“If you lined up all the healthcare CEOs in the city on any given week, they would tell you that no two weeks are similar in terms of healthcare itself,” said Audrey Gregory, Ph.D., RN and new CEO of Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis and the Saint Francis Healthcare Market.
Considering regulatory aspects, legislative aspects and payor issues, Gregory identifies the most difficult facet of her new leadership role to be how quickly things can change in the world that is healthcare. Or, in her words: ". . . so I would say the most challenging aspect of my role is just the healthcare space itself and how rapidly dynamic it is."
While continuing change is a given, and healthcare, with its kaleidoscopic payment systems, perpetually evolves, “I think what is unique is how rapid the change is at this time,” she said. “It’s not taking 10 years, it’s not taking five years, it’s happening tomorrow! We are moving at quite the pace in healthcare.”
But this breakneck pace is not necessarily a bad thing, especially in cancer and other research arenas: “I think generally, as a country, there is much more we can do in terms of preventative care," she said. "With all the advances we have in healthcare, we still have quite a way to go.”
Perhaps because she began her leadership career by assuming the directorship of the emergency services area at Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida, in 2004 after a 20-year career in nursing, Gregory cites the ER as a great place to start addressing the access-to-care deficiency she describes as a nationwide problem.
She points to the InQuicker digital self-scheduling system Saint Francis introduced, which allows ER and urgent care patients with non-life-threatening conditions to check in online and wait at home for their estimated treatment time, instead of in the emergency room.
“For many patients, their first step — and sometimes their only step into the healthcare world is through the ER,” she said, noting that InQuicker allows the ER to provide expedited and efficient service in a manner that helps patients to retain their dignity.
Initially drawn to Memphis and the South by the natural charm and courtesy of its people, Gregory has a brand of Southern charm all her own. Born in Jamaica, she retains the exotic flavor of the island’s musical but precise diction. It has stayed with her through frequent moves to various duty stations with her husband, a soldier in the U.S. Army.
When he retired, they chose Memphis, where she joined SFH-Memphis as COO in 2011. A promotion within the Tenet network took her to the Placentia-Linda Hospital in California in 2014, where her daughter was starting college. Last May, however, when her predecessor, David Archer, retired, she was happy to return to Memphis to take charge as CEO of the Saint Francis Healthcare Market.
As such, she now serves as CEO of Saint Francis’ Park Avenue location while also coordinating the operations of the system’s imaging centers, urgent care centers, surgical centers and both hospitals, including Saint Francis-Bartlett, where Chris Locke continues to serve as CEO.
First and always a nurse, Gregory notes that being a clinician has its advantages, influencing her emphasis and approach to management issues, but stresses the similarities of her value system and philosophy to Archer’s. “Our strategies may be somewhat different, but ultimately we both want our patients living happier and healthier lives,” she said.
That shared philosophy has led to a number of recent SFH “firsts”:
* A new state-of-the-art Electrophysiology (EP) Lab, launched in March as part of their expanding Heart and Vascular Center.
* Top of the line weapons in the war on cancer, including the recently acquired TrueBeam Linear Accelerator, a radically different approach to treating cancer with image-guided, high-precision radiotherapy, and CyberKnife®, the first and only fully robotic radiation delivery system, which treats tumors and other targets by precisely and accurately delivering radiation anywhere in the body.
* Status at the forefront of robotic technology, as still the only Tennessee hospital to offer minimally invasive spinal surgeries using the Mazor Robotics Renaissance™ Guidance System, which allows surgeons to pre-plan the optimal surgery in a CT-based 3-D simulation of the patient’s spine — and, during surgery, also guides the surgeon’s hand and tools to the precise pre-planned location.
Gregory continues to develop new initiatives and directions for Saint Francis, whose Urology Cancer Center recently became the first and only site in the Memphis area to offer MRI fusion biopsy, which significantly improves the accuracy of diagnosing prostate cancer — the most common cancer in the American male, and the second-leading cause of cancer death in men. Studies report that MRI fusion biopsy is twice as likely to identify cancer as traditional techniques.
“As someone with an aging father, I’m very proud of being the facility that is able to provide this,” Gregory said.
She points to another Saint Francis landmark: its groundbreaking Center for Surgical Weight Loss, which has helped 5,637 patients lose 249,868 pounds in the last 12 years, “changing lives and impacting people in incredible ways.”
Powering positive successes like these is what motivates Gregory, who has always wanted to help, and to lead. “If I weren’t doing this,” she speculates, “I would probably be the pastor of a large church. Helping — and leading — have just been a part of my DNA.”
Mother of two children, one in high school and one in fourth grade, she is putting down deeper roots in Memphis. “This is where I live and work, and, more importantly, this is where my kids go to school. So we’re here for the long haul."
Audrey Gregory
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