Episode 5: Affordability Challenges w/ Beaufort Memorial CEO Russell Baxley

In this episode, Russell Baxley, President and CEO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital, shares his journey in healthcare administration and the innovative strategies his hospital is implementing to address workforce challenges, particularly regarding childcare and housing. He and co-hosts Jen Wright and Emily O'Sullivan also talk about the importance of listening to employee needs and forming partnerships in the community to address affordability and other workforce challenges. 

Transcript

Jen (01:54)
Hello and welcome back to Tell Me Why, a podcast about and for the healthcare workforce. I am Jen Wright and I am joined as always by my colleague, Emily O'Sullivan. We are the workforce experience team with the South Carolina Hospital Association. We are thrilled today to be talking with Russell Baxley, president and CEO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina. So welcome Russell.

Russell Baxley (02:25)
Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on. It's always exciting to talk about all the good things we're doing at Buford.

Jen (02:31)
Well, so many good things. We have really been looking forward to getting into this with you. As you know, know, SCHA's primary priority is workforce. And so we want to talk to you today about some of the innovative strategies that you all are providing for your valued healthcare workforce. But before we get into that, we really want to find out a little bit more about you and how you got to the place that you are today.

So we call the podcast, Why? For us, that means work harmony you. But we also would like to dig in a little bit with our guests to find out their why. How you, what paths you took to get to where you are today. So if you could let us know a little bit about your background, how you got into healthcare administration, just things that people might wanna know about you.

Russell Baxley (03:23)
Sure, happy to do it. So I am born and raised in South Carolina. I grew up in rural South Carolina, a lot of South Carolina is rural. And that would be Johnsonville, South Carolina. I grew up on a family farm. So tobacco, soybeans, hogs, corn, you name it, we probably did it at some point in time. And once I graduated high school, I moved to Clipson University where I majored in microbiology.

You might ask what was I thinking with a microbiology degree and why am I in the role that I'm in now? Well, I was told that you needed to be a doctor as most good parents should be telling their kids at some point in time, right? Be better, get your education, aspire to do more. And then eventually I just figured out that was not the course for me. But what do you do with a microbiology degree, right? You work for a lab or maybe do research, neither of which I wanted to do. And it just so happened my mom...

was a controller for Lake City Hospital when there was a Lake City Hospital. And she said, well, you should get your healthcare administration degree. You you should do healthcare administration. And I said, well, I have nothing else to do. So why don't I do that? And went to the University of South Carolina, Columbia, received my master's in healthcare administration from there. And then my career has taken me to various and different stops. I've started out in practice administration.

where I ran an independent practice in Columbia, South Carolina. I made my way to Texas with a hospital system in Paris, Texas, where I was the ACFO and price administrator. And then bounced around the for-profit world. If you have any experience in the for-profit hospital world, they like to promote you by moving you to the opportunity. And so I moved to each opportunity. And then eight years ago,

I was running a hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for community health systems, and I got the call from Buford. And as a South Carolinian, I was happy to A, get back to South Carolina from the cold winters of Pennsylvania. But two, I was very excited to come to an independent community hospital where I thought and felt I could really make a difference and report to a local board, you know, allow some

local governance, which is what I was not used to. And I have been very happy with that choice ever since. Not that I was unsatisfied with my time in the for-profit world, but it is just a different, you feel different, it acts different. You're able to do more things for the community sitting in a local community hospital like this, which is rare. As you guys probably know, there's fewer and fewer of us stand-alones left.

in the area, so you really feel like you're making a difference doing what you do here.

Emily (06:09)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (06:13)
Fantastic. So what I'm getting out of your story is that one of your whys is to make a difference.

Russell Baxley (06:20)
Yes, absolutely. And on multiple levels, from a community perspective, obviously a patient perspective, but as we're here to talk about workforce, I think more and more, you know, for those that are working inside the four walls of either this hospital or the multiple practices, how are you making a difference in their lives? I think that is just as important, especially someone in my role.

Jen (06:44)
We are certainly thrilled to hear you say that. Emily, did you know he's a fellow Clemson alumni?

Russell Baxley (06:46)
you

Emily (06:51)
I did not. I was going to bring that up. have that in common, Russell. I went to Clemson for undergrad as well. So go Tigers.

Russell Baxley (06:57)
Go Tigers.

With my parents, went to Clemson. I went to Clemson and it was a conversation that I had with my dad about, I'll call it 15, when we were starting to really discuss colleges and he said very flatly that, son, you can go to any college that you want to go to so long as they accept a check made out to Clemson University.

Emily (07:17)
I love it.

Yeah, it runs in my family too. My mom went there and so did my brother. So it was just kind of a foregone conclusion, but I always wanted to go there growing up.

Russell Baxley (07:29)
Me too. There was really never a doubt in my mind, but I always thought that was a funny comment from my father.

Emily (07:37)
Absolutely. Well, Russell, could you tell us a little bit about, I'd love to know your thoughts on what do you feel like are the biggest challenges you face as a CEO, both in general, but also specifically as it relates to the workforce?

Russell Baxley (07:54)
Well, I think we are always looking to improve and how do we always do better today than we did yesterday, right? And whether that's with patient outcomes or working to empower and better our workforce or whether it's working within the community, both inside the walls of the hospital and outside the walls of the hospital, is trying to keep up with one of the, think, most dynamic industries out there.

Emily (08:20)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (08:20)
Right.

It feels like something is changing every day for healthcare, whether it's at a local, state, or especially today, a federal level, right? How do you keep up with all the changes that are coming at you all the time? And it's gotten, it's becoming a more complex environment. And that is especially true with the workforce, right? I mean, we are finding ourselves in this critical time in healthcare where, you know, we're...

Emily (08:24)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (08:48)
very quickly approaching this cliff of what is the expected workforce shortage, whether it's physicians, nurses, therapists. And we live in a state in particular that is growing rapidly, right? Especially if you live on the coast or Greenville or in the Rock Hill area. mean, it is very difficult and challenging to keep up with the demand from a community such as Buford while facing similar yet unique

Jen (08:59)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (09:00)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (09:16)
workforce challenges that we're all experiencing across the nation, right, and across the state, whether that's, I don't know, managing the different expectations between your baby boomers who are near retirement and your next generation, the millennials and Gen Xers and Gen Zers who come and look at things very differently, whether it's inflation, right, whether it's burnout and resiliency, whether it's violence in healthcare, right, and work with your staff in terms of how do you prevent violence, which is

Emily (09:30)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (09:42)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (09:45)
That's one of the fastest growing concerns in healthcare today is violence against healthcare workers. And I saw a stat just the other day that I think healthcare leads in terms of workers comps reported injuries across the nation that are caused by violence against those employed in hospitals. We lead the nation in that stat. That's crazy to think that we're at that point. And so you're dealing with all of these different complexities and

Jen (10:04)
Wow.

