Erin Shaffer Beadle has been executive vice president and CFO of Georgetown, S.C.-based Tidelands Health for around four months, yet her full tenure with the system spans 16 years.
One of the top trends Ms. Beadle told Becker’s she is keeping an eye on in her new role is potential Medicaid cuts. About 65% to 70% of patients that the system serves in the region rely on Medicare and Medicaid, highlighting its heavy dependency on government payers.
“There’s a lot of downstream impacts related to Medicare and Medicaid, such as 340B drug discount programs, [and] what’s happening in the shift to HMO and managed-care plans in that space. … [W]e are so heavily dependent on reimbursement from that program,” she said.
Tidelands Health comprises four hospitals and more than 70 outpatient locations, according to its website.
While the question of whether or how the cuts will actually be implemented is unknowable, Ms. Beadle said the system is constantly looking at strategy, with an eye on growing revenue at a rate greater than inflation.
Another large area of focus for Tidelands has been its systemwide conversion to Epic, which has occurred over the past 14 months.
“While it’s been challenging, it’s been incredibly insightful and has offered a lot of transparency into where we can go look for those improvements,” she said. “We’ve talked about improving our revenue and reducing our cost, and Epic is a good tool to achieve that for both the clinical enterprise as well as our revenue cycle.”
The area Tidelands serves has also seen a significant population increase, however, Ms. Beadle it is still projected to face a shortfall of registered nurses and physicians.
“We understand difficulties in being able to grow and match our labor force with that demand in the community,” she said. “The best thing about Tidemands Health is we’re responding to all of those challenges in every way we possibly can, via [graduate medical education] programs and other educational opportunities via the opportunity to mentor incoming students to the healthcare career and healthcare professional workforce … growing those relationships with the ability to recruit that talent at some point in the future.”
Her biggest piece of advice for other systems facing similar labor challenges? Don’t hesitate to think outside the box.
“Try something new, and if it doesn’t work, go back and try something different,” she said. “Have that dedication and don’t give up. Keep trying.”
