Pictured are (from left): Jean Lydon, Pamela Dunley and Laura Eslick at the holiday tree-lighting held at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital over the Christmas season. The three were recently placed at the helm of the Elmhurst Hospital administration effective January 1, 2017. Dunley is now President & CEO; Eslick was named Chief Operating Officer; and, Lydon was promoted to Chief Nursing Officer. All three enjoy working together and have clear strong goals as time marches on.
Plans to be premier facility with best doctors, focus on community
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
About six months ago there was a change in the administration of Elmhurst Hospital, when Pamela Dunley, MBA, MS, RN, CENP, was named CEO of the local healthcare facility. She replaced Mary Lou Mastro, MS, RN, FACHE, who became System CEO of Edward-Elmhurst Health, effective July 1, 2017. Current CEO Pam Davis will retire as of June 30, so she and Mastro are serving as System Co-CEOs through June 30.
Along with Dunley’s appointment, two other executives were promoted at Elmhurst Hospital as of Jan. 1. They are Laura Eslick, MBA, PMP, FACHE who was named Chief Operating Officer, and Jean Lydon, RN, MS-MBA, AOCN, promoted to Chief Nursing Officer.
The Independent had a chance to sit down with all three ladies to ask them about what it will be like working together. The message was simple:
“We’ve already been working together for a number of years,” Dunley said. “So we’re just happy to be moving forward together into the future.”
More about Dunley, Eslick, Lydon…
Born and raised in Downers Grove, Pamela Dunley has four kids and grandkids. Her background is as a psych nurse, working at River’s Edge Hospital for 34 years as well as four psych clinics. She first came to Elmhurst Hospital because of her skills as a psych nurse; she also liked using a holistic approach to medicine.
Laura Eslick grew up in Hinsdale but has lived in Elmhurst for the past 20 years, working at Elmhurst Hospital during that time. She was married in Ireland and has two sons, a junior at York High School and a junior at Marquette University.
While Eslick has worked for 25 years in the healthcare field, she has spent most of her time in administration due to her strong background in finance and project management.
“It’s been a mission to pair up the facility with business and clinical people, working together to provide the best quality, most efficient, and financially lucrative treatment for our patients,” she said.
In the near future, the responsibilities Eslick holds might also extend into overlooking things like medical billing and coding, and more. She can then take the services of medical billing companies, or use her own expertise in finding the best possible ways to deal with areas like billing and management. That said, the hospital may need to develop positive methods and strategies for staying monetarily vigorous. Therefore, managing administrative and clinical functions related to claims, reimbursements, and revenue generation could be vital. This might be the reason healthcare institutions tend to take the help of healthcare Revenue Cycle Management firms to collect profits and afterward keep up with expenditures. Such firms can reduce the hassles of the hospital by identifying, managing, and collecting patient service revenue from respected parties.
Coming back, in the coming future, the hospital authorities might also want to employ the services of companies that can provide them with a patient care experience platform. This might help them provide better care to the patients as well as make the hospital’s environment friendly for the visitors. The trio would want that as they would be looking for the best and nothing less.
After growing up in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, Jean Lydon and her husband have three children ages 25, 27 and 29.
“I want grandchildren,” she said with a laugh. “My son is getting married in the spring, so maybe then?!”
Lydon worked as an oncology nurse for 37 years but has now been in hospital administration for more than 20 years.
“I came here as manager of Oncology Services and worked with Pam for ten years,” she said. “The hospital is such that it can attract a good talent pool that can grow to meet the needs of the hospital. It differentiates us because it attracts highly talented people, which allows us to grow the talent pool.”
What about the future?
Asked where they’ve been and where they’re going in the future, Pam replied that all three of them were involved in the hospital’s strategic plan.
“We wanted to be a Planetree hospital and that worked out, then we wanted to be a Magnet hospital and made that happen, too,” she said. “These are all great accomplishments, but what does it all mean? All these things are steps toward making Elmhurst Hospital a better facility with a fully integrated campus that is financially solvent and has grown consistently since the beginning.
“We pride ourselves in being nimble, reacting quickly and remaining physician-focused, while keeping a community focus.”
“We hoped to remain relevant in the community following the merger [with Edward Hospital],” said Laura. “We didn’t want to lose sight of what made us a great hospital. We have significant regional competition, but the merger has been a good marriage for us. We have strong service lines, especially in fields like cardiac and orthopedic medicine. We want things to be strong for the patient. We don’t want them to worry about anything except getting well.”
Their favorite things…
Asked what they liked best about their positions, Pamela said she liked being with people and watching them grow.
“The first year, we had 35,000 patients, then 65,000 in the second year,” she said. “That shows we are growing. People are learning about us so they come here because they want to be treated by us. We’re seeing growth in our immediate care department and in new walk-in clinics.”
“I just want to make a difference in someone’s life,” replied Laura.
“My favorite thing is that I can have a significant positive impact on a patient’s care and experience,” said Jean. “I felt I was a good nurse, but in administration, you can do more for more people. Look at the professional growth in nursing and in leadership. This goes for everyone. A nurse may start in one area and end up somewhere else.”
Another thing Jean enjoys is that every day is different.
“Before we moved into the new hospital building, we had this attitude that, ‘once we move, everything will be okay,'” she said. “There’s more to it than that because the hospital and all the people in it are constantly changing, and that means patients, as well as staff and administration.”
Pamela has to step out of operations but is very proud of the vision and direction the hospital has been going and where it is headed.
“I am going to let them put their own stamp on it,” she said of Laura and Jean. “I trust them totally. I also trust Lou [Mastro]. But it’s a totally different world out there right now. We are going to focus on excellent physicians and on our place in the community.”
“The best thing about the merger with Edward Hospital is that we became even stronger as a hospital,” Laura said. “We can figure out our market, what does it really need and how should we serve it. The merger has helped us not be so overburdened at both organizations. And it’s really all thanks to our collaboration with our Naperville partners at Edward Hospital.”