Emily (10:07)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (10:14)
and needs and it can be overwhelming at times.

Emily (10:19)
Absolutely.

Jen (10:20)
I bet it can. Absolutely.

So all of those facets of the workforce dynamic and how much it's changing and how rapidly, what do you feel like was the impetus for you to really dig into addressing affordable childcare and housing within your workforce with all of those other kind of priority areas? What brought those to the top for you and Beaufort Memorial?

Russell Baxley (10:49)
Well, I think that we have been looking at for some time this self-sufficiency standard, right? And it's kind of this index or standard that you can look at with United Way or other nonprofit organizations and looking at what is a sustainable wage? is a self-sufficient ways of a family of four or a single mother with a

preschool or a child in preschool of that age. And as you start looking and diving into these numbers, Beaufort County is the second most expensive county to live in in the state of South Carolina, only trumped by Charleston and that gap is closing, which is in a way unique because you just wouldn't necessarily expect Beaufort County to be up there with Charleston in terms of cost of living. You normally might would expect that from the more metropolitan areas, not Beaufort, which isn't rural, but it's also not metropolitan.

And so we started looking at that and listening to our employees and hearing things, especially post COVID. I mean, I don't want to say that this was driven by COVID, but listen, everything and all things workforce, I think were ratcheted up a little bit, you know, during and after the COVID pandemic. And so we focused on resiliency and burnout. We focused on education, workforce development and the ability to grow within the organization. But we said that there's a third leg of this stool, right? So if you really want to take care of your workforce, you know, if you look at this, three-legged stool,

Emily (12:01)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (12:16)
You got to say, well, first we got to have workforce development and portability and movability within the organization through education, promotion and opportunity. You got to have that resiliency burn outside of things, right? You got to take care of their mental health, but then you also got to take care of their financial health in a way, right? And that's more in my mind than just raises every year per the budget, right?

Emily (12:41)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (12:42)
is other things, other unique and different benefits that support your workforce and really set you apart from other employers. affordable housing and childcare are issues across the state. I I think that's well documented, but they are acutely an issue in Beaufort County. We did a study on just say apartments in the surrounding and contiguous three to four county area, including Georgia.

And Beaufort County was the highest by far. I mean, it wasn't even close, one, two, and three bedrooms. you know, we would be what I would call us as a childcare desert in Beaufort. I mean, there is just not enough childcare and the childcare centers that we have or had were probably 20 to 25 % higher than other places you would find in the state of South Carolina in terms of the fees, both weekly and monthly and annually. And so we looked at these things and said, you know, we got to start doing something about this. Raising

Emily (13:20)
Hmm.

Russell Baxley (13:39)
wages and just trying to keep up with inflation, not only just normal inflation, which has been, I would say abnormal, right, over the last couple of years. But that, and then that in tandem with Beaufort County being so expensive, it was just an untenable situation and we were never going to keep up with just increasing wages. We had to do something different to continue to focus on how do we attract people?

Emily (13:48)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (14:06)
to be from Memorial and to healthcare, but also how do we retain those people once they get here? And that's really why we started focusing on housing and childcare as a benefit that we offer to our employees.

Jen (14:20)
That's phenomenal. And I just want to point out that you may or may not be familiar with our framework that we kind of use as a backbone for why. And at the center of it is elevating worker voice. And it sounds to me like you have done a phenomenal job of listening to your workforce, of the pains that they're feeling and trying to do something about it. And there's two other kind of buckets or dimensions that I feel when you're talking about

looking at childcare and affordable housing, and it's mattering at work, right? You're looking at your employees, you are viewing them and feeling them as more than just people to come and do the job. You are valuing them and understanding that in this third bucket, work-life harmony. How can we create this scenario where you can have the life that you want and that you deserve and the work and career that is fulfilling to you?

and finding kind of where those match. So I'd like to applaud you for really looking at the whole picture of your workforce and all that they bring to the job.

Russell Baxley (15:29)
Absolutely, I we've got a great team here. We've got a number of professionals who are really engaged in this, who are passionate about this. So it really makes it easy for us to focus on that because we have such an engaged team of leaders that make this a priority for the organization.

Emily (15:43)
Yeah, it's really such a practical way to meet the needs of your workforce and it's, it's out of the box. I mean, there's not a lot of hospitals looking at particularly affordable housing, you know, more and more are starting to look into childcare, but the housing, part of it is, is new, at least to me in terms of what we've seen. So, that's fantastic that you guys are thinking out of the box to really, serve your, your workforce in that way.

Russell Baxley (16:09)
you

Emily (16:11)
But, Russell, could you talk a little bit about the partners that you have had to engage in this work? I imagine that, you know, you've had to kind of reach out to some non-traditional partners or partners that you may not have thought when you became a CEO, you were going to have to work with. but could you talk a little bit about that process?

Russell Baxley (16:31)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I would tell you that you can't do it alone. mean, I think one of our, you know, it's not a core value. Well, innovation is one of our core values. And I think what we're doing is very innovative. But one of our as we sat down with the board and say, are you know, let's let's come up with, you know, five sort of mission statements, if you will, about what's going to drive people more forward. One of those is creating interdependent innovative relationships while remaining organizationally independent.

And so one of the things that we've done is really created innovative, interdependent relationships to carry forward, I think, childcare and affordable housing. Your childcare, we work with a group here, chain of locally run, locally owned, but a chain of childcare centers, Hobbit Hill. Now, Hobbit Hill, the owner is Shannon Erickson. We know her as one of our representatives at the house, but she also by day runs several childcare centers and does a really excellent job.

This was really sparked during COVID where, you know, COVID hit and all the schools shut down, everyone went home, but we all came to work, right? Well, it created quite the problem for our nurses, our physicians, our respiratory therapists, right? Because they were struggling with how do I find childcare and keep my kids engaged in this virtual learning, right? When I don't have that support that I used to have from school and the childcare centers. So we found a vacant

facility on ladies island as we call it and we reached out to Shannon and said Shannon we need some help we got her stand up at child care center and you know 90 days and to her credit she said let's do it she you know dropped what she was doing she helped us work through the licensing process with the state she helped us hire those people she was the manager of it our team in turn basically got with a general contractor we we did some of the work internally and a GC externally and about

60 to 90 days time, we opened a school. Computers, phones, virtual learning was available. We had caregivers, we were doing lunch. I mean, we did it in less than three months. worked some, you know, had the state work with us on this, because they understood the urgency of what needed to happen here. And man, that was such a big win and such a burden taken off of our workforce, right? Because they no longer were struggling with how do I get to work and care for my children?

Jen (18:30)
Wow.

