New hospital in Jonesboro adds 400 jobs to local economy

JONESBORO—Two years into his job as CEO of NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital, Brad Parsons had the biggest challenge and responsibility of his career when NEA Baptist moved into a brand new 800,000-square-foot medical campus with a state-of-the-art, 181-bed hospital that was part of a $400-million investment by Memphis-based Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp.

How do you move from an existing busy, small hospital with 91 beds into a large hospital with a very different layout, new equipment, and almost 100 more beds?

“That was really a career-defining task,” Parsons said. “It was unique to be part of the design and growth of a new 80-acre campus that started from a green field. It was exciting to be a part of designing a hospital and clinical space that work the way they should in today’s healthcare environment.”

Parsons credits hard work by a large team of people for more than three years preparing for the day when the old hospital would close, making way for the new hospital.

“I was proud of seeing the time and how much care the department managers and directors of the leadership team put into this to consider every possible scenario to keep patients safe,” Parsons said. “It went really great. That we were able to move 53 patients that morning into a beautiful new campus was really remarkable.”

The work was just beginning January 13. In those early months after the move, every single one of the hospital processes had to be reviewed again in their new environment. Some issues were anticipated, and others became apparent through experience. For example, Parsons said they knew the processes used in the previous eight-room ER wouldn’t work as well in a new ER with 24 beds and three times the footprint of the old one.

Since the opening of the new hospital, there has been a continual process of improvement. Uniquely, NEA Baptist has applied Lean principles in manufacturing to healthcare. Parsons said they have worked to eliminate waste, reduce variation, and hardwire processes that work. “We are applying Lean principles in a big way to be operationally efficient in what we do,” he said.

Parsons was raised around healthcare. His father was a physician’s assistant who worked in heart surgery. Parsons got his masters degree in business and healthcare administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“I was attracted to healthcare because of the ability to work with people in the role of a servant leader,” he said.

He now has ten years in healthcare administration, working with hospitals in Birmingham, Ala., Columbus, Miss., and Union City, Tenn., before moving to Jonesboro. His past three jobs have been with Baptist.

Parsons said that at every new employee orientation at NEA Baptist, they talk about the meaningful work they do with patients and their families.

“I’m really drawn to the complexities of healthcare and working with varied teams,” he said. “We talk a lot about team-based care now, and that fits my management lifestyle. It is really about engaging the physicians, nurses, other clinicians and the non-clinical staff in a very complex environment with a lot of stress and change. It makes for challenging and exciting times for managing people.”

The next major challenge, wave two, has been instituting new Electronic Health Records (EHR) at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. In September, they went from complete paper to complete electronic records. The decision was made to go back to paper charting with the January move since the new EHR was to launch within a few months of residing on the new campus. Shadow electronic charting was done for ten days prior to the big leap into the Epic format-named Baptist One Care-that is used across the Baptist Health Systems.

“This is transformative care,” Parsons said. “Epic is designed to be an integrated system. We can integrate what we do from outpatient clinics to the hospital. The ability to access EHRs translates to any other Epic facility. If you go to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, for example, they will have the ability to pull up that electronic record.”

The hospital’s long-term goal is increasing operational efficiency.

“We want to be efficient in the healthcare we provide, reduce cost, improve quality and make the patient experience first class,” Parsons said. “We are working on being efficient in all aspects of the care we provide, and always keeping the patient in the center of the process.”

One of the biggest challenges he sees is the rapid pace of change in healthcare. Parsons said the key to managing change is listening to staff, and focusing on what is important.

“It is important for our colleagues to understand why decisions are made,” Parsons said. “I spend a lot of time trying to connect the dots about why we are doing it this way.”

Change is a particularly big issue when you grow as fast as NEA Baptist. With the move to the new larger hospital, they have hired an additional 400 employees, and NEA Baptist Clinic has added more than 30 physicians.

“One of my biggest pleasures in doing this job is to help put people in the right positions to succeed in what they do,” he said. “It is exciting to be part of an organization where the future is so bright and the potential is so great. This was the right project for the right time for Northeast Arkansas. Jonesboro is really growing, and it is exciting to be in a community that is very progressive and thriving.”

Since the new medical campus opened, the number of inpatients has increased 40 percent, and there has been a 60 percent increase in outpatients.

“Before, people wanted to come, but we didn’t have the space,” Parsons said. “With the new hospital, our reach has broadened. Being located on the north side of town positions us for growth as Jonesboro and Paragould grow together. It was the perfect project at the perfect time for this part of the world.”

Parsons said his first and foremost goal in his personal life is to be a good husband to his wife, Carroll-Lane, and father to their three children:

Lillianna, 9, Ellenie, 6, and James, 3.

“Jonesboro has been really good for us,” Parsons said. “My family has been very happy here.”

For more:

www.neabaptist.com