A Local Leader with a Global Impact

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, we have our first episode with Tom Williams, the CEO of UNC Johnston Health. We talked to him about his growing up in the Bunn area of North Carolina. Near the Mudcats Stadium, as he says. His decision to go to Durham Tech and get a two year degree, even though he could have gone to NC State or any of the other major universities.

His time working in a respiratory therapist and how he evolved into hospital administration as his career moved on and why he decided to get in the hospital administration and he actually says. It was kind of by accident. We also talked to him a little bit about the expansion plans, including a brand new patient tower behind the hospital in Clayton.

So if you’re interested in Johnston, UNC Johnson Health and where it’s going, you’re gonna enjoy this podcast. So listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought [00:01:00] to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of the best of Johnston County podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have the CEO of UNC Health Johnston, Tom Williams. He we’re gonna do two episodes of him. In this first episode, we’re gonna talk to him a little bit about his background as a respiratory therapist, how he got into the hospital administration business.

Well over 20 years ago some of the things that UNC Health does some of the services it provides and and other interesting things about the hospital that people may not know including like exactly what is included [00:02:00] in UNC Health Johnston. And then we’re gonna do another episode that’ll be out in a few weeks where we talk to ’em a little bit more about what’s going on in healthcare.

The consolidation of healthcare the certificate of need laws in healthcare and stuff like that. So be checking in on that one in a couple weeks when we get his answers on some of those. But before we get to that, I’d like to ask you to like, follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or any of the other social media channels of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for right at two years, and we had a lot of great guests. And so if you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you.

Welcome Tom.

Tom Williams: Glad to be here. Thank you for asking.

Jonathan Breeden: Thank you. I, I appreciate you coming. I, when I saw April cover at the Jane Now Awards Bank one of the Jane Now awards receptions back in July. I’m like. April, I need you to come be on my podcast. She was like, not me. And she’s like, I was like, well, you gotta get me somebody from the hospital.

She said, I’ll get you [00:03:00] somebody. And I didn’t know she was gonna get me the CEO, but she did get me somebody.

Tom Williams: Well, she knows I love to run my mask.

Jonathan Breeden: Exactly what it’s, well, the other thing is I know she’s an attorney and a lot of people don’t know that, but she probably was smarter than the rest of us that never actually practiced law.

Tom Williams: Yeah. She’s

Jonathan Breeden: or didn’t practice for very long.

Tom Williams: She is a wake forest attorney, but we did not hold that against her.

Jonathan Breeden: I just, I’m always asking her like, you sure you don’t wanna come back and practice law? I’ve always got a job. And she’s like, I don’t wanna practice law.

Tom Williams: I can’t believe you’re right here to start and trying to recruit some of my best friends.

Jonathan Breeden: I know, right? She’s like, she does not wanna practice law. So anyway tell the audience what’s your name and what you do.

Tom Williams: So Tommy Williams. I am the CEO and president of UNC Health Johnston. I came to Johnston in 2019. I have worked in healthcare my entire life. Do you want me to go into where I grew up and kind of how

Jonathan Breeden: Sure. I mean, I mean everybody, I love those stories. I really do.

Tom Williams: So, I grew up right in Southern Point of Franklin. In the Pine Ridge and Pilot community, most people when I say that, they’ll say, where’s that at? And [00:04:00] then I say, well, it’s near Bunn. A lot of people say, where’s that at? I’ll say, well, it’s near the Mudcats Stadium.

A lot of people know where that’s at. And, and that is where I call home now. I grew up, my dad, he worked with the Department of Transportation. My mom worked for an agriculture extension agency outta Lewisburg, and my dad was also a farmer. So I grew up prime and tobacco. And working on a farm every day to the week.

And when, and I was in high school, I was fortunate, I was a really good student and I actually applied to NC State and UNC and Appalachian State and got accepted. But I had no idea what I wanted. I was like, any of them, you know, like, I’m getting outta school, whatcha gonna do, right. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.

But someone the school guidance counselor there at Bunn High School sat down with me when I was a senior and she was like, whatcha gonna do with your life? I don’t know. Gonna school. She said, you don’t wanna be a farmer? And I was like, no, don’t think so. And she said, well, you should look into respiratory therapy.