Emily (18:38)
Wow.

Russell Baxley (18:56)
we created that solution for them. so fast forward through COVID and we were now out of the pandemic, but one of the things we realized very quickly is that there's no way we could stop this. This wasn't just a pandemic thing. This was a, now we are in it. And so if we're going to be in it, let's double down. And in a doubling down sort of fashion, we knew we needed to expand. We needed to increase the accessibility and capacity.

Jen (18:59)
Yep.

Emily (19:16)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (19:26)
continue to improve upon the curriculum. And we just cut the ribbon on a brand new center on campus now that is able to, at one point, it will be able to enroll 100 kids of different ages, anywhere from infants all the way up to five, and have really just worked to improve the curriculum, improve the facilities, the playground, et cetera. And it was really a collaboration between Hobbit Hill, Beaufort Memorial. The municipalities have been phenomenal. I mean, we've received grants for them.

Emily (19:31)
That's great.

Russell Baxley (19:56)
for a part of this. So this wasn't funded just by Buford Memorial, it was funded by the city of Buford as well, Buford County. I mean, everyone kind of pitched in because I think it's not just Buford Memorial, but everyone recognizes that childcare is a problem in terms of the affordability and accessibility. And so by Buford Memorial not only opening their own, but increasing the ability for enrollment, it created additional access in other childcare centers because parents were starting to pull their kids out of the centers they had otherwise previously used.

Emily (20:11)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (20:22)
Right.

Russell Baxley (20:26)
We're down the beautiful Memorial Center, which has opened up accessibility, right? And other childcare centers to enroll and accept young families that are struggling to find this childcare. So it's been a, it's been a huge win for everybody. And again, we could not have done this without a partnership like Hoppit Hill. I mean, they were instrumental because we don't know the first thing about childcare, right? We don't know the first thing about licensing and DSS and everything else that kind of comes with that. And so, you know, having a good partner like that to help us navigate that was

Jen (20:32)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (20:45)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (20:54)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (20:55)
I don't know that we could have done it without that, to be honest with you. Similarly, with affordable housing, we have partnered with a developer based out of Ohio because I think, I mean, we know how to develop medical office buildings, develop AESCs in hospitals, but housing, as I have failed over the course of last year or two years, it's just a different animal. They look at it from a different perspective and a different lens.

And so we reached out, we found a not for, you know, a for-profit, but also a not-for-profit developer, they have two arms, that specializes in affordable housing. And with them, we have worked with the towns, the county, to find appropriate land that would otherwise qualify for low-income housing tax credits, which is what makes the housing affordable.

And have been able to be we've been awarded a few of these tax credits and so we break ground on what we call the live well Terrace in Bluffton, which is next door to our new hospital that is being built currently our new new medical campus I should say And it will have 120 units that will be for the community in general. It's not just reserved for people more employees Because we are taking state money to to navigate this new project and development

But is 120 units of three two and one bedroom and you know That'll be anywhere between for people anywhere between 40 and 80 percent of the area median income It will be on a sliding scale, but I'll give you an example. I think a one-bedroom apartment Will probably go anywhere between six and eight hundred dollars Right now a one-bedroom apartment in Beaufort County is going for about two thousand dollars a month if not higher And so you scale that two and three bedrooms and it's the same sort of discount

Jen (22:29)
Mm-hmm.

Goodness.

Russell Baxley (22:47)
And that is significant savings for anyone who is struggling to make ends meet or maybe their housing is insecure or maybe they're debating whether I'm going to be able to go to the grocery store this week or am going to pay my rent? These are the sort of really serious discussions that we're having with our employees that again, needs to be addressed on a bigger and larger scale. And we're just, think, small

Emily (22:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (23:13)
You know one solution once employer trying to find a solution to this problem But the hope is is that others follow suit right they use us as almost a playbook They say I like what beautiful morals doing they call us up and said how do you do this? And you know as we're drafting the playbook and trust me it's written in pencil and not pen I mean we're erasing and rewriting as as we go as we learn this but eventually it'll be something that others can maybe replicate or or reproduce

And in other towns and other cities, they're struggling with these same sort of issues of housing and childcare.

Jen (23:47)
Well, we certainly hope that folks are inspired by you all and your initiative and your seeking partnerships, both in healthcare as well as otherwise. So am I remembering correctly that I believe one of the folks that we were working with over at Beaufort Memorial mentioned that you also have a kind of a path to home ownership opportunity. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Russell Baxley (24:14)
We do.

So we do. We have a homebuyers assistance program. And so we have set aside each year, and it doesn't get used every year, and I wish that it would in its totality, around a quarter of a million dollars that allows employees, that helps buy homes through down payment assistance. And so we give employees $10,000 on average if they qualify for this program.

and working with Community Works, which is based out of Greenville, but they're our partner that we allow them to kind of manage the program. They use the homebuyers assistance dollars that we've allocated to our employees. They also work with several lending agencies and other opportunities to kind of stack these affordable loans together and help people buy most of time their very first home. And sometimes it's a second home or a third home. But really it's, we believe in home ownership. While we're building something that...

In the last project that we spoke about, this more rental, I'm a big proponent of home ownership and, you know, building, you know, having that asset and building that wealth, so to speak, and that equity. And so we're really encouraging people to take advantage of this program and say, let people more help you buy a home and let us let these let community works help you find the right lenders and get you otherwise qualified for these low interest loans and stack some of these opportunities with the various lenders they work with.

And it's really been a great program. think to date we've helped 15 employees maybe at this point buy homes with the down payment assistance. And again, we've set aside a lot more money. I wish that would get used in a totality every year, but we continue to promote it within the organization and hopefully it just continues to be used every year for those who need it.

Emily (25:48)
That's great.

Jen (26:01)
What a wonderful promotion of retention, right? Is to offer someone the opportunity to put down roots in such a beautiful part of the state while also connecting with their professional calling. So really, really great, Russell.

Emily (26:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You mentioned that the apartment building is open to the community. Is the childcare center also open to the community or just a Buford employees?

Russell Baxley (26:31)
It is also open to the community. On the childcare side, it is kind of a first right of refusal for Beaufort employees. But once we kind of go through the first annual enrollment process, if we don't fill every spot, we do allow for the community to otherwise have an option to use that as a childcare center. We try to offer it up first to say first responders.

Emily (26:32)
Awesome.

Russell Baxley (26:58)
those in the city or the county who have been good partners to us. But if there are still spots left unused, anyone is welcome to apply to the child care center.

Emily (26:58)
Mm-hmm.

And is there a sliding scale for the childcare centers as well or just the housing piece?

