Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Stephanie Everett, Administrator, CEO, Foundation Director, and PR and Marketing Director at Mountrail Bethel Home, Mountrail County Medical Center, and Mountrail County Health Foundation

Transcript

Stephanie Everett, Administrator, CEO, Foundation Director, and PR and Marketing Director at Mountrail Bethel Home, Mountrail County Medical Center, and Mountrail County Health Foundation · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - 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.
• 0:51
  - Welcome to this episode of Leadership Unscripted, a
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  - Becker's healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host,
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  - and I'm thrilled to be joined today by
• 0:58
  - Stephanie Everett. She's administrator and CEO of Montreal
• 1:00
  - County Health Center in North Dakota.
• 1:03
  - Stephanie, thank you for joining us today.
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  - I am very pleased to be here with
• 1:07
  - you.
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  - Wonderful. Yeah. This conversation is gonna be all
• 1:10
  - about your health care journey and what you've
• 1:12
  - learned along the way. But before we get
• 1:14
  - to that, could you please introduce yourself in
• 1:16
  - a little bit more detail and give us
• 1:18
  - some background about your organization?
• 1:20
  - Okay.
• 1:21
  - Montreux County Health Center encompasses
• 1:24
  - a
• 1:25
  - 36 bed nursing home, 10 basic care,
• 1:29
  - 14 units of assisted living.
• 1:31
  - The Monterey County... And that's the Monterey Bethel
• 1:33
  - home. The Monterey County Medical Center has a
• 1:36
  - rural health clinic and then a critical access
• 1:38
  - hospital.
• 1:39
  - We are in the Western
• 1:42
  - North Dakota, very remote. We're about an hour
• 1:45
  - away from the Canadian border and an hour
• 1:47
  - away from the Montana border. So we're very
• 1:49
  - rural.
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  - We rely heavily on trying our best to
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  - have as much
• 1:55
  - technology
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  - inside our building because we never know. We're
• 1:58
  - right beginning of the Bakken
• 2:00
  - where the oil starts. And so we just
• 2:02
  - never know what's coming at us. Right now,
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  - we're on Highway 2, which is a main
• 2:06
  - thoroughfare
• 2:07
  - all across North Dakota into Minnesota
• 2:10
  - on one side and Montana on the other
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  - side. So we had... It's a highly, you
• 2:14
  - know, traffic area.
• 2:15
  - Of course, with the... Being in the oil
• 2:17
  - boom, there's a lot of oil tankers, a
• 2:19
  - lot of gravel trucks.
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  - They don't like to break very well coming
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  - onto the highway. And so especially in the
• 2:24
  - wintertime or in the fog, we have to
• 2:26
  - be careful. And we... Like I said, we
• 2:27
  - try to keep our hospital equipped as possible
• 2:30
  - because we just don't know what's coming inside
• 2:32
  - that ER sometimes or inside the ambulance.
• 2:36
  - Stephanie, how about your own path to Montreal?
• 2:40
  - Where did you start your career, and how
• 2:42
  - did you end up where you are in
• 2:44
  - North Dakota now?
• 2:45
  - Funny little story.
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  - I'm originally from Stanley, North Dakota. That's where
• 2:49
  - Monterey County, health center is in Stanley, North
• 2:52
  - Dakota. I went to University of North Dakota,
• 2:55
  - lived in Texas for fourteen years and then
• 2:57
  - decided to move back in 2013
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  - to raise my boys back in North Dakota
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  - with family.
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  - My background in medical has been revenue cycle,
• 3:07
  - coding,
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  - you know, working with insurance companies, credentialing, things
• 3:11
  - like that. So when I did that down
• 3:13
  - in Texas, so when I moved back to
• 3:14
  - North Dakota,
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  - there was a position open at Monterey County
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  - Health Center for the Monterey County Health Foundation
• 3:20
  - as the foundation director. So I started here
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  - in 2013
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  - and I still am the foundation director.
