ROGERS — Some people are just born for the job. This could be said of Eric Pianalto, Tontitown’s own native son, who was recently named president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas.
Born 47 years ago in St. Mary Hospital in Rogers, Pianalto has grown up with and seen first-hand changes occur in his community and the hospital system where he now daily walks the halls.
Case in point, in 1995, St. Mary Hospital, where he was born, became an entity of the St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy Health System and changed the name to Mercy Hospital in 2008.
He admits being a hometown boy does have its advantages.
“This is an easy transition for me because it is the area where I grew up,” said Pianalto, who knows staff members and physicians because of other leadership positions he has held at Mercy over the past 19 years.
Pianalto spent 90 days as interim president before being hired Nov. 19. Scott Street, who formerly served as president is now, according to hospital spokeswoman Jessica Eldred, assigned to special projects with the Mercy Health System.
“Eric is such a strong and collaborative leader,” said Dr. Stephen Goss, who will partner with Pianalto as president of Mercy Clinic in Northwest Arkansas. “His deep knowledge and strong communication skills will serve us well.”
Pianalto’s roots run deep in the area with his family living on one his grandfather’s first and oldest grape vineyards and his brother living on another vineyard next door. His grandfather, the late Leo Pianalto, one of the original settlers of Tontitown, came by boat from north central Italy in the late 1890s, enticed by the prospect of sharecropping and making a better life for his family. When the first settlement near Lake Village showed no promise for expansion or land ownership, an Italian priest, Father Pietro Bandini, heard the plight of these Italian immigrants and bought land in Tontitown for them to farm.
This Italian-Catholic community is where Pianalto spent his early years, surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins, working in the fields in the summer and making enough money to attend the annual Tontitown Grape Festival.
“Where I grew up, the whole community was spiritual and prayerful,” Pianalto remembers of his early years. “It was hard, but I think I learned the value of work and my work ethic stems from that.”
Pianalto went to grade school in Tontitown where the school was leased from the city of Springdale, but had Benedictine nuns teaching. He graduated from Springdale High School in 1984 and then went on to graduate from the University of Arkansas in 1989 with a degree in administrative management. His first job was just down the road in Springdale at Heekin Can Co., now Ball Corp., where his father, Leonard Pianalto, had been employed for 40 years.
After a couple of years at Heekin in Indianapolis, Pianalto returned to the area in 1991 to work for a physician’s group and thus began his career journey in health care, a professional path he did not anticipate. In 1994, Pianalto took a position at what was then St. Edward Mercy Medical Center and is now Mercy Hospital Fort Smith. His most recent appointment was serving as chief operating officer of Mercy Clinic in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“I never had aspirations to be in this role, but I have felt led to be in this role,” he said with conviction.
Sister Anita DeSalvo, RSM, who works within administration in the Mercy system, has known Pianalto for more than 12 years, and sees his Catholic heritage as an integral part of who he is today.
“Eric is a Catholic man whose religion and celebration of life and spirituality are very important to him and his family,” she said. “We connected, not just in our professions, but through his involvement with his ministry to the youth in his home parish, St. Joseph’s in Tontitown. He taught religious education for a number of years and was also president of the parish council. His entire family, including his wife and three daughters, are very involved in their parish and it is a central part of their lives together.”
Keeping in mind that he is serving a community of family and friends keeps Pianalto laser-focused on the mission of Mercy Hospital.
“There is a consistency in the Catholic traditions in an ever-changing world,” Pianalto said, “Mercy has stayed true to its teachings and mission, and it is truly a ministry working in Catholic health care because we are here to treat all people.”
“I believe that Eric embraces the mission of Jesus and the mission of our foundress, Catherine McAuley, in striving to meet the needs of all persons but with special concern for the economically poor,” Sister Anita said. “His leadership skills and personal abilities will enhance Mercy’s ability to be in the right relationship with leaders, physicians, co-workers and the community in northwest Arkansas. He, with the physicians and leaders, are poised to fulfill the mission of Mercy: to bring to life the healing ministry of Jesus for the whole community.”
“When I came to work at Mercy,” Pianalto, said, recalling his journey from birth to now, “I was back at home.”
