Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Stephanie Everett, Administrator of Mountrail Bethel Home and Chief Executive Officer of Mountrail County Medical Center

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Stephanie Everett, Administrator of Mountrail Bethel Home and Chief Executive Officer of Mountrail County Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Stephanie Everett, administrator of Montreal Bethel Home and
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  chief executive officer of Montreal
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  County Medical Center. Stephanie, it's a pleasure to
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  have you on the podcast today.
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  I am, it's a pleasure to be here.
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  Fantastic. Well, I'm looking forward to our conversation
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  and getting a sense of some of the
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  great things that you have been doing over
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  the last year as well as your perspective
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  on the future. But before we dive in,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself, your background, and the organization?
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  My name is Stephanie Everett. I have been
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  with the Montreux County Health Center since 2013.
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  I came in as the foundation director until
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  2013
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  for the Montreal County Health Foundation.
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  Six years ago, actually, in March, I then,
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  took the classes ahead of time to become
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  the administrator of the Montreal,
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  Bethel Home, and I'm also then the CEO
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  of the Montreal County Medical Center. Inside that
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  campus, it's one attached campus.
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  We are a 36 bed nursing home with
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  10 basic care. We have 14 units of
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  assisted living that is attached,
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  to the nursing home
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  along with being attached to an ER and
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  an 11 bed critical access hospital and a
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  rural health clinic. So, we are a total
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  campus of,
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  you know, continued care and it's all under
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  one roof, which is lovely in North Dakota.
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  We are an hour away from the Canadian
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  border, so it gets a little chilly in
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  the wintertime.
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  So it's really nice to be able to
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  offer all these services to our residents under
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  one roof.
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  That's amazing to hear. Now, when you think
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  of the last year or so, what was
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  the most important initiative you led? What did
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  you do, and what were the result?
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  We broke ground
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  last July for a new nursing home facility
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  that is still gonna be attached,
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  and that is coming to fruition. We're going
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  to be opening that up,
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  in like a month and a half.
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  And so, you know, you don't make money
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  running a nursing home, but who's going to
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  take care of your elderly as they age?
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  And so I've been really working hard,
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  to raise
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  the money to build a new nursing home,
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  have it be fully funded with grants and
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  donations. And we, that reputation has come to
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  pass. We have been able to raise the
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  grants or raise the money, for grants and
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  donations.
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  And we did a market analysis
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  with,
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  Eide Bailly.
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  And one of the things that we found
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  was the service area population is going to
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  be growing
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  over the next
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  five years
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  for, anywhere between 70 to eighty five seventy
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  years old to 85 is around 31%
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  that we're going to see a growth in
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  that elderly population.
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  And so leading into the next question that
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  you're going you know, that will be coming
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  up is we are in a $53,000,000
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  building project,
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  like I said, with the new nursing home
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  opening up in a month and a half,
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  in a month and a half, and the
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  last portion of the build out in 2027
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  is more assisted living. And we have a
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  waiting list of 32 people on that on
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  that waiting list for assisted living.
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  Wow. That's incredible to to know. I know
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  this huge undertaking to build any new facilities,
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  but especially a project that's so important to
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  the community and,
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  will really make an impact on the lives
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  and and folks who are able to gain
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  their services there.
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  So I guess if we're digging a little
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  bit deeper, where do you see some of
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  those big priorities as well as headwinds when
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  you're thinking of these big projects, expansion and
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  ways that you want to continue to develop
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  going forward?
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  Not only are we going to be opening
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  the new facility this spring and then continuing
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  construction on the on the medical side into
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  '27,
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  we are actually going we are switching from
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  Cerner to Epic
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  in '26.
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  So not only do we have this huge
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  big building project going on that literally takes
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  up the entire campus and both sides, the
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  nursing home and the medical center side. My
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  poor little medical center side is now diving
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  into an an EHR,
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  you know, a new EHR coming in October.
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  So '26 is gonna be a really pivotal
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  year for us with a lot of amazing
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  growth.
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  That's fantastic to hear and exciting. I know
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  all of those things are a huge undertaking.
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  So when you look at your executive team,
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  what are you doing to make sure that,
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  you're moving things forward operationally? How have you
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  worked with them to design the vision of
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  what you wanna be in the future? Can
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  you take us a little bit more inside
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  of, your your leadership team process and how
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  you're going to continue to, keep the momentum
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  going?
