MetroHealth’s new CEO Airica Steed has been running Cuyahoga County's safety-net hospital system for about a month. She is the first Black CEO at Metro and the first nurse to lead the system. But Steed, who is well known for her work at Sinai Chicago, has taken the reigns at a difficult time for the hospital. Her predecessor was fired in November sparking a scandal over CEO bonus pay.
As the hospital continues a very public battle with its former CEO, who denies wrongdoing and has sued the hospital system, Steed told Ideastream Public Media's Taylor Wizner she is focused on staff morale.
WIZNER: What has it been like for you to start a new job in a new city and to deal with fallout from the bonus scandal on your first day on the job.
STEED: I'm an emergency department nurse by training and a critical care nurse so we're used to dealing with fires and dealing with emergencies.
I've never been one to run away from a burning building. I've always been one to run into it. And my heart just melted and poured out for the people in this community — the people inside of MetroHealth.
I was more drawn to really coming to really help to be the leadership that we needed to be during this time of crisis and to really calm the storm. And I've been welcomed with open arms. I feel just like at home.
I'm born and raised in the Midwest, and I made my transition with eyes wide open. So I'm really sprinting a marathon in roller skates... but it's been a very interesting journey.
WIZNER: In regards to the CEO bonus issue, this has all played out very publicly. How has staff morale been?
STEED: That was one of the things that I have the most concern about. But to be honest, this is a resilient culture, so the organization truly has not been rocked by the chaos. So what I've seen is people hard at work — frontline heroes that are really dedicating their lives every single day. And there's a purposeful intention not to be distracted by the storm. I've been steadfast in really saying that that is in the rearview mirror.
WIZNER: With that said, after the CEO bonus scandal, the county commissioners are now doing greater oversight of MetroHealth's budget and its bonus process. I'm wondering how will that impact your work as CEO? What are you doing to reassure the county and taxpayers that that money is being spent wisely?
STEED: So obviously, one of the first things that was heavy on my agenda and radar is to just make sure that we do the right thing. First and foremost, I would say at a board level, the board sounded the alarm. And with that being said, one of the first decisions ... made after that is actually bringing in a third-party evaluator, third-party auditor, so we brought that in just to really ensure that we looked deeply under the hood.
I can honestly say through this process, we're going to be transparent, we're going to be open, we're going to be honest, we're going to be accountable.
WIZNER: It was reported during the announcement of your hire that you were the first Black woman CEO to lead the health system. How does it feel taking the helm?
STEED: I'm so proud to actually make history in a lot of ways. So I'm the first Black person. I'm the first woman. I'm the first non-physician. So I'm the first nurse to actually take the helm as well. And for me, that is a shattering of this perpetual glass ceiling that demonstrates a sense of hope, that demonstrates a sense of positive change for the better. It demonstrates a sense of encouragement to others. They can rise.
WIZNER: What can people expect from your first year at MetroHealth?
STEED: I want to make a big splash. And the big splash is not for me. It's not about the accolade or the award or any of those things. I want to make a profound impact and difference in the community at large.
I want to actually be able to say we were able to slash chronic disease. I want to be able to say we were able to do something about the other pandemic that's happening simultaneously with the COVID pandemic, which is the mental health crisis. I want to be able to do something about that. I want to be able to do something about the fact that people are still in this day and age, still using the emergency department as their only means of primary care. I want to be able to say we were able to do something about food insecurity, housing insecurity. I want to be able to make health care accessible no matter where you are, right? So you shouldn't have to get up outside of your home and be inconvenienced to be able to access us. We want to be able to access you and connect with you directly. So all of those things, fast forward a year from now, I would like to see progress made in all of those various categories.
And then specifically for me, and selfishly for me as a Black woman, one of the statistics that I ran into as I started to acclimate myself with the Cleveland community is Black women are ranked at the lowest for livability in Cleveland. And one of the plaguing rationales for why that is so is health care. So Black women feel like health care is at such a low level. And I want to be able to translate that narrative into Cleveland is number one for Black women's health.
WIZNER: Following St. Vincent's closure in the fall, I remember seeing that MetroHealth was having hiring fairs and trying to court some of the people that would be leaving their jobs there. Has MetroHealth hired many of those people?
STEED: We absolutely have been successful, and that's one of the things I'm absolutely proud of is when a community is in need, MetroHealth is always there to wrap our arms around and ensure that no one is displaced...
We are also working to build up a pipeline and cast a wider net to ensure that the community is not left behind in that overall [recruitment] process, and how do we work together to redefine what it is that we need in those communities where we had to exit out of some key services?
We're absolutely proud that a byproduct of that is the work we've done to really start to expand mental health care. I think that the numbers escalated in people seeking mental health care, but shortly thereafter our Cleveland Heights facility for behavioral health actually opened up.
WIZNER: Are you going to expand to the East Side of Cleveland?
STEED: We're looking at every single opportunity. And one of the things I'm extremely excited about is I'm going to be building up a community advisory council to really help to dive in on our community health needs assessment, our market assessments, to understand how and where we can [and] we should expand what services are absolutely needed and how should those services actually be delivered. So we're completely open to expansion. Our Cleveland Heights location is an example of the East Side expansion. We have other key projects in the hopper that we're going to be excited to announce very soon.
WIZNER: Well, thank you so much, Dr. Steed, for taking the time to speak with us.
STEED: Thank you so much. This has been wonderful.
