← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Dr. JohnRich R. Levine, Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Reeves Regional Health
00:14:58
Loading summary
Transcript17 lines
- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:32]
B
This is Laura Dardo with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by John Rich Levine, Chief Nursing Officer of Reeves Regional Health. John Rich, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:43]
C
Thank you, Laura.
- [00:45]
B
Now, I'm looking forward to our discussion because I know we'll dig a little bit deeper into some of the great things you're doing at Reeves Regional and how you're thinking about the future. But before we dive in, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and Reeves Regional Health?
- [00:59]
C
Yes. Thank you. So again, my name is Dr. John Rich Levine. I am the current Chief Nursing Officer at Reeves Regional Health in Pecos, Texas. That is west of Texas. Our hospital serves a large area in west of Texas and the families who live and work throughout the entire region. And this hospital, which is our teams, they care for ranchers, oil field workers, teachers, travelers and law highways, and even many others who rely on us for safe care and a steady presence during crucial moments like there was recent last year, we have this huge train wreck and we cater to those casualties because we're the only ones available. Reeves embodies the spirit of a frontier hospital and that is combined with the discipline of modern health system as well. We have a brand new hospital building that the county bought for us. And our teams take pride in a strong clinical judgment with clear communication. Because we're a small organization, we also have, we pride ourselves with firm commitment to reliability because to us, every improvement is viewed from a rural perspective where access and trust are highly valued. And this approach shapes our work and fosters a close partnership with the community we serve.
- [02:33]
B
That's amazing to hear and you know, really such a great service you're providing that community and certainly serving an important population. Now, when you think about the last year or so, what was the most important initiative you led? What did you do and what were the results?
- [02:48]
C
Yeah, the last this year, that's 2025. Actually, we're still not there. Right. But we're getting there. So as we close the year, it really is important for Us to remember what happened to us. And the most critical initiative that for this year was the focus on clarity and consistency. We established a unified nursing governance pathway across the entire hospital. Also, each of our departments set up a clear structure for practice standards, policy, management, competency requirements and daily routines that are responsible for our results. So aside from that, we also established shared processes for safety hudd huddles, which is, if you would think, in critical access. What is that huddle all about? And we want to implement that and it's safety huddles for us. We also have the bedside communication, rapid review of real time risks that could happen. All these things enabled every nurse to assume a leadership role and enhance their reliability at the point of care. It's not just focus on the nursing leaders, but leaders at the bedside as well. And doing this, the results are evident in our performance, our antibiotic timing, we improve that very significantly. Our surgical services have become more prepared. Our care teams have enhanced communication and collaboration across the medical surgical units, icu, our obstetrics, our emergency departments, including even our swing beds and very operative services. In fact, even our hospital operated outpatient clinic and our wound care, dialysis and home health services. All of this our community sees more coordinated hospital with clear guidance that our nurses feel that this direction every day before this, before this year we were kind of like I, isolated and with each other. Then we converged it and I think that is the most critical initiative that we had this year that makes a.
- [05:06]
B
Lot of sense and is really helpful to understand. I think as you mentioned, just so important to have that type of communication and real understanding in care coordination. I'm curious as you're working on converging these leaders in different folks who are typically operate a little bit more isolated, what did you do to make that go smoothly? I know sometimes these types of changes can be a bit of a struggle to make sure they're complied by all. But I guess how did that transition go and what did you do to make sure that, you know, people were buying into new processes that you had?
- [05:44]
C
Yeah, it took a lot of effort, I would say effort in the sense that we have to spend time listening. So we have this listening and learning tours that we did throughout every department, every team, every. And then we sit down with them and it takes a while to build those trusts. So then they come out and really go around and, and acknowledge that the entire team is us. It's not one isolated from the other, but it's just us. It's one hospital, it's one purpose and it's, it's one outcome that we want and that is serve service to our community. So we look into that and we, we thought that when we gathered all of them and focused on one simple direction, we made everybody cooperate and now we get the entire result that we enjoy now.
- [06:39]
B
That's great to hear. Now, looking ahead into the next year, what are some of your big priorities as well as headwinds for 2026?
