New hospital CEO says he plans to gather feedback before initiating major changes

FARMINGTON — Promoting an agenda of listening and learning, the new leader of the San Juan Regional Medical Center said he doesn’t envision putting the hospital through a makeover in the early stages of his tenure.

“I see no need to do a dramatic turnaround in the first 90 days,” said Jason Rounds, who is expected to begin his duties as the hospital’s new chief executive officer and president in early May. “My plan is to go on a listening tour.”

The hiring of Rounds, who now serves as the chief administrative office and associate vice chancellor for clinical finance at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, came after the hospital conducted a seven-month, national search to replace Jeff Bourgeois, who left the position at the end of March 2022.

Rounds said during the interview process, he asked the members of the hospital board and the search team to identify the issues and challenges that most concerned them. He said the responses he heard made him feel like he immediately grasped what they were looking for in a new CEO.

“They said, ‘We want somebody who can come in and understand this community and be a part of this community, and be a good communicator and be transparent,” he said.

Rounds described his management style as that of a “servant-leader” and indicated he believes that makes him a good fit for what hospital officials say they need.

“I am a consensus builder,” he said. “I’m a consolidator who likes to be part of a team. I like to work with really smart people and build an environment that allows them to be successful.”

His feedback-gathering efforts will lead his agenda throughout the spring and early summer, but that doesn’t mean Rounds already hasn’t identified some problem areas he’ll have to tackle when he takes over. He said rising costs are a problem every health care entity is facing these days as supply chain issues continue to cause disruptions.

But Rounds said he also believes that the hospital he will join already is operating from a position of strength.

“I’m very inspired with the talent that’s here,” he said. “They’ve got a good foundation, and they’re really positioned well for the future.”

Another positive element, he said, is the facility itself, which he immediately took note of when he arrived for his first interview.

“It’s really attractive, and it looked great,” he said.

While he is coming to the Four Corners from a different part of the country, Rounds said he doesn’t anticipate having to make a big adjustment to the New Mexico culture. He was born in Roswell, and he and his wife Becky spent five years in Albuquerque in their early thirties when Rounds worked for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

“It was a great time in our life,” he said. “Becky was director of planning at Lovelace Health Systems, and we had our twin daughters, Jamie and Kate, while we were there.”

Even though he had never visited Farmington before he arrived for his first interview, Rounds said he and his wife both felt like there was something familiar about it.

“We were really impressed with the community,” he said. “It seemed very much home to us. We were very comfortable with everything the community had to offer.”

After he wraps up his duties in Arkansas, Rounds plans to immerse himself in his new home as he determines what changes, if any, need to be made at the San Juan Regional Medical Center.

When asked to gauge the performance of the American health care system in general to the epic challenge that was posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rounds said that answer depended almost as much on the community surrounding each hospital as the institution itself. Communities that worked together — and were willing to cooperate across boundaries — were the ones that experienced the most success in rising to that challenge, he said.

Rounds said he was working for a health care system in Texarkana, Texas, in 2020 when the pandemic began, and a cooperative spirit quickly emerged there.

“We were all hands on deck,” he said, noting that the pandemic was the most difficult time he has witnessed in the health care field. “And the walls between competitors came down.”

That was perhaps the most beneficial lesson to be learned from such an experience, he said.

“We were figuring out a lot of that as we went along — and making note of what we can do better in the future,” he said.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Jason Rounds will take over at San Juan Regional Medical Center in May