Join Doug Bryant as he sits down with Barry Davis, President & CEO at Hillcrest Healthcare Communities, and Bill Mason, Board Member, to discuss how The Mason Center for Healthcare Education got its name, and how they helped make this dream a reality.

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Produced by Solinity Marketing

Intro

You're listening to Certify It the podcast for advancing your career in care. Powered by the Mason Center for Health Care Education. Hear news, updates, and discussions from thought leaders in healthcare around advancing your career through continuing education. Now, here's your host, Doug Bryant from the Mason center.

Doug Bryant

Welcome back to Certify It, the podcast for advancing your career in care. Today I am joined by two people that without them, the Mason Center would not even be possible. I've got Barry Davis, the president and CEO of Hillcrest Health Care. And I've also got Bill Mason, who is a member of the board of Hillcrest Health Care. who is the actual namesake of the Mason center. So welcome. How are you all today?

Barry Davis

Good. I appreciate you having us on.

Bill Mason

Thank you.

Doug Bryant

You're very welcome. So tell me, Barry, tell me a little bit about how you got involved with Hillcrest. I know you were a member of the board initially. How did your involvement come to be?

Barry Davis

And before I knew it, I was the president of Hillcrest. So I did get two months of retirement, which was very nice. But, then I came on board with Hillcrest, and it's been a great, opportunity for me. It's been a really interesting, not been in health care before. So it's been really interesting. my timing with Covid might not have been the best, but, but really been happy to, to join Hillcrest and be here.

Doug Bryant

So you really would be the most senior member of the Hillcrest team sitting at this table right now if you recruited Barry to the board. So tell our audience a little bit about how you got involved with Hillcrest and why you've stuck around so long.

Bill Mason

To be clear. Doug. Of course. I'm the youngest one. I was trying to think about it before coming on, today. How long ago it was. It must have been 25 years ago or so. As a lawyer, I worked for Hillcrest on a some little project. And when I got done, they asked me to come on the board. At the time, Hillcrest was just beginning the business model that it's now following, really, with a goal of providing top quality clinical care to our residents, on a financially sound basis. You know, from the board members point of view, it's really important that we be able to carry out our mission of caring for the medically indigent who need long term care in the Knoxville, Knox County area. But at the same time, we have to do it in a way that's financially sound so we can continue to keep the doors open pay our employees and operate the facilities.

Doug Bryant

So, Barry, when you hear the goals that Bill was just talking about care and Knoxville and being able to provide that. Why an education center?

Barry Davis

Well, we identified that there was a need for continuing education for health care employees and also a need for certification and training for folks entering the healthcare field. And we look at it two ways. One, initially we wanted to educate and train our own employees, but we also want to offer those same types of courses and same types of training to the health care community in East Tennessee. And that is essentially what the concept for the Mason center was and how it evolved. And Bill and the rest of the Hillcrest board have been extremely supportive of our employee base and our education efforts for the entire healthcare industry. So without Bill support and the board's support, we wouldn't be here today in the Mason center.

Doug Bryant

It's very impressive being able to have the honor and privilege of sitting in board meetings to serve at a company where the president and the board are so supportive of the efforts that we have to take care of our employees. So, Bill, was that such a passion of yours? Because, again, I've had the honor and privilege of sitting in those meetings, and there's things that I'll sit there sometimes and I think, oh, I don't know if we can do that or if we should even financially do that. And you've always been the champion for taking care of the staff. Where does that passion come from?

Bill Mason

Doug, there's nothing easy about the jobs that Hillcrest employees do. Hillcrest is staffed and operated seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It doesn't matter, you know, whether there's snow or pandemics or Friday date nights or power outages or inflation or holidays or children's birthday, whatever it is. Hillcrest operation continues.

Those are really hard jobs that are filled by really special people who are compassionate and skilled. You know, I don't have those kinds of skills. The last person you'd want. taking care of your grandmother is some lawyer. I do have great, compassion for the employees and whatever I can do to help them with whether it's, fair, competitive pay, whether it's, benefits that help them and their family members with their, lives, whether it's making sure the our facilities have the kind of, equipment and services, needed for them to do top quality jobs, for our residents, or whether it's, having opportunities to learn more about health care and move up in their jobs from, one position to greater positions with, greater pay and greater opportunities.