I’m like, I don’t even know what respiratory therapy is. And then so she set me up as a job shadow as a student, and I went to Wake [00:05:00] Med and spent a day there with respiratory therapy. I literally left that day, said. I’m gonna be a respiratory therapist. I was blown away. Just the work in the hospital, the excitement of the hospital, the people in the hospital, and I knew that’s what I wanted to be.

So that’s what kind of started me off in healthcare.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, man, that’s wild. And you went to Durham Tech? I think I did to get that respiratory therapy.

Tom Williams: Will say this. That because I know some of your listeners may know Sam Thornton. Sam Thornton lives in Four Oaks. He’s a respiratory therapist and he works with us at Clayton.

And he’s our manager of cardiopulmonary services now. He was the young respiratory therapist that they put me with that day. And I shadowed with him and, and now he and I work together.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, how about that?

Tom Williams: Which is just incredible kind of it’s funny how things circle back around. Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and you got started with a, a two year associate’s degree.

Tom Williams: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. That’s how you got your first job.

Tom Williams: Absolutely. And I, I tell everybody, of course, I serve now in the JCC Board of trustees. We’re so fortunate we got such a wonderful [00:06:00] educational institution here in Johnston County. I love JCC. It’s amazing what Dr. Linus and his team are doing there and expansion, trying to keep up with growth just like we are.

But yeah, I went to Durham Tech and because I, I kind of checked around all the different schools at the time, there weren’t many respiratory therapy programs in the state. Now, this was back in 1982, so, I went, decided to go to Durham Tech. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me, one, like everybody else.

I was actually 17 years old when I graduated high school. And ’cause I have a late birthday in October. So being 17 and you know, you’re, I was a knothead like most young 17 year olds are, and, but, but you know, kind of, it woke me up. It grew me up put me on a track. I think that matured me and I learned so much about, yeah, I, I tell everybody.

Community college is the best deal going.

Jonathan Breeden: Absolutely.

Tom Williams: It’s the best deal going,

Jonathan Breeden: absolutely the best deal going. I was on the JCC board of trustees from 2015 to 2019. And that was a great experience. I learned so much and, and we were [00:07:00] growing then and they’re growing even more now with, I think I was just saw 6,500 degrees seeking students this fall.

When I was on the board seven or eight years ago, it was like. 4,200. So, I mean, it’s so much bigger than it, than it was. And with it’s really amazing and I learned so much about everything that, that Johnston Community College did and the community and, you know, big support. I’m glad you’re on that board because you know, we needed people from all the different industries, you know, and, and that, that’s great.

And I’m. Big believer in JCC and what it does, the tuition, if you’re a, if you’re a Johnston County High School graduate is free for the first two years.

Tom Williams: Free. The Commissioner’s promise.

Jonathan Breeden: The Commissioner’s promise. And you know, and then you can go get your four year degree somewhere else. ’cause you did not immediately get a four year degree, I don’t think. I think you started working and went back to West Land.

Tom Williams: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: 20 years later. Right.

Tom Williams: I did. In fact it was of course, like my counselor told me. It was like big demand in healthcare. Very affordable to go to school. And and I knew, I mean, my, my parents, they [00:08:00] provided, well, they certainly weren’t rich. I knew it was a lot that was gonna be on me to help, you know, to pay for my education.

So it worked out perfect for me. I worked on weekends. I went to school during the week and then I, that was my plan. You know, I come out, be a respiratory therapist, and then later on, my first job wasn’t Wake Med. I worked there and. And worked for a while. Then I decided, well, you know, I probably should go back and finish my four year degree.

So then I started searching around and deciding, and, and I, I felt like the West Land program was worked out perfect. You local, Rocky Mount? I was born in Rocky Mount, so I felt like, well, that’s a good fit for me. I got my business degree there. Not ’cause anybody asked me to, but it’s just something I wanted to do.

I wanted to learn, just keep expanding my knowledge and West Land was fantastic college and I learned a lot there. And then when I got out from that, and it took me a while ’cause I’m taking one in two classes at the time. I got married along the way, had two kids along the way and, and my wife used to to joke.

’cause our first child, I was like, well you guys will probably graduate from college at the same time because it just took me so many years and it’s hard to do when you’re, you know, you’re working full [00:09:00] time, you got a family and you’re going to class, and that was before online classes. I had to go in person from six P to nine p at night.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Tom Williams: And so you, you’re working trying to do all those schedules and then later on also, when I got out and got my bachelor’s degree on business, I said, well, I would like to get an MHA and this’s where

Jonathan Breeden: right

Tom Williams: they had no way to pfeiffer for that.

