Parkridge Medical Center chief operating officer Whitney Evans Snardon can encapsulate her duties with great efficiency.
“I provide leadership and oversight of growth initiatives and hospital operations,” she says between eye blinks. Her word use is so proficient; she doesn’t even have to pause to draw a breath.
But as Snardon describes the day she’s had so far – it’s 2 p.m. on a Monday – it becomes apparent her job is easier said than done.
Adding a few words, Snardon says she oversees the daily operations of the ancillary and clinical support services of Parkridge Medical Center and Parkridge West Hospital.
This usually brings her to her office at Parkridge Medical Center on McCallie Avenue early enough in the morning to ensure the engine is purring like a kitten as the 275-bed hospital begins another day.
Today, Snardon was late due to what she calls a wardrobe malfunction.
“That’s what happens when we put coffee in a blender,” she laughs. “I needed to look nice for a photo, so I had to change my outfit.”
The photograph was for a Women’s History Month story about the hospital’s female leaders (See page 14). At 33, Snardon is the youngest of the eight women in the picture. She’s also the only woman of color.
Going broader, Snardon is one of five female chief operating officers and the only black female C-level executive with Parkridge Medical Center’s parent company, Hospital Corporation of America’s TriStar Division, which owns and operates 17 hospitals.
None of these details are lost on her.
“It’s a pretty big thing,” Snardon concedes. “Plenty of Black women have gone before me and gone higher, but I understand the responsibility that comes with it. I need to be a good steward of the hospital’s resources and be a great partner in the community.”
This begins, she adds, with dutifully attending to her daily routine. From checking the turnaround times at Parkridge’s various labs and service departments, to scrutinizing the day’s operating room cases, to safety huddles with other leaders, there’s barely enough time for her to catch her breath between tasks.
When Snardon arrived at work six hours earlier, she was greeted by a text message informing her two operating room technicians would not be in as scheduled. As she shuffled staff, she anticipated calls from disgruntled team members, but none came.
If they had, she would have deployed her firefighting gear, which includes her ability to rally people around a common cause and, when necessary, a flair for snuffing out flames with a firm word.
“I naturally can garner camaraderie,” Snardon says. “Even when people aren’t getting along, I’ll say, ‘Let’s focus on our goal.’ When that doesn’t work, I’ll say, ‘You don’t have to get along outside of work, but you will treat each other with respect while you’re here.’ I don’t shy away from difficult conversations.”
Snardon also embraces healthy conflict, which she says is an opportunity for disputing parties to work together to build trust.
“When I mess up, I admit to it and then work with you to figure out a way to not mess up again. And when others mess up, I give them grace.”
After Snardon scarfed down lunch, the afternoon brought another meeting – this one with her administrative team – and another wrinkle to iron out.
“We had issues over the weekend regarding transfers, so we discussed how to resolve them,” she explains.
As COO, Snardon has a bird’s-eye view of Parkridge Medical Center’s operations. But she says her place is not only in the upper currents but also on the ground.
After her conference with the administrative team, for example, she did her “roundings.” Similar to a doctor visiting patients to assess their progress and provide an update on their care, she walks the facility and talks with the staff about the services they’re providing.
Today, Snardon also handed out attaboys. “Last week was Dietician’s Day, so I dropped off thank you notes to those employees,” she explains. “And I wrote a thank you note to an OR tech who really helped us through the weekend.”
Before Snardon’s Monday is over, she’ll take part in a cardiologist interview, prepare materials for an incoming CEO, meet with the plant operations officer and have one-on-one with the therapy director.
As she bounces from task to task, she says she’s essentially “managing the people who manage the people who do the stuff.” It’s what she was born to do, she adds between eye blinks.
The city that care forgot
Snardon spent the first 25 years of her life in and around New Orleans. She was in high school when Hurricane Katrina caused record-setting destruction and loss of life in the city in 2005 but stayed close to home for undergraduate school after Loyola University New Orleans offered her a full ride.
“Loyola molded me,” she says. “It shaped my thoughts about social justice, corporate responsibility and doing right by people.”
Snardon entered Loyola with an eye on attending medical school after graduation. She’d tended to her grandmother – a stroke victim – throughout high school and health care intrigued her, she says.
However, Snardon balked when she realized seven more years of school lie ahead of her and became a bank teller instead.
“That was intimidating,” she clarifies. “I also realized I didn’t want to be the person making decisions about patients.”
As Snardon toiled in the trenches of a bank for two years, she resolved who she was and what she wanted to become. Once again demonstrating her flair for clarity, she says she realized she’s a natural-born leader.
“I was the kid at the front of the pack in dance class, and I always accidentally ended up as president of this organization and vice president of that organization,” she smiles. “Things fell into place once I realized I could partner health care with leadership.”
Snardon secured a scholarship to Tulane School of Public Health, where she earned a Master of Health Administration, making her the first member of her family to obtain a postgraduate degree.
An administrative residency with LCMC Health, a nonprofit health system in New Orleans, followed and immersed Snardon in the challenges and rewards of health care administration. During her residency, she had a role in rebuilding New Orleans East, a hospital Hurricane Katrina had destroyed but the community had demanded the city reopen.
