Getting to know you

SALLY DEITCH, MHA, MSN, RN, FACHE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NURSING AND OPERATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE, ASCENSION

Sally Deitch (pronounced DIEtch) is a passionate and experienced healthcare leader who, in less than 15 years, worked her way up from serving as a 22-year-old staff nurse to becoming a hospital CEO. Before joining Ascension, she served as Group/President CEO for Tenet Healthcare. Prior to this role, she was Tenet’s Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services. Sally also served at HCA Healthcare as Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer.

Sally recalls always having an inherent desire to care for living things and considered becoming a veterinarian or a doctor. Looking back, she said, her calling to become a nurse was no doubt influenced by her mother’s diagnosis of a life-threatening autoimmune disorder. It was at a time when children weren’t allowed in hospitals and she remembers her father sneaking Sally and her siblings up the back stairwell to a hospital oncology unit for a brief visit with her mom.

Q: How has nursing inspired your career? A: I often tell others that I believe God calls us to serve in different ways. I will always and forever be a nurse; I’ve been one now for 32 years. While my role has changed, I think like a nurse. Nursing teaches the scientific method of gathering data to make a diagnosis, developing a treatment plan and evaluating the impact of the treatment plan, in hopes of a positive outcome, and that training applies to everything I approach. Training in clinical thought processes has instilled an all-systems thinking approach of looking at all the pieces. For me, it’s fascinating to think through the “why” and understand how something affects our patients or associates.

Q: Can you describe your role? A: My day job role is to establish the processes that we need to become an operational organization. In addition to working with our nursing organization, my world consists of physical therapy, ambulatory surgery, imaging, performance optimization and performance excellence.

Q: What initiatives are you involved with? A: Right now Ascension is reimagining care delivery. We’re taking a close look at understanding what our patients will need, where they will seek care, and the technology and workforce needed to support that care. Ascension’s Mission and Strategic Plan underpin it all.

Q: What is different about working for a nonprofit organization? A: Regardless of who I have worked for, the driver has been the patients and what they expect and deserve — quality and safety, plus compassion. The Mission of Ascension serves as a reminder for me that every day God works in all of us to create whatever is needed. A defining moment since [I joined] Ascension touched me in a way I can’t explain. It was the first time I received a memorial memo about associates who had died. The thoughtfulness and compassion in that act not only recognized these associates, but remembered and honored them in an incredibly beautiful way.