Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Holly McCormack, Chief Executive Officer of Cottage Hospital

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Holly McCormack, Chief Executive Officer of Cottage Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Welcome to the Becker's Health Care podcast. I'm
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  Kelly Gute, senior editor and enterprise lead at
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  Becker's, and I'm pleased to welcome Holly McCormack,
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  president and CEO of Cottage Hospital in New
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  Hampshire, to the podcast today. Holly, thank you
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  so much for joining us. Really looking forward
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  to this conversation because your leadership sits at
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  the intersection of rural health care, workforce strategy,
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  and financial stewardship, all areas that are especially
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  critical
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  right now as hospitals navigate mounting pressures and
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  and evolving patient needs.
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  Before we dive in, I'd love to start
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  by having you introduce yourself, share a little
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  bit about your background, your path in health
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  care leadership, and what brought you to College
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  Hospital.
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  Sure. So hi. Thanks for having me, first
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  of all, Kelly. Like you said, I'm Holly
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  McCormack. I am a registered nurse and the
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  president and CEO here at Cottage Hospital. And
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  I've been with Cottage Hospital for, next month.
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  It'll be, sixteen years, so quite a bit
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  of time.
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  My leadership journey started,
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  pretty, early on in my career. I mean,
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  I've held pretty much every position in in
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  the nursing ladder. I started off as a
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  candy striper,
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  became a nursing assistant when I was in
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  college.
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  I was what we called a nursing student
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  associate. And then when I became a registered
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  nurse,
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  I worked at the bedside in pediatrics
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  for, the first part of my career
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  where I became a preceptor and a charge
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  nurse and then decided I really wanted to
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  be in a higher level of,
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  leadership.
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  So I left my job at the bedside
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  to take,
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  a supervisory
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  position
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  at a a blood center of all places,
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  which was so different from the usual nursing
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  I was doing.
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  Really decided I liked the leadership part of
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  that job, but missed being in an acute
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  care atmosphere. And so jumped back into,
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  a hospital in a large system
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  that did,
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  it was a women and infants hospital. And
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  so
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  I took a position there in management.
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  That led me to a life change with
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  my family moving to a rural area and
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  taking a directorship here at Cottage Hospital,
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  at which point I had completed my master's
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  degree and was in a succession plan for
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  the chief nurse position. So I was a
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  chief nurse for about six years
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  when the CEO position opened, and I really
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  was excited about the opportunity
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  to take the nursing lens to use that
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  to lead this organization. And so in 2021,
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  I applied for the position, and I was
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  selected.
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  So I have been the CEO here at
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  Cottage Hospital for about four and a half
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  years now.
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  That's such an amazing journey. And like you
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  said, just being able to really look at
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  the position through that nursing lens as well.
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  And
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  so, Holly, this is
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  a question I wanted to get to. There's
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  so much that can be mentioned here, but
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  wondering what the most important initiative you've led
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  in the last year is,
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  and what did you do, and and what
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  were really the results there?
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  Hands down, the absolute most important thing
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  that I think we have accomplished here at
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  Cottage Hospital in 2025
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  was our investment in our workforce.
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  Since the pandemic,
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  we had been struggling with increasing labor cost,
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  around contract labor.
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  And we had tried,
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  you know, several different things trying to to
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  figure out how to turn that around, and
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  we were just unsuccessful
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  at it.
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  And we were at the point last year
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  in April where we had the highest number
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  of travelers in this organization
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  historically ever, even during the actual pandemic.
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  And so we knew we had to really
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  do something. And so the decision that I
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  made was to invest in our work force.
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  And so we we said we have to
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  put money into people
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  and not into things for this organization right
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  now. We have everything we need to safely
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  take care of our patients, but we really
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  need consistency. We need a a predictable workforce.
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  And so that's what we did. And between
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  May 28 where we actually enacted the change
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  to present right now today, we have decreased
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  the amount of travelers in our organization by
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  70%.
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  And so that was
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  an investment that we made that has paid
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  off exponentially
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  and has allowed us to be able to
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  now be forward thinking about where Cottage can
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  can continue to go and grow now that
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  we have started to secure the workforce. And
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  don't get me wrong. There's still work that
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  has to be done there,
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  but it is just
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  amazing to see. And that investment was dollars
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  into people, into salaries, but it was also
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  reviewing our benefits, making a conscientious effort to
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  not increase,
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  our health insurance,
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  cost to our employees this year. It was
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  looking at their with the chief nurse at
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  the leadership leadership structure within our nursing departments.