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  - And then, you know, as in any small
• 3:28
  - rule, anybody listening knows how many cats we
• 3:31
  - wear in rural health care. I'm also the
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  - PR and marketing director,
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  - and then I'm the CEO of the hospital
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  - and clinic, and I'm the administrator of the
• 3:40
  - assisted living and the basic care and the
• 3:42
  - nursing home. So in 2018,
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  - our current CEO was retiring, and I had
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  - gone through, like, three or four CEOs at
• 3:49
  - the time. And being the foundation director and
• 3:52
  - raising funds for a vision is hard when
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  - you start switching out CEO so much because
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  - their vision kind of... You know, the one
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  - vision stops and another vision
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  - starts. And so then I went in and
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  - did the training to become the administrator
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  - about a year and a half to get
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  - the hours in,
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  - and take the test to be the administrator
• 4:10
  - of the nursing home. So I started there
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  - in 2020
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  - on March 4, then COVID hit on, what,
• 4:17
  - March 16?
• 4:19
  - Yeah.
• 4:20
  - Pretty much.
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  - Wow, Stephanie. As you said, you wear a
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  - lot of
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  - hats. Yeah.
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  - When when you're balancing all those, I mean,
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  - how how do you keep it all
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  - straight in your head and just in your
• 4:32
  - day to day activities?
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  - I'm very OCD, so I'm very much methodical.
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  - I have my... They all laugh. Everybody's so
• 4:40
  - technology driven on their on their phones and
• 4:43
  - other computers. And I got my little daily
• 4:45
  - handwritten planner. I've gotta crop it all off
• 4:48
  - off and and all of that or move
• 4:49
  - it to the next week. So I write
• 4:51
  - everything down, and I just have a great
• 4:53
  - team. I I have a great team. We've,
• 4:56
  - we have some outsourcing going on with marketing,
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  - because you just can't do it all. So
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  - I have a great team doing that, and
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  - then I have a great internal team that
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  - that does... You know, stays in their lane,
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  - does their job, and does it exceptional. So
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  - that's how you do it. You you do
• 5:10
  - it well when you have people that you
• 5:12
  - work well with, and they do a good
• 5:14
  - job along with you.
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  - That makes a whole lot of sense, Stephanie.
• 5:18
  - And sometimes low tech is the way to
• 5:19
  - go because in a lot of ways, they
• 5:21
  - can't fail you the way that technology does.
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  - Exactly. And, obviously, it's working for you.
• 5:27
  - I I hope so.
• 5:29
  - So besides
• 5:31
  - learning that you'd like to write things down
• 5:33
  - and not necessarily
• 5:35
  - pull out your phone for everything.
• 5:37
  - Yeah. Stephanie, what's something you've learned about yourself
• 5:39
  - from working in health care?
• 5:42
  - I have learned that I appreciate
• 5:45
  - all my little peacemakers.
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  - We do... We we relied on DISP assessment.
• 5:49
  - I don't know if you've ever taken a
• 5:50
  - DISP assessment to see how your personality I
• 5:53
  - have actually. Yes. Yep. Personal and workflow.
• 5:56
  - So, of course, being in the health care
• 5:58
  - facility,
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  - you have a lot of effort... A lot
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  - of peacemakers.
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  - In my DIS assessment, I'm a very high
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  - d, so I'm very direct. They know how
• 6:06
  - to talk to me. They pretty much know
• 6:08
  - what not to say because I'll be like,
• 6:10
  - no. No. No. No. No. No. That's not
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  - not always gonna work. So I've learned
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  - to work well with
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  - personalities that are a lot different than mine.
• 6:19
  - I've also learned... I think one of the
• 6:21
  - top things I always tell everybody is, like,
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  - first of all,
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  - just pause before you speak. Don't say what's
• 6:27
  - on your mind.
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  - Reflect on everything. Don't rush a conversation.
• 6:32
  - And in the meantime,
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  - don't rush a conversation. A lot of a
• 6:36
  - lot... You know, everybody has everything on a
• 6:37
  - text, right, or
• 6:39
  - different things like that. I've looked at my
• 6:41
  - team so many times. I'm like, how many
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  - times I've told you guys...