Russell Baxley (27:16)
There is. So there's others. There's automatically a discount for the child care center. We now partner with a group called Otter Learning who has has purchased all of the Hobbit Hill locations plus the management of this group. know, the only thing you view from world takes care of the rent, the utilities, the food, that's all on our dime. And so the rate starts out just on paying the employees to be at the at the center throughout our learning and a small management fee.

Emily (27:20)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (27:46)
So there's already a significant discount because B4Moral doesn't charge back any of those things to our learning. And then on top of the discount, there are scholarships available based on need. And so that's how we get to the kind of sliding scale. So, you know, if you're a physician and you have your child there, you probably don't qualify for the scholarship, but you do get the benefit of the already discounted rates. If you're a housekeeper, then you get a significant discount with a scholarship and sometimes it's...

It's almost 100 % covered if you cover that with ABC vouchers and a few other things that we partner with AutoLearning to take advantage of some state benefits that are out there. Dollars associated with childcare, subsidies and grants. You can almost get it entirely for free for some of those employees. So yeah, so it's definitely a sliding scale in that way that we provide scholarships and we help them with grant applications as well.

Emily (28:30)
That's amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Jen (28:38)
Love it.

Emily (28:39)
amazing.

Well, if there's, if we have a hospital leader listening that is interested in implementing something similar or addressing affordable childcare and housing in some way with their workforce, what, what are the biggest challenges or the biggest challenge that you faced and what's the biggest piece of advice that you would give to someone else trying to do something similar?

Russell Baxley (29:11)
the biggest challenge is finding the right partner, right? You know, again, I don't know. well, listen, there's probably a lot smarter hospital administrators out there than me. I'm sure of it, but you know, you've got to find the right partner. think one that has the same sort of energy, and, and, and, and, and really aligns with your mission around what you're trying to accomplish. Cause I think that really helps move things forward. Right. If your mission statements line up, if your culture is lined up.

If they're very passionate about what you're trying, what problem you're trying to solve, whether it be childcare, affordable housing for a workforce, find the right partner, right? Because you're gonna need them to push this forward with the towns, with the municipalities, with the state, et cetera. You're gonna need them to be as engaged in this project as you would be, and as engaged in this project as they would be for the probably five, 10, 20 other projects they're managing, right? So find the right partner.

who does this and is very mission oriented, which is what we were very good at finding. I think what piece of advice I would give somebody is don't be afraid to fail, right? There was a lot of trial and error with both of these for a long time for us, a lot of trial and error, but you learn, you don't make the same mistake twice and you're better for it. So I would say just don't be afraid to fail and don't be

Emily (30:23)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (30:24)
Thank

Russell Baxley (30:36)
Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions. I will tell you, I asked a lot of dumb questions, right? Especially when I was learning childcare, I asked a lot of dumb questions. And even with housing, I ask a lot of dumb questions. I'm not a developer, but I seek to understand. I want to understand. I want to educate myself. I want to be a part of the project so I can help in future projects and endeavors. And so don't be afraid to look stupid, right? Because I look stupid.

Emily (30:39)
hehe

Jen (30:42)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (30:43)
Yeah

Mm-hmm.

That's great advice for anyone. Yeah.

Jen (31:05)
I think that's amazing life advice. Yeah. Don't be

afraid to fail and be curious. Yeah. What phenomenal life advice as well as professional and partnerships. unfortunately, we're coming to a close here, Russell. We know your time is incredibly valuable and we want you to be able to get back to your folks at Beaufort Memorial. as we wrap up the episode, is there anything that you would like to leave our listeners with? Any nuggets of inspiration?

Russell Baxley (31:11)
Yes.

Jen (31:35)
or just any final thoughts about, it could be workforce in general, could be about specifically the topics today or just anything that's on your mind.

Russell Baxley (31:43)
Uh, you know, I would say, and we're all doing this, embracing the workforce development, but, you know, I would just say this has been one of the most difficult and also one of the most rewarding endeavors. Uh, I've had the pleasure of being a part of, and I can't tell you how many employees I've run into. Um, you know, those who been here just a couple, a year or two for those who have been here for 20 years that have come up to me and said, how much of a difference.

We call it the PATH program. The PATH program has made in their lives, whether it's through our educational career development center, whether it's through the housing assistance, whether it's through childcare, whatever it may be, I will tell you, I have never felt so much just hope, right? And faith that I made the right decision in my career choice and everything that we're doing here by just hearing and feeling the gratitude of the employees because they see it, they appreciate it.

Emily (32:31)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (32:42)
and they let you know, and that has been, think, the most rewarding part about this is just, I really feel like I have made a difference in a number of my employees' lives that, you know, five, six years ago, I would not have the opportunity to do. And that has been, I think, the best part about this whole journey that we're on as an organization.

Jen (33:02)
Well, behalf of the Hospital Association and your fellow members, we are very grateful that you are pushing the envelope and being innovative and willing to kind of take the punches as you explore new opportunities. And especially how generous you are about explaining what you all have done, sharing the secret sauce, if you will. So well done. And if people want to get a hold of you after this episode airs, how can they do that?

Russell Baxley (33:33)
Email is typically the best way. I'm very responsive to email and if they'd like to know, just set up some time and just pick my brain about housing or childcare I'm happy to do that or you know point you in the right direction. If it's not me, you know, I have project managers especially on the childcare side. Happy to point you in their direction as well. If you just want to learn more about our journey and how we made it all

Jen (33:58)
Fantastic. Well, Russell, with your permission, we'll put your email address in the episode notes so folks can get in touch with you if they wish.

Russell Baxley (34:05)
Perfect, absolutely.

Emily (34:07)
Well, Russell, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. We know you're very busy, but we appreciate you being willing to share with our audience. That was super helpful and insightful. To our audience, if you'd like to learn more about our Y initiative to help our hospitals improve the workforce experience, you can visit scy.org and please rate and review the show, share it with your colleagues and friends, and make sure you follow the show so you never miss an episode. Until next time, thanks so much for listening.

Yay.

Jen (00:00)
referring to you as Russell or would you prefer Mr. Baxley? Okay, well we kind of figured but didn't want to offend anybody.

Russell Baxley (00:02)
No, please, Russell. that's actually not necessary.

Emily (00:03)
Hehehe... Hehehe...

Russell Baxley (00:10)
No, no one around here calls me Mr. Baxley either, so Russell's.

Jen (00:13)
Okay.

Okay. Well, I believe that we've met a couple of times just kind of in passing. I'm Jen Wright. I've been with the hospital association for lucky number 13 years. I used to reside in Hilton Head, moved to Greenville mid last year. then Emily, have you had the pleasure of meeting Russell?

Emily (00:31)
We've met virtually when you spoke to our learning collaborative a few months ago, so it's good to see you again. Yeah.

Russell Baxley (00:37)
see you again. Yes.

