To say that Dana Dye wears many hats is a like saying Lake Tahoe gets a bit of snow in the winter. As chief nursing officer (CNO), for Renown Health, she is responsible for overseeing nursing practices in all the facilities associated with the Renown network which includes four hospitals, eight medical groups, and several additional healthcare facilities throughout Northern Nevada. As chief operating officer for Renown Regional Medical Center, Dye’s responsibilities include overseeing all operations for the Regional Medical Center, including all clinical and non-clinical departments.
For Dye, though, her first title is that of registered nurse (RN), which is where she started out more than 20 years ago, and which continues to be a focus for her even as a hospital administrator. “Nursing governs the largest number of people within any hospital,” she said, adding that the issues nurses face are not that different from every other department. “We all struggle with recruitment of employees in our healthcare environment. So many of the issues are the same.”
Dye came to Renown almost two years ago. A friend, who was a recruiter, told her about the CNO position in Reno and urged her to apply because it seemed like a good fit. During the interview process, she traveled to Reno and was given the opportunity to meet with many of the hospital staff in addition to senior leadership. She was impressed with the vision of Renown Health’s president and CEO, Jim Miller, in building a healthcare network focused on meeting healthcare challenges in innovative ways, with an emphasis on using the clinicians’ vantage point to understand what the community needs. The clincher, though, was interviewing with a group of staff nurses. “We have staff nurses who participate in shared governance, and interviewing with them, and having them tell me about their mission to become a magnet facility – it was staff-driven. Hospitals all over the country are trying to get this certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. They only give it to 10 percent of the facilities in the country and mostly you hear about administrators or management pressing to get this certification. This was staff-driven. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is incredible,’” she said, deciding at that point to make the move to Reno.
The move into administration, though not a common one for a nurse, came easily and almost accidentally to Dye. She was working at a community hospital in Kansas City as manager of the telemetry unit when the current CNO was called into service in the Gulf War. The CEO convinced her to take the position on an interim basis, but when the CNO returned, she decided to retire and Dye stepped into administration on a permanent basis. She credits her CEO from Kansas City with giving her the best advice she could have received: to return to school and earn her masters in public administration with an emphasis on healthcare administration, which she did. “I was blessed by attending a great program and having a great program to help push me along this path,” she said.
Almost two years down the road, Dye is still thrilled with Renown and its commitment to not only provide the best healthcare for the community, but also create a great place to work for the staff. “I have not been disappointed one day,” said Dye.