Dyersburg Regional Hospital CEO Pursuing Passion for Patient Care

Bringing her belief that healthcare is a calling, a passion for improving the quality of life of those she serves and more than 30 years of experience, Reba Celsor is settling into her new role as CEO of Dyersburg Regional Hospital. For Celsor, nursing was her initial calling but when the opportunity arose for her to move into management, she saw it as an extension of that calling. After three months of settling in at Dyersburg, Celsor is excited at finding what she calls the best-kept secret in the community, and is ready for this secret to get out.
As a young child, Celsor found herself hospitalized at the age of nine; an experience that led her to decide she wanted to be a nurse. “It was a positive experience. Everyone was so kind to me and I just knew nursing was what I wanted to pursue,” said Celsor, who grew up in Russellville, Kentucky. “I earned my Associate Degree in Nursing through the University of Kentucky at Hopkinsville Community College. I eventually got my Bachelor Degree in management from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville several years later. My first job out of college was in a small community hospital in Logan County. After working there a couple of years, I moved to Springfield, Tennessee and began working for an HCA affiliated hospital, then I continued to work for HCA for the next 18 years.”
After nearly 20 years in nursing, Celsor moved to the executive side in 2006 when she joined the corporate administrative staff of LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. as the director of clinical operations for the American division and their perinatal subject matter expert. While she was involved with leading quality improvement in perinatal programs at 40 facilities, she also was the director for clinical and quality operations of 12 hospitals in five states. “While I traveled about 75 percent of the time, it was an invaluable experience that allowed me to see all aspects of hospital operations,” said Celsor. “I got to see first-hand many types of hospital management, learn best practices as well as things to look for that may not lead to success.”
From 2010-2012, Celsor served as both COO and CNO of LifePoint’s Putnam Community Medical Center in North Florida. She then moved to Beckley, WV to serve as COO and interim CEO at Raleigh General Hospital for three years. Celsor spent nine years with LifePoint Hospitals, during which time she not only completed their CEO Leadership Development program she also earned a Master of Business Administration in Health Care Management from Colorado Technical University.
When the CEO position with Community Health Systems’ Dyersburg Regional Hospital opened in early 2015, Celsor jumped on it. “I had spent the bulk of my career in Tennessee and wanted to get back there,” said Ceslor. “Family is very important to my husband and me. Moving to Dyersburg meant we were about three hours from my daughter, three grandchildren as well as my son who all live in Southern Kentucky and the farm we still own. I also have step sons in South Carolina.”
While she only took over as CEO in February, Celsor says she is very pleased at what she has found at the 225 bed acute care facility which offers a complete range of services with the exclusion of open heart, spine and neurological surgeries. “This hospital has been ranked by the Joint Commission as a top performer for four years on key quality measures. We have a Leap Frog Safety Rating of A. Our patient satisfaction scores are good, as well as our quality matrix,” she said. “I am a very data driven person and have looked at the stats for this hospital. We have come a long way but we can improve. My goal now is to move them from good to great.”
Over the course of her career, Celsor has developed the philosophy of the CEO being the number one driver of quality, which is one of the reasons she wanted to pursue a CEO position. “I am passionate about safe quality care,” said Celsor. “When you have a CEO who is engaged and believes in high quality care, that can be a game changer in that environment. We need to deliver a high standard of care to our patients that is shrouded in warmth, kindness and compassion.”
As with many rural hospitals, Celsor faces a familiar challenge. “We have a large Medicare and Medicaid population which means we have to manage our resources very well so that we can balance the budget and provide the level of care our patients need,” said Celsor. “Being affiliated with a large organization such as Community Health Systems eliminates the duplication of resources. Support services are centralized so I have them available when we need them. We also have a built-in network of hospitals from which we can draw. This not only helps us manage resources more efficiently but also delivers best practices to the community.”
Celsor sees plenty of opportunity for growth in Dyersburg. The hospital is on track to start offering interventional cardiology in the third quarter of this year. She also sees room for growth in the already busy Emergency Department as well as in the hospital’s Ambulatory Surgery Center. “We can absorb more of the area’s healthcare needs,” said Celsor. “We are working to have more primary care physicians on staff as well as expanding our imaging and surgical services.”
Community Hospitals can be one of the best-kept secrets in Celsor’s book. “If you look at the incidence of errors in healthcare, I would rather be with people that know me than where you may not get the same level of attention by people you do not know,” said Ceslor. “One thing that can help us grow, is to market our hospital and share our success stories. We want people to know that they can receive excellent care right here at home.”
Celsor has drawn on her faith over the course of her career and feels blessed to have been able to move from a clinical role into an executive leadership role especially as a woman in a male dominated field. “Healthcare is a calling, my calling,” she said. “I want to be a part of a community and stay until I can see a difference being made. I want to be proud to call it home and proud to say I am the CEO of the community hospital. I also want all of our physicians and employees to be proud to say that they work at Dyersburg Regional Medical Center.”