Rachel Kennedy is a natural problem solver. Tasked with addressing a nursing shortage and weaning CHI Saint Joseph Health from using agencies, she and her team devised the Clinical Flex program that, among other things, saw the number of floater RNs and patient techs in its Lexington hospitals increase from 20 to 220 in just one year.
In her job as market director of patient flow for the Kentucky market for the past two years, Rachel was a main player in the work to improve and streamline the processes at the Clinical Command Center, dramatically boosting the patient acceptance rate. Plus, she oversees house managers at Saint Joseph Hospital and the staffing department for the market.
It’s a lot, she acknowledged, but the tasks are a good fit for her. She joked that she thrives in chaos.
“I’m very adaptable, I’m very flexible. I like to look at problems and I like to fix problems,” she said. Rachel also attributes those qualities to her previous position as house manager, which gave her a wide-ranging overview of the system.
“You get involved in many types of problems, from a leak in the kitchen to the passing of a patient — it is that extreme. You get involved in different processes. You have to learn to multitask and be flexible and tailor yourself to the situation.”
Rachel was recognized for her work in May, when she was named Leader of the Year for Saint Joseph Hospital and overall Leader of the Year for the entire Saint Joseph system. “I am honored. I have a great team with me,” she said. “I would not be able to do what I do without them.”
As a leader, she said she feels her strengths are her presence, her listening skills and her ability to help her team dig into problem situations, find solutions and then follow through with the resulting changes.
Add a positive attitude to that. “My glass is always half-full — I’m usually more of a positive person than a negative person” Rachel said. “That’s why I try every day when I get up to look at it in a more positive manner; there’s always a solution to every problem.”
Her job may be administrative, but that doesn’t mean she loses sight of the people Saint Joseph cares for.
“The end result goes back to the patient,” she explained. “Everything that I do is to make sure that a patient can safely get here, make sure that the house managers can safely run their house, that the flex department can do patient care. So all of that really does revolve around patient care.”
Saint Joseph’s core values “are hugely, wildly important to me,” Rachel said. “Our Compassion, Kindness and Inclusion — I love when they added Inclusion in there. I think with this climate, that is very important. Everybody needs to be included.”
Rachel, who holds associate and master’s degrees in nursing, said she is undergirded by her family — three children, ages 20, 13 and 12 — and husband Shannon, whom she calls her “biggest cheerleader.”
She doesn’t see herself as slowing down anytime soon: “I like lots of things to do. One day, will it catch up to me? Perhaps, but so far, not. I think you’ve got one life to live and I feel like I have, not at all a gift, but I feel like I have a certain set of skills and I can use them and help people at this time.”
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Spirit of Health magazine's print edition is distributed quarterly and focuses on topics related to our CHI Saint Joseph Health purpose and values.
