Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Faimy Vanleeuwen, Regional Director, Quality, Baptist Health South Florida, North Region

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Faimy Vanleeuwen, Regional Director, Quality, Baptist Health South Florida, North Region · 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 series 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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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  My name is Chanel Banger. Today, I have
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  the pleasure of speaking with Fahmy Van Leeuwen,
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  the regional director of quality at Baptist Health
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  South Florida's North Region,
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  who joins the podcast today to share insight
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  to her background,
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  health care trends she's keeping an eye on,
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  and a bit more. Amy, thank you so
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  much for joining me today. Thanks for having
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  me. Great to be on.
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  Perfect. Well, to get us started out, can
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  you please introduce yourself and tell us a
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  bit about Baptist Health?
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  Of course. My name is Amy Van Lewin,
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  and I'm a nurse by training in heart
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  with over twenty years in health care.
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  I started my career in med surge and
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  trauma with some experience in ICU and mainly
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  the OR.
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  Leadership found me a little early as a
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  charge nurse on a busy trauma unit,
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  but I've spent most of my nursing career
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  in nursing leadership, including serving as a director
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  of nursing
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  for an outpatient surgery center where I supported
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  quality initiatives, new programs, and some operations,
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  usually functioning in executive capacity.
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  But for the past three years, I've been
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  working with a hospital system, Baptist Health South
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  Florida,
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  and currently as a regional quality director supporting
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  both hospital and outpatient environments.
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  Outside of work, I'm a proud local soccer
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  mom and married to my college sweetheart for
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  just about over twenty two years.
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  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for the
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  introduction. And now getting into it a bit,
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  can you talk about the trends that you're
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  currently watching
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  either in quality or just health care overall?
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  Well, I'll stick to quality since that's my
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  wheelhouse.
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  One of the biggest trends I'm watching is
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  the shift from retrospective
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  quality review to more real time operational
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  quality.
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  We're moving away from looking at data, you
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  know, weeks or even months later.
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  Instead, we're implementing
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  quality and safety into daily workflows
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  like rounding audits,
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  task management,
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  and more frontline engagement.
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  So issues are identified and addressed much earlier.
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  I'm also seeing a stronger focus with standardization
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  across the Baptist Health System, and I'm sure
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  this is across most hospital settings.
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  We have continuing to move between inpatient, outpatient,
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  and ambulatory environments.
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  Quality,
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  we've realized, can't live in silos anymore.
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  Systems that are doing this better are aligning
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  expectations,
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  tools, and accountability
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  across all sites and not just hospitals.
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  And just a little bit more, we're paying
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  a bit more close attention to our frontline
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  leaders.
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  Sustainability
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  with, you know, not just being with dashboards,
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  but also just giving leaders clear priorities,
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  managing the tools that we use, and most
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  importantly,
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  psychology, you know, the psychological
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  safety aspect of it and giving our teams
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  the strength to speak up, improve, and actually
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  sustain change.
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  Got it. Got it. So a lot of
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  things happening. And moving forward a bit, this
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  is kind of a two parter question where
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  I'm gonna ask you, looking ahead into the
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  rest of 2026,
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  what are you most focused on and excited
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  about? And then looking back a bit in
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  the past,
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  six to eighteen months, can you talk about
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  either an initiative or project or just something
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  that you're proud about?
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  Well,
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  I love looking forward, and I get excited
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  about lot of things. But right now, what
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  I'm focused on is
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  and genuinely excited about is building
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  sustainable
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  quality systems
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  so that our frontline
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  leaders can actually own their process.
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  So for the past six to eighteen months,
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  a big part of my work has been
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  shifting quality from something that feels more centralized
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  or retrospective
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  into something that lives with leaders at the
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  unit in the department level.
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  Especially proud of the progress we've made in
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  standardizing
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  our approach across the hospital and outpatient settings.
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  That's been a really big focus for Baptist
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  Health.
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  Creating clear expectations,
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  more consistent tools,
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  and better aligning
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  quality and operations with our nursing leadership and
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  leadership in general.
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  The alignment has made us more of it's
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  given us more of a proactive approach and
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  less reactive.
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  Another thing that I'm incredibly proud of is
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  seeing our leaders, watching managers,
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  charge nurses,
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  gain confidence in data, speaking up either about
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  risk and, you know, leading improvement.
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  And not just because they're being told to,
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  but because they understand why that data is
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  important. And that's been one of the most
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  rewarding parts of what I've seen this past
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  year.
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  Absolutely. And now I'm curious to hear from
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  your perspective,
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  being somebody that's been both on the provider
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  side as a nurse and then now in,
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  more of the director side, what advice would
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  you share to either evolving leaders, emerging leaders
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  that are looking to have the same either
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  drive or success in their careers as you
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  have?
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  Well, that drive, you're kinda born with it,
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  but, you know, we can try to embed
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  this into others.
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  The one advice I would give, you know,
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  for anybody who's, you know, evolving in a
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  leader is just to stay curious. Stay connected
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  to the work, you know, really get into
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  it with your leadership team.
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  Because leadership is not just about having all
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  the answers. Lord knows that, you know, I
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  don't have all the answers, but it's about
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  asking better questions
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  and creating space for others to contribute.
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  I'd also encourage leaders to invest early in
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  relationships.
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  Results matter, but trust is what allows you
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  to influence change
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  especially during hard conversations or time of uncertainty.
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  I would say also,
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  you know, don't wait till you feel ready.
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  Most of the growth and drive and things
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  that you feel that'll move you towards that
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  confidence
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  is saying yes to opportunities,
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  asking for feedback, and remember that leadership isn't
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  a skill you you know, it's not just
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  something you build over time, but, you know,
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  it's something that you
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  gain from others to make sure that you
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  could get to that. So it's not just
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  a title.
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  It's how you move forward.
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  Excellent advice. Well, Fami, I've enjoyed our time
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  today. But But before I let you go,
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  is there anything else that listeners should know?
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  I would say just one of those little
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  memorable sound bites. It's
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  trust is real currency of influence. That's just
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  something that, you know, it's kind of
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  came up on my little to do, you
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  know, your calendars.
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  And I felt like that would be something
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  nice to share is trust is real currency
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  of influence.
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  Well, that's a great note to end on.
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  Amy, I wanna thank you once again for
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  your time today and for sharing these insights
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  on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so
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  much.
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  Thank you.