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  - One of the main reasons you're upset with
• 6:46
  - me right now or upset with somebody you're
• 6:47
  - talking to is because you sent a text,
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  - you misread
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  - the text that came back to you. And
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  - that's why I always say, don't rush the
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  - conversation, but make sure you're having quality conversations
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  - and the conversations count. And please don't text.
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  - Please don't want to just go talk to
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  - that person so you can solve the problem
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  - or work on the, you know, the issues
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  - that we're working on, things like that. Because
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  - being in health care like we are, from
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  - the clinic to the ER to the hospital
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  - to assisted living to basic care to nursing
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  - home,
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  - there's a a million pieces. And then you
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  - have lab, and then you have radiology, and
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  - then you've got PT. You know, it's a
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  - lot of personalities
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  - with a lot of different departments.
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  - And so we all need to understand
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  - how the other one operates
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  - and not get upset, not get offended, and
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  - just work through the problem.
• 7:33
  - That's well said, Stephanie. I I don't know
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  - how many
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  - conversations we've all had
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  - that
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  - maybe started with the scenario that you just
• 7:41
  - described where
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  - you see something or read something in a
• 7:44
  - text or an email.
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  - It's not quite what that person intended, but
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  - Mhmm. Actually speaking to them sorts out so
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  - many things
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  - and nips in the bud so many conflicts
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  - that didn't have to be conflicts in the
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  - first place. No. And I have had it
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  - happen to me the hard way, so that
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  - is why I'm very adamant that if something's
• 8:02
  - not working and if an email comes through,
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  - I don't even reply. They know I'm not
• 8:06
  - gonna reply. I will, like, walk out of
• 8:08
  - my office and go directly to theirs and
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  - sit down and say, okay.
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  - Let's go on. And half the time, they're
• 8:13
  - looking at me going, that's not... That is
• 8:14
  - not the intention that I was saying. Like,
• 8:17
  - alright. There we go. Then we solved how
• 8:18
  - many we solved how many emails back and
• 8:20
  - forth and how many heartaches. So... Yes. Exactly.
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  - So so much easier that way.
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  - So, Stephanie, you mentioned COVID that you took
• 8:28
  - over in this position basically right on on
• 8:31
  - the precipice of that. Yep.
• 8:34
  - So whether it's that period of time or
• 8:37
  - another,
• 8:37
  - what would you consider the most memorable of
• 8:40
  - your career? Or if there's if there's more
• 8:42
  - than one, great. Let's talk about this.... Period
• 8:44
  - of time. I think anybody
• 8:47
  - that was inside
• 8:50
  - a hospital
• 8:52
  - and a nursing home during COVID.
• 8:55
  - Some of us probably a lot of us
• 8:56
  - have PTSD.
• 8:57
  - And you see you see a mask or
• 8:59
  - you see
• 9:01
  - that word, and I'm just like, oh my
• 9:03
  - goodness. And I look back, and we had
• 9:04
  - a great team.
• 9:07
  - We had a great team that was just
• 9:09
  - trying to figure... Nobody knew. Nobody knew. There
• 9:12
  - was no expert you could reach out to.
• 9:13
  - There was no CEO at the time because
• 9:16
  - I would reach out to some of my
• 9:17
  - CEO friends that had been doing it for
• 9:18
  - decades. And they're like, we're flying the ship
• 9:21
  - with you. We have never seen this before.
• 9:23
  - Like, all of us, literally, all of us
• 9:25
  - were were were were literally learning as we
• 9:28
  - went.
• 9:29
  - And our fear
• 9:31
  - was our hospital literally...
• 9:34
  - There was doors that led into the nursing
• 9:36
  - home right from the hospital. Our Room one,
• 9:38
  - that was the ventilated room where the COVID
• 9:41
  - positives would come into Room 1 because that
• 9:44
  - was the the vented one outside because, you
• 9:46
  - know, we didn't have... We since got machines
• 9:49
  - that could push everything out the...
• 9:51
  - Out... Outside. But in the meantime, you just
• 9:53
  - didn't have that.