Jen (00:39)
All right. Awesome. Well, I think Emily probably prepped you, but we just want to have a casual conversation with you. We're certainly wanting to talk about some really valuable strategies that you all are using at Beaufort Memorial, but please be candid and conversational and just be yourself and we will do our best to do the same.

Russell Baxley (00:59)
Absolutely.

Emily (01:00)
And Russell, did you receive the questions that I emailed over?

Russell Baxley (01:04)
I did, I reviewed them briefly. mean, they seem pretty straightforward, so I think we're okay.

Emily (01:05)
Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Awesome. Just wanted to let you know, and we might go off on some rabbit trails to dive a little bit deeper, but that's just kind of our general outline that we're thinking. So feel free to talk about stuff outside of that as well. And just so you know, we're doing, we're on video just so that we may use some clips to like promote the episode on social media, but we're not planning on releasing the full video.

Russell Baxley (01:20)
Absolutely.

Okay.

Jen (01:34)
Kyle is very talented with editing as well. So if we need to start over or erase something, you're welcome to just say, hold on, I need to regroup or restate or anything like that. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, are everybody ready then?

Russell Baxley (01:45)
so I can do multiple takes. Good to know.

Emily (01:47)
Absolutely.

Jen (01:54)
All right, right on.

Well, hello and welcome back to Tell Me Why, a podcast about and for the healthcare workforce. I am Jen Wright and I am joined as always by my colleague, Emily O'Sullivan. We are the workforce experience team with the South Carolina Hospital Association. We are thrilled today to be talking with Russell Baxley, president and CEO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina. So welcome Russell.

Russell Baxley (02:25)
Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on. It's always exciting to talk about all the good things we're doing at Buford.

Jen (02:31)
Well, so many good things. We have really been looking forward to getting into this with you. As you know, know, SCHA's primary priority is workforce. And so we want to talk to you today about some of the innovative strategies that you all are providing for your valued healthcare workforce. But before we get into that, we really want to find out a little bit more about you and how you got to the place that you are today.

So we call the podcast, Why? For us, that means work harmony you. But we also would like to dig in a little bit with our guests to find out their why. How you, what paths you took to get to where you are today. So if you could let us know a little bit about your background, how you got into healthcare administration, just things that people might wanna know about you.

Russell Baxley (03:23)
Sure, happy to do it. So I am born and raised in South Carolina. I grew up in rural South Carolina, a lot of South Carolina is rural. And that would be Johnsonville, South Carolina. I grew up on a family farm. So tobacco, soybeans, hogs, corn, you name it, we probably did it at some point in time. And once I graduated high school, I moved to Clipson University where I majored in microbiology.

You might ask what was I thinking with a microbiology degree and why am I in the role that I'm in now? Well, I was told that you needed to be a doctor as most good parents should be telling their kids at some point in time, right? Be better, get your education, aspire to do more. And then eventually I just figured out that was not the course for me. But what do you do with a microbiology degree, right? You work for a lab or maybe do research, neither of which I wanted to do. And it just so happened my mom...

was a controller for Lake City Hospital when there was a Lake City Hospital. And she said, well, you should get your healthcare administration degree. You you should do healthcare administration. And I said, well, I have nothing else to do. So why don't I do that? And went to the University of South Carolina, Columbia, received my master's in healthcare administration from there. And then my career has taken me to various and different stops. I've started out in practice administration.

where I ran an independent practice in Columbia, South Carolina. I made my way to Texas with a hospital system in Paris, Texas, where I was the ACFO and price administrator. And then bounced around the for-profit world. If you have any experience in the for-profit hospital world, they like to promote you by moving you to the opportunity. And so I moved to each opportunity. And then eight years ago,

I was running a hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for community health systems, and I got the call from Buford. And as a South Carolinian, I was happy to A, get back to South Carolina from the cold winters of Pennsylvania. But two, I was very excited to come to an independent community hospital where I thought and felt I could really make a difference and report to a local board, you know, allow some

local governance, which is what I was not used to. And I have been very happy with that choice ever since. Not that I was unsatisfied with my time in the for-profit world, but it is just a different, you feel different, it acts different. You're able to do more things for the community sitting in a local community hospital like this, which is rare. As you guys probably know, there's fewer and fewer of us stand-alones left.

in the area, so you really feel like you're making a difference doing what you do here.

Emily (06:09)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (06:13)
Fantastic. So what I'm getting out of your story is that one of your whys is to make a difference.

Russell Baxley (06:20)
Yes, absolutely. And on multiple levels, from a community perspective, obviously a patient perspective, but as we're here to talk about workforce, I think more and more, you know, for those that are working inside the four walls of either this hospital or the multiple practices, how are you making a difference in their lives? I think that is just as important, especially someone in my role.

Jen (06:44)
We are certainly thrilled to hear you say that. Emily, did you know he's a fellow Clemson alumni?

Russell Baxley (06:46)
you

Emily (06:51)
I did not. I was going to bring that up. have that in common, Russell. I went to Clemson for undergrad as well. So go Tigers.

Russell Baxley (06:57)
Go Tigers.

With my parents, went to Clemson. I went to Clemson and it was a conversation that I had with my dad about, I'll call it 15, when we were starting to really discuss colleges and he said very flatly that, son, you can go to any college that you want to go to so long as they accept a check made out to Clemson University.

Emily (07:17)
I love it.

Yeah, it runs in my family too. My mom went there and so did my brother. So it was just kind of a foregone conclusion, but I always wanted to go there growing up.

Russell Baxley (07:29)
Me too. There was really never a doubt in my mind, but I always thought that was a funny comment from my father.

Emily (07:37)
Absolutely. Well, Russell, could you tell us a little bit about, I'd love to know your thoughts on what do you feel like are the biggest challenges you face as a CEO, both in general, but also specifically as it relates to the workforce?

Russell Baxley (07:54)
Well, I think we are always looking to improve and how do we always do better today than we did yesterday, right? And whether that's with patient outcomes or working to empower and better our workforce or whether it's working within the community, both inside the walls of the hospital and outside the walls of the hospital, is trying to keep up with one of the, think, most dynamic industries out there.

Emily (08:20)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (08:20)
Right.

It feels like something is changing every day for healthcare, whether it's at a local, state, or especially today, a federal level, right? How do you keep up with all the changes that are coming at you all the time? And it's gotten, it's becoming a more complex environment. And that is especially true with the workforce, right? I mean, we are finding ourselves in this critical time in healthcare where, you know, we're...

