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In October, Good Samaritan Medical Center appointed Tara McCoy to the position of chief executive officer. As a healthcare executive with a background in strategic development and physician recruitment. McCoy will be responsible for overseeing all strategic, operational and clinical activities at Good Samaritan Medical Center, a 333-bed acute care hospital providing sophisticated, personalized medical care to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast for over 95 years.
Prior to her appointment as CEO, McCoy spent the last five years as a service line administrator for Tenet’s Florida Region, now part of the Coastal Division. During her time as a service line administrator, she developed the Heart and Vascular Network and achieved interdisciplinary cooperation between the region’s hospitals.
“It was very rewarding to develop the network from scratch and see it evolve from the recruitment of our physician leaders to determining which programs the community needed; what we would invest in; where they should be; and the coordination of the physicians and the hospitals across three counties,” McCoy says. “It was complex and innovative, and I feel like we built something very special and different.”
McCoy had always wanted to get into the healthcare field. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Tulane University and her Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of South Florida.
At the beginning, she was sure she wanted to be a physician and as a result, she began volunteering at a hospital. But she soon realized that her passion wasn’t necessarily focused on the clinical side. Rather, she was interested in how care delivery could be improved by focusing on processes and efficiency.
“I saw high inefficiencies in terms of the long waiting times in the emergency department, the bad communication challenges and the breakdown between departments,” she says. “Instead of going to medical school, I decided to go a different route from being a doctor and I got my Master’s degree in industrial engineering.”
McCoy began to focus on healthcare in terms of process improvement and operations improvement and studied ways the healthcare system can improve the efficiency of healthcare. Throughout her career, she began to work her way up from that starting point, and continued working with different teams to drive results.
She’s always enjoyed working with physicians hand-in-hand to improve the way care is delivered through the different roles she had. In fact, she says that it helped to set her up for her current role.
“My main job now is leading a fantastic team and looking at ways to deliver the best care that we can for our patients,” she says.
During her time at the Heart and Vascular Network, McCoy orchestrated all new program development, covering the identification and implantation of advanced procedures, business case development, marketing strategy and ongoing oversight to ensure goals were being met. She also implemented essential programs including Structural Heart (TAVR, MitraClip, and Watchman), Advanced Heart Failure (LVAD), Robotic Vascular, and Comprehensive A-Fib. In addition to enhancing the division’s cardiovascular service line, she also oversaw the development of the pediatric surgery line.
There are three things that make Good Samaritan unique, according to McCoy. The first is
the people at Good Samaritan that distinguishes itself from other medical systems.
“This hospital truly is a culture that feels like a family,” she says. “The employees and the medical staff are incredibly dedicated to the hospital and they take a tremendous pride in what they do on a daily basis.
Secondly, McCoy says that it’s its oncology program. McCoy says that the Good Samaritan Medical Center Breast Institute, in particular, is designated by the American College of Surgeons as a National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), a designation reserved for breast centers that achieve high standards across the most effective breast cancer treatments. The Breast Institute is also a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.
“We have oncologic services that could rival top national programs and that are incredibly comprehensive, including our high risk genetics clinic,” says McCoy.
The third area that makes Good Samaritan unique is that Good Samaritan is part of a larger system, Tenet Healthcare.
“Being part of a larger network always provides opportunities in terms of coordination with other sister hospitals,” says McCoy.
The most rewarding part of McCoy’s job is the individual impact Good Samaritan can make on a person’s life.
“One of the things that really energizes me on a daily basis is visiting individual patients in their room and hearing their stories,” she says. “I often hear stories about the impact our physicians, employees and nurses made for them. It really brings it all home to why we do what we do. Also, seeing something we’ve invested in – such as a technology, program, or employee who meets the needs a particular program – and seeing a life be changed by that is incredibly rewarding.”
Looking ahead, McCoy knows there will be some challenges facing the medical center and the community it serves. One of the biggest challenges is the rapid growth of the community. As the population continues to rise, she says it’s their responsibility to ensure they can keep up with that demand.
“We continually try to see what we need to bring to the community to deliver the best possible care to those who need it,” she says. “So we want to make sure we’re able to educate the community about the physicians who are here and the programs that we have in place to keep the patients and the community healthy and fit.”
It’s also important to keep up with the latest advances in technology and innovations, she notes.
“We’re constantly looking at innovations and what we need to do to bring them here to make sure we’re meeting the community needs,” she says. “I love innovation and I love complex program development. You can expect to see more of both.”
She adds that Good Samaritan is a place where the physicians, nurses, and administrators all come together in a united way to do the best they can for its patients.
“I believe that true magic happens in healthcare when we break down the silos and we are all headed in the same direction,” she says. “That’s what we are all about.”