Jonathan Breeden: Pfeiffer. Okay. Did you do that one online?

Tom Williams: So,

Jonathan Breeden: because Pfeiffer’s not around here.

Tom Williams: They started, they had classes out in RTP.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, I didn’t know that.

Tom Williams: So I would go out there. When I got off work, at that time, I was working at Rex Hospital. So I would leave class, leave work, and then go out there in the evenings from six to nine. I was probably about halfway finished, and then they started the online classes.

That that was a godsend because then I was taking, I could do some classes in person. But also do some online and I was able to knock it out.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And so at MHA is a Master’s of Health Administration.

Tom Williams: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Which is I guess how you started to get into hospital administration, but even before you had the MHA, I think you were already starting to do some hospital supervision type work.

[00:10:00] I mean, you were not just a respiratory therapist. Even before you had that master’s?

Tom Williams: Yeah, I worked of course at WakeMed for a while, and then I left and went to Raleigh Community Hospital, which is now DUKE, Raleigh. I worked there for 10 years. I was director of Respiratory Care and Special Diagnostics.

It included heart and vascular services, echocardiography stress test, and EEG sleep lab. And, but I, you know, I was a working manager, you know, I covered those areas as well as managed it and then went from there. DUKE had a program big DUKE University and we call it Big DUKE, DUKE University at the time where they were training respiratory therapists to sit on ECMO, which is the heart, lung machines.

The profusionists were trained in respiratory for patients that were needing heart transplant. So it was in a pediatric program and it was just, it was a itch. I had to scratch. I had to do it, I wanted to do it. It was something that I could learn it, something I’d never done before. I went and interviewed for that job.

They offered me that job that day and, and I said a lot when I went back to what was the Raleigh community and gave my notice my [00:11:00] dad even. Gave kind of gave me a hard time about it. He worked with Department of Transportation for, you know, 30 plus years. He was like, why, why you, you like your job? Why are you, why are you leaving?

You go somewhere else. Valid question. I, I wanted to learn, I wanna expand. I wanna do something else. So I did that. Learned ECMO became ECMO certified there at DUKE. Worked in at pediatric ICU for several years. Really enjoyed that. Interestingly enough, my wife and I, she, she’s a nurse. We were living in Cary.

Then we decided we wanted to move back and get out in the country. So my dad at the time, he offered us some land that was farmland. That was my granddaddy’s. So we went back and built a house out there. It was an hour drive back and forth at Durham. I was like, I was working night shift. I was like, I can’t do it.

I’m gonna fall asleep. And then I knew someone that worked at Rex Hospital. They offered me a job to come as Rex in 2000 as the coordinator of the Heart Station. So I came and and took that job, and then I’ve been with UNC ever since.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well [00:12:00] and in 2000 were Rex and UNC together at that point?

Tom Williams: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I don’t remember when that sort of

Tom Williams: yes

Jonathan Breeden: started the merger, which ended up Johnston Health sort of merging UNC too. I know it was about that time, you know. So, well that’s interesting. So why did you decide to move away from patient care?

Tom Williams: I don’t think it was a conscious decision. It’s interesting. I’ve had people ask me, you know, we, we do a lot of student shadows that come through and it’s one of my favorite parts of my jobs is talking to students and trying to get them interested in healthcare. And a lot of ’em asked me when did you decide to be a CEO? And I said, I don’t know if I ever decided that. And it’s kind of by accident because you work in a hospital and I think I’ve always been curious by nature and wanted to learn something else and do more. And if you get comfortable in a job, it’s really probably time to challenge yourself even more and also always felt like. Rex, if I’m being honest, probably gave me opportunities maybe I didn’t even deserve, because there were things [00:13:00] that, you know, it’s like things come up and it’s like, well, we don’t have anybody to do this. Well, okay, I’ll do that. Let me try to do that. And, and I’ll tell you the, the first kind of, to, to go back to your question I was a Cath Lab director at Rex and they were starting their plan to do suburban sites and span into Suburban. And my COO at the time, Steve Burris was, we were having lunch together and we were talking about it and he was like, I got all these meetings and they’re with contractors and, and we’re trying to plan for CON and I just don’t have time to do all that. And I says, well, I’ll do it for you. You know, I’ve been director here for a while, let me do that. And I actually told him, I don’t know if this was a good idea or not. I, I says, let me do it and you don’t have to pay me anything extra. I just wanna do it to learn it. And he was like, I can’t turn that down.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s right. You’re gonna work for free. Absolutely.