Emily (08:24)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (08:48)
very quickly approaching this cliff of what is the expected workforce shortage, whether it's physicians, nurses, therapists. And we live in a state in particular that is growing rapidly, right? Especially if you live on the coast or Greenville or in the Rock Hill area. mean, it is very difficult and challenging to keep up with the demand from a community such as Buford while facing similar yet unique

Jen (08:59)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (09:00)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (09:16)
workforce challenges that we're all experiencing across the nation, right, and across the state, whether that's, I don't know, managing the different expectations between your baby boomers who are near retirement and your next generation, the millennials and Gen Xers and Gen Zers who come and look at things very differently, whether it's inflation, right, whether it's burnout and resiliency, whether it's violence in healthcare, right, and work with your staff in terms of how do you prevent violence, which is

Emily (09:30)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (09:42)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (09:45)
That's one of the fastest growing concerns in healthcare today is violence against healthcare workers. And I saw a stat just the other day that I think healthcare leads in terms of workers comps reported injuries across the nation that are caused by violence against those employed in hospitals. We lead the nation in that stat. That's crazy to think that we're at that point. And so you're dealing with all of these different complexities and

Jen (10:04)
Wow.

Emily (10:07)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (10:14)
and needs and it can be overwhelming at times.

Emily (10:19)
Absolutely.

Jen (10:20)
I bet it can. Absolutely.

So all of those facets of the workforce dynamic and how much it's changing and how rapidly, what do you feel like was the impetus for you to really dig into addressing affordable childcare and housing within your workforce with all of those other kind of priority areas? What brought those to the top for you and Beaufort Memorial?

Russell Baxley (10:49)
Well, I think that we have been looking at for some time this self-sufficiency standard, right? And it's kind of this index or standard that you can look at with United Way or other nonprofit organizations and looking at what is a sustainable wage? is a self-sufficient ways of a family of four or a single mother with a

preschool or a child in preschool of that age. And as you start looking and diving into these numbers, Beaufort County is the second most expensive county to live in in the state of South Carolina, only trumped by Charleston and that gap is closing, which is in a way unique because you just wouldn't necessarily expect Beaufort County to be up there with Charleston in terms of cost of living. You normally might would expect that from the more metropolitan areas, not Beaufort, which isn't rural, but it's also not metropolitan.

And so we started looking at that and listening to our employees and hearing things, especially post COVID. I mean, I don't want to say that this was driven by COVID, but listen, everything and all things workforce, I think were ratcheted up a little bit, you know, during and after the COVID pandemic. And so we focused on resiliency and burnout. We focused on education, workforce development and the ability to grow within the organization. But we said that there's a third leg of this stool, right? So if you really want to take care of your workforce, you know, if you look at this, three-legged stool,

Emily (12:01)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (12:16)
You got to say, well, first we got to have workforce development and portability and movability within the organization through education, promotion and opportunity. You got to have that resiliency burn outside of things, right? You got to take care of their mental health, but then you also got to take care of their financial health in a way, right? And that's more in my mind than just raises every year per the budget, right?

Emily (12:41)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (12:42)
is other things, other unique and different benefits that support your workforce and really set you apart from other employers. affordable housing and childcare are issues across the state. I I think that's well documented, but they are acutely an issue in Beaufort County. We did a study on just say apartments in the surrounding and contiguous three to four county area, including Georgia.

And Beaufort County was the highest by far. I mean, it wasn't even close, one, two, and three bedrooms. you know, we would be what I would call us as a childcare desert in Beaufort. I mean, there is just not enough childcare and the childcare centers that we have or had were probably 20 to 25 % higher than other places you would find in the state of South Carolina in terms of the fees, both weekly and monthly and annually. And so we looked at these things and said, you know, we got to start doing something about this. Raising

Emily (13:20)
Hmm.

Russell Baxley (13:39)
wages and just trying to keep up with inflation, not only just normal inflation, which has been, I would say abnormal, right, over the last couple of years. But that, and then that in tandem with Beaufort County being so expensive, it was just an untenable situation and we were never going to keep up with just increasing wages. We had to do something different to continue to focus on how do we attract people?

Emily (13:48)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (14:06)
to be from Memorial and to healthcare, but also how do we retain those people once they get here? And that's really why we started focusing on housing and childcare as a benefit that we offer to our employees.

Jen (14:20)
That's phenomenal. And I just want to point out that you may or may not be familiar with our framework that we kind of use as a backbone for why. And at the center of it is elevating worker voice. And it sounds to me like you have done a phenomenal job of listening to your workforce, of the pains that they're feeling and trying to do something about it. And there's two other kind of buckets or dimensions that I feel when you're talking about

looking at childcare and affordable housing, and it's mattering at work, right? You're looking at your employees, you are viewing them and feeling them as more than just people to come and do the job. You are valuing them and understanding that in this third bucket, work-life harmony. How can we create this scenario where you can have the life that you want and that you deserve and the work and career that is fulfilling to you?

and finding kind of where those match. So I'd like to applaud you for really looking at the whole picture of your workforce and all that they bring to the job.

Russell Baxley (15:29)
Absolutely, I we've got a great team here. We've got a number of professionals who are really engaged in this, who are passionate about this. So it really makes it easy for us to focus on that because we have such an engaged team of leaders that make this a priority for the organization.

Emily (15:43)
Yeah, it's really such a practical way to meet the needs of your workforce and it's, it's out of the box. I mean, there's not a lot of hospitals looking at particularly affordable housing, you know, more and more are starting to look into childcare, but the housing, part of it is, is new, at least to me in terms of what we've seen. So, that's fantastic that you guys are thinking out of the box to really, serve your, your workforce in that way.

Russell Baxley (16:09)
you

Emily (16:11)
But, Russell, could you talk a little bit about the partners that you have had to engage in this work? I imagine that, you know, you've had to kind of reach out to some non-traditional partners or partners that you may not have thought when you became a CEO, you were going to have to work with. but could you talk a little bit about that process?

Russell Baxley (16:31)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I would tell you that you can't do it alone. mean, I think one of our, you know, it's not a core value. Well, innovation is one of our core values. And I think what we're doing is very innovative. But one of our as we sat down with the board and say, are you know, let's let's come up with, you know, five sort of mission statements, if you will, about what's going to drive people more forward. One of those is creating interdependent innovative relationships while remaining organizationally independent.

And so one of the things that we've done is really created innovative, interdependent relationships to carry forward, I think, childcare and affordable housing. Your childcare, we work with a group here, chain of locally run, locally owned, but a chain of childcare centers, Hobbit Hill. Now, Hobbit Hill, the owner is Shannon Erickson. We know her as one of our representatives at the house, but she also by day runs several childcare centers and does a really excellent job.

