could see myself doing any of it, but nothing clearly resonated,” said Judy, who was 24 years old and commuting to rotations from her parents’ home. “I told Stan, ‘I like everything, but I don’t love anything.’” Stan said: ‘You’re an emergency room physician. That is what we all say.’”
Her epiphany came when she was taking care of an intoxicated patient who had severely injured herself crashing through a plate glass window. Judy spent hours picking shards and fragments of glass from a foot-long wound while talking non-stop with the patient to keep her calm.
“I realized I could help people by talking to them as well as doing something as a physician,” Judy recalled. “I loved the chaos of a night shift in the ER. The whole vibe was perfect.”
Dr. Wolfe was an internationally recognized patient experience expert prior to joining UH.
Early in her career, Dr. Wolfe taught physicians classes on how to best communicate with patients. She had her share of dealing with adversity, managing the Lakewood Hospital ED until the Cleveland Clinic closed that hospital. Her ability to work with both clinicians and patients led to her appointment as the Clinic’s Associate Chief Experience Officer.
In that role, she spent four years focusing on improving metrics for operations in Ohio, Florida, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. She has lectured both nationally and internationally on patient experience.
But she has found her home at UH St. John in Westlake. She loves UH’s emphasis on value, which she describes as not just high-quality and high-touch care. Caregivers regularly praise each other and support each other, so they’re more likely to speak up when an issue arises, she said.
“This is the most cohesive group of leaders and caregivers I’ve ever worked with,” said Dr. Wolfe. “That connectedness is what differentiates us. When there is a challenge or crisis, this team comes together.”
Physicians she leads and represents praise her for being easily reachable.
“It’s a warm and welcoming place I look forward to coming to every day, and a remarkable place to work,” she said. “I love it here.”
Dr. Wolfe just finished her MBA, graduating with high honors from Boston University.
As Chief Medical Officer of a 190-bed hospital, Dr. Wolfe wanted to have a stronger knowledge of business, which she found sorely missing from medical education. She was interested in understanding spreadsheets, operations and revenue streams.
Dr. Wolfe enrolled in the MBA program at Boston University five years ago before she came to UH.
She’s worked on projects with classmates in Germany, South America, the Middle East and across the U.S. She has collaborated with software engineers from Google, researchers developing vaccines, patent lawyers and government workers of all kinds. And she did this all while balancing work and family life. She is married to an engineer and has a 16-year-old daughter who also aims to be an engineer.
“It was an incredible journey,” said Dr. Wolfe. “I wanted to contribute maximally to the value proposition, and to incorporate high-tech innovative mindset into the work that I do for UH so we can benefit from rapid improvement cycles here at St. John.”