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  You wanna keep them grounded.
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  You wanna keep this the team focused with
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  so much going on.
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  I just had some of my one on
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  ones. I try to be in front of
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  them all the time. I try to have
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  one on one conversations with them a lot,
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  several times because they they talk
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  more personally, you know, when you're with them
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  rather than in their manager meetings and in
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  the big groups and things like that. One
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  of them that they have been saying is
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  they feel disorganized because there's so much going
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  on, like, so much going on.
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  But then I'm always there for them to
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  be able to help them.
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  How do they grow more inside their leadership
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  roles. You know, you want the right people
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  in the seats.
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  You wanna give them the power to grow
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  into their positions. We do do a high
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  road leadership.
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  There is a leadership program that all of
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  them can be a part of. Right now,
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  we're in, Jane or, John Maxwell's High Road
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  Leadership book. And the one thing that, you
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  know, chapter eight is coming up next week,
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  and the one item that I really
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  stuck out to me reading this chapter was
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  people would rather follow a leader who is
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  always real than one who is always right.
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  And I love,
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  Craig Groeschel.
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  He you know, I've watched podcasts of him.
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  He is just amazing with, with how he
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  has vision and how he wants his team
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  around them
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  to grow. And I don't micromanage. I don't
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  want to micromanage at all, all of that.
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  And you need to listen to them and
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  you need to understand
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  their concerns. And you want to not only
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  you want to understand their concerns, you want
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  to be able to act on their concerns
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  within reason, you know, and be able to
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  help them grow and be able
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  to see the vision. And, you know, one
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  of the examples is we're in this middle
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  of a $53,000,000
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  project,
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  and
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  the PT department is downstairs underneath the hospital.
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  And inside that space is going to be
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  a new specialist clinic, so we can bring
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  in specialists
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  inside that market, analysis that we did with
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  I. Bailey. We can see where
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  the growth,
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  capabilities are. We can see where the
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  growth, capabilities are. We can see where the
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  specialist growth is going to be. So that
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  was key of our, that we wanted to
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  bring in
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  specialists to, Montreal County because we're an hour
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  away from our tertiary,
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  hospital in Minot.
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  And so but then the one thing that
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  led into from one of my one on
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  ones is my PT then looked at me
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  and she goes, Steph, we're really growing. And
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  with the specialist clinic sitting there,
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  then it's going to be kind of
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  busy down here, you know, and it's a
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  small little space. So now on top of
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  all of this and all the growth inside
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  the market analysis, it says rehab,
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  the inpatient service line of rehab is going
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  to grow like 27%
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  over the next ten years. So now that's
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  actually something we're talking about with the current
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  construction company that is building our four year
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  project, working on the four year project, do
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  we take PT off-site? Do we
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  build just a clinic for them? They'd be
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  the easiest one to take off-site.
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  And then we also have so many travelers.
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  As we all know, the workforce for nursing
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  is really hard.
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  So we have a lot of travelers
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  for PT and then our ER,
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  and then we could build apartments on top
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  of the PT clinic. So that would kind
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  of be a twofold, you know, where it
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  would be nice apartments for our travelers to
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  be, you know, to live in when they're
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  here. And then we'd be able to, you
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  know,
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  take on that ten year growth of 27%
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  and build a really nice p clinic off-site.
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  It's only a couple blocks away from the
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  current hospital. And if they needed to, they
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  do a lot of rehabilitation
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  inside of our nursing home. We have a
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  really big, gorgeous restorative therapy room inside the
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  new nursing home,
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  just to keep the residents moving and, you
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  know, and walking as long as they possibly
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  can. And so then it would be an
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  easy drive to come over, you know, from
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  there. So yeah. Mhmm. Don't wanna get bored.
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  Right? Yeah.
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  There's always something to do.
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  No. But I really think that is so
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  critical as you were talking about how you're
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  working with your leadership team, making sure you're
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  not micromanaging, but really listening to them, understanding
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  some of the challenges as well as things
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  that they're seeing on the ground and then
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  being able to troubleshoot, work through it, find
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  solutions, and, you know, look at ways that
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  really can
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  improve the organization overall as well as service
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  to patients. So, you know, it's incredible to
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  to think through all of that. What do
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  you think the hardest thing you'll have to
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  do will be?
