In a conversation with Becker’s, she discussed her priorities and vision for the hospital moving forward.
Ms. Anderson, who also serves as chief nursing officer, replaces Michael James, who, along with CEO Joe Riley, stepped down in 2024 as part of the restructuring. Ron Dreskin, who was previously brought in to support the restructuring, is serving as interim CEO of Jackson Hospital. Mr. James began a new role as CEO of Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma, Ala., on Feb. 10.
Jackson Hospital, a 344-bed facility, filed for bankruptcy in February, citing “significant financial pressures” in recent years, including a challenging payer mix, COVID-19, stagnant reimbursement rates and increased labor costs.
Ms. Anderson noted that multiple initiatives are underway to stabilize the hospital’s finances. She also sees the value of her dual role in improving efficiency.
Hybrid chief nursing officer and COO roles are becoming more popular at hospitals and health systems to streamline operations and executive teams. At Jackson, combining the CNO and COO roles has resulted in greater collaboration between clinical and nonclinical teams, Ms. Anderson said.
“Having a clinical background, my mind happens to be operational and performance improvement as well,” she said. “And having a clinical background and then a background in operations has helped me merge those two to get a better [quality] outcome. So I do think it’s unique from that perspective.”
Ms. Anderson said she is focused on stabilization of the organization and the workforce, and developing best practices within each area of the hospital. As she put it, “getting back to fundamental operations.”
“And then what? How is that going to ultimately impact the patient? Because you may be a nonclinical area, but you can have a significant impact on outcomes for the patient,” she added. “And so I want to try to tie that together and see collaboration with clinical and nonclinical folks to move toward that.”
She said she also views her dual role as an opportunity to move at a faster pace in terms of improvement in the organization, since she is not new to the hospital and has already built trust with staff and colleagues in the C-suite.
“I’m optimistic, because I think we have a really strong director level and front line. Those that are here and have remained with us want to see Jackson turned around and to be what we used to be, and to be even better than what we were before,” Ms. Anderson said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to be able to work with all of the clinical and nonclinical staff and create that team that we can move forward with the organization, for the patients we serve.”
