Less than 5% of the total US workforce makes it into the coveted C-suite—but Audrey Gregory has made it there three times.
Gregory—who’s been a CEO, COO, and chief nursing officer over her three-decade-long healthcare career—is currently president and CEO of AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division–North Region. There, she leads a team of more than 10,000 employees, and this year, she’s focused on three things: investing in her team, improving work conditions for nurses, and bettering the patient experience.
“We’re committed to making a positive impact in the communities we serve,” and she believes by focusing on these three things, “we can deliver on this promise,” Gregory told Healthcare Brew.
AdventHealth, based in Altamonte Springs, is the only national, nonprofit health system headquartered in Florida. The system, which owns more than 50 hospitals located in nine states, brought in $15.7 billion in revenue in 2022.
Gregory sets the strategic direction for the hospitals in her region, which includes seven hospitals and two standalone emergency rooms in Volusia, Lake, and Flagler counties in Florida.
The majority of patients treated in these counties are white adults with household incomes below the national median. The most common conditions treated are sepsis, heart failure, cardiac disease, and respiratory infections, according to Gregory. One of her top goals this year is investing in the clinicians who treat those patients.
Three areas of focus
In 2021, the health system invested more than $571 million to improve the employee experience, Gregory said. That investment included things like providing up to $21,000 in tuition reimbursement for workers pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing, as well as assistance in paying off existing student loans. More than 3,000 employees have received education benefits so far.
And that’s just the beginning, according to Gregory.
“We are continuing to make investments to ensure the long-term success of our teams,” she said.
Her second goal, improving the nursing experience, is something she takes personally, as she spent the first 10 years of her career working as a trauma and emergency room nurse.
“Entering the healthcare industry as a nurse has influenced my perspective as a healthcare leader, and I am deeply committed to improving the nursing experience, as I understand the critical role our nurses play in delivering unparalleled care,” Gregory said.
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AdventHealth has been “intentional about reducing our reliance on agency staffing and minimizing turnover to strengthen our team to ensure AdventHealth continues to meet the needs of our growing communities,” she said.
The health system has also increased wages and improved staffing ratios for nurses by adding more licensed practical nurses and patient care technicians to assist registered nurses, she added.
“We’ve also created a pipeline from our local nursing schools, established an endowed fund to support aspiring nurses, and opened several dedicated education units,” Gregory said.
The health system has also piloted a “virtual nursing” program, in which remote nurses provide assistance to bedside nurses and help with admissions, discharges, and other clerical tasks.
“Our patients tell us it feels like having a second nurse taking care of them,” Michele Goeb-Burkett, chief nursing officer of AdventHealth’s hospitals in Volusia, Flagler, and north Lake counties, said in a statement.
To improve the consumer experience, Gregory said AdventHealth is “committed to transforming how we deliver care and building an easy-to-navigate, consumer-centric network that provides exceptional, compassionate, and whole-person care.”
Gregory said AdventHealth is “focused on things that would make us easy to access and simple to use, such as new access points to care.”
Making her mark
Though she still has many goals on her list, Gregory has already accomplished a good deal since joining AdventHealth in 2021.
For one, she transitioned the Central Florida Division–North Region to a new electronic health record system, according to AdventHealth spokesperson David Breen. She also guided the region through the construction of a new hospital in Palm Coast, which opened this month.
Under Gregory’s leadership, the region has also expanded robot-assisted surgery programs at multiple locations, as well as created a transitional care unit and expanded minimally invasive robotic surgery, according to Breen.
“Dr. Gregory has quickly made her mark within the organization,” Breen said.