This was really sparked during COVID where, you know, COVID hit and all the schools shut down, everyone went home, but we all came to work, right? Well, it created quite the problem for our nurses, our physicians, our respiratory therapists, right? Because they were struggling with how do I find childcare and keep my kids engaged in this virtual learning, right? When I don't have that support that I used to have from school and the childcare centers. So we found a vacant

facility on ladies island as we call it and we reached out to Shannon and said Shannon we need some help we got her stand up at child care center and you know 90 days and to her credit she said let's do it she you know dropped what she was doing she helped us work through the licensing process with the state she helped us hire those people she was the manager of it our team in turn basically got with a general contractor we we did some of the work internally and a GC externally and about

60 to 90 days time, we opened a school. Computers, phones, virtual learning was available. We had caregivers, we were doing lunch. I mean, we did it in less than three months. worked some, you know, had the state work with us on this, because they understood the urgency of what needed to happen here. And man, that was such a big win and such a burden taken off of our workforce, right? Because they no longer were struggling with how do I get to work and care for my children?

Jen (18:30)
Wow.

Emily (18:38)
Wow.

Russell Baxley (18:56)
we created that solution for them. so fast forward through COVID and we were now out of the pandemic, but one of the things we realized very quickly is that there's no way we could stop this. This wasn't just a pandemic thing. This was a, now we are in it. And so if we're going to be in it, let's double down. And in a doubling down sort of fashion, we knew we needed to expand. We needed to increase the accessibility and capacity.

Jen (18:59)
Yep.

Emily (19:16)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (19:26)
continue to improve upon the curriculum. And we just cut the ribbon on a brand new center on campus now that is able to, at one point, it will be able to enroll 100 kids of different ages, anywhere from infants all the way up to five, and have really just worked to improve the curriculum, improve the facilities, the playground, et cetera. And it was really a collaboration between Hobbit Hill, Beaufort Memorial. The municipalities have been phenomenal. I mean, we've received grants for them.

Emily (19:31)
That's great.

Russell Baxley (19:56)
for a part of this. So this wasn't funded just by Buford Memorial, it was funded by the city of Buford as well, Buford County. I mean, everyone kind of pitched in because I think it's not just Buford Memorial, but everyone recognizes that childcare is a problem in terms of the affordability and accessibility. And so by Buford Memorial not only opening their own, but increasing the ability for enrollment, it created additional access in other childcare centers because parents were starting to pull their kids out of the centers they had otherwise previously used.

Emily (20:11)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (20:22)
Right.

Russell Baxley (20:26)
We're down the beautiful Memorial Center, which has opened up accessibility, right? And other childcare centers to enroll and accept young families that are struggling to find this childcare. So it's been a, it's been a huge win for everybody. And again, we could not have done this without a partnership like Hoppit Hill. I mean, they were instrumental because we don't know the first thing about childcare, right? We don't know the first thing about licensing and DSS and everything else that kind of comes with that. And so, you know, having a good partner like that to help us navigate that was

Jen (20:32)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (20:45)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (20:54)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (20:55)
I don't know that we could have done it without that, to be honest with you. Similarly, with affordable housing, we have partnered with a developer based out of Ohio because I think, I mean, we know how to develop medical office buildings, develop AESCs in hospitals, but housing, as I have failed over the course of last year or two years, it's just a different animal. They look at it from a different perspective and a different lens.

And so we reached out, we found a not for, you know, a for-profit, but also a not-for-profit developer, they have two arms, that specializes in affordable housing. And with them, we have worked with the towns, the county, to find appropriate land that would otherwise qualify for low-income housing tax credits, which is what makes the housing affordable.

And have been able to be we've been awarded a few of these tax credits and so we break ground on what we call the live well Terrace in Bluffton, which is next door to our new hospital that is being built currently our new new medical campus I should say And it will have 120 units that will be for the community in general. It's not just reserved for people more employees Because we are taking state money to to navigate this new project and development

But is 120 units of three two and one bedroom and you know That'll be anywhere between for people anywhere between 40 and 80 percent of the area median income It will be on a sliding scale, but I'll give you an example. I think a one-bedroom apartment Will probably go anywhere between six and eight hundred dollars Right now a one-bedroom apartment in Beaufort County is going for about two thousand dollars a month if not higher And so you scale that two and three bedrooms and it's the same sort of discount

Jen (22:29)
Mm-hmm.

Goodness.

Russell Baxley (22:47)
And that is significant savings for anyone who is struggling to make ends meet or maybe their housing is insecure or maybe they're debating whether I'm going to be able to go to the grocery store this week or am going to pay my rent? These are the sort of really serious discussions that we're having with our employees that again, needs to be addressed on a bigger and larger scale. And we're just, think, small

Emily (22:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (23:13)
You know one solution once employer trying to find a solution to this problem But the hope is is that others follow suit right they use us as almost a playbook They say I like what beautiful morals doing they call us up and said how do you do this? And you know as we're drafting the playbook and trust me it's written in pencil and not pen I mean we're erasing and rewriting as as we go as we learn this but eventually it'll be something that others can maybe replicate or or reproduce

And in other towns and other cities, they're struggling with these same sort of issues of housing and childcare.

Jen (23:47)
Well, we certainly hope that folks are inspired by you all and your initiative and your seeking partnerships, both in healthcare as well as otherwise. So am I remembering correctly that I believe one of the folks that we were working with over at Beaufort Memorial mentioned that you also have a kind of a path to home ownership opportunity. Could you talk a little bit about that?

Russell Baxley (24:14)
We do.

So we do. We have a homebuyers assistance program. And so we have set aside each year, and it doesn't get used every year, and I wish that it would in its totality, around a quarter of a million dollars that allows employees, that helps buy homes through down payment assistance. And so we give employees $10,000 on average if they qualify for this program.

and working with Community Works, which is based out of Greenville, but they're our partner that we allow them to kind of manage the program. They use the homebuyers assistance dollars that we've allocated to our employees. They also work with several lending agencies and other opportunities to kind of stack these affordable loans together and help people buy most of time their very first home. And sometimes it's a second home or a third home. But really it's, we believe in home ownership. While we're building something that...

In the last project that we spoke about, this more rental, I'm a big proponent of home ownership and, you know, building, you know, having that asset and building that wealth, so to speak, and that equity. And so we're really encouraging people to take advantage of this program and say, let people more help you buy a home and let us let these let community works help you find the right lenders and get you otherwise qualified for these low interest loans and stack some of these opportunities with the various lenders they work with.

And it's really been a great program. think to date we've helped 15 employees maybe at this point buy homes with the down payment assistance. And again, we've set aside a lot more money. I wish that would get used in a totality every year, but we continue to promote it within the organization and hopefully it just continues to be used every year for those who need it.

Emily (25:48)
That's great.

Jen (26:01)
What a wonderful promotion of retention, right? Is to offer someone the opportunity to put down roots in such a beautiful part of the state while also connecting with their professional calling. So really, really great, Russell.