• 9:55
  - So we had Room 1, which literally went
• 9:58
  - right up against the nursing home. So our
• 10:00
  - fear was, okay. You've got all the stories
• 10:02
  - coming out from the West Coast where, like,
• 10:04
  - you're losing entire nursing homes, you know, because
• 10:07
  - that's how it all... You know, that's where
• 10:09
  - some of the first stories out on the
• 10:10
  - West Coast. So I was like, oh my
• 10:11
  - goodness. We're gonna lose all of our residents.
• 10:13
  - Like, what is happening? What what is what
• 10:15
  - is happening before we all understood
• 10:17
  - what, you know, what this... What COVID was.
• 10:20
  - And so we locked down
• 10:22
  - our entire facility. I mean, we had families
• 10:25
  - going, you're worse than Fort Knox right now.
• 10:27
  - I'm like, I am not losing one... When
• 10:28
  - my residents to COVID, and we didn't. We
• 10:30
  - held our own. Right. Okay. Dirty... You know?
• 10:33
  - But, of course, your ER where the COVID
• 10:35
  - positives were coming in was the dirty side
• 10:37
  - and, you know, right up against your nursing
• 10:39
  - home, so you're trying your best.
• 10:41
  - You know? Thank goodness the air handlers were
• 10:43
  - different. Right? Or we were trying to vent
• 10:44
  - them out totally different from each other. You
• 10:46
  - know, it was just crazy. And we tend
• 10:48
  - to take our independent living because that became
• 10:50
  - our COVID unit when you would start getting
• 10:52
  - COVID, positives in the nursing home. So literally,
• 10:55
  - you have your independent residents on one side,
• 10:58
  - and we just started moving our other independent
• 11:00
  - residents out of the other side. It would...
• 11:03
  - I look back at that, and
• 11:06
  - all the... I remember just going home at
• 11:08
  - night laying on my couch, staring at the
• 11:10
  - ceiling going, I have to do this again
• 11:11
  - tomorrow. You know? Because... And then and then
• 11:13
  - your staff starts getting sick. Right? And then
• 11:16
  - and then you were down staff, and you
• 11:17
  - were... Your residents started get... Getting sick. And
• 11:20
  - it was
• 11:21
  - it was a very pivotal moment of
• 11:24
  - health care.
• 11:26
  - And, you know, we've been able to rebound
• 11:28
  - from it and kinda go right back into
• 11:29
  - normal
• 11:30
  - into our building. But this is why we
• 11:33
  - have a smart TV. Right? This is why
• 11:34
  - we do a lot of Zooms. You know,
• 11:36
  - we've you've you've become accustomed
• 11:38
  - to not... I I do love in person
• 11:40
  - meetings. Don't get me wrong. But there are
• 11:42
  - a lot of times now that we could
• 11:43
  - just hop on a Zoom call and, you
• 11:45
  - know, nuts and and and not be in
• 11:47
  - person and all that. But, yeah, the most...
• 11:49
  - That was a memorable time because,
• 11:52
  - literally, I've been there for two weeks
• 11:55
  - as administrator
• 11:56
  - CEO. So, you know, like, talking about your
• 11:58
  - team, you know, helping out helping you out
• 12:01
  - and trying to decipher with you, we were
• 12:03
  - all trying our best. Nobody was perfect at
• 12:06
  - it. Everybody was just trying their best at
• 12:07
  - the time. So, yeah, that was that was
• 12:10
  - a pivotal memorial memorable moment that none of
• 12:13
  - us ever want to come back.
• 12:15
  - No. I I think we all share that
• 12:17
  - sentiment wholeheartedly, Stephanie.
• 12:20
  - So when you And at the time, as
• 12:22
  - as you as you probably stayed home working
• 12:24
  - for Becker Healthcare, I mean, I don't know
• 12:25
  - what you're doing that many years ago. You've
• 12:27
  - been with them for five.
• 12:30
  - The whole world shut down. Right? The whole
• 12:32
  - world went into isolation,
• 12:34
  - and hospitals and nursing homes went into high
• 12:36
  - gear faster than you ever could. And so
• 12:39
  - we couldn't stay home. We couldn't.
• 12:41
  - You know? So it was one of those
• 12:43
  - random polar opposites where there was no restaurant.
