Rick Stevens serves as President at Christian Hospital.
On November 11th, Rick will serve on the panel "The CEO Paradox: Can You Really Have Volume and Value?" at Becker's 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place November 11-13, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Rick's session, click here.
Question: If you acquired $10 million dollars with no strings attached today, how would you invest or spend it?
Rick Stevens: If I had $10 million I would invest in employer-assisted healthy housing to develop a loan pool with banks, credit unions and others to make loans to sell homes at a certain price where a portion of the profit goes to support the down payment and/or healthy home repair. Employees interested in buying a home in certain neighborhoods would receive an incentive to purchase homes that have been screened and improved to promote health. The second part of this would be extended to employees living in neighborhoods eligible for healthy home assessments and repair funds as well as the community at large. In both instances of buying homes and healthy home repair improves the health of the community and increases neighborhood revitalization.
I would also focus on food insecurity/food access. We know that healthcare costs associated with food insecurity/food access is $169 million in St. Louis County. The first step to reduce this cost would be having hospital employees act as change agents for the hospital environment (employees that are food insecure) and then in their home communities to address the issue of hunger. We would also write food prescriptions for those that are in a food-insecure environment and the food would be distributed from the hospital (the anchor institution).
Q: Healthcare leaders today need skills and talents that span beyond those emphasized during formal training and higher education. What is one specific competency that you learned or sharpened in real life?
RS: Problem-solving is one competency that I have sharpened. Early on I solved without much structure. Now I give it more thought by looking at the current situation, working with others to determine our barriers, what would the ideal state look like, determining countermeasures and accountability to execute on the countermeasures. This structure has led to solving several issues and builds teamwork.
Q: We are all pressed for time and attention. Help us sift through the meaningless and the meaningful by sharing the last thing you read, heard or did that shifted your mindset and really made a difference in your personal or professional life.
RS: Gun violence has taken a serious toll on the this community (especially among our teens). This has also taken a toll on our hospital staff as well as our first responders. Just recently two children were shot in one day and both came to our hospital. One of the children was 3 years old and the other was 13. Both died due to their gun-shot wounds. The 3 year old came late morning and the 13 year old came in about 6 hours later. One of the things we learned from our Patient Family Advisory Council was that families need closure no matter what the situation is. In the past we would not let the family see the deceased, thinking we were protecting them from seeing their loved one in a terrible state. The police have said on several occasions no one can see the patient in the room because it is a crime scene. This was told to one of the families but our staff advocated for the family in their darkest hour. The family saw their loved one and they have been most appreciative that we did let them view the body to have closure at that moment. In other situations we have even heard that I just want to feel the warmth of their body one last time to have closure. We are now working in partnership with the police of how best to support the community and of our staffs to have closure and mental well-being in times like these.