Emily (26:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You mentioned that the apartment building is open to the community. Is the childcare center also open to the community or just a Buford employees?

Russell Baxley (26:31)
It is also open to the community. On the childcare side, it is kind of a first right of refusal for Beaufort employees. But once we kind of go through the first annual enrollment process, if we don't fill every spot, we do allow for the community to otherwise have an option to use that as a childcare center. We try to offer it up first to say first responders.

Emily (26:32)
Awesome.

Russell Baxley (26:58)
those in the city or the county who have been good partners to us. But if there are still spots left unused, anyone is welcome to apply to the child care center.

Emily (26:58)
Mm-hmm.

And is there a sliding scale for the childcare centers as well or just the housing piece?

Russell Baxley (27:16)
There is. So there's others. There's automatically a discount for the child care center. We now partner with a group called Otter Learning who has has purchased all of the Hobbit Hill locations plus the management of this group. know, the only thing you view from world takes care of the rent, the utilities, the food, that's all on our dime. And so the rate starts out just on paying the employees to be at the at the center throughout our learning and a small management fee.

Emily (27:20)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (27:46)
So there's already a significant discount because B4Moral doesn't charge back any of those things to our learning. And then on top of the discount, there are scholarships available based on need. And so that's how we get to the kind of sliding scale. So, you know, if you're a physician and you have your child there, you probably don't qualify for the scholarship, but you do get the benefit of the already discounted rates. If you're a housekeeper, then you get a significant discount with a scholarship and sometimes it's...

It's almost 100 % covered if you cover that with ABC vouchers and a few other things that we partner with AutoLearning to take advantage of some state benefits that are out there. Dollars associated with childcare, subsidies and grants. You can almost get it entirely for free for some of those employees. So yeah, so it's definitely a sliding scale in that way that we provide scholarships and we help them with grant applications as well.

Emily (28:30)
That's amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Jen (28:38)
Love it.

Emily (28:39)
amazing.

Well, if there's, if we have a hospital leader listening that is interested in implementing something similar or addressing affordable childcare and housing in some way with their workforce, what, what are the biggest challenges or the biggest challenge that you faced and what's the biggest piece of advice that you would give to someone else trying to do something similar?

Russell Baxley (29:11)
the biggest challenge is finding the right partner, right? You know, again, I don't know. well, listen, there's probably a lot smarter hospital administrators out there than me. I'm sure of it, but you know, you've got to find the right partner. think one that has the same sort of energy, and, and, and, and, and really aligns with your mission around what you're trying to accomplish. Cause I think that really helps move things forward. Right. If your mission statements line up, if your culture is lined up.

If they're very passionate about what you're trying, what problem you're trying to solve, whether it be childcare, affordable housing for a workforce, find the right partner, right? Because you're gonna need them to push this forward with the towns, with the municipalities, with the state, et cetera. You're gonna need them to be as engaged in this project as you would be, and as engaged in this project as they would be for the probably five, 10, 20 other projects they're managing, right? So find the right partner.

who does this and is very mission oriented, which is what we were very good at finding. I think what piece of advice I would give somebody is don't be afraid to fail, right? There was a lot of trial and error with both of these for a long time for us, a lot of trial and error, but you learn, you don't make the same mistake twice and you're better for it. So I would say just don't be afraid to fail and don't be

Emily (30:23)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (30:24)
Thank

Russell Baxley (30:36)
Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions. I will tell you, I asked a lot of dumb questions, right? Especially when I was learning childcare, I asked a lot of dumb questions. And even with housing, I ask a lot of dumb questions. I'm not a developer, but I seek to understand. I want to understand. I want to educate myself. I want to be a part of the project so I can help in future projects and endeavors. And so don't be afraid to look stupid, right? Because I look stupid.

Emily (30:39)
hehe

Jen (30:42)
Mm-hmm.

Emily (30:43)
Yeah

Mm-hmm.

That's great advice for anyone. Yeah.

Jen (31:05)
I think that's amazing life advice. Yeah. Don't be

afraid to fail and be curious. Yeah. What phenomenal life advice as well as professional and partnerships. unfortunately, we're coming to a close here, Russell. We know your time is incredibly valuable and we want you to be able to get back to your folks at Beaufort Memorial. as we wrap up the episode, is there anything that you would like to leave our listeners with? Any nuggets of inspiration?

Russell Baxley (31:11)
Yes.

Jen (31:35)
or just any final thoughts about, it could be workforce in general, could be about specifically the topics today or just anything that's on your mind.

Russell Baxley (31:43)
Uh, you know, I would say, and we're all doing this, embracing the workforce development, but, you know, I would just say this has been one of the most difficult and also one of the most rewarding endeavors. Uh, I've had the pleasure of being a part of, and I can't tell you how many employees I've run into. Um, you know, those who been here just a couple, a year or two for those who have been here for 20 years that have come up to me and said, how much of a difference.

We call it the PATH program. The PATH program has made in their lives, whether it's through our educational career development center, whether it's through the housing assistance, whether it's through childcare, whatever it may be, I will tell you, I have never felt so much just hope, right? And faith that I made the right decision in my career choice and everything that we're doing here by just hearing and feeling the gratitude of the employees because they see it, they appreciate it.

Emily (32:31)
Mm-hmm.

Russell Baxley (32:42)
and they let you know, and that has been, think, the most rewarding part about this is just, I really feel like I have made a difference in a number of my employees' lives that, you know, five, six years ago, I would not have the opportunity to do. And that has been, I think, the best part about this whole journey that we're on as an organization.

Jen (33:02)
Well, behalf of the Hospital Association and your fellow members, we are very grateful that you are pushing the envelope and being innovative and willing to kind of take the punches as you explore new opportunities. And especially how generous you are about explaining what you all have done, sharing the secret sauce, if you will. So well done. And if people want to get a hold of you after this episode airs, how can they do that?

Russell Baxley (33:33)
Email is typically the best way. I'm very responsive to email and if they'd like to know, just set up some time and just pick my brain about housing or childcare I'm happy to do that or you know point you in the right direction. If it's not me, you know, I have project managers especially on the childcare side. Happy to point you in their direction as well. If you just want to learn more about our journey and how we made it all

Jen (33:58)
Fantastic. Well, Russell, with your permission, we'll put your email address in the episode notes so folks can get in touch with you if they wish.

Russell Baxley (34:05)
Perfect, absolutely.

Emily (34:07)
Well, Russell, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. We know you're very busy, but we appreciate you being willing to share with our audience. That was super helpful and insightful. To our audience, if you'd like to learn more about our Y initiative to help our hospitals improve the workforce experience, you can visit scy.org and please rate and review the show, share it with your colleagues and friends, and make sure you follow the show so you never miss an episode. Until next time, thanks so much for listening.

Yay.