• 12:45
  - So, I mean, everything that's shut down,
• 12:48
  - and here we are just totally in person
• 12:51
  - in meetings everywhere because we had provide... I
• 12:53
  - mean, all of us, we were having meetings
• 12:55
  - from the state level nonstop, you know, every
• 12:57
  - week. And so you had all these people
• 12:59
  - in a room, which you weren't supposed to
• 13:00
  - do, but how else are y'all gonna learn
• 13:01
  - about what's happening? You know what I mean?
• 13:03
  - So Yeah. We went polar opposite to what
• 13:05
  - the world was doing. You know? So it
• 13:07
  - it is kinda oxymoron looking back at what
• 13:09
  - happened in health care. So... Yeah.
• 13:11
  - To be sure. Stephanie, so when you mentioned,
• 13:14
  - you know, you'd be lying in bed just
• 13:15
  - thinking you have to do this all over
• 13:17
  - again the next day, what was the key
• 13:19
  - or what were the keys to you being
• 13:21
  - able to rebound in the position that you
• 13:24
  - were at that time? You didn't have a
• 13:25
  - choice.
• 13:27
  - None of us had a choice. We were
• 13:29
  - all exhausted. We were all tired.
• 13:31
  - But, you know, from my main ER provider
• 13:33
  - to myself
• 13:34
  - to my DON at the time, my HR,
• 13:37
  - we didn't have choice.
• 13:39
  - We would just walk right back into the
• 13:41
  - HR office every morning and say, alright. What
• 13:43
  - happened now? What happened last night? What's going
• 13:44
  - on? What's it... You know, what do they
• 13:46
  - say now on the state level? What do
• 13:47
  - they tell us we have to do because
• 13:48
  - we were so regulated too? You know, CMS
• 13:50
  - started pushing out all kinds of rules. So
• 13:52
  - we just we just...
• 13:54
  - You're the leader. Right? You don't have a
• 13:55
  - choice to go into hiding. You have to
• 13:57
  - keep the smile on your face and keep
• 13:59
  - the positive attitude going because if you falter,
• 14:02
  - the rest of your team would falter, and
• 14:03
  - then what's gonna happen then? You know? You're
• 14:05
  - gonna collapse. And we did we did not
• 14:07
  - collapse. I'll tell you that much. We're very
• 14:09
  - proud of how well we did. So
• 14:12
  - that's a good point, Stephanie. And it's actually
• 14:14
  - a pretty good segue into my next question
• 14:16
  - for you. Obviously, there... Even with all the
• 14:19
  - chaos and disruption and tragedy that happened during
• 14:23
  - the COVID nineteen pandemic,
• 14:26
  - certainly, there are things to be proud of
• 14:28
  - in the way you handle it and the
• 14:29
  - way your team handled things, the way your
• 14:31
  - community handled things.
• 14:32
  - So when you look back at,
• 14:34
  - your career so far,
• 14:36
  - what would you say is, your most... The
• 14:38
  - accomplishment rather that you're most proud of?
• 14:41
  - We are actually in the middle of a
• 14:44
  - $53,000,000
• 14:45
  - building project. When I first started... When I
• 14:47
  - came into my foundation job in 2013, of
• 14:53
  - a building project. And the first phase was
• 14:56
  - adding a CT scanner and enclosed ambulance bay,
• 14:59
  - which is key in North Dakota
• 15:02
  - when it's 40 below,
• 15:03
  - to build in your ambulance bay. And then
• 15:04
  - we built more rural bay. And then we
• 15:06
  - built more rural health clinic rooms because
• 15:09
  - back then with the oil boom, we were
• 15:11
  - seeing such a flux of,
• 15:14
  - oil workers and their families coming up. So
• 15:16
  - we more than doubled the size of a
• 15:18
  - rural health clinic.
• 15:19
  - And then we came in and this room
• 15:21
  - you're in right that I'm in right now
• 15:23
  - was the next phase where we put the
• 15:25
  - Executive Conference Room. We built a chapel
• 15:28
  - across the hallway.