Doug Bryant

So what kind of feedback have you gotten, Bill, from when people found out the Mason center is really the Bill Mason center? What kind of feedback have you gotten from your family and friends?

Bill Mason

You know, my wife, Janet, was at her doctor's appointment earlier this summer and the nurse there is on, whatever the health care nursing licensing board is for, Tennessee. And he'd come to one of the programs and heard about what the Mason center is doing. in filling niches to provide healthcare education for people in our industry or people who are interested in getting into these jobs. And it was really very rewarding to hear somebody from a completely other side of town who knew something about it and was excited about the curriculum that you guys have developed and are offering.

Mid-Roll

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Doug Bryant

So, Barry, as we do get started on this journey, I know last Thursday we finally got our full approval or full authorization by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. so the Mason center is an actual post-secondary education center in the state of Tennessee. Now, what does the future look like for the Mason center?

Barry Davis

Well, I think the future is unlimited. There's, one of the things that, should have mentioned a minute ago about Bill is he has a passion for young people and their education and a plan for their future. And so we combine that at the Mason center with the outreach we have with the Knox County School systems and other school systems in East Tennessee.

And one of the things that I think we want to do is work with the students and with their guidance counselors and provide them an opportunity to consider health care as a career. And if they are interested in coming and starting their career by taking a course at the Mason center or getting involved with us, I think that's great.

The vision itself, I think, is unlimited because as we've evolved so far, we've identified three different needs as we've gone through the process over the last year. And I have a feeling that there'll just be more and more needs identified as we go along. And the breadth of the offering of the coursework will continue to grow. You know, all the feedback that I've heard from, whether it's, workforce development folks, folks in the healthcare industry, you know, everybody says this is a really needed facility and really needed program, for the industry. So I think the future is unlimited, and we're very excited about it.

Doug Bryant

I remember sitting in the meeting about the strategic plan and what we thought was going to be five years. It got accelerated a little bit because of workforce conditions. But, Bill, when you think about the Mason center and the legacy, hopefully that will be able and the impact that we're going to be able to make in East Tennessee and in Knox County. What would your ideal future look like there?

Bill Mason

Doug, if we helped a high school graduate find a career path for health care and begin that journey with some introductory courses, and, he or she found a career, and an opportunity. I'd be really, really pleased if, an employee of Hillcrest or another health care, institution in Knox County or, anywhere, was able to take some classes and move up, from whatever job they're in to, better paying a higher level job that they, were, confident about and, felt good about having, you know, that would be a success. I think that the opportunity that we're providing, to have bilingual classes, here. So, our neighbors, whether they're residents or potential employees, who can, learn and serve, in English or Spanish, is also a great opportunity.

Doug Bryant

On behalf of the employees of Hillcrest, I want to thank both of you for the passion and energy that you all bring to making sure that their lives are as good as they can be as employees, and also for our future students of the Mason center. Thank you all very much for giving the opportunity for us to be able to do what we do and actually fulfill the mission that Hillcrest has always had over the last 60 years of operating in the community. So excited to see what happens from here and the stories that hopefully we're going to be able to tell of new caregivers coming in, to our region and to our area and how they're just prepared and that they find opportunities within the senior living space, the long term care space, or even health care in general.

We can birth that passion here at the Mason center, we're so excited to do that. So thank you all. So much for being with me today. Thank you all for listening today. You've been listening to Certify It the podcast for advancing your career and care. We'll see you next time.

Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Certify It by the Mason Center for Health Care Education. Get connected with us on social media and at themasoncenterknox.com. If you haven't yet, subscribe to this podcast on YouTube and anywhere you get your podcast. And if you're interested in sponsorship or donations to help further our cause of providing affordable, flexible health care certification programs for individuals seeking career mobility in skilled nursing, senior living, and long term care fields. Visit themasoncenterknox.com.

Produced by Solinity Marketing