The most important health care decisions don't happen
in isolation.
They happen when leaders come together.
Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
3,500
hospital and health system executives this April in
Chicago.
With 800 speakers from Ascension,
Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
barriers, and building clinical teams that translate new
ideas into real world care.
Join top decision makers in the room April
13 through the sixteenth.
For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
and click on the events tab in the
upper right.
This is Laura Duda with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
Stacy Ann O'Koth, chief nursing executive officer at
the Mountain Region of CommonSpirit Health. Stacy Ann,
it's a pleasure to have you on the
podcast today.
Laura, it's great to join you today.
Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because,
you know, it's such a interesting and dynamic
field in health care. And so to get
a sense of how you've been able to,
you know, pivot it and be successful in
the last year as well as what you're
doing to prepare for the future will be
helpful. But before we dive into all of
that, can you tell us a little bit
more about yourself and CommonSpirit Health?
Sure.
So as you mentioned, I'm doctor Stacy Ann
O'Kath,
and I serve as the regional chief nursing
officer for Common Spirit Health's Mountain Region.
Prior to joining this wonderful organization 2025,
I held various executive leadership roles in various
settings from the East Coast to the West
Coast
and then back to the East Coast.
Our region is vast. It encompasses 20 hospitals
across three states, Colorado,
Kansas, and Utah,
along with about 250
clinics and practices
and 60 ambulatory care sites.
I'm proud to lead a team of approximately
6,000 nurses
across our region
who make up about a third of our
entire organization.
So we're focused on delivering compassionate, high quality
care to all the communities we serve.
Yeah. That's great to understand. And, you know,
it's,
so cool to see how huge your region
is and especially, I know, unique populations, I'm
sure, in every place. And so,
you know, great to have that perspective. Now
when you think about the last year or
so, could you tell us about the most
important initiative that you led? What did you
do, and what were the results?
Sure.
So one of the most critical initiatives we
prioritized in 2025
really focused squarely on maintaining a safe environment
for all of our team members.
We know regrettably
that health care workers are significantly
more prone to workplace violence
than those in most other professions.
I'm leading our region's comprehensive
workplace violence prevention initiatives.
So for instance, this past year, we significantly
strengthened our structure
and approach by adding dedicated committees at all
of our facilities,
implementing enhanced tools for our team members to
report incidences,
and increasing our security leadership and protocols.
This prevention program is designed to be proactive
to identify risks,
foster a culture of continuous improvement,
and provide critical support to our teams.
Because we understand that by doing this,
we are fundamentally
improving safety, not just for our caregivers
but also for our patients and their families.
A specific example of this commitment
is how we're refining
our approach to visitor management.
We're piloting a new visitor management system across
six of our hospitals initially.
This initiative will strengthen our ability to control
access,
particularly in sensitive areas,
and ensure we consistently know who is within
our facilities.
This helps protect our caregivers,
but it also designed to build trust and
transparency with patients and their families
regarding security.
I love that. I I think it's so
critical to have that type of focus and
energy around making sure that the health care
providers and team feel safe within,
the the hospital and the organization. I I
know that's something that so many different
hospitals and systems unfortunately
have to experience,
for folks. And so, you know, it's cool
to hear that you've got that structure strengthened
and really are designing more programs around finding
that risk and and making sure that there's
improvement across the board.
Is there anything from the last year that
you found that worked particularly well or something
that, you know, other organizations can should think
about,
doing similarly within their own systems?
Well,
absolutely.
So the first thing is just making sure
that they have a really good, visitor management,
to make sure that we know who is
in is in our hospitals.
OSHA, that is one of their requirement,
that we know in case of an emergency,
we wanna make sure that we're able to
rescue everyone in the building. And so that
is a very important
and basic,
thing that all of our all facilities need
to do.
That's helpful to understand and a great, great,
great place to start. Now looking ahead for
2026,
what are some of the big priorities or
pet ones that you're focused on?
So, Laura, for 2026,
the commitment is to strengthen and lead our
workplace violence prevention initiatives.
That's certainly has to be our ongoing priority.
Beyond safety, we're intensely focused on continuing to
elevate the experience of our patients when they
come to us for care.
So we've seen strong measurable momentum in recent
months in the positive perception of our patients
and
our caregivers
and the quality care,
they're receiving from us.
A key part of the success is our
team's consistent and effective use of evidence based
tactics,
such as structured patient rounding, which ensures constant
communication,
proactivity,
and comfort for every patient.
That makes a lot of sense. And, you
know, I I love that focusing on evidence
based and the information, data, and communication that
they have because, you know, being able to
be more precise here seems like it would
have
a give a big advantage, in making sure
everybody stays safe and understands, you know, the
risks, going forward. That seems like a great
great thing to have. You know, what do
you you think is the hardest thing you'll
have to do in the coming year will
be?