• 15:30
  - And then the hallway
• 15:32
  - the hallway that these these feet off of
• 15:35
  - dead end on the at the end of
• 15:37
  - this hallway,
• 15:38
  - knowing eventually the new nursing home was going
• 15:41
  - to be built
• 15:42
  - beyond those doors. And then in that third
• 15:45
  - section, we added assisted living.
• 15:48
  - So in 2024,
• 15:51
  - we started making the plans for
• 15:54
  - more... The brand new nursing home and then
• 15:56
  - more services for the medical center side in
• 15:59
  - in 2020 when COVID hit. And we just
• 16:02
  - kept meeting regularly, just trying to keep it
• 16:04
  - going. We broke ground for the new nursing
• 16:07
  - home July
• 16:08
  - 2024,
• 16:09
  - and we moved our residence in in March
• 16:12
  - 2026.
• 16:14
  - So when, you know, when you have nursing
• 16:16
  - homes that are closing and, of course, with
• 16:18
  - COVID, you know, with all of that, we
• 16:21
  - were able to actually build a brand new
• 16:22
  - nursing home for our residents. And then we're
• 16:24
  - bringing in, a MRI suite into our medical
• 16:27
  - center side,
• 16:28
  - an outpatient suite, and then a pharmacy suite.
• 16:31
  - So we're trying to bring in more services.
• 16:32
  - So I'm very proud of the fact that
• 16:34
  - instead of stalling out and just staying the
• 16:37
  - same after all of that, we've been really
• 16:39
  - we were... We held strong during COVID working
• 16:41
  - on these plans, and we're actually...
• 16:44
  - It's happening right now. We have two more
• 16:46
  - years. We'll officially be done with the whole
• 16:47
  - project. It's a four year project in beginning
• 16:50
  - of two thousand twenty eight.
• 16:52
  - Oh, that's huge, Stephanie. Congratulations to you and
• 16:54
  - all your team on making all that happen,
• 16:56
  - being able to juggle both
• 16:58
  - the the day to day and even when
• 17:00
  - the day to day is extreme as it
• 17:02
  - is as it was during during the pandemic
• 17:04
  - and just being able to say, you know
• 17:06
  - what? We're gonna take this project, and we're
• 17:07
  - not gonna let this slow us down.
• 17:09
  - Well, I am the foundation director too. So
• 17:11
  - not only am I building that, I am...
• 17:12
  - I'm also fundraising for it for it too.
• 17:14
  - So I think you become more
• 17:16
  - more passionate for it because your your, you
• 17:19
  - know, your your dream is being built, but
• 17:22
  - then your passion is let's try to fully
• 17:24
  - fundraise for this for this project too. So,
• 17:27
  - yeah, I'm walking I'm I'm walking two lanes
• 17:29
  - right there, which is great. That's that's why
• 17:31
  - I wanted to be the CEO and the
• 17:32
  - foundation director because Yeah. It's me and my
• 17:35
  - my crazy plans. Right? I can only yell
• 17:36
  - at myself for what I'm doing.
• 17:38
  - Well, it's all coming to to fruition
• 17:41
  - in two years as you said. It's probably
• 17:43
  - Yeah. Yeah. It's probably been a long journey.
• 17:45
  - I'm sure. But it it... It's also probably
• 17:47
  - flown by in some ways. Yep. It has.
• 17:49
  - It has. It has.
• 17:52
  - Stephanie, so every health care leader, there's plenty
• 17:55
  - of overlap when you talk about
• 17:57
  - challenges,
• 17:58
  - whether they be day to day or or
• 18:00
  - long term.
• 18:02
  - You you guys all share something,
• 18:04
  - quite a few things, actually.
• 18:06
  - But you also have your own perspectives on
• 18:08
  - everything
• 18:09
  - Mhmm. Including yourself coming from a rural
• 18:13
  - hospital health system
• 18:15
  - up in North Dakota. So when you look
• 18:18
  - at the health care landscape as it is
• 18:20
  - right now,
• 18:22
  - what do you think deserves a brighter spotlight,
• 18:24
  - and who should be shining that spotlight?
• 18:27
  - I actually think nursing homes need a brighter
• 18:29
  - spotlight.
