Faimy Vanleeuwen, Regional Director, Quality, Baptist Health South Florida, North Region

Summary

Podcast Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Faimy Vanleeuwen, Regional Director, Quality, Baptist Health South Florida, North Region
Host: Chanel Bunger
Date: February 9, 2026
Episode Theme: Leadership, frontline empowerment, and real-time quality improvement in today’s healthcare system.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Chanel Bunger interviews Faimy Vanleeuwen, Regional Director of Quality at Baptist Health South Florida's North Region. The discussion centers around modern trends in healthcare quality, the shift toward proactive and real-time quality assurance, the importance of empowering frontline leaders, and advice for emerging healthcare leaders. Faimy shares insights from her nursing background, recent projects, and the evolving culture around quality and safety in healthcare organizations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction and Faimy’s Background

• [00:53] Faimy introduces herself as a nurse by training, with over 20 years of experience mostly in leadership roles.
• Describes her progression from the trauma unit’s charge nurse to leadership in outpatient surgery centers and now as a regional quality director for Baptist Health.
• Emphasizes a career-long focus on supporting quality initiatives across both hospital and outpatient settings.

2. Major Healthcare Quality Trends

• [01:59] Faimy discusses a notable shift in quality improvement processes:
  • Moving away from retrospective quality review toward real-time operational quality.
  • Embedding quality and safety directly into daily workflows (e.g., rounding, audits, task management).
  • Greater frontline staff engagement for quicker issue identification and resolution.
  • Standardization across all sites (not just hospitals), ensuring quality is consistent in inpatient, outpatient, and ambulatory environments.
  • Recognizes the crucial need for psychological safety—giving teams the freedom and support to speak up and sustain improvements.
• Quote:

  "Quality…can’t live in silos anymore. Systems that are doing this better are aligning expectations, tools and accountability across all sites and not just hospitals."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [02:35]

3. Looking Ahead: Priorities for 2026

• [03:41] Faimy is focused on building sustainable quality systems that put power in the hands of frontline leaders.
  • Encourages a shift so quality is not just a centralized function but an everyday part of departmental leadership responsibilities.
  • Proud of recent progress in standardizing approaches and creating clearer expectations across the organization.
  • Reports increased leader confidence in using and interpreting data, allowing teams to be proactive rather than reactive.
• Quote:

  "What I'm focused on and genuinely excited about is building sustainable quality systems so that our frontline leaders can actually own their process."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [03:46]

4. Reflecting on Recent Successes (Past 6–18 Months)

• Describes successful projects aimed at empowering managers and charge nurses, helping them understand and use quality data with confidence.
• Notes the rewarding transformation as leaders begin speaking up about risks and championing improvements out of a genuine understanding.
• Quote:

  "Seeing our leaders…gain confidence in data, speaking up either about risk, you know, leading improvement and not just because they're being told to, but because they understand why that data is important. And that's been one of the most rewarding parts of what I've seen this past year."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [04:47]

5. Advice for Emerging Healthcare Leaders

• [05:22] Faimy’s advice for new and aspiring leaders:
  • Stay curious and connected to the work; be present with teams.
  • Leadership is about asking better questions and building space for others’ contributions, not just having all the answers.
  • Invest in relationships early—trust is key for influencing change during difficult times.
  • Don’t wait until you feel ready: Say yes to opportunities and ask for feedback.
  • Leadership is not just a skill or a title; it’s about how you help others, influence, and move forward.
• Quote:

  "Results matter, but trust is what allows you to influence change, especially during hard conversations or time of uncertainty."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [05:38]

6. Memorable Closing Thought

• [06:38] Faimy concludes with a succinct reflection on leadership influence:
  • Quote:

    "Trust is real currency of influence."
    — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [06:41]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Quality can’t live in silos anymore.…systems that are doing this better are aligning expectations, tools, and accountability across all sites and not just hospitals."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [02:35]
• "Building sustainable quality systems so that our frontline leaders can actually own their process."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [03:45]
• "Seeing our leaders…gain confidence in data, speaking up about risk…because they understand why that data is important."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [04:47]
• "Results matter, but trust is what allows you to influence change, especially during hard conversations or time of uncertainty."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [05:38]
• "Trust is real currency of influence."
  — Faimy Vanleeuwen, [06:41]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:53] Guest Introduction and Background
• [01:59] Quality Trends & Real-Time Improvement
• [03:41] Looking Forward: 2026 Focus and Recent Successes
• [05:22] Leadership Advice for Emerging Leaders
• [06:38] Closing Reflection on Trust

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Summary Tone

Faimy’s tone throughout the episode is warm, humble, and practical—grounded in her experience as a nurse and leader. She emphasizes empowerment, collaboration, and trust, reinforcing the message that sustainable quality in healthcare comes from consistency, open communication, and frontline ownership.

