This episode recorded live at the Becker's Hospital Review 15th Annual Meeting features Stephanie Everett, Administrator of Mountrail Bethel Home and Chief Executive Officer of Mountrail County Medical Center. She shares her journey from foundation director to CEO, highlights a $53 million expansion project, and discusses the importance of listening to staff, addressing rural staffing challenges, and embracing technology to deliver the best possible patient care.
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(00:00):
At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
(00:02):
helping you and improving health care for everyone.
That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
solutions that truly make a difference.
We offer a full spectrum of talent and
technical services and deliver cross industry expertise to
to bring you innovative best practices to solve
the problems that we face in health care.
We're not just promising you results, we are
(00:22):
delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast, and we are recording live at the
fifteenth annual meeting. I'm currently joined by Stephanie
Everett, who is the administrator of Montreal Bethel
Home and the CEO of Montreal County Medical
Center. Thank you so much for being here,
Stephanie. Let's have you start out by introducing
(00:43):
yourself and telling us a little bit more
about your background and organization.
Well, thank you so much so much for
help having me.
My name is Stephanie Everett. I am the
CEO of the Montreux County Medical Center and
also the minister of the Montreux Bethel Home,
as she has said.
My background in health care has actually been
in the revenue cycle portion and the credentialing
portion for providers for, like, twenty years. That
(01:05):
was down in Texas for a chiropractor. And
then when I moved back up to North
Dakota
in twelve years ago, my dad was actually
on the Montreal Bethel Home board, and I
was pregnant at the time with my third
child. And he was like, so I think
you'd be great at the foundation director job.
And I'm like, dad, I'm pregnant. It's an
hour away in Stanley. I live in Minot.
So, anyway, I interviewed. I'm from Stanley, so
(01:27):
it was a nice little tie back.
I did the position. So I've been the
foundation director for since 02/2013,
added on public relations and marketing,
director onto that because as in a small
critical access hospital in Montreal Bethel or in
the Bethel home, we wear a million hats.
And then back in, like, 02/2018,
our CEO at the time was going to
(01:49):
retire, and we'd be going on to our
fourth CEO,
in the years I'd been there. And as
the foundation director, it gets really hard fundraising
for a building when the CEO's vision changes
all the time. So I made
the comment to one of my board members,
foundation board members, and I said, how hard
would it be to go back to school
and become the administer of the nursing home?
Well, I did it, and it's it's been
(02:12):
a challenge. But
as I talk to fellow CEOs in North
Dakota
that are that are CEOs in their hometowns,
like, who else will have the passion, though,
to be able to bring your
health center into the next decade and keep
it alive over the decades?
COVID hits. I became the CEO
and administrator on March 3, and, of course,
(02:34):
COVID hit March 16. So it was, like,
trial by fire.
But anybody I had talked to, any of
the CEOs around me was, like, Steph, we're
offline the plane and building at the same
time. None of us have been able to
you know, none of us had ever been
in a pandemic
and all that. So that's kind of my
little background of health care. Wonderful. Well, thank
you for being being here.
And let's start with
(02:56):
the last twelve months or so. What's an
initiative you've taken on that you're particularly proud
of, and how has this impacted your organization?
As I stated, I've been the foundation director
since 02/2013.
We literally have been in building projects the
entire time that I've walked in.
We added on a brand new rural health
clinic. We had six rooms for our rural
health clinic, and then we expanded it more
(03:17):
than double the size of it. We added
a CT scanner and services onto the ER,
and then we then added assisted living, which
is a new service line along with an
Executive Executive Conference Room and the Bethel Chapel,
which we had had we had fundraised for
years. We had three little sisters that had
been donating money for, like, twenty five years
for it, and so it was wonderful that
(03:37):
we were able to make it true for
them. But in the meantime, we always knew
we always knew that we needed a new
nursing home. So as last July, we broke
ground on a $53,000,000
project. It's going to be a brand new
nursing home,
and it's gonna be more added services and
MRI suites, a specialist clinic,
infusion suites, and a pharmacy suite for our
hospital side. And we're actually adding seven more
(03:59):
units on to our assisted living because we
have a waiting list of 27. So I'm
very, very proud of that. Absolutely.
And kind of on the flip side then,
what is a significant challenge that you see
the health care world to be currently facing,
and what are you doing to address it?
Staffing.
As everybody says, staffing. Personally,
(04:20):
the nursing home keeps me up at night.
The hospital, the you know, we can bring
in really good ER traveler ER nurses for
traveling. We only have two on staff, you
know, twelve hour shifts. It's the nursing home
and taking making sure you have enough qualified
CNAs to take care of your residents because
they are twenty four seven coverage.