Galvanized and focused after participating in the restoration of New Orleans East, Snardon next tackled an administrative fellowship at Bon Secours Mercy Health in Paducah, Kentucky, where she contributed to the strategic planning for neurosciences.
Snardon stayed with the facility after completing her fellowship and became the director of its neurosciences department. As she shouldered the mantle of leadership for the first time, the unit grew from no physicians to serving as a referral hub for western Kentucky.
“It was an incredible teamwork experience,” Snardon says.
By the time a friend who was with Parkridge Health System in Chattanooga asked Snardon if she’d like to work for the hospital, she was “itching to stretch her capabilities,” she says.
Snardon arrived in December 2020 as the associate administrator of the Chattanooga market. Not long after being promoted to vice president of operations in September, someone suggested she vie for the newly vacated COO spot.
“I’d just been promoted, so I wasn’t sure how that would look,” she laughs. “But it worked out because I changed jobs so quickly, some people didn’t even realize I’d already been promoted.”
A competitive advantage
Tom Ozburn, president and CEO of Parkridge Health, extolled the promotion of Snardon when her advancement was announced in January.
“Whitney brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to this position and has proven to be a tremendous asset to Parkridge,” Ozburn said. “We’re confident she’ll play a critical role as we continue to provide unparalleled care to the community.”
Snardon says her background serving in various capacities for LCMC Health and Bon Secours Mercy Health will allow to her meet the expectations of Ozburn and others.
“I have a unique background in our system. A lot of our COOs came up through our parent company, whereas I’ve been with other hospitals. That gives me insight into what our competitors might do.”
Snardon brings her competitive advantage to her position at a time when national headlines, at least, are declaring the health care system in the U.S. is decidedly unhealthy.
“It’s time to fix the broken health care system,” urges Forbes in an April 2022 article, which cites an earlier piece that claims 47% of health care workers plan to leave their jobs by 2025.
On March 9, an MSNBC headline proclaimed “Medical tourism is a symptom of our broken health care system,” while a Sept. 9 piece on The Observer website begins by stating, “The United States, for all it has to offer as a top industrialized country and a global superpower, can’t provide quality health care to a majority of its residents.”
Snardon has her thoughts about why many consider the health care system in the U.S. to be broken.
“We find new ways of making health care more and more complicated,” she proposes. “We rarely try to figure out what might make it easier. By ‘we,’ I mean everybody in health care – the pharmaceutical industry, insurance providers, hospitals, etcetera.
“A lot of the complexity comes from regulatory standards. But there’s a reason behind every standard. So I’d say the health care system is broken because of the many different areas where it can break. We just have to make the pieces fit together better.”
Snardon says Parkridge and other hospitals can help to improve the health care system by assuming corporate and social responsibility.
“We can make health care easier by making our buildings as safe as possible, by providing the necessary services and by being transparent. We can also make sure the community is as healthy and safe as possible. Then people won’t need as many of our services.”
Since joining Parkridge Health, Snardon has worked both inside and outside of the hospital to foster a stronger and healthier community.
For starters, she serves as an advisory board member of the Hamilton County Family Justice Center and works closely with the Orchard Knob Collaborative, which aims to improve the health and well-being of the community by addressing the social detriments of health.
Snardon also serves on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and is the chair of the Black Colleague Network for HCA’s TriStar Division.
In addition, she’s a fellow with both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Urban League.
Given how full Snardon’s days are, she could likely shave her list of community-minded endeavors by a few organizations without raising eyebrows. But she says that’s not how she’s built.
“I’d be bored if I didn’t do something in the community. I want to leave this world better than it was when I was born into it.”
Home and family
Each day, no matter how crammed, comes to an end. Once this one does, Snardon will return to the place where coffee in a blender ruined an outfit as the morning started – home.
Tonight, there will be clothes to wash. But there will also be exquisite downtime with her husband, Corbin, and their adopted son, Ray. Snardon smiles as she speaks of her family and says she and Corbin would like to add a daughter one day.
She’d also like to add to her collection of bourbon and sneakers.
Snardon’s smile widens at the mention of these two personal indulgences. “I collect things,” she says, encapsulating her hobbies with great efficiency. “One is bourbon. My husband and I have close to 75 bottles. He’s a Kentucky boy, and when he introduced me to it, it took off like wildfire.”
Snardon also collects sneakers. This inferno was burning before Corbin entered the picture, and while he didn’t try to extinguish it, Snardon says it has died down a bit since she married him.
“I had probably close to 80 pairs,” she laughs. “I also had a problem, so when I married Corbin, I had to downsize my collection. Now I have maybe 35 pairs.”
Sleep will follow and then an alarm will announce the start of a new day.
As Snardon dutifully attends to her daily routine, she’ll pause occasionally to reflect on what it means for her to be the COO of Parkridge Medical Center.
“Women are still making history,” she says. “It’s hard to believe we’re still seeing the first woman this and the first woman that in 2023, but we’re getting there, slowly but surely.”