• 18:30
  - I think
• 18:32
  - they're really pushing
• 18:34
  - inside states for a lot of stay at
• 18:37
  - home, home health,
• 18:40
  - age in place.
• 18:42
  - In reality,
• 18:44
  - that sounds great. I run a nursing home.
• 18:46
  - I wanna age in my house. You know
• 18:47
  - what I mean? I get it.
• 18:49
  - But in reality,
• 18:51
  - with the nursing shortage,
• 18:53
  - with the... Just shortage in general across the
• 18:56
  - board for, know, the medical profession coming at
• 18:59
  - us in the future.
• 19:03
  - Yes. You can age in place, but who's
• 19:05
  - gonna take care of you when you're in
• 19:07
  - your house? We're in rural North Dakota. It's...
• 19:09
  - We can get 10 feet of snow or,
• 19:10
  - you know, four feet of snow. And how
• 19:12
  - are you gonna get... How is somebody gonna
• 19:14
  - get into your house because
• 19:15
  - nobody shoveled,
• 19:17
  - you know, shoveled your driveway to get into
• 19:19
  - the house?
• 19:21
  - Nursing homes
• 19:22
  - have a place
• 19:23
  - to take care of the loved ones
• 19:26
  - because
• 19:27
  - families shouldn't have to be caregivers
• 19:29
  - of their loved ones at the end of
• 19:31
  - life. They shouldn't have to do the day
• 19:33
  - to day helping them to the bathroom, helping
• 19:35
  - them bathe,
• 19:36
  - all of that. They shouldn't have to take
• 19:38
  - care of their loved one. There needs to
• 19:40
  - be a definite,
• 19:41
  - I'm your daughter. You're my mom.
• 19:44
  - They should be able to just have somebody
• 19:46
  - else take care of them. That's where nursing
• 19:48
  - homes come into play. We're giving these residents...
• 19:50
  - You know, this is their last home and
• 19:52
  - just loving on them to the very end
• 19:54
  - and taking care of them and
• 19:57
  - not allowing them as... You know, I think
• 19:59
  - one of the things that
• 20:00
  - I keep saying, like, ad people say, well,
• 20:03
  - we don't wanna put money towards a nursing
• 20:05
  - home. We wanna put it in towards them
• 20:06
  - staying at home. And I'm like, yeah. But
• 20:08
  - what are they gonna do? Die in their
• 20:10
  - bed with with bed sores all over them
• 20:12
  - because they didn't have somebody taking care of
• 20:14
  - them? And people have to work. Right? The
• 20:17
  - the the the children have to work. They
• 20:19
  - can't just be with their their parents all
• 20:21
  - the time. And, you know, that's the one
• 20:22
  - thing in the nursing home. You know, we're
• 20:24
  - you you walk them. You move them. You
• 20:25
  - make sure they're moving or their skin starts
• 20:27
  - breaking down like no other. So I think
• 20:29
  - nursing homes just need a brighter spotlight because
• 20:33
  - of what they do. And CNAs, I'm telling
• 20:35
  - you, they are, like,
• 20:37
  - they have the hardest job in the building.
• 20:39
  - They they... But they... They're so passionate with
• 20:41
  - those residents.
• 20:42
  - Yeah. They they deserve a spotlight too. So
• 20:45
  - they're... So I don't know what's gonna happen,
• 20:47
  - you know, as we move forward. I know
• 20:48
  - that's one of the things that we talk
• 20:50
  - about when we go to conferences.
• 20:52
  - Who is going to be around to take
• 20:54
  - care of the elderly in the nursing homes?
• 20:56
  - Reality is coming at us fast, you know?
• 20:58
  - So we... I don't know. Robots can't do
• 21:01
  - it. I know AI is coming in on
• 21:02
  - the medical center side like crazy, but a
• 21:05
  - robot cannot take care of a resident. So...
• 21:07
  - Yeah. And it's gonna be really interesting over
• 21:09
  - the next...