And as anybody that runs a SNF knows
(04:42):
that
residents can come in
fine, and then as dementia kicks in, it
just becomes very hard for care. So you
have to have the right people
taking care of those residents twenty four seven
because you never know when those little brains
are gonna switch. You know? But there's also
a lot of significant challenges, like, with the
whole value based care. What does that payment
(05:02):
model look like? None of us really know
because it's so brand new. None of us
is we just started with the ACOs.
This has been our first year with with
our ACO, and we're really diving in deep
with Blue Cross. Nobody knows what those payment
models look like, and so that's uncertainty for
revenue cycle
And staffing, like I said, on all areas
(05:22):
with all of that. And IT or, AI,
it's gonna be really interesting with as everything
advances,
what can it do for some of your
staffing? Granted, the problem with us, we need
hands off.
So AI is great for certain things like
dictation for our providers
and different care levels for them that can
free up their time, but you need the
(05:42):
ER nurses, you need the CNAs, you need
the nurses inside the Bethel home taking care
of those residents.
Absolutely.
And let's touch on leadership.
I'd love to know what the biggest leadership
lesson you've learned is.
Listen to your team.
Don't just ask questions because you think that's
just what they want to hear.
(06:03):
Listen to their answers because that's just going
to deflate them even more when they tell
you something that they really, really want are
important to them, and you literally just walk
away not really listening.
One of the things I'm very, very key
on with my directors and with my managers
is when they come in with an issue,
even though I might think it's a very
minute issue, it can be very important to
(06:25):
them. And if I just blow it off,
then their view of me will change and
their trust will go away, and you can
have that. In order to move our building
forward, you may need my directors and I
need my managers. We all need to be
having the same vision. We all need to
be on the same page, and they all
know that if they ask me something, I
will try to take care of it to
the best of my ability. And if I
can't, I'll go to them and say, this
(06:46):
is what I've tried.
This won't work. And prime example is my
physical therapist. We're in a $53,000,000
building project, as I said, and PT is
downstairs,
and that's where the specialist clinic is going.
And so she goes, okay. Great that you're
bringing the specialist clinic in, but we use
these hallways for rehabilitation
of patients.
Number one, it could be HIPAA violations because
(07:08):
they're gonna see who's in the hallways doing
PT, and number two, we're gonna we're gonna
we're all growing then with all of this
when we're gonna have all this movement with
specialist clinic. So here I am, not even
not even half a quarter done. It's a
four year project. So we're not even a
quarter done of our of the $53,000,000
project. And I'm already like, okay, guys. Guess
what? We're gonna have to put our PT
(07:28):
clinic off-site. And they're like, you've got to
be kidding me. But it's important to our
physical therapist department. And Yeah. You know, you
have to listen, and we all have to
in order to grow and in order to
be the best at what we can you
know, the best in our area, we need
to advance, and we need to listen, and
we need to think outside the box of
how can we advance? Can we put a
cute clinic on Main Street? And with all
(07:49):
the staffing and then with all the travelers,
we're always in need of apartments to put
them in. Well, let's put an apartment up
on top above the physical therapist,
you know, to new clinic. So, anyway, that's
a long way off because it's a four
year project, but at least she knows I'm
thinking about it and she knows that I'm
hearing.
Absolutely.
And let's touch on digital as we round
our conversation out. So from your perspective,
(08:10):
what technological
innovations are transforming health care, and what are
you prioritizing in regards to digital health care
at your organization?
We know that we're behind the times with,
everything that's coming at us with technology.
One of the main things we're focusing on
right now is we wanna get a new
EHR system. Our EHR system is very cumbersome.
We're tied with one of the bigger systems.
(08:32):
They have to run a lot of our
reports, so it slows a lot of things
down for us. And we don't even know
if some of the reports are are accurate
and if we're getting accurate information, so that's
affecting our AR, days in AR, that we
can possibly bring be be bringing in. So
we know that's a major issue that we
need to focus on. Granted, it's a lot
of money, But it also then won't be
able to streamline it because with the EHR
(08:54):
systems out there right now, there's so much
great capability inside of it. Analytical data,
just the AI capabilities.
It's exciting what could come at us, especially
with the analytical data as we're diving into
the ACOs, and they're giving us all these
different quality measures from Medicare ACOs to Blue
Cross ACOs.
They're
kind of all the same measures, but kinda
(09:15):
not all the same measures. So if we
if I was able to have a data
or a dashboard that all my staff could
look at quickly every morning and not have
to go through 50 pages of reports all
the time, that'll just allow us to do
the best patient care possible. So we know
we're like I said, there's a lot of
great things out there for technology if you
embrace it and if you want to embrace
it.
