Daphne David began serving as president and CEO of Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in May, and she brings more than two decades of leadership experience.
Before joining Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford, part of St. Louis-based Ascension’s Saint Thomas ministry, Ms. David served as CEO of HCA TriStar Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tenn.
She told Becker’s of her excitement at joining Ascension and bringing her leadership skills into her new role. She discussed growth at Saint Thomas Rutherford, her leadership philosophy, and how her organization is focused on retention.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Your predecessor, Gordon Ferguson, oversaw significant expansion. What’s next under your leadership at Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford — and where do you see the greatest opportunity to build on that foundation?
Daphne David: There are a lot of exciting things happening with Saint Thomas. If we’re looking at Saint Thomas Rutherford specifically, we have had significant growth in infrastructure and population in the Murfreesboro and Rutherford area over the past few years. It is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state of Tennessee, which is exciting, but also gives us a prompt to ensure that we’re proactively meeting the patient’s needs before they even know they need it.
And so, part of that growth is continued expansion of our women’s program. We delivered over 3,000 babies for our fiscal year that wrapped up at the end of June, and we’re projecting a lot more next year based on that growth, and then additional physicians joining us as well, and ways to continue to expand — not just the basic delivery — but what else does our population request? Are we looking at different types of delivery methods? Are we truly servicing our community the way that it needs to be serviced? And so, those are things that we’re looking at now, but we do have great growth plans in that space.
We are also expanding on our Westlawn campus in Murfreesboro to provide additional programs to that community for cardiology. We’re going to have outpatient imaging tests specific to patient cardiology needs. Because our community is growing so rapidly, we’ve identified that as a potential opportunity, and that program is expanding because we bring on a structural heart physician in August as well.
What we do, we want to do really well, and then take it to the next step, because we know that our patients are going to need that as the population ages and people continue to move into our area. And so we are doing basic cardiology, general cardiology, interventional cardiology currently, electrophysiology, we’re doing open-heart surgeries at this point, and adding that structural component is going to continue to take us to be able to provide that next level of care for our community.
We are also working on building a freestanding ED in our community, and that is in conjunction — same time frame — as a large group, Murfreesboro Medical Clinic, is also expanding [its]services and providing outpatient care. We’re going to do that on basically the same piece of property, if you will, in that space, because we know that that population is growing, and if we can help meet their needs closer to home, that’s what we want to do. So that’s an opportunity that we’ll be seeking a certificate-of-need approval for in a couple of months
Q: As a former HCA hospital executive now leading within a faith-based nonprofit, how do you expect your leadership style or strategic lens to evolve?
DD: I am so excited to be a part of this Ascension ministry in general — specifically Saint Thomas — and the leadership style that I’ve had, I will continue to bring with me, and with additional sensitivities to ensure that I am asking the right questions and fully understand the mission. My heart mirrors what that mission is when it was introduced to me in the beginning, and what I’m actually seeing on a daily basis, is our service to the community, our service to the vulnerable, our service to continue to expand what our patients are needing. That’s my language. That’s my heartbeat. And communicating that and being open with my faith — and this ministry has been awesome.
Q: With workforce development top of mind across healthcare, what’s one innovative way Ascension Rutherford is tackling recruitment, retention, or team engagement?
DD: One of the benefits of being part of Ascension Saint Thomas is that culture. And you truly feel that you’re making a difference when you show up to work every day. There’s grace, there’s high expectations, but then there’s also education and support.
One way that we here at Saint Thomas Rutherford are making a difference is we’re improving our patient ratios on our progressive care unit. So, the standard ratios of our market are 1 nurse to 4 patients. We are doing better than that, and we are moving toward a 1-to-3 model. That’s to ensure not only do our patients get the best possible care, but then also that our colleagues, our associates, are getting the best possible environment as they’re continuing to care for those patients. That’s something that we’re excited to advertise and to move forward with.
So ensuring not only that you’ve got the culture that’s accepting and educational and collaborative with the physician community — because our physicians have to play a role in educating and being involved in that — but it’s also listening to the staff and hearing the things that are most important to them. Some of it may seem little, but it’s big to them. But as far as the ratios, that’s something that’s significant, and that’s making a huge event in our continued growth and our plans for ensuring we’ve got the right amount of staff.
Q: Middle Tennessee is one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. How is your hospital adapting to meet the rising demand for care — and what still needs to change?
DD: We have a great group of physicians and physician partners, and we have a great relationship with Tennessee Oncology, and there’s a significant need as our community grows, working along with them in collaboration. There’s an increase in cancer diagnoses in the Middle Tennessee area, and we’re happy to be able to meet those demands. Having the right partners is addressing one of those. We’re growing together.
I would also say, our relationship with Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance — and having that partnership to meet the orthopedic demands of our patients. So working collaboratively with all of those groups that we work well with, and identifying what’s next.
Working with our OB-GYN physicians — there are several groups in our community — what’s next? What are you seeing? What are we hearing? We’re addressing that, and then putting programs in place and getting our associates’ voice and being part of that program and those growths. As we expand our facility, we want to know that our associates feel like they have a say in where different pieces of equipment go and exactly what we need.
Having the right partners, effectively communicating and collaborating on what the needs are and what the needs will be — that is attracting new associates and new positions to our area as a result.
