Dr. Eaton joins Memorial after serving as COO of Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health since April 2021.
She told Becker’s she plans to honor the strong culture cultivated by Mr. Curtis and Memorial’s leadership team, understanding what has made it special, and leverage those strengths to drive the organization’s future. She discussed her plan to tackle workforce challenges, what makes a health system “good” versus “great,” and opportunities for growth.
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: Memorial Health is undergoing significant transformation. What’s one bold move or policy you plan to champion in your first year as CEO?
Dr. Mandy Eaton: The mission of Memorial Health is to improve lives and build stronger communities through better health, and that aligns really well with my top priorities: delivering high-quality patient care, advancing health equity, and driving innovation to improve the patient and caregiver experience.
I know that I’m going to spend a lot of time in this community, getting to understand this health system’s current strategy and culture.
I’m going to listen to the community that it serves, and that includes its workforce, physicians, partners, and affiliates. Then, we’re going to take that current strategy, along with that feedback, and deliver an outcome that includes growth, sustainability in areas that are already working well, and a strong focus on community impact.
Q: Memorial has invested in growth, including major facility expansions. How do you plan to balance strategic growth with financial sustainability?
ME: There’s a tremendous cost hitting all health systems across the country. Cost implications are real.
But there are also tremendous opportunities in communities like Springfield and its surrounding areas to grow and tap into new ways of delivering care that transcend the walls of the hospital. That means care delivered in ambulatory and outpatient environments in ways we haven’t done before.
There are opportunities to leverage technology and innovation to create a different experience for patients who desire a different type of interaction with their care provider. Springfield and its surrounding communities are really well-positioned to balance rising costs with areas of growth in those ambulatory and outpatient settings.
Q: As someone with deep operational experience, what’s one lesson from your time as COO at Cone Health that you plan to apply at Memorial?
ME: One of the biggest experiences I’m taking with me from Cone Health is the importance of culture in an organization and the commitment to being people-centric.
That includes being patient-centric, but it also means caring about your workforce. I have a breadth of experience in that, and it’s one of the core tenets that makes an organization distinct.
When you look across the country at great health systems, many of us have a lot of the same things. We have the same technology, the same facilities, and the same infrastructure. What differentiates good from great, though, is the people in the organization.
And culture starts at the top. I’ll be leading this organization and shaping its culture in a way that puts our people, patients and communities at the center of every decision we make.
Q: What are the biggest workforce or culture challenges facing Memorial today, and how do you plan to address them?
ME: Memorial appears to be just like every other health system in our country — still coming out of the cost pressures of the pandemic.
The cost of the workforce is higher than it’s ever been, and those costs are not declining at the rate I think anyone had hoped. So, we’ve got to figure out a good way to manage that cost structure.
But I think what Memorial understands — and is doing really well — is recognizing that they have to recruit and retain the very best people. And you do that with intentionality.
Frankly, there’s no magic bullet that has all the answers. In my opinion, the best way to recruit and retain talent is to deliver high-quality care to your patients and community.
When you do that, your brand elevates. And when your brand elevates, that becomes your best recruitment and retention strategy. People are proud to work for an organization that delivers exceptional care.
So, caring for your workforce means inspiring them to come to work every day and deliver the best experience and quality care possible for the patients they serve. When they do that, it creates a flywheel effect —your reputation builds on itself, and people want to come work at Memorial.
I think the system already has all the right components in place, and we’re going to hone that and really amplify our efforts to be competitive and a destination where people want to work. And once they get here, we’re going to take really good care of them.