Tom Williams: But you know, looking back on it. He, you know, gave me that opportunity and mentored me. And that’s what, that’s what’s important. And I think there’s a lot of opportunity like that in healthcare and that’s why I try to tell students and people coming through JCC, if you stand up, raise your hand. And say, let me do that. And it’s okay to [00:14:00] fail. It, it, it would’ve been fine if I, after a month or two, went back and said, you know what? This ain’t for me. This isn’t working out. You know, I got other things I could have done. So, but it did work out. And so just to kinda expanded from there. So I think, you know, the more you ask and the more you step up and the more you like, seek out opportunities and healthcare is such a growing field, you know, those opportunities will present themselves. So I think that’s kind of how I ended up in administration.

Jonathan Breeden: So why did you take the job? I mean, you were the second, you were number two at Rex, I think. Well, you’re number one at UNC Johnston Health. I mean, I guess this is a promotion, but I mean, you were gonna have to come out here, new county, new employees, you know, developing system.

Tom Williams: It was all that. But I was vice president of ambulatory

Jonathan Breeden: right

Tom Williams: services. And also had lab and radiology in the hospital. Loved it, Rex. Very good to me. And then we were open up the new hospital out in Holly Springs, so it was a 50 bed hospital. So naturally when I was working [00:15:00] on that, we were in design for that.

I called up Mr. Kyle McDermott here at Johnston and said, well, can I come to Clayton because Clayton was open and that’s 50 bed hospital.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Tom Williams: I said, I really just wanna spend a day there, walk it. Talk to all your teammates there. Ask them questions. What do you like, what do you dislike? What would you change about the design?

Because we wanted to build off of what they knew at Clayton and put it in Holly Springs. So I spent the day here and when I literally, when I left that day and I got home, I told my wife, I said, you know what I said. Those folks over there at Johnston, the nicest people I’ve ever seen and worked with, I said, I bugged them and asked them a thousand questions.

Nobody told me to hit the road. I know how busy they were. Very kind to me, very nice to me, answered all my questions. I was like it. It was a feeling of family. And, and, and I couldn’t get away from it. And I said, what the, what a, what a great group of people. I said, if something ever comes open at Johnston, I’m probably gonna put my name in that hat.

Well, interestingly enough, Mr. Chuck Elliott knew him and worked with him many years. He [00:16:00] had been the CEO for I think 10 years or more.

Jonathan Breeden: Yep.

Tom Williams: And he told me he was gonna retire. And so it, the, the initial conversation with UNC and Steve Burris, who’s my boss at the time, I said, you know, I said, I don’t know what y’all’s plans are for the next CEO there at Johnston, but if there’s a opportunity to do an interim role, I’d like to do that. ‘Cause one I’d learned a lot. But I would like to connect and, and be down there and I’d still continue to work on this Holly Springs Hospital. So that’s what I did. And I got to meet, you know, the board members I talked to. Dr. Janice was my first, he was the board chair at the time. And same thing, each and every board member I met with, it was just, we we’re so fortunate because we had board members, members of the community give their time. Love that hospital, love this community. They just, you know, embraced me. And I just, and, and I literally, when I started there, I came back to Steve. I said, oh, I’m totally gonna apply for that job. You know, I, that’s, that’s where I belong.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I mean, after about six months they gave you the job I [00:17:00] think.

Tom Williams: We did. And of course, in that process. You know, COVID hit, we started that, started through that. I don’t wanna talk about COVID. It gives me PTSD.

Jonathan Breeden: No, it was a lot, lot.

Tom Williams: I’ll say a funny thing happened. I, I had been on the job for, let’s see, I came in November or so, it was like March, April, may, June we started and all the shutdowns and all the issues and every, and that time period.

And I remember I was walking in one of our environmental services teammates, and he was like, Hey, he said, you’re the new interim. CEO. I was like, yeah, I am. He was like, why, why would you take a job like that here when COVID is kicking off? I kind of thought to myself, I went to an answer and I thought, I, I don’t know if I got a good answer.

