The Nashville Healthcare Council’s Crucial Conversations series continues to tackle the most pressing topics in healthcare. In a recent session, industry leaders delved into workforce retention strategies, exploring how organizations can adapt to evolving employee expectations through purpose-driven leadership and innovative technology.
Building a Healthier Future: Crucial Conversations Shaping Nashville’s Growth
Nashville is known for its vibrant healthcare ecosystem, but with its rapid expansion, the challenges are mounting. As the city grows, one fundamental question remains: How do we take care of the people who take care of us? This question was at the heart of a recent Crucial Conversations panel discussion, featuring Mark Yancy, CEO, NashvilleHealth, Laurel Graefe, Regional Executive & Senior Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – Nashville Branch and Tony Keck, EVP System Innovation & Chief Population Health Officer at Ballad Health. Their insights illuminated the path toward not only sustaining Nashville’s health industry but also ensuring the well-being of the professionals who drive it forward.
Building a Stronger Community
Mark Yancy, a key leader in Nashville’s healthcare scene, highlighted the city’s success in attracting businesses, noting,“We continue to have great success bringing in jobs through relocations and expansions. Now, we need to ask ourselves, how do we take care of the people that take care of us?”
“We continue to have great success bringing in jobs through relocations and expansions. Now, we need to ask ourselves, how do we take care of the people that take care of us?” – Mark Yancy, CEO, NashvilleHealth
A thriving workforce starts with thriving neighborhoods. Local efforts—like addressing hypertension in North Nashville—are tackling health disparities in key areas that fuel the city’s economy. When workforce health improves at the neighborhood level, the impact extends across Middle Tennessee and beyond.
As companies prioritize workforce health in relocation decisions, Nashville has the opportunity to lead—creating a healthier workforce and a stronger future.
Mental and Physical Health Investments
Laurel offered a timely perspective on the evolving labor market. She emphasized the reality of a very tight workforce, especially in healthcare, which is compounded by the impact of COVID-19. “During COVID, employers invested heavily in mental and physical health. Employers are recognizing that their ability to remain relevant is heavily reliant on their teams’ ability to show up,” she shared.
As we look at Nashville’s growth, Laurel pointed out a crucial factor: the influx of young, healthy professionals has been a driving force behind the city’s phenomenal rise. “When I look at Nashville, a big component of our growing scale are young, healthy professionals, which contributes to phenomenal growth.”
“When I look at Nashville, a big component of our growing scale are young, healthy professionals, which contributes to phenomenal growth.” – Laurel Graefe, Regional Executive & Senior Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta – Nashville Branch
However, the challenge lies in creating an ecosystem where everyone is aligned toward the same goals, investing in the community’s collective well-being. “How do we create an ecosystem where everyone is engaged in the same outcome and investing in them?” she asked.
Laurel also drew attention to the pitfalls of short-term investments in healthcare that fail to yield immediate results. She reflected, “So many of the greatest challenges today are connected back to a timing mismatch. Even investments in high ROI projects that don’t show positive results right away, can look like failures in the near term, which can garner pushback from investors or voters. It’s this dynamic that can make these important investments in health outcomes so difficult to execute in the real world. It’s a continuous cycle.”
A compelling metaphor from Laurel put things into perspective: “Consumers are truly the engine of the US economy, and we know when people are healthy enough to fully participate as workers, as neighbors, and as consumers, the economies of our communities thrive.” This quote emphasizes the importance of long-term health investments — not just for individuals, but for the broader economic fabric of the community.
Building a Collaborative and Resilient Community
Tony’s contribution centered on a growing concern for Nashville’s population and healthcare infrastructure. He pointed out the critical issue of a population in slow decline and stressed that If we do not have a growing population that is well insured, we are going to struggle. This, he noted, highlights the need for investments that extend beyond just healthcare but into the community as a whole.
Tony highlighted how Ballad Health currently supports its workforce by providing childcare for nurses and employees. This not only helps attract and retain talent but also strengthens the community by ensuring that children are better prepared for kindergarten. By providing nurses with childcare, Ballad Health not only attracts more talent and employees, but they also get these children prepared for kindergarten, which isn’t just helpful for Ballad but for the growth of our overall community, Tony explained.
His vision for community health is all about collaboration. It’s about relative advantages, he emphasized. Everyone has a role to play in shaping Nashville’s future — but only by working together can the city ensure it remains a place where businesses thrive and communities flourish.
Tony also emphasized the importance of Nashville as a model for others, sharing that everyone points to Nashville on how we got all communities together to go in the same direction. The success of the city’s healthcare model, he believes, lies in its ability to unite diverse sectors under a shared vision for community health and development.
Collaboration Beyond ROI Silos
A central theme from the discussion was the need for a collaborative approach that goes beyond traditional ROI silos. Tony pointed out that we all have ways to contribute to a better community, but this can only happen if we collectively invest in long-term solutions: You can’t do that if you are looking only within your own ROI silo. This idea of shared responsibility underlines the necessity for all sectors to pitch in and work together toward collective outcomes.
Economic Development and Community Health: A Shared Responsibility
One of the most pressing challenges the panel discussed was ensuring that Nashville’s rapid economic growth is matched by improvements in community health outcomes. As Mark, Laurel, and Tony outlined, this is not just about business success; it’s about creating an environment where people, from healthcare workers to residents, can thrive.
Laurel captured the essence of the conversation when she posed the question: “How do we ensure economic development comes embedded with an expectation to invest in our communities?” It’s a call to action for all sectors to invest in long-term solutions — not just in the healthcare system but in the social infrastructure that supports it.
By leveraging these crucial conversations, Nashville is positioning itself to lead the way in healthcare innovation. But the true success will come when leaders at all levels recognize that the health of a community is intertwined with its economic vitality. It’s a vision that requires collaboration, empathy, and a shared commitment to the well-being of every individual who contributes to the city’s growth.
About the Nashville Health Care Council
The Nashville Health Care Council strengthens and elevates Nashville as The Healthcare City. With a $68 billion economic impact and 333,000 jobs locally, Nashville’s healthcare ecosystem is a world-class healthcare hub. Founded in 1995, the Council serves as the common ground for the city’s vibrant healthcare cluster. The Council offers engagement opportunities where the industry’s most influential executives come together to exchange ideas, share solutions, build businesses and grow leaders.