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  It was adding an educator back to our
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  staff. We hadn't had an educator in years,
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  and we know that that's very important for
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  the nurses that we're hiring and we're orienting
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  to feel supported through the process.
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  So it was a big investment, but it
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  was absolutely
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  the best thing that we did in the
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  year 2025.
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  That's amazing. And, yeah, sounds like a definitely
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  a worthwhile investment there. And like you said,
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  I know, work, work is never done, and
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  there are always, challenges with the the workforce,
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  but that's amazing to hear. And
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  so
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  like to love to point out that that
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  for 2025. So looking forward to 2026, wanted
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  to ask you, what are the big priorities
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  and headwinds you're focused on for for next
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  year?
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  Headwinds, I think
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  every CEO you ask is gonna give you
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  the same answer, that it's the financial challenges
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  of health care. And being an independent rural
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  critical access hospital,
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  that's pretty much top of mind for for
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  us every year. I think if you ask
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  me at this time next year, I would
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  be saying the same thing. That's the financial
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  challenges.
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  We know that there are a lot of
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  changes coming for us, and we don't know
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  exactly what's that's gonna look like. But we
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  also know that we have,
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  rural, health transformation coming our way, and so
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  we don't know what that's gonna look like
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  for us either. We're hoping that that's gonna
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  be
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  some positive to counteract some of the the
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  takeaways we've had. But we're gonna really prioritize
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  here at Cottage focusing on what we do
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  and making sure first that we're doing it
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  really, really well, being laser focused on our
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  service lines
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  and evaluating them and making sure we're eliminating
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  any waste. We're gonna look at partnerships
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  and using those partnerships to improve what we
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  can improve access to care. We know that
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  we need to grow our services in
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  specialty in the specialty areas in the outpatient
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  arena, and so that's something we're gonna focus
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  on. And I think also using technology to
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  help us accomplish those goals. So the partnerships
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  along with technology can mean increasing
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  access via
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  telehealth, for example. And so it's really important
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  that those rural health extenders around the telehealth,
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  stay in place for us because I think
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  that gives a great opportunity
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  for the people in our community to access
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  the care that they need without having to
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  travel a long distance.
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  Thank you for for sharing that as well.
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  I so, of course, financial challenges, like you
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  said, on everyone's mind and still providing telehealth,
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  everything else you already mentioned. But so what
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  would you say is maybe the hardest thing
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  you'll have to do in the coming year?
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  I think the hardest thing we'll have to
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  do is evaluate those service lines
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  that,
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  perhaps that we've had to subsidize
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  over time, the ones that
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  are maybe do not contribute
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  to to our our a positive bottom line.
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  But but evaluating those and just finding out
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  how we can continue to offer those things
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  to our community
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  without them having the positive contribution they have
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  to have. And so,
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  the difficult,
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  things that we have to do sometimes is
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  say, does it make sense for us to
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  continue to do that here? Does does somebody
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  else within a reasonable,
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  distance from our facility also offer that that
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  same service? And does it make sense that
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  maybe we no longer do that service
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  and that maybe we have to refer our
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  patients, you know, to another location to get
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  whatever that that may be? So I think
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  that's one of the difficult things that we
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  have to do in health care all the
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  time is make sure that
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  we're doing
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  what we do really well. And if it's
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  something that we can't do anymore, then maybe
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  we have to decide we we can't do
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  everything
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  all the time here.
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  Right. No. Absolutely. And
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  so on the other end of the spectrum,
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  I wanted to just ask where you maybe
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  see some of the best opportunities for organizational
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  growth.
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  I think and it probably goes hand in
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  hand with what we just talked with talked
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  about and what I talked about in priorities
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  is that investment in
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  in looking at technology and the telehealth. Because
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  maybe it's something where we can no longer,
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  or we're not having any luck recruiting a
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  provider to our area to provide
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  the the service here, but maybe it's something
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  that we can offer through,
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  a telehealth option. You know, that that's given
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  us a lot of, ability to expand our
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  horizons quite a bit. And so being able
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  to bring that specialty care close to home,
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  I think, is definitely an opportunity for us.
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  Yes. Definitely. And we'd love to stay updated
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  on that as well, as it rolls out.
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  So thank you so much, again, Holly, just
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  for this wonderful and interesting conversation today. I
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  really do appreciate your time and look forward
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  to working with you again soon.
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  Thank you.