← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Stacey-Ann Okoth on Nursing Leadership and Workplace Safety at CommonSpirit Health Mountain Division
00:13:15
Loading summary
Transcript21 lines
- [00:02]
A
The most important healthcare decisions don't happen in isolation. They happen when leaders come together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings together more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives this April in Chicago. With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, Common Spirit, and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning for policy shifts brief 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 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit BeckersHospitalReview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right.
- [00:45]
B
This is Laura Duda with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Stacey Annel Koth, Chief Nursing Executive Officer at the Mountain region of Common Spirit Health. Stacey Ann it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:58]
C
Lara, it's great to join you today.
- [01:00]
B
Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because, you know, it's such an interesting and dynamic field in health care. And so to get a sense of how you've been able to, you know, pivot 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 Common Spirit Health?
- [01:20]
C
Sure. So, as you mentioned, I'm Dr. Stacey Anno cough 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 60ambulatory care site. 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.
- [02:15]
B
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?
- [02:34]
C
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 healthcare 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 to protect our caregivers, but it also designed to build trust and transparency with patients and their families regarding security.
- [04:16]
B
I love that. I think it's so critical to have that type of focus and energy around making sure that the healthcare providers and team feel safe within the house in the organization. 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 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?
- [04:59]
C
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 our hospitals. Osha, that is one of their requirement that we know in case of an emergency, we want to 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.
- [05:29]
B
That's helpful to understand and they're a great, great, great place to start. Now, looking ahead for 2026, what are some of the big priorities or headwinds that you're focused on?
- [05:39]
C
So, Laura, for 2026, the commitment is to strengthen and lead our workplace violence prevention initiatives. That 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 this 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.
- [06:24]
B
That makes a lot of sense. And you know, 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 think the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year will be?
- [06:50]
C
Well, Laura, the hardest thing will be navigating the challenging economic headwinds that the healthcare 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 measures like HR1, 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 health care 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 preserve the access to care that our neighbors deserve and expect.
- [08:27]
B
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 thinking about concerns on sustainability, especially for rural healthcare. And I can imagine that impacts a lot of the markets 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.
- [09:03]
C
Well, our organization, Laura, is being very proactive and engaging with state federal government officials to make sure that they're passing common sense laws and also tapping into the HR1 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, we are launching our cohort program in July of this year. I would anticipate a lot of innovation coming out of that program.
- [10:01]
B
Absolutely. That's great to hear and we'll definitely keep an eye out for that and continue to watch it closely. I know it'll be certainly a model for solutions that hopefully others will be able to learn from and grow from as well. Now, when you look into the future, where do you see some of the best opportunities for growth at Commospirit too?
- [10:21]
C
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 and 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 Common Spirit 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 91% for new nurses who complete the program.
- [11:54]
B
That's incredible. What 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 many areas and for many organizations that's a place of, you know, they're challenged because they don't have such a pipeline 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 makes sense that there's opportunities for additional growth there too.
- [12:24]
C
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.
- [12:53]
B
Fantastic. 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 the of the themes we touched on today. So looking forward to seeing you there.
- [13:10]
C
Looking forward to it, Laura. Thank you.