• 21:10
  - How many... Like, even the next ten years
• 21:12
  - because
• 21:12
  - we all know that population is gonna expand,
• 21:15
  - I think, by 40%, I think, is what
• 21:17
  - the percentages are that... Those baby boomers. You
• 21:19
  - know what I mean? So it's gonna be
• 21:21
  - interesting to see what happens. And we have
• 21:22
  - to be there for them and envisioning what
• 21:25
  - needs to happen. Kind of stay ahead of
• 21:27
  - it. I know I was at a health
• 21:30
  - care policy summit a couple weeks ago, and
• 21:32
  - one of my questions was what keeps you
• 21:34
  - up at night? Like, the unexpected.
• 21:36
  - I said we could have great budgets and
• 21:38
  - great plans, LEGO, but I could get a
• 21:39
  - phone call and be like, what did you
• 21:41
  - just tell me? You know what I mean?
• 21:42
  - So it'd be unexpected
• 21:44
  - with health care because there's so many moving
• 21:46
  - parts.
• 21:47
  - Well, hopefully, this is,
• 21:49
  - one instance where
• 21:50
  - through this platform, you can reach people who
• 21:53
  - are thinking like you are or you want
• 21:55
  - to think like you are, and that's saying,
• 21:57
  - hey. Nursing homes, we need to put this,
• 21:59
  - higher up on the list of our priorities.
• 22:02
  - Mhmm. Yep.
• 22:04
  - Stephanie, you also mentioned that you have a
• 22:06
  - great team.
• 22:07
  - Every leader
• 22:09
  - needs to rely on that. No question.
• 22:12
  - So when you think about leadership traits,
• 22:15
  - what would you say is one that is
• 22:17
  - underrated,
• 22:18
  - and what person, people, group of people do
• 22:21
  - you think embody that best?
• 22:24
  - The ability to make people feel capable of
• 22:27
  - themselves.
• 22:28
  - I think we get so busy with our
• 22:30
  - day to day
• 22:33
  - tasks at hand
• 22:34
  - that
• 22:35
  - we really need to focus on creating an
• 22:37
  - environment
• 22:39
  - where people trust their judgments,
• 22:41
  - recognize their strengths,
• 22:43
  - and feel empowered to contribute and not have
• 22:46
  - to stop every moment and say, am I
• 22:48
  - doing this right? Am I doing this right?
• 22:49
  - Am I doing this right? You want to
• 22:51
  - have your leadership team,
• 22:53
  - not that we all think alike, not that
• 22:55
  - our personalities are even close to each other,
• 22:58
  - but we're... As I tell all of the...
• 23:00
  - We all talk in meetings, I said our
• 23:02
  - main focus is best patient care and best
• 23:05
  - resident care across the board in this building.
• 23:09
  - So you can be... I can be a
• 23:11
  - D. All the rest of my staff are
• 23:13
  - all nurses. They all love... They're like peacemakers,
• 23:15
  - and they're so good, and they're just like...
• 23:16
  - But they don't like to ruffle feathers. But
• 23:18
  - at the end of the day, if we
• 23:20
  - are making a difference in our residents and
• 23:22
  - our patients, I don't care how we get
• 23:24
  - there. You know? And I just want them
• 23:25
  - to all know
• 23:27
  - that their judgment call
• 23:30
  - makes a difference because we're all getting to
• 23:32
  - the same goal at the end of the
• 23:33
  - day. It doesn't matter how you did it.
• 23:34
  - We were just getting to the same goal.
• 23:36
  - So... Yeah.
• 23:38
  - Love that.
• 23:40
  - Well, Stephanie, I think that's a perfect place
• 23:42
  - to end this terrific conversation. Thank you so
• 23:45
  - much again for joining us. It's been a
• 23:47
  - blast. And, yeah, hopefully,
• 23:50
  - the health care industry moves in the right
• 23:52
  - direction,
• 23:53
  - you know, by the conversations that we're able
• 23:55
  - to have and the efforts through,
• 23:57
  - the teams that everyone is able to put
• 23:59
  - together. So, yeah, again, thanks for joining us,
• 24:01
  - and I can't wait for the next time
• 24:03
  - that our paths cross. Sounds good. Take care.
• 24:05
  - Have a great rest of your day.