So I had had to kind of think about it for a little bit. So, but you know, that, that was, it was a good process, but, but two, again, you know what you, you asked me what brought me here. It’s, it’s the people of Johnston County and, and the board and our teammates. And, and I tell everybody in orientation what makes a community [00:18:00] hospital special is that, you know, every hospital you go to, people take their jobs seriously. And we’re really fortunate here in this area because, you know, we got Duke, we got Wake Med, we got a UNC system. You land in any of those hospitals, people gonna take care of you. You, you’re gonna be good. They got cutting edge technology and you’re gonna be okay. Not every area of the country can say that. So we are very fortunate, and I’ll say that you know right up front, but when you’re in a community hospital like Johnston, the people that you are taking care of, they’re your neighbors. They’re the people you go to church with. They’re your family. You see ’em in the grocery store, you. That means a lot, that that’s special.

And it, it, you, you’re already accountable, but that holds you more accountable.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Tom Williams: And, and nothing makes me happier for, you know, I’ll be at work and somebody will call my cell phone or text me and they’ll say, Hey, Tommy, my, my neighbor, my uncle, my aunt, you know, my brother is in the hospital, he’s in room such and such. Will you go by and check on them? That’s what I like to do, you know?

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome.

Tom Williams: And that’s the connection back to you like. [00:19:00] Administration, but still that patient care touch, you know, that’s what keeps us going. The things I do with planning and strategy and spreadsheets, that that’s, that’s not a long term. Makes you happy.

Jonathan Breeden: Right? Right.

Tom Williams: What makes you happy is working with our teammates that are so dedicated and working with those patients that are there, that we are responsible for.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: So the next question is for people that don’t listen. I mean, people who lived in Johnston County a long time, it was Johnston Memorial Hospital and then we had this, sort of merger. And I guess it is a merger. It could be an acquisition depending on which word you want to use by UNC Health of Johnston Health, and its Johnston Memorial Hospital and, its [00:20:00] assets, so, I guess, what is it, what is UNC Johnston Health?

Tom Williams: So we are 100% owned by UNC, but we are Johnston Health Services Corporation and Johnston Health includes not only the two hospitals, but also our SECU Hospice House. It also includes a lot of outpatient clinics.

If you go to the medical mall, all of our outpatient diagnostics that are over there, wound care, radiology it includes our early learning center that we have also our Health Quest, the wellness center that we have and also in part kind of includes a lot of the clinics because we have specialty clinics here two ways.

We have UNCPN, which is the physician network of UNC, but we’re responsible for all of those clinics that are here in Johnston County, and we work closely with them about expansion needs, recruitment physicians. But not just primary care and urgent care, but also specialty care. We have orthopedics and OB and ENT and rheumatology and [00:21:00] neurology, and I’m sure I’m believing off some of ’em, right?

We’re we are responsible for all of them and, and right now about $11 million of the hospital budget goes to support. Growth and expansion and the work we’re doing in our outpatient clinics as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, and, and you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to go to you know, the, the ENT there across from the Clayton Hospital and also, if I have to go to urgent care, I go to that UNC urgent Care right there across from the Clayton Hospital as well. And they always do a good job for, for me there. And you don’t have to wait forever and everybody’s really nice. And so, and I know they got rheumatology in that, that, that office there across from the hospital as well.

And then there’s, there’s cardiologists and stuff in the building next to the hospital, right? So there’s, there’s all kinds of, and UNC is responsible for, for all of all of that as well. I’m right about that. Right? That’s what you’re talking about, right?

Tom Williams: Yeah. Yeah. Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s all under the umbrella

Tom Williams: and, and we partner with UNC and with UNC Rex, we have, you know, back in [00:22:00] 2021, we did a joint operating agreement with Rex. And really what that meant was. You know, the majority, a lot of, we have a professional services agreement with Rex to provide us with a lot of physicians gi, heart and vascular that you mentioned, our hospitalist team that work there in the hospital. Our neonatologist for our, in our mother baby unit.

All of these, we have our urology as well. But and again, I probably. I apologize. I’m probably leaving out some of those guys. But, but we we have a PSA with them and the reason that is, it, it, it can be difficult for a, a small community hospital to recruit and you have to recruit now nationwide to really attract, because there’s so much demand for not only primary care docs for apps and nurse practitioners.

And then any of these specialties. I mean, like, you know, we’ve been trying to recruit for neurology and urology for over two years. Now, if you talk to Rex and the, and the physician, even the private practices in Wake County, they’ll tell you the same thing. You know, we’re, we’re trying to recruit, everybody’s trying to recruit, they’re just not out [00:23:00] there.