(09:36):
Absolutely.
Well, Stephanie, thanks so much for joining me
today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Again, we're
recording live at the fifteenth annual meeting. Thank
you.
At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
(00:02):
helping you and improving health care for everyone.
That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
solutions that truly make a difference.
We offer a full spectrum of talent and
technical services and deliver cross industry expertise to
to bring you innovative best practices to solve
the problems that we face in health care.
We're not just promising you results, we are
(00:22):
delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast, and we are recording live at the
fifteenth annual meeting. I'm currently joined by Stephanie
Everett, who is the administrator of Montreal Bethel
Home and the CEO of Montreal County Medical
Center. Thank you so much for being here,
Stephanie. Let's have you start out by introducing
(00:43):
yourself and telling us a little bit more
about your background and organization.
Well, thank you so much so much for
help having me.
My name is Stephanie Everett. I am the
CEO of the Montreux County Medical Center and
also the minister of the Montreux Bethel Home,
as she has said.
My background in health care has actually been
in the revenue cycle portion and the credentialing
portion for providers for, like, twenty years. That
(01:05):
was down in Texas for a chiropractor. And
then when I moved back up to North
Dakota
in twelve years ago, my dad was actually
on the Montreal Bethel Home board, and I
was pregnant at the time with my third
child. And he was like, so I think
you'd be great at the foundation director job.
And I'm like, dad, I'm pregnant. It's an
hour away in Stanley. I live in Minot.
So, anyway, I interviewed. I'm from Stanley, so
(01:27):
it was a nice little tie back.
I did the position. So I've been the
foundation director for since 02/2013,
added on public relations and marketing,
director onto that because as in a small
critical access hospital in Montreal Bethel or in
the Bethel home, we wear a million hats.
And then back in, like, 02/2018,
our CEO at the time was going to
(01:49):
retire, and we'd be going on to our
fourth CEO,
in the years I'd been there. And as
the foundation director, it gets really hard fundraising
for a building when the CEO's vision changes
all the time. So I made
the comment to one of my board members,
foundation board members, and I said, how hard
would it be to go back to school
and become the administer of the nursing home?
Well, I did it, and it's it's been
(02:12):
a challenge. But
as I talk to fellow CEOs in North
Dakota
that are that are CEOs in their hometowns,
like, who else will have the passion, though,
to be able to bring your
health center into the next decade and keep
it alive over the decades?
COVID hits. I became the CEO
and administrator on March 3, and, of course,
(02:34):
COVID hit March 16. So it was, like,
trial by fire.
But anybody I had talked to, any of
the CEOs around me was, like, Steph, we're
offline the plane and building at the same
time. None of us have been able to
you know, none of us had ever been
in a pandemic
and all that. So that's kind of my
little background of health care. Wonderful. Well, thank
you for being being here.
And let's start with
(02:56):
the last twelve months or so. What's an
initiative you've taken on that you're particularly proud
of, and how has this impacted your organization?
As I stated, I've been the foundation director
since 02/2013.
We literally have been in building projects the
entire time that I've walked in.
We added on a brand new rural health
clinic. We had six rooms for our rural
health clinic, and then we expanded it more
(03:17):
than double the size of it. We added
a CT scanner and services onto the ER,
and then we then added assisted living, which
is a new service line along with an
Executive Executive Conference Room and the Bethel Chapel,
which we had had we had fundraised for
years. We had three little sisters that had
been donating money for, like, twenty five years
for it, and so it was wonderful that
(03:37):
we were able to make it true for
them. But in the meantime, we always knew
we always knew that we needed a new
nursing home. So as last July, we broke
ground on a $53,000,000
project. It's going to be a brand new
nursing home,
and it's gonna be more added services and
MRI suites, a specialist clinic,
infusion suites, and a pharmacy suite for our
hospital side. And we're actually adding seven more
(03:59):
units on to our assisted living because we
have a waiting list of 27. So I'm
very, very proud of that. Absolutely.
And kind of on the flip side then,
what is a significant challenge that you see
the health care world to be currently facing,
and what are you doing to address it?
Staffing.
As everybody says, staffing. Personally,
(04:20):
the nursing home keeps me up at night.
The hospital, the you know, we can bring
in really good ER traveler ER nurses for
traveling. We only have two on staff, you
know, twelve hour shifts. It's the nursing home
and taking making sure you have enough qualified
CNAs to take care of your residents because
they are twenty four seven coverage.