- [06:47]
C
Well, that's really interesting because our priority is. So we established that in 2025 and so that becomes our priority for 2026 to stabilize it with purpose. So you can see rural hospitals succeed with teams that builds confidence in their rh. So it has to be sustained. And for me, as the Chief Nursing Officer, I focus on strengthening that rhythm through talent development, simple governance, clear visibility into performance, being seen, being present in the units and in departments, and being there for them. For us. Workforce evolution as we can see it progresses nationwide. We also want to translate that into our level by prioritizing early investment in communication. So we have this leadership development programs ongoing. No matter how small we are, we're still leaders. So we want to still train them continuously. And we have this mentorship program and we have this intensive first year experiences for new nurses. We have the Cino breakfast with Cino. So then they can just see that we are there for them. Our challenges stem from familiar sources and you can, you can probably are familiar with this too. Limited resources. See that? And also broad geographic needs. We are the only hospital in the 100 mile radius, so there is a broad geographic needs that you can tell. The complex demands of our patients, they never go down, they go up. Our strength lies in discipline and in our teamwork. And we grow our capacity through simple, repeatable routines and partnerships that enable our community to access care close to home. Home. So these are our big priorities and these are the headwinds that we want to address as we move forward. Being able to maintain sustainability with what we just built.
- [08:51]
B
Absolutely. I know that is so critical to have that type of consistency and figure out how to continue to pivot as needed. Especially as you mentioned, you know, just a lot of different things happening, very familiar challenges and continue to be, you know, resource needing to make sure you've got the right resources. So I think, you know, when you look at that type of landscape, obviously you've made a lot of changes in the last year. And looking ahead, what is the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year?
- [09:24]
C
Laura? I think that the hardest thing that I will have to do in the coming year with all this in place and what we have started in 2025 is maintaining the progress grace. And I think that is very important because it could be turmoil, it could be chaos. Every improvement that we bring also brings in new habits, and those habits need daily reinforcement. So that could be the hardest thing for me. My role is to establish a pace that our teams can sustain, and it involves clear expectations. It also involves consistent coaching, thoughtful accountability, and the calm presence that I've mentioned before, even in high pressure moments. Because you never know, these high pressure moments will come. And they will come. It's not a matter of whether they will or not. It's only a matter of when are they coming? Are we prepared for that? So leaders like me in rural health care, we bear the unique responsibility, and our teams know every family we serve. We shop with them. We meet their parents or their kids or their neighbors, friends, wherever we are. Every success and setback carry that personal significance. And the hardest part for me is respecting that reality while guiding our teams through growth that benefits the entire region.
- [10:56]
B
That makes a lot of sense, you know, and is a huge, huge responsibility. But, you know, in knowing your leadership style and the study, you know, I guess Grace, as you put it, that you bring to this role, you know, having a leader like that and a leader like you at the helm with, with the nursing teams, I can imagine means a great deal to the health system overall. Now, what do you see as some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?
- [11:26]
C
Well, people. Growth for us starts with people. So every hospital, probably, I would say that every hospital has challenges with people, maintaining people and retaining people. And that will be one of the best opportunities for us to grow. Grow with skilled nurses like allied health teams. They form the foundation of our service line that we provide. And we just opened at least three this year. And that's a lot. You open one service line every a year. That's a lot. We open three. So. But when talent thrives, the quality will also improve and the community gains confidence in the care that we deliver to them. So we're very being very careful with that. We're being very careful with opening new service lines, but we are also able to deliver it or measure up to it. We also see tremendous opportunities in partnerships, as you can see. If we don't partner, we're just dead on ourselves. It's hard to survive. Rural hospitals like us can advance through our collaboration with regional systems across our area. We have academic centers that we want to partner with, public health partners that monitors us and, you know, help us and our community organizations as well as our schools, civic organizations. This leads us to improved specialty the access and the knowledge and awareness that we do exist in the neighborhood. It will also enable us to have more coordinated care pathways and smoother transitions for patients from us to other facilities that are able to deliver higher care. Some of the best opportunities for organizational growth is this. We start with people in January. We will start with our leadership and mentorship program. Our region is very vibrant. Laura West Texas There is a lot of resilience spirit in our neighborhood, so growth comes from consistent excellence in daily practices. I always emphasize that only excellence is rewarded. So there is thoughtful data utilization. And we also have that service mindset that respects the the West Texas culture because we know that Reeves Regional Health has great potential for the entire region and our teams are our only tool who are working toward that future with clear sense of purpose. And that's what we want to see. We want to harness and take advantage of those opportunities for organizational growth.
- [14:19]
B
I love that. John Rich, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such a fantastic conversation. I think I learned a lot from you, especially looking at some of the challenges in rural healthcare. And everything that you're doing organization wide is just been critical. I'm excited to see you as well in April at our annual meeting. I know you'll be speaking at a panel and it's just always truly a blessing to have you there and share some of the real practical tips that you have and the things that have worked well for you at Reaves Regional. So I'm looking forward to doing that and continuing the conversation there.
- [14:53]
C
Yes, we'll see you there.