by Mike Bush
Hospital also recognizes Peterson as new chief nurse officer.
Roswell Regional Hospital has a new chief executive officer, one who is already well known to many people in the community.
Local attorney Rod Schumacher will take over as CEO of the locally owned hospital in mid-June, the hospital announced. (May 1)
The hospital also has formally announced its new chief nurse officer, Cassandra “Kasi” Peterson, who has served in that position since January.
Dr. Fred French, chairman of the hospital board, said Schumacher was one of three “outstanding candidates” the hospital had considered. He said Schumacher was the “overwhelming choice” of the board.
“We, as a group of directors, are just extraordinarily delighted to have him,” French said. “We feel he will take Roswell Regional to new heights as only someone of his capability can do.”
French also said the board was glad to have Peterson as chief nurse officer.
“We are delighted with how she has come along and is changing the face of nursing at Roswell Regional,” he added.
Schumacher said Rowell Regional is unique among doctor-owned hospitals.
“We live in an age when a great many hospitals are operated as part of a multi-hospital system,” Schumacher said. “This hospital is unique in that it is a locally owned, stand-alone facility, able to chart its own course and be a part of the fabric of this community.”
Physician-owned hospitals tend to be specialty hospitals in more urban environments than Roswell, he noted.
“As a general acute-care hospital in a smaller community, what folks in Washington would call a rural area, we are truly unique. There aren’t very many like us,” he said.
There are many reasons for that, but most of them boil down to the risks involved in establishing a hospital.
“I think most people would be fearful of building and trying to operate a general acute-care hospital in a small community, especially a community already served by one hospital,” Schumacher added, especially “folks who are typically somewhat risk-averse” such as doctors.
Schumacher, who has a master’s degree in hospital administration, served as administrator of a hospital in Texas and assistant administrator of a hospital in Colorado. He said board members had approached him about applying for the position and he had to put together a curriculum vita in order to apply for the position.
One of the things Schumacher said he wants to do immediately is focus on planning for the hospital’s success.
“In a startup operation, one of the things you plan to do is survive,” he explained. “We have passed the survival test. The first thing we need to do is plan for our success rather than just planning for our continued survival.”
He said he wants to develop one-, three- and five-year plans and “look at every aspect of our operation.”
Schumacher said he is impressed with the good job the hospital is doing in providing patient care.
“I get the impression from talking with some of the folks at walkthroughs, that sort of thing, that there is a lot of very good care being rendered, both in quantity and quality of care that is being delivered,” he said. “We’re offering the services that we need to be offering.”
But he said the hospital has to continue to be sensitive to the needs of the community and be ready to change to meet those needs.
“We need to be prepared to make systemic changes” as needed, he added. “Every day I want each of us to ask ourselves, ‘Did I give my best effort?’ We all need to remember the fact that folks who choose to receive health care at Roswell Regional are not just a group of people, they’re individuals. Very few people come to the hospital because they want to; it’s a necessity. We want the experience to be as pleasant as it can be under the circumstances.”
Schumacher said his obligation as an administrator “is to surround myself with the best possible people we can attract and create an environment in which they can do their jobs as well as they know how. We want the best people, doing the best possible job.”
Schumacher will succeed interim CEO Chuck Brosseau, who he said has done a very good job.
“It’s difficult, one, to be the new guy and two, to be the new guy who’s not the permanent guy,” he said, adding Brosseau is “a talented individual” and has great credentials. Brosseau is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
“He had a quick appreciation for the strengths and the challenges at Roswell Regional,” Schumacher added. “He built a solid foundation from which I will certainly benefit and, more importantly, the people who are doing the real work” will benefit.
Brosseau said he also is pleased with the choice of Schumacher as CEO.
“I think he is incredibly well educated,” Brosseau said. “He has dual postgraduate degrees, one in health care and one from the University of Texas Law School. He’s been in the community some 25 years and knows everyone in town. I think he’s an incredible benefit. I think he’s a fabulous selection for the CEO post and will do a great job.
“I think he brings a significant human touch to the position, with his interest in the patients, the doctors and the employees,” Brosseau added.
Schumacher currently is an attorney and shareholder in the firm of Atwood, Malone, Turner & Sabin, with which he has been associated since 1980, with emphasis in representation of health care providers.
He was administrator of Community General Hospital in Andrews, Texas, from 1976-77 and assistant administrator of Aurora Community Hospital in Aurora, Colo., from 1974-75.
Schumacher received a bachelor of science degree from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1972; a master of science in health care administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1974; and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin in 1979.
He has delivered seminars several times a year on health care topics and is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and the New Mexico and Texas bar associations. He is past president of the Health Law Section of the New Mexico Bar Association, past president of the Chaves County Bar Association and vice president of the Litigation Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association.
Schumacher taught commercial law and banking, primarily to banking industry professionals, from 1986-92. He taught health care administration at Metropolitan State College in Denver and has taught consumer law classes through church continuing education programs. He frequently teaches courses for continuing education credits to physicians and nurses on topics including malpractice liability, risk management and prevention, nursing documentation and medical records.
Schumacher has been active in the Roswell community, serving as a volunteer with the youth choir at First United Methodist Church, and is a certified advanced lay speaker for the United Methodist Church. He has served as a trustee for First United Methodist Church and as a board member for the Roswell Country Club, Eastern New Mexico Medical Center and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
Peterson, as chief nurse officer, will supervise more than 160 full-time equivalent nurses and nursing personnel at the hospital, about 90 percent of whom are full-time personnel, she said
She came to Roswell Regional from Fort Defiance Indian Hospital on the Navajo Reservation, where she was assistant chief nurse and nursing educator.
Peterson has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Chicago State University and a master’s in health administration from the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Ill., where she graduated summa cum laude. She expects to complete a doctorate degree in organizational leadership and management from the University of Phoenix in October.
Peterson’s clinical background is in telemetry and pediatrics, where she got the nickname “Kasi” (pronounced “Casey”). “The little kids had a hard time saying Cassandra. They told me my name was too long,” she said.
She is enjoying her work at the hospital.
“I think Roswell Regional is a wonderful hospital, and once all of our key personnel are in place, we have the potential to go to magnet in five years,” she said, explaining that magnet status is a nursing excellence designation. “It means we have the best nurses, based on quality, based on safety, based on education.”
Peterson said she believes Roswell Regional focuses on patient care.
“We have great teamwork within nursing. We collaborate with other disciplines in the hospital and we all work together to have positive patient outcomes,” she said.
Peterson also said the hospital “grows” new nurses.
“We are very open to having new graduates come into our hospital to learn and grow,” she said.
She Roswell Regional’s nursing leadership, which includes her and the managers of the nursing units, are focusing on plans to retain and recruit nurses.
“We are standardizing the orientation process across all levels of nursing,” Peterson added. “We are actively marketing our nurses because we have great nurses and we are putting them in for national awards for their dedication to nursing and their outstanding patient care.”
CONTACT: Mike Bush, 575-317-6249