Lisa Lovelace became Cleveland, Tenn.-based Vitruvian Health-Bradley Medical Center's first female CEO on Aug. 1, returning to her hometown and former workplace.
The hospital previously was called Tennova Healthcare-Cleveland. Ms. Lovelace's first day coincided with the day Dalton, Ga.-based Vitruvian Health completed its purchase of the hospital from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health.
Vitruvian renamed the hospital — which has 351 beds total, including its westside campus — to its current name.
Her first priority in the new role was overseeing the transition and ensuring patient care was not interrupted. Another main focus in her first 100 days is listening to employees and understanding what issues are most important to them, Ms. Lovelace told Becker's.
Starting her career in the physician services division as well as her 13-year tenure as COO and assistant CEO of the hospital have prepared her to make connections with the workforce and understand what matters to her community.
In conversations with front-line staff in the past month, Ms. Lovelace and her team were able to identify and address the issues that directly affect employees and patients, such as a need for additional stretchers and improvements to the emergency services department, she said.
"Building those relationships is such an important part of the administrator relationship to the community and to the other stakeholders," Ms. Lovelace said. "With an acquisition like this, there's so much work, but having those things that are already familiar to you gives you a sense of comfort, so that when there's challenges, you can go talk to those stakeholders and find a way to collaborate, and there's already some level of trust."
Even more so as a native of Bradley County, community engagement is high on the priority list, she said.
"Patient experience is one of the biggest focus points that we have. We have highly experienced, compassionate employees and medical staff that can work anywhere, but they choose to work here, close to home, which is really our goal," Ms. Lovelace said, adding that she is thankful to be home and serving her community.
Ms. Lovelace, who has more than 26 years of healthcare leadership experience, described herself as a collaborative leader, but someone who also values balancing that trait with accountability.
"One of the things that I also appreciate about Vitruvian is our pledge: 'Excellence. Every person. Every time,'" she said. "And I think that does speak to who we are. It speaks to what we should do as leaders every day, and for me, that's exactly the standard that I try to hold myself to."