So we, we, we gotta recruit nationally. It’s easier to recruit, you know, with as UNC and as Rex and as all of us together recruiting these specialty physicians. If you’re graduating from UNC and I tell you, oh, you’re gonna come and join a one or two member practice in Smithfield, you might be like, eh, I don’t know.

I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that. But if I tell you, okay, you’re part of UNC and it’s a 14 member group and you know, or more, I mean, some of those groups are 40 members but you’re gonna be practicing in Clayton and Smithfield. You feel better about that ’cause you got a team behind you and it’s a little bit easier to recruit.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I understand how hard it is to recruit. I mean, we all, we all need talent. We had Stacy Beard from Novo Nordisk here a few weeks ago. All she kept saying through both episodes we did with her is we’re hiring, we’re hiring, we’re hiring. And you’re all, you’re hiring that too, right? I mean it’s, I mean we’re all, it’s all about talent, right? I mean, we’re all trying to get talent.

Tom Williams: We got a lot of growth coming up and I’m sure we’ll talk about that. But we were right at 1500 teammates [00:24:00] when I got here in 2019. We’re just over 2000 now. So even through the COVID years we were hiring, we never froze. Hiring. We were hiring, hiring, hiring. Right.

Why? Because it’s people that are listening to this. Johnston County is growing the way it is, right? So we are just trying to keep up. That’s why, you know, selfishly, that’s why I got involved with JCC and on their board. I’m interested in what they do because. We will take everything that comes out of that.

I’ve told Dr. Linquist, I want every one of your nurses, I want ’em all right. We, we hired, we hired 42 new grads this past year, 42, and it wasn’t enough. So, and we hire from s Samson community college, you know, all, all surrounded. Wake may have to tell you the same thing. DUKE could tell you the same thing.

Rex tell you the same thing. We, we are hiring, you know, ’cause we, we need people. ‘Cause we’re keeping up with the growth. That’s fortunate. You know? You know, one of the things you had asked me before, you know, we turned on, what do you like about Johnston County? Well, the people we talked about that. I love the growth, but you know, it’s a two-edged [00:25:00] sword.

I mean, I, I, you know, I had traffic issues getting here as well today, right? I, I, so we all fuss about the traffic and the growth. I mean, there were, there were fields I passed fields coming here today that I used to bird hunt with my, with my father-in-law. It’s houses now, you know, and that’s troubling.

But, you know, that’s, but also think about. I got colleagues in the UNC system that their county’s going the other way.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

Tom Williams: And, and they’re trying to figure out how are we gonna keep a hospital open? How am I even going to get an OB doctor to staff this? Right. They’re asking how well, and we are like we’re growing and expanding, how are we gonna get enough people into staff our expansion needs? Well, it, that’s the problem.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and I’m from scotland County, right. And Scotland County has been losing population over the years. It has a great hospital there. And but it’s the same thing, like how do you.

You know, and they’re closing schools because they don’t have enough kids to be in the schools where we can’t build enough schools in Johnston County.

Tom Williams: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So it is a double-edged sort, and you don’t have to go very [00:26:00] far to see counties in a different position and, and small rural hospitals that are closing.

And we don’t have time to get into all that. And Medicaid expansion won’t get into all that on, you know, well in this,

Tom Williams: but you might to keep this podcast positive. So

Jonathan Breeden: we’re not gonna talk about that. No, we’re gonna get all that. But I mean, but, but one of the last questions for this first episode, and we’re gonna do a second one, so if we listen back in a couple weeks for the next one, is. What are the expansion plans for UNC Health here in Johnston County? I know they’re gonna do something with the hospital in Clayton, but I don’t know what.

Tom Williams: Yeah, so, a couple of things are on board right now, and other expansion, we’ve already did, we just finished up this past year, our behavioral health unit in Smithfield. We were 20 beds, we’re now 26 beds. With that, and then, so coming up in Clayton right now. We were successful. We petitioned the state and I know we’re gonna talk about CON next time for 24 more beds, which we were successful in getting after a couple of years of working through that. So we are in the design phase for that now but a couple of things, and that includes both Clayton and also Smithfield.

But we’ll go to Clayton first. So right now we have a [00:27:00] CON to expand our Clayton ed by 12 beds. We should hear back from that CON by the end of September. And we have already designed we’ve got the money and the capital to do that, and we will start and break ground on that immediately. As soon as I get that CON certificate in my hand, we’re ready to go on that.

