When you realize your heart just isn’t into the career you are studying for, what do you do? Well if you are Bill Rich, you talk to your mother and you head in a new direction – graduate school for healthcare administration. Today, Rich is chief operating officer at the newly renamed Tennova-Regional Hospital in Jackson, and much like chartering a new course in his career path, he is helping them navigate into their new branding, Tennova.
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Rich was studying toxicology with a minor in chemistry at Ashland University in Ohio when in his junior year he found he didn’t have the heart for toxicology. “I was interning in an animal laboratory and realized I just could not do testing on beagles or horses. I just didn’t have the heart for it,” said Rich. “I went to visit my mom, who is a nursing assistant. The chief nursing officer came in and I talked to him about my predicament. I couldn’t start school over and I knew that I wanted to help people in some way. He suggested healthcare administration. I did some research on it and got excited about it as career.
Rich went to Xavier University to pursue his graduate degree in Health Services Administration. “I chose Xavier because its program required a 12-month paid residency. Plus about 75 percent of residents get a job offer so that alleviated any worry about what I would do when I graduated,” said Rich. “Since I had no experience prior to graduate school, residency was a great way to gain hands on experience.”
At the end of his residency, Rich was offered a full-time position at Mercy. “At that time, Mercy was in talks with an independent community hospital about merging,” said Rich. “The CEO asked if I wanted to go back to school to become a certified project manager and take the lead on the merger. It meant I would sit in on executive level meetings, which would be a great experience for anyone in their first two years of working. Once the merger went through, it was agreed that the parent company would invest $260 million to build a new hospital. They asked if I wanted to be part of project and for someone in their mid-twenties, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Over the course of his 14 years at Mercy, Rich had eight promotions which led to responsibilities for property management, business development, special projects and even director of cardiac and surgical services for two hospitals. “Through all my experiences I was fortunate enough to get some real exposure to hospital operations,” said Rich. “I was a part of a transitional team that closed one facility and relocated all the services to an older facility all while building a new facility. I got additional training in process improvement to help workflow transition to the new facility. That led me to the vice president of ambulatory services and business development which included responsibility for a 25-bed critical access hospital.”
After four years at the vice president level, Rich felt it was time to take the next step in his career and begin the search for a chief operating officer position. “My wife and I knew that if I were going to make a move it would include leaving Ohio,” he said. “My ideal position would be in a 100-225 bed community hospital south of the West Virginia/Kentucky line. When the opportunity with Regional came up, we did an onsite interview. It was a great hospital with a great CEO who had more than 35 years experience and could help further my development. With the facilities focus on quality and process improvement, I thought it was a great fit and we made the move to Jackson a year ago.”
Visibility is an important part of Rich’s role in management. “My first CEO during my residency told me that people watch, and you have to be able to have your actions deliver what your verbal expectations are. You had better be the role model for the way you want your staff to be. I want staff to be comfortable enough to approach me and I like to be out talking to staff,” said Rich. “Engaging employees is key to the success of a hospital. If they are proud of where they work and what they do, quality of care and financial success improves. It is my job is to empower employees to make decisions and ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to be successful. I try to think how a decision will affect everyone in the hospital. This helps me think through things before making a decision.”
In his year in Jackson, the most challenging part of his job has been incorporating the Tennova brand that Community Health Systems is spreading to its facilities across the state. “CHS had been looking at having a state-wide branding for its facilities. It is a model they have implemented in other states,” said Rich. “Tennova was the name of East Tennessee market that CHS acquired. The name brand was already there and established so there was no need to start with a new one and try to move it across state. It is really just a name change. There is no change in management or ownership of the hospital.”
Now that the four West Tennessee facilities have joined the facilities in East Tennessee under the Tennova name, CHS will complete the transition across the state.
When the discussion came up regarding the change to the Tennova brand name, Rich knew it would take quite a bit of effort but was pleasantly surprised by how fast and smoothly the transition has gone. “We had to identify every single thing that would need to be changed because of the name change,” he said. “That ranged from forms to how the phone is answered to the name of the cafeteria, it all had to be changed. New badges had to be printed which meant every employee and physician had to have their picture made. It was a lot of work and some things just could not be done in the timeframe we established due to extenuating circumstances such as signage being built or permits. But all in all the entire process has exceed my expectations.”
Communicating the change both internally and externally has been key to the transition. “We held town hall meetings with staff and had the CEO talk about what Tennova was and what it wasn’t. We sent letters to all employees and held monthly CEO lunches with them to talk about the change. The executive team attended the meetings as well,” said Rich. “Staff wanted to know how they would be impacted. Basically it is a different name on the building and on their paycheck. The change has also meant that the facilities inside and out have been painted and there are new signs. The final piece is to transition physician practices from Regional to the Tennova brand. Ultimately Regional just changed its name and painted the hospital. At its heart it is the same great hospital with the same great staff.”
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