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April 27, 2018 • Local News

El Paso Times: Providence top El Paso executive promoted to Tenet hospital chain's chief nursing officer

The Hospitals of Providence's top El Paso executive is moving up, but she's not moving out.

Sally Hurt-Deitch, an El Paso native who's been Providence's top executive for three years, has been promoted to vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer for Providence's parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corp., a large national hospital chain based in Dallas.

"I am not leaving El Paso, where I will continue to reside," she said in a phone interview. "With a husband (Greg Deitch, who operates his own El Paso business) and five children (ages 10 to 16), it's difficult to uproot everyone."

"I'll have an office in El Paso and in Dallas," and travel to Dallas and various Tenet hospitals about half of each month, she said.

In her new job, Hurt-Dietch, 50, who received bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing at the University of Texas at El Paso, will oversee patient-care functions, which include overseeing about 33,000 nurses at Tenet's 69 general hospitals, 21 surgical hospitals, and 460 outpatient facilities across the country.

Last year, Hurt-Deitch's El Paso job was expanded as she became group chief executive officer for Providence and Tenet's Valley Baptist Health System in the Brownsville and Harlingen areas of Texas.

Providence, with six hospitals, including a micro-hospital, and about 4,500 employees, is one of Tenet's largest health-care networks. 

Hurt-Dietch is being replaced in El Paso by Nicholas Tejeda, currently CEO of Providence's Transmountain and Sierra hospital campuses. He'll be Providence's El Paso Market CEO. He won't oversee the Rio Grande Valley hospital system.

The job changes take effect April 30.

Tejeda's replacement at the two El Paso hospitals he oversees has not yet been announced.

Eric Evans, who Hurt-Deitch replaced as Providence's top executive in April 2015, and is now president of Tenet's hospital operations, said in a statement that Hurt-Deitch and Tejeda "are outstanding leaders who embody our culture and values and live and breathe our mission — to help people live happier, healthier lives — every single day."

"We take pride in promoting within" and the caliber of their skils will benefit Tenet in their new jobs, he said.

Hurt-Deitch moved back to her hometown 11 years ago to help open Providence's East El Paso hospital, and quickly moved up the corporate ladder.

She's been in the healthcare industry 28 years, starting as a registered nurse at Sun Towers Hospital, which is now Las Palmas Medical Center, operated by Tenet's rival national hospital chain, HCA Healthcare Inc.

Hurt-Deitch worked for HCA 17 years, also moving up the corporate ladder. She was CEO of then HCA-operated OU (Oklahoma University) Medical Center Edmond, in Edmond, Okla., when she was recruited by Tenet to move back to El Paso to become CEO of the new East El Paso hospital, which was under construction when she took the job.

Hurt-Deitch said her years of working in hospitals as a nurse, chief nursing officer, and CEO gives her a good understanding of hospital operations. She'll need those skills to help figure out how nurses can change with the ever-evolving health-care system, she said.

"The role of the nurse has made a big change since I started in 1990," Hurt-Deitch said. "Nurses have become team leaders, clinical leaders with other health-care providers."

"Patient engagement on (patient) care falls back many times on nursing — how to connect to patients to teach and educate them" on their health condition, she said. 

Source: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2018/04/27/healthcare-company-promotes-el-paso-providence-leader-chief-nursing-officer/547519002/