So, so that’s planned. And then also, probably more importantly, and what your listeners are interested in we’re gonna put 12 of our 24 beds, new licensed med-surg beds in Clayton. We have plans, we’re in design phase right now for a new three story tower. That is behind the existing tower and we will do a consolidation of women’s services.

So all the women’s services and our deliveries, labor and delivery will be done in Clayton. The reason we’re doing that is ’cause it allows us to expand our heart and vascular and cath lab and our offerings in Smithfield, and we can talk more about that if you’d like to expansion for that. But then the additional what? That, and we got CON approval for all this [00:28:00] and that, that three story expansion, we will also go ahead and open up 12 observation beds. And then the third floor will be a future shelf space for 24 more beds. So when CON allows, or when we expand and, and can do it, we got the ability to add an additional 36 beds in Clayton.

So all that’s in the works. And then the other 12 beds that we got CON approved for. We would do some internal renovation in Smithfield and expand to add 12 PCU level beds, which are monitored beds, and that’s for those patients there. Little bit too sick to be on med-surg floor and not be monitored, but they’re not quite sick enough to be in intensive care unit.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh,

Tom Williams: so there’s a monitor.

Jonathan Breeden: So in between,

Tom Williams: kind of in between PCU Progressive care unit, basically this means you’re on a monitored bed.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s cool. And anyway, you hear him talk about CON and we’re definitely gonna talk to ’em about that in the next, in the next episode we do with, with Mr. Williams, but CON is certificate of need. And in North Carolina currently, if you’re a [00:29:00] hospital and you want to expand, you have to apply to the state to get permission to add beds and add services. And then the state decides whether you get to be able to do that or not. It is not just the free market, it’s not just capitalism.

I say it’s similar to Russia, socialism and we’ll talk about next time. But they can’t just do this hospital that they want. They have to get permission. And of course when they go ask for permission, their competitors in the market try to convince the state that they’re not needed and try to stop them.

And I’m just glad that my competitors that do divorce law in Johnston County can’t stop me from adding new attorneys and new services to my law firm. But anyway, the last question we ask everybody on these podcasts is, you’ve already alluded to it all the way through. What do you love most about Johnston County?

Tom Williams: I love the people and also my wife’s listening to this, her family’s in Johnston County and she actually grew up in Raleigh when she was in high school, they moved back to McGees Crossroads. So I have to say my wife’s family is what I like most about Johnston [00:30:00] County, but it’s the people.

The people is what matters because like I said, I grew up in southern tip of Franklin County. He embraced me when I came here. I’ll never forget Mr. Ted Godwin, I was interviewing with him, County Commissioner. He sits on our board.

Jonathan Breeden: Yep.

Tom Williams: We talked a lot about growing tobacco and growing up on a farm and you know, kind of who I am and where I came from. And he looked at me and he said, I’ll support you because you’re one of us. And I gotta tell you, I think about that a lot. And it meant more to me probably than anything anybody’s ever said to me in an interview because I felt like this is home.

Jonathan Breeden: No, it is. It is. And, and Ted Godwin, a previous guest on The Best of Johnston County podcast been a county commissioner for a long time, and him and his wife were some of the first people I met when I gotta Johnston County. And she was helping out at the branch up here at 40 42, and she was almost like my mom when I got here, she helped me so much and, and he did too, and I’ll be forever grateful to them. You know, 20 some odd years ago. Young guy coming to Johnston County. I didn’t know anybody and she sort of took me in. [00:31:00] I think she was like the customer service rep at the, at this branch of, Four Oaks Bank at the time.

Tom Williams: Yeah. So, anyway, well, we’d like to thank Tom Williams for coming on to this episode of The Best of Johnston County podcast. He is the CEO of UNC Health Johnston. Like we said earlier, we’re gonna do a second episode, so we checking back in a couple weeks for that when we’re gonna talk to him more about stupid of need and some other things going on with UNC Health. If you like this episode, please give us a five star review and share it with your friends and family members.

Tag us at your Instagram stories, best of Johnston County. ‘Cause the way this podcast is gonna grow is by you sharing and commenting and letting other people know about The Best of Johnston County Podcast. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is a podcast for you. Thanks for listening.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint [00:32:00] adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.