Well, Laura, the hardest thing will be navigating
the challenging economic headwinds
that the health care industry and our health
system continues to face.
We are confronting a significant triple threat,
continued wage inflation
and increases in supply costs,
the changing landscape in regards to Medicaid reimbursement
and increasing numbers of uninsured or underinsured patients.
We're actively sharing concerns around potential Medicaid cuts
both federally and within our own states, Colorado,
Kansas, and Utah.
Furthermore, as our three states prepare for the
implementation of of measures like HR
one, including potential work requirements and redetermination
of benefits,
we are anticipating
further changes in maintaining enrollment for vulnerable populations.
So given our deep roots in rural healthcare
in the mountain region, we're deeply concerned about
the financial sustainability
of our rural partners.
Healthcare is an ecosystem
and we are all deeply reliant on one
another to ensure that patients have access to
care
when and where they need it.
Our hospitals are stepping up to provide increased
financial assistance,
but this combination of diminishing Medicaid reimbursements,
rising costs, and a growing population
of uninsured patients is increasingly challenging,
and we must continue to be fierce advocates
on behalf of our patients and communities to
present to preserve
the access to care that our neighbors deserve
and expect.
That's such a great point. I know access
to care is, a huge challenge. And as
you mentioned, because of some of these factors
and headwinds, could become even more challenging in
the future. And you mentioned, you know, thinking
about concerns on sustainability,
especially for rural health care, and and I
can imagine that impacts a lot of the
markets in in areas that you serve. And
so, you know, when you're looking at all
of that, is there anything that you are
doing right now to prepare for that future,
or is it more sharpening awareness and making
sure you've got your systems and processes in
place so that you can absorb changes that
might come down the pipe?
Yeah. Well, our organization,
Laura, is being very proactive in engaging
with state, federal,
government officials,
to make sure that
they're passing common sense laws
and also,
tapping into the h r one
rural funds that was promised in that bill.
And then proactively as nurses, we're working with
the,
AACN
in partnership with Johnson and Johnson
to
be proactive
in
understanding
how
we can partner with our rural communities to
bring programs,
to them instead of waiting for someone to
do it for us.
So we are launching our, cohort program in
July.
And so
I would anticipate
a lot of
innovation coming out of that program.
Absolutely. That's great to hear, and we'll definitely
keep an eye out for that, you know,
in in computing a logic closely. I I
know it'll be certainly a model for
solutions that hopefully others will be able to
learn from and go from as well. Now
when you look into the future, where do
you see some of the best opportunities for
both at Conner Spirit too?
Well, we have two key areas of opportunity
for organizational growth that are both strategic
and mission critical.
So first, we are proudly serving some fast
growing communities,
particularly in South Metro Denver,
and we're excited to be growing along with
them.
This year, we will be breaking ground on
a new health campus in this area that
will ensure our neighbors have high quality,
patient centered care conveniently located close to home.
This campus will also serve as an important
hub for innovation and compassionate care,
connecting us to communities across the entire state.
And then second,
we view nurse recruitment and retention as a
strategic growth imperative.
We know the entire industry faces challenges in
hiring enough nurses,
and we're pleased to be at the forefront
of efforts to recruit and retain the very
best.
We offer competitive compensation here at CommonSpirit,
benefits, and expansive educational opportunities to help both
new and veteran nurses thrive.
Crucially, we offer
programs to nurture new nurses such as our
graduate nurse residency program that helps new graduates
transition seamlessly into their roles.
This systemic
approach is working.
Our nurse residency program as a common spirit
system nationwide
has led to an outstanding retention rate
of ninety one percent for new nurses who
complete the program.
Oh, that's incredible. What a great results. And,
you know, it's really cool to see having
that type of pipeline and support for new
nurses because I know
in in many areas and for many organizations,
that's a a place of,
you know, that they're challenged because they don't
have such a pipeline or or haven't been
able to build, a program that successfully
brings more folks into their organization in that
way. And so, that's really neat that you
have that type of success, and I think
it makes sense that there's opportunities for additional
growth there too. Yeah.
We're really proud of our results.
We know that retaining our nurses is is
a huge priority for us because
we can hire all day long, but at
the end of the day, we have to
retain our nurses.
And this is a wonderful place,
to do so. We have great nurses and
a great team, and
I know that we are going to continue
to,
contribute
to growing this organization.
Fantastic.
Stacy, thank you so much for joining us
on the podcast today. This has been such
a fun conversation.
I appreciate your time and expertise, and I
look forward to seeing you as well at
our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking
on a panel and talking more in-depth on
many of the things we touched on today.
So looking forward to seeing you there. Looking
forward to it, Laura. Thank you.