NEA Women in Business: Kerri Parnell

Residence: Jonesboro

Education: Bachelor’s degree in accounting and master’s degree in business administration, Arkansas State University; certified administrator of surgery center (CASC) certification

What has been the most fulfilling moment of your career so far? The most fulfilling moments of my career are tied to moments of growth or expansion for the surgery center. Several years ago we opened two additional operating rooms to accommodate increased volume. Most recently, as CMS has begun to approve higher acuity cases in the ambulatory setting, we have begun to slowly and safely expand our services to include procedures like total joints. Being able to navigate these changes and implement them successfully while providing excellent patient care is extremely fulfilling.

What character traits do you feel have benefited you in your success? The character traits I feel have most benefited me in my success are loyalty and being team-oriented. I knew when I first started at OSC that I wanted this to be my long-term career. I immersed myself in the vision and the mission the hospital and physician partners had for the facility and I strive to stay true to that. I grew up playing team sports, and I firmly believe that laid the foundation for learning to value the effort of others and realize you need strong people around you in order to succeed. I could not do my job without all of the fantastic managers, nurses, techs and administrative staff we have at the center. I am truly blessed to be a part of the team we have created.

How do you spend your time away from work? What are your hobbies? Most mornings I am up and out the door by a little after 5 a.m. to meet a group of ladies and walk our neighborhood before we start our day. These ladies have become great friends and our conversations put a smile on my face and begin my day on a positive note. I have recently begun learning how to play pickle ball. It’s something my husband also enjoys and we can do together. Other than that, I love to read and see my granddaughter as much as I am able.

What’s the last good book you read? The last good book I read was “The Women” by Kristen Hannah. It is about the integral and often overlooked and unappreciated role women played in the Vietnam War. Her book, “The Nightingale,” is another favorite that I’ve reread several times.

What’s your favorite app at the moment? I use the Audible app and a couple of different podcast apps every day. Listening to books and podcasts while I do mundane tasks like getting ready for the day, driving, cleaning the house or cooking, helps me be more productive.  

What was your dream job and why? Obviously I love my job, but if I were to do anything else I would be a literary agent. Any job that pays me to read would be a dream. From a very young age, reading has been a passion. I love everything from autobiographies to mystery and crime novels and all types of fiction.

If you have a bucket list, what are the top three things on it? I read an article not too long ago about the 10 U.S. food tours in places like New Orleans, Portland and Seattle. Since I tend to plan all of our vacations around the food we will eat, this is right up my alley. Taking a professional cooking class is another bucket list item along with traveling to and exploring Greece.

Can you share how COVID impacted your business or organization during the pandemic? I don’t know that I have enough space to describe all of the ways COVID impacted our surgery center. Beginning in March 2020, the Arkansas Department of Health called for all elective surgical procedures to be canceled to conserve PPE and to help slow the spread of the virus. We had to furlough the majority of our staff and could only do urgent and emergent cases. This dropped our volume by 90%. 

Then as we were allowed to begin slowly re-opening, the logistics of performing and getting results for the required COVID testing within 24 hours of the procedure, made things difficult. It was a full year before we reached pre-pandemic levels of staffing and volume. When we were back to full volume, being able to obtain the supplies needed to perform cases became a challenge. Due to national supply shortages and transportation issues, many supplies were difficult to get on time or at all. 

Staffing was another way COVID impacted us. During the height of the pandemic some staff chose to take more lucrative travel assignments. This reduced the local pool of available nurses and techs and made it a challenge to hire and retain staff. This continued for a couple of years but we are seeing this trend diminish and it is less of an obstacle recently. Though they were frustrating at the time, now I am thankful for those challenges as they made us come together as a team to find ways to be resourceful.

What advice would you give young women who are at the beginning of their careers? The main advice I would give young women beginning their careers would be to practice the pause. Pause and listen. Actually hear what people are saying. Not all viewpoints align with yours, but that doesn’t make them wrong. You can learn a lot by listening and actually hearing what others are saying. Don’t always be quick to interject your thoughts. The best leaders value and take into consideration the input of those around them. Pause and think. You don’t have to reply immediately. Take a moment to process what you have read/heard, then reply.  Think about how you want your response to be perceived. Pause before you react. There are people who will make you angry and situations that will frustrate you. Having no outward reaction during these moments allows you to maintain control and let the focus be on your words and your message.

What’s the next big personal or career challenge you plan to take on? My next big personal challenge is to start carving out time to focus on myself and my overall health and wellbeing. As a working professional who is also a mom of three, over the years I found myself putting the needs of others before those of myself. My children are older now. And with only one left in school, our family is doing considerably less extracurricular activities than in the past. I now feel I have the time to start pursuing physical activities and hobbies again that I used to enjoy before life got so busy. There is a reason on an airplane that they tell you to put the oxygen mask on yourself before you do your child. You have to take care of yourself before you can successfully care for others. We often lose sight of that in the busyness of life. On a professional note the next challenge is to just keep growing and learning. As technology and medicine advance, so must we. If you become stagnant, you don’t grow and you run the risk of becoming obsolete at some point.

Who have been mentors who’ve influenced your professional career? My influences started at an early age. For myself and my siblings, my parents worked hard to instill in each of us a sense of self-respect, knowledge that we were capable of achieving any goal we worked toward and most importantly, strong work ethic. All of these lessons have served me well over the course of my career. 

I went to a very small high school in rural southwest Arkansas named Bright Star High School — now closed. My high school counselor, Elaine Pennington, went above and beyond in helping ensure my classmates and I knew every opportunity available to us in pursuing higher education and getting scholarships. Ms. Pennington was also my accounting teacher in high school, which led to my interest in accounting at the college level. In college I had a law and taxation professor, Dr. Jones, who was a mentor and influence during my college and graduate school years. 

After graduate school when I began working in health care, I was fortunate to work with Pam Hooper, Mary Hill and Becky Bennett, who owned a health care management company and played an integral part in helping me grow in my knowledge of leadership skills and the health care industry. In my 21 years at the surgery center I have been blessed to work for and with a myriad of doctors who have supported me and taught me so much. Also during that time, through our joint venture relationship with St. Bernards, I have been fortunate to witness and benefit from the leadership of Ben Owens and Chris Barber.

Do you have a significant other and/or children? If so what do you guys like to do for fun? I have been married to my husband Jeremy Parnell for 25 years. We have three boys — Jackson, Deacon, and Hudson. I also have a precious granddaughter named Baylor. A lot of our fun has always centered around traveling for sports. Over the years our boys have played travel basketball, soccer and baseball. It was a great way to see new places and turn those experiences into long weekends that we could spend quality family time together and make new friends. As the boys have gotten older and are entering new phases of life, fun is just finding time to all be together. We all love to eat and play games. I’ve passed on my competitive nature to our children so family game night, when it happens, is a spirited event.