New adult hospitals CEO continuing UMMC journey to excellence

Published on Monday, February 24, 2020

By: Ruth Cummins

Patient safety and quality, excellence in hospital operations and financial stability in health care are all important in Britt Crewse’s book.

As the new chief executive officer of the adult hospitals at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, he’s detailing performance goals in each of those areas to further the health care enterprise’s commitment to patients statewide.

“We have scorecards in each of these areas, because we should be focused on them all,” Crewse said.

Crewse, UMMC chief operations officer of adult hospitals since November 2018, is taking on a new role that enhances his previous responsibilities. As COO, Crewse oversaw operational leadership in radiology, clinical laboratories, pharmacy, trauma, respiratory care, dialysis, biomedical engineering, patient equipment, language services, neurophysiology, facilities, Ambassador Services and palliative care.

Crewse also worked on operational improvement, which includes UMMC’s use of the “100-Day Workout,” a nationally recognized quality improvement initiative that brings together multidisciplinary groups of employees to tackle performance, quality, safety or other issues.

He also had responsibility for contract management and oversight for environmental services, linen and food services, and nutrition services.

In his new position, Crewse will oversee operations in the adult hospitals, which include University Hospital, the Wallace Conerly Critical Care Hospital and the Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants, all on the Medical Center’s Jackson campus.

“Britt has been a great fit at UMMC since day one,” said Kevin Cook, chief executive officer of the UMMC Health System. “His track record of operational success at UMMC has been impressive, and I am confident that in his new role he will help us continue our journey toward becoming a nationally recognized academic medical center.”

Crewse is building on more than 25 years of health care experience, 19 of them at Duke University Health System, where he served in various leadership roles in both compliance and operations. “That’s where I learned most of my trade,” Crewse said.

Crewse, a northeast Ohio native, started his career at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, serving in multiple roles.  He also worked as a senior manager with Ernst & Young LLP in Greenville, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Ohio State University and a Master of Health Science and Master of Business Administration from the University of Florida.

Crewse said he came to the Medical Center because he was “interested in an organization that was very mission-driven, and I was interested in academic medicine and the opportunity to be COO. I found all three of these things, and thankfully, they found me as well.”

As CEO, Crewse said, “I’ll continue working closely with nursing. It’s a huge component of our overall hospital operations.” Crewse also will help lead efforts with UMMC’s service lines, including cardiology, oncology, orthopaedics and transplant.

And, he will be aligned in a dyad model with Dr. Alan Jones, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Medical Center’s chief operations physician. “We will be trying to determine different initiatives needed in order to meet our mission and goals,” Crewse said.

Management of the hospital’s day-to-day patient capacity also will continue to be a major focus, he said.

Crewse and his wife, Jane, are Ridgeland residents and parents to four grown children. “We are very active in our church, First Ridgeland, and we go visit family everywhere – North Carolina, Georgia, Chicago and Ohio,” said Crewse, who also likes to go to the gym and appreciates the fact that his commute to the Medical Center is a quick 16 minutes.

Crewse has a confession: “My wife and I had never stepped foot in the state of Mississippi until we interviewed a year and a half ago,” he said. “There was nothing tying us to the state, but now there are many things tying us to the state.