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This episode is a valuable listen for healthcare leaders, quality professionals, and anyone interested in the changing landscape of clinical excellence and leadership development in healthcare organizations.

Transcript

[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.

[B]

Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Fami Van Leeuwen, the Regional Director of Quality at Baptist Health South Florida's north region, who joins the podcast today to share insight to her background healthcare trends she's keeping an eye on, and a bit more Faymi, thank you so much for joining me today.

[C]

Thanks for having me. Great to be on.

[B]

Perfect. Well, to get us started out, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about Baptist Health?

[C]

Of course. My name is Fay Van Leywen and I'm a nurse by training and heart with over 20 years in healthcare. I started my career in med, surge and trauma with some experience in ICU and mainly the OR leadership. Found me a little early as a charged nurse on a busy trauma unit, but I've spent most of my nursing career in nursing leadership, including serving as a Director of Nursing for an outpatient surgery center where I supported quality initiatives, new programs and some operations usually functioning in executive capacity. But for the past three years I've been working with a hospital system, Baptist Health South Florida, and currently as a Regional Quality Director, supporting both hospital and outpatient environments. Outside of work, I'm a proud local soccer mom and married to my college sweetheart for just about over 22 years.

[B]

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for that introduction and now getting into it a bit, can you talk about the trends that you're currently watching either in quality or just healthcare overall?

[C]

Well, I'll stick to quality since that's my wheelhouse. One of the biggest trends I'm watching is the shift from retrospective quality review to more real time operational quality. We're moving away from looking at data weeks or even months later. Instead we're implementing quality and safety into daily workflows like rounding, audits, task management and more frontline engagement so issues are identified and addressed much earlier. I'm also seeing a stronger focus with standardization across the Baptist Health system and I'm sure this is across most hospital settings, with continuing to move between inpatient, outpatient and ambulatory environments. Quality, we've realized, can't live in silos anymore. Systems that are doing this better are aligning expectations, tools and accountability across all sites and not just hospitals. And just a little bit more, we're paying a bit more close attention to our frontline leaders. Sustainability with, you know, not just being with dashboards, but also just giving leaders clear priorities, managing the tools that we use, and most importantly, psychology, you know, the psychological safety aspect of it, and giving our teams the strength to speak up, improve, and actually sustain change.

[B]

Got it, Got it. So a lot of things happening and moving forward a bit. This is kind of a two parter question where I'm going to ask you, looking ahead into the rest of 2026, what are you most focused on and excited about and then looking back, but in the past six to 18 months, can you talk about either an initiative or project or just something that you're proud about?

[C]

Well, I love looking forward and I get excited about lot of things, but right now what I'm focused on is and genuinely excited about is building sustainable quality systems so that our frontline leaders can actually own their process. So for the past six to 18 months, a big part of my work has been shifting quality from something that feels more centralized or retrospective and to something that lives with leaders at the unit and the department level. Especially proud of the progress we've made in standardizing our approach across the hospital and outpatient settings. That's been a really big focus for Baptist health. Creating clear expectations, more consistent tools, and better aligning quality and operations with our nursing leadership and leadership in general. The alignment has made us more. It's given us more of a proactive approach and less reactive. Another thing that I'm incredibly proud of is seeing our leaders watching managers charge nurses gain confidence in data, speaking up either about risk, you know, leading improvement, and not just because they're being told to, but because they understand why that data is important. And that's been one of the most rewarding parts of what I've seen this past year.

[B]

Absolutely. And now I'm curious to hear from your perspective, being somebody that's been both on the provider side as a nurse and then now more of the director side. What advice would you share to either evolving leaders, emerging leaders that are looking to have the same either drive or success in their careers as you have?

[C]

Well, that drive, you're kind of born with it. But you know, we can try to embed this into others. The one advice I would give, you know, for anybody who's you know, evolving in a leader is just to stay curious, stay connected to the work. You know, really get into it with your leadership team. Because leadership is not just about having all the answers. Knows that, you know, I don't have all the answers, but it's about asking better questions and creating space for others to contribute. I'd also encourage leaders to invest early in relationships. Results matter, but trust is what allows you to influence change, especially during hard conversations or time of uncertainty. I would say also, you know, don't wait till you feel ready. Most of the growth and drive and things that you feel that'll move you towards that confidence. That is saying yes to opportunities, asking for feedback. And remember that leadership isn't a skill. You, you know, it's not just something you build over time, but, you know, it's something that you gain from others to make sure that you could get to that. So it's not just a title, it's how you move forward.

[B]

Excellent advice. Well, Fi, I've enjoyed our time today, but before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know?

[C]

I would say just one of those little memorable sound bites. It's trust is real currency of influence. That's just something that, you know, I've kind of came up on my little to do, you know, your calendars and I felt like that would be something nice to share. Is trust is real currency of influence.

[B]

Well, that's a great note to end on, Femi. I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing these insights on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.

[C]

Thank you.