Early in Joy Greear’s career, two managers told her she was “a bull in a china shop.” Slow down, they cautioned.
It took years for the president and chief operating officer of both Novant Health Mint Hill and Ballantyne Medical Centers, to realize there’s nothing wrong with having a bias for quick action.
And that china shop analogy? It turned out to be way off. Greear has made a name for herself not by breaking things, but rather, by making them better. And making sure that her people get the credit.
Simply the best
Mint Hill Medical Center, which only opened in 2018, has already drawn national accolades. It was named the top community hospital in the country – out of 364 – last September in Vizient Inc.’s 2024 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Study.
“The team did it,” Greear said of winning the top spot. “This award is based on a scorecard, so you have to have high quality, safety and patient experience scores. You have to show you’re effective and efficient in your operations and equitable in your care for patients. It’s a great honor and an exciting and proud time for us.”
To celebrate, she ordered jackets for every member of the team with “No. 1” on the sleeve.
The vision to be the best originated at the top. Greear excels at setting – and communicating – expectations. Before the hospital was even built, she had a clear vision of what she wanted it to be: “I wanted this community to see it as theirs.”
At the time, a colleague was dealing with her mom’s and father-in-law’s health issues at the same time Greear was caring for her ailing father. It heightened their sensibilities around patient care even further. “We bonded over establishing our vision and worked hard to hire people who shared that vision,” Greear said.
Innovating, expanding
Mint Hill Medical is a community hospital, but that doesn’t mean it serves only locals.
People have traveled great distances – including from New York – to have an innovative incisionless brain surgery by Dr. Charles Munyon, Novant Health head of functional and restorative neurosurgery.
Mint Hill was among the first hospitals in the world to offer MR-guided focused ultrasound. Since its inception in 2020, Munyon has performed over 600 of these life-changing procedures that use sound wave energy to eliminate brain tissue at the source of a tremor. Within minutes, many patients experience immediate reduction in severe hand tremors.
And in 2023, Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center began a $45 million project to double the size of the existing ER – to 44,000 square feet – by adding 19 rooms, including 13 treatment, two trauma and four behavioral health rooms. The expansion is scheduled to open in May.
A hospital for people afraid of hospitals
After Greear toured former WBTV journalist and author Molly Grantham through the hospital, Grantham shared a post on her Facebook page with her impressions. And she was impressed. The hospital didn’t feel sterile, as she’d expected. Greear explained that she and the staff want patients, families and visitors to feel cared-for and welcomed.
Grantham, a member of the Novant Health Charlotte regional board wondered why the hospital “doesn’t smell like a hospital.” It’s because diffusers stationed throughout the hallways are spreading the calming scent of lavender.
Grantham even admired the ER. She expected mayhem but found quiet instead.
When she asked, “Where’s the chaos?,” Greear told her that comfort is the goal. She told Grantham, “Our CT scan and procedural equipment are in the back near ambulance drop-off. When critical patients arrive, they have a direct path to where they need to be.”
Other hospitals – even outside the Novant Health network – want to know Greear’s secret. People contact her with questions and occasional requests for a tour. She doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, though. “We reach out to other healthcare organizations to ask about their best practices, too,” she said.
Origin story
A career in healthcare wasn’t what Greear dreamed of as a girl in tiny, rural Mathiston, Mississippi. (Population: about 860.) She originally wanted to be a math teacher. But when she went to junior college and took bookkeeping classes, she “fell in love with accounting.”
She never wanted to be a CPA, though. After her 1987 college graduation, she and her husband, Bill – whom she met in second grade in Mathiston – moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where she worked as an accountant for an interior design and custom cabinetry company.
“That fueled my passion for design and construction,” she said. “The experience served me well, because some of my roles at Novant Health have been around designing construction and, ultimately, building a new hospital.”
After four years in Charlottesville – in 1991 – the couple moved to Charlotte for Bill’s job at what was then Presbyterian Hospital. Greear landed an accounting position there, too. She worked in hospital and physician practice accounting before discovering her love for operations. “I like to fix things,” she said.