And as anybody that runs a SNF knows
(04:42):
that
residents can come in
fine, and then as dementia kicks in, it
just becomes very hard for care. So you
have to have the right people
taking care of those residents twenty four seven
because you never know when those little brains
are gonna switch. You know? But there's also
a lot of significant challenges, like, with the
whole value based care. What does that payment
(05:02):
model look like? None of us really know
because it's so brand new. None of us
is we just started with the ACOs.
This has been our first year with with
our ACO, and we're really diving in deep
with Blue Cross. Nobody knows what those payment
models look like, and so that's uncertainty for
revenue cycle
And staffing, like I said, on all areas
(05:22):
with all of that. And IT or, AI,
it's gonna be really interesting with as everything
advances,
what can it do for some of your
staffing? Granted, the problem with us, we need
hands off.
So AI is great for certain things like
dictation for our providers
and different care levels for them that can
free up their time, but you need the
(05:42):
ER nurses, you need the CNAs, you need
the nurses inside the Bethel home taking care
of those residents.
Absolutely.
And let's touch on leadership.
I'd love to know what the biggest leadership
lesson you've learned is.
Listen to your team.
Don't just ask questions because you think that's
just what they want to hear.
(06:03):
Listen to their answers because that's just going
to deflate them even more when they tell
you something that they really, really want are
important to them, and you literally just walk
away not really listening.
One of the things I'm very, very key
on with my directors and with my managers
is when they come in with an issue,
even though I might think it's a very
minute issue, it can be very important to
(06:25):
them. And if I just blow it off,
then their view of me will change and
their trust will go away, and you can
have that. In order to move our building
forward, you may need my directors and I
need my managers. We all need to be
having the same vision. We all need to
be on the same page, and they all
know that if they ask me something, I
will try to take care of it to
the best of my ability. And if I
can't, I'll go to them and say, this
(06:46):
is what I've tried.
This won't work. And prime example is my
physical therapist. We're in a $53,000,000
building project, as I said, and PT is
downstairs,
and that's where the specialist clinic is going.
And so she goes, okay. Great that you're
bringing the specialist clinic in, but we use
these hallways for rehabilitation
of patients.
Number one, it could be HIPAA violations because
(07:08):
they're gonna see who's in the hallways doing
PT, and number two, we're gonna we're gonna
we're all growing then with all of this
when we're gonna have all this movement with
specialist clinic. So here I am, not even
not even half a quarter done. It's a
four year project. So we're not even a
quarter done of our of the $53,000,000
project. And I'm already like, okay, guys. Guess
what? We're gonna have to put our PT
(07:28):
clinic off-site. And they're like, you've got to
be kidding me. But it's important to our
physical therapist department. And Yeah. You know, you
have to listen, and we all have to
in order to grow and in order to
be the best at what we can you
know, the best in our area, we need
to advance, and we need to listen, and
we need to think outside the box of
how can we advance? Can we put a
cute clinic on Main Street? And with all
(07:49):
the staffing and then with all the travelers,
we're always in need of apartments to put
them in. Well, let's put an apartment up
on top above the physical therapist,
you know, to new clinic. So, anyway, that's
a long way off because it's a four
year project, but at least she knows I'm
thinking about it and she knows that I'm
hearing.
Absolutely.
And let's touch on digital as we round
our conversation out. So from your perspective,
(08:10):
what technological
innovations are transforming health care, and what are
you prioritizing in regards to digital health care
at your organization?
We know that we're behind the times with,
everything that's coming at us with technology.
One of the main things we're focusing on
right now is we wanna get a new
EHR system. Our EHR system is very cumbersome.
We're tied with one of the bigger systems.
(08:32):
They have to run a lot of our
reports, so it slows a lot of things
down for us. And we don't even know
if some of the reports are are accurate
and if we're getting accurate information, so that's
affecting our AR, days in AR, that we
can possibly bring be be bringing in. So
we know that's a major issue that we
need to focus on. Granted, it's a lot
of money, But it also then won't be
able to streamline it because with the EHR
(08:54):
systems out there right now, there's so much
great capability inside of it. Analytical data,
just the AI capabilities.
It's exciting what could come at us, especially
with the analytical data as we're diving into
the ACOs, and they're giving us all these
different quality measures from Medicare ACOs to Blue
Cross ACOs.
They're
kind of all the same measures, but kinda
(09:15):
not all the same measures. So if we
if I was able to have a data
or a dashboard that all my staff could
look at quickly every morning and not have
to go through 50 pages of reports all
the time, that'll just allow us to do
the best patient care possible. So we know
we're like I said, there's a lot of
great things out there for technology if you
embrace it and if you want to embrace
it.
(09:36):
Absolutely.
Well, Stephanie, thanks so much for joining me
today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Again, we're
recording live at the fifteenth annual meeting. Thank
you.
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