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  The hardest thing will keep is I'll have
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  to keep them, like I said, focused
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  because there's so much going on. And you
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  wanna be in front of them and you
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  don't
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  I'm a visionary, and I love just challenges.
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  But a lot of them don't love challenges.
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  You know? Like, I you know, we all
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  do DISH assessments, and I'm very I'm a
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  d. I'm a high d. But a lot
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  of my staff are s's, and they don't
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  like they don't like confrontation, and they don't
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  like, you know, taking on the big tasks
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  and figuring out how to, you know, do
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  the do the hard topics and the hard
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  conversations.
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  And so that's the one thing that I
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  don't wanna get them uncomfortable
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  in a situation. I wanna be able to
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  listen to what they're saying, but I also
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  wanna challenge them too. You know? Because growth
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  is great across the board if it's done
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  and done right, especially with leadership.
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  For sure. I think that's, you know, so
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  important and and definitely
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  helpful to understand the propensities, but then figure
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  out where, you know, the great leaders, managers,
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  and coaches, it seems like, can find the
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  levers or buttons that they need to press
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  in order to make their teams, you know,
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  inspire that growth and get them into a
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  position where they can,
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  truly, you know, level up in a meaningful
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  way.
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  Exactly. And it's been fun watching them grow.
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  A lot of them have been coaching over
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  the last year,
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  in the leadership. Girls and one of them
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  on the one on ones yesterday, she had
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  taken on a couple challenges inside of radiology
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  and she just knocked it out of the
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  park. She goes, I would have just a
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  year ago went, oh, that's okay.
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  We won't have to offer that service. But
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  she was like, no, we're offering that service.
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  No, this is why. And it was really
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  cute watching her just be excited, you know,
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  that she was able to tackle that challenge
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  and
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  we're still we're able to bring the service
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  in. You know? So it's it's been fun
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  watching them grow. So it's very fun.
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  Absolutely. That's fantastic.
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  And speaking of growth, where do you see
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  some of the best opportunities for organizational growth
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  overall? I know we've talked a little bit
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  about some of those capital investments and space
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  where you're trying to expand services. But, you
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  know, anything else you'd like to talk about
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  and touch on when you think about growth
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  going forward?
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  As, you know, we have the new nursing
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  home. It's gonna be the same footprint as
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  we have, you know, 36 beds,
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  skilled,
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  10 basic care. The one area that we
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  can do more services and more growth is
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  on the hospital side.
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  We're bringing in an MRI machine. We're bringing
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  in a treatment area that we can maybe
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  do some different
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  items, you know, some different outside the box
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  thinking,
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  for different services that we can offer,
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  Montreal County
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  and all that. The one thing we always
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  have to be careful with and the one
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  thing I really wanna,
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  pay attention to, I don't wanna grow too
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  fast. I wanna grow reasonable. I wanna grow
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  what makes sense, and I don't wanna get
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  my current staff nervous. Because we all know,
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  you know, living in rural North Dakota, it's
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  hard to it's hard to recruit. You know,
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  right now, we're recruiting a radiologist and we're,
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  you know, we're always wanting to recruit PTs
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  and ER nurses. And so you don't wanna
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  grow too fast that makes your current staff
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  going, hey. Wait a minute. You know, things
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  like that. So we just wanna grow within
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  reason. And so that's gonna be the next
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  step moving into '26 and all of '27
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  is then expanding
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  the the medical center side,
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  but within reason.
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  Comfortable growth. Reasonable growth.
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  Yeah. So Absolutely. Reasonable growth. I love it.
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  Well, Stephanie, thank you so much for joining
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  us on the podcast today. This has been
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  such an inspiring conversation, and I look forward
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  to seeing you at our annual meeting in
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  April. I know you'll be speaking on a
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  panel, and it'll be truly our our, pleasure
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  and honor to have you there in in
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  digging deeper into some of these themes as
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  well as sharing with the broader network of
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  health care executives and leaders, how some of
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  the lessons you've learned and and things you're
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  thinking about for the future. So I look
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  forward to that.
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  I look forward to it also. I love
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  that conference.