The couple, who were high-school sweethearts, feel most at home in a small town. When they came to Charlotte, they moved to the outskirts. Mint Hill reminds Greear of Mathiston.
Leadership style
Growing up in a small town – where everyone knows each other – shaped the person Greear is today. The analytical side of her loves numbers, but she leads with her heart as well as her head.
“My love-language is giving,” she said. I try to grow people into great leaders. I look for characteristics in people that they don’t necessarily know they have and push them to do things they wouldn’t do on their own.”
Giving people opportunities has endeared Greear to her team. “We built Mint Hill with the patient at the center of everything,” she said. “But I tell everyone: It’s not just about the patient; it’s families, too. Oftentimes, family members suffer in silence. The person sitting on the couch watching while we’re taking care of the patient may be the person who needs extra attention. Our team looks for ways to deliver that.”
Like father, like daughter
Greear is naturally empathetic. But her experience as her elderly father’s caregiver showed her another side of healthcare.
For the last year of his life, Greear’s father, Terry Kellum, was at a nursing facility 3 miles from the Mint Hill hospital, which was then under construction. Greear would spend all day at work – usually on the construction site – and then go take care of her dad.
He died six months before the hospital opened, but he saw it nearing completion. “I’d drive him around the campus,” Greear said. “He’s part of this place in a lot of ways.”
Greear appreciated the opportunity to care for one of her heroes. “My dad was a huge influence on me,” she said. “He was a people person, too, and one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known. He’s in me through-and -through.”
‘Be true to yourself’
He also had a profound influence on her approach to working with others and building her own hands-on work ethic and approach to management. “My motto became: Be true to yourself,” she said. “I think my leadership style grew as a result of seeing leaders who weren't authentic.”
The former managers who cautioned Greear to slow down wanted her to be something she’s not. They tried to “fix” Greear because they saw her as moving too quickly. Some managers are satisfied with the status quo. But “good enough” isn’t acceptable to Greear.
“I’ve always wanted to fix things that aren’t working and fix them quickly,” she said. Early on, she said, “I learned to share my vision and the rationale behind it. If people understand the why, they’ll join you on the journey.”
Sharing her rationale is part of Greear’s leadership philosophy. So is hiring top talent and then getting out of their way.
As a reminder, she keeps this Teddy Roosevelt quote in her office: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men (or women) to do what he (or she) wants done and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling while they do it.” (Greear added women to the quote that previously referred only to men.)
Another quote in her office is by Rosalynn Carter: “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
It’s all in your perspective
Greear now sees her impatience to fix things as a positive. It took a mentor who doesn’t waste time to appreciate what other managers considered a flaw.
“The best leader I’ve ever had likes to get things done quickly,” she said. “He saw that ‘bull-in-a-china-shop’ mentality as a talent. He used it for good instead of using it against me. I’ve thrived under his leadership, and I try to be the same kind of leader.”
That leader: Carl Armato, Novant Health’s president and CEO.
“He’s always been an encourager, while giving me space to do things my way,” she said. “He fosters talent and celebrates wins, too. Not every leader takes the time to celebrate successes.”
Armato, for his part, is quick to celebrate Greear’s style and accomplishments. “Healthcare demands leaders who are always trying to make care better for patients. That’s Joy. And as much as I appreciate her drive, her skills and her resilience, it’s her leadership and ability to unite multiple teams to deliver the remarkable experience our patients deserve.”
It was Armato who convinced Greear she could lead two hospitals. She took on the additional responsibility of leading Ballantyne on Valentine’s Day 2024.
‘Java with Joy’
She divides her time equally between the two hospitals, spending one day at Ballantyne, the next at Mint Hill and so on.
Coursing through the halls at Mint Hill on a recent morning, she stopped to deliver hugs, compare notes on local restaurants and catch updates on details that needed to be addressed.
And then there’s “Java with Joy,” a quarterly breakfast series she launched at Mint Hill and expanded to Ballantyne. She invites front-line teammates who have gone above and beyond to join her for breakfast and conversation.
She’ll ask, “What’s happening in your world? What do you need? Are there any issues I can help solve?”
Great things emerge from Java with