“When you think rehab, I want you to think Rehab Institute of St. Louis,” said Jon McDowell, CEO of the facility located on Duncan, not far from Barnes-Jewish health facilities in Midtown St. Louis. Rehab Institute is a jointly owned partnership between BJC Healthcare and HealthSouth, which is the managing partner.
HealthSouth brought McDowell to St. Louis nearly two years ago as chief operating officer. He was elevated to the CEO position last year after his supervisor was promoted to become a HealthSouth regional president in charge of 17 hospitals.
Right now, McDowell’s concern is only the one facility in St. Louis. Collaboratively with leadership, he is working toward creating an atmosphere that is patient-focused and life-transforming.
“We have to create a culture that is welcoming,” McDowell said.
The 90-bed inpatient facility cares primarily for persons who are recovering from strokes, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, amputations and other physical and neurological conditions.
McDowell said the Institute sees about 1,900 admissions a year. Patients stay longer than they would in regular hospitals and work up to three hours daily toward regaining or relearning life skills for independence.
“I see what we do and I see just the impact we have on people’s lives,” McDowell said. “People come here in some very debilitated states; you see them come in on stretchers and you see them walk out.
The facility has a Pals program which partners non-clinical workers with new patients for quick social visits, to see how everything is going and if there is anything the patient needs.
“I am a part of that and most of us are, senior leadership as well as people in the business office or our maintenance guy or somebody in housekeeping,” he said. “You get to see that progression. It’s just amazing to me and so gratifying to me to see that change and that progression they go through.”
And it’s a steady reminder of why they are there, and who they are there for.
McDowell grew up on a farm outside of Taft, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in college as a pre-optometry major.
“I always felt like I wanted to help people and, initially, that was going to be clinically,” McDowell said. “But I soon realized that clinical and hands-on patient care was probably not my thing.”
He was smart, made good grades and was business-minded. The pre-optometry major began to see his own role in the health care field much clearer.
“The administrative route appealed to me and I took that path,” he said.
McDowell earned a bachelor’s degree in health care administration and finance from LangstonUniversity before attending the University of Oklahoma to earn his masters in health care administration.
From there he was recruited by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) for its executive training program. “They moved me from hospital to hospital,” McDowell said.
When they sold the hospital in West Virginia where he was working, he stayed. He parted company with HCA at that point, but not before meeting Jay Grinney, the person who would eventually become his company’s leader at HealthSouth. McDowell said Grinney is a “stellar guy.”
“He’s just about the right things – extremely smart, very business-savvy, but I really felt like his heart was in the right place,” McDowell said.
“Because what we do, we take care of patients, and you have to have a heart for taking care of patients if you are going to be in this field.”
HealthSouth and diversity
HealthSouth, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, owns 101 inpatient rehab hospitals, 24 outpatient rehab clinics and 25 hospital-based home health agencies in 28 states and Puerto Rico.
It has approximately 22,000 employees, and last year the company earned $2.2 billion in revenue.
Although questions to its headquarters regarding diversity remain unanswered, its 2012 HealthSouth annual report states “the company has no formal policy on diversity of its board nominees,” stating its Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee “does not choose solely based on the distinctive skills, perspectives and experiences that candidates diverse in gender, ethnic background, geographic origin and professional experience offer.”
This follows a statement in the report that “a diversity of skills, perspectives and experiences as represented on the board as a whole … promotes improved monitoring and evaluation of management on behalf of stockholders and produces more creative thinking and solutions.”
Grimmey’s individual objectives listed in the report include maintaining an “aggressive diversity agenda” in the recruitment, development and training of all employees.
McDowell said in his career he’s worked for more female CEOs than male CEOs.
“You should pick the person. You shouldn’t pick the gender or the race,” McDowell said. “To me, I just do what I do and I am who I am and I don’t like to sit around and think about it.”
McDowell said it’s not about him.
“It’s about what we do and it’s never about me,” he added. “So any decision I make or anything I do, I try to keep in mind why we’re here and what it’s going to take to make this institution even more successful.”
