Rick Stevens grew up in Rockford, Illinois, the son of a small businessman – his father operated a successful tax service and invested in real estate – and then he became a biology major.
“I had business in the back of my mind, because I helped with both of those businesses,” he said, “but I also had the sciences as well.”
When a friend suggested that he combine the two and pursue healthcare administration, he had his career path – the one that has led him to become the new president of BJC Christian Hospital, which he calls one of the region’s “best-kept secrets.”
North St. Louis County’s main hospital operates the busiest emergency room in the state, he said, with 110,000 annual visits, and is the state’s third-busiest ambulance service provider. It also has a Community Health Access Program that tries to keep people from coming to the hospital unless necessary.
“We send someone out to the home and, if it’s not a true emergency, a paramedic makes that diagnosis in the home,” Stevens said, “thereby reducing the cost to that person and then also providing good care in the home.”
While Stevens places a strong emphasis on the hospital’s role in the community – “this is the community hospital” – it also has areas of unique technical expertise and excellence.
Its lipedema surgical program is one of only a few in the country. Lipedema is a debilitating chronic disorder of body fat, causing fatty tissue to accumulate in the arms and legs on an otherwise healthy person. Stevens said people from all over the country come to Christian Hospital for lipedema treatment.
Stevens said the hospital also offers one of the nation’s few transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs. In this minimally invasive procedure, a surgeon repairs a damaged heart valve without removing it. Instead, a replacement valve is wedged into the aortic valve’s place.
“We are innovative,” Stevens said. “It happens right here at Christian, right here in North County.”
The hospital also is being renovated and expanded, though with less fanfare than BJC’s dramatic and extensive campus renewal projects in St. Louis’ central corridor. A hospital spokesman said there are combined projects to update and improve the facility totaling $20 million over the next two years. Over the past two years, BJC has invested about $30 million at Christian, with expansion and renovations to the emergency department and cafeteria. Its new Gastrointestinal Lab will be up and running next month, doubled in size.
Also, the hospital will convert its currently empty third floor from double-occupancy rooms into single-patient rooms later this year. “That helps with the quality of services and privacy,” Stevens said. “There is literature that shows it aids in the healing. Family members will be able to stay in the room with the patients.”
Stevens moved to St. Louis for this position after four years in San Francisco, where he was chief administrative officer at St. Luke’s Hospital and vice president at California Pacific Medical Center. He has more than 20 years of health care experience, with previous executive roles at Methodist McKinney Hospital in McKinney, Texas; Jewish Hospital and St. Mary’s Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky; and University Medical Center in Dallas.
He earned a master’s degree in public health, with a concentration in health care administration, from Meharry Medical College and a bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University, both in Nashville. He has served in leadership roles with the American Cancer Society, Salvation Army, and a number of other community organizations.
“This is the community hospital, and we do a lot of great things,” Stevens said of his new position. “I see a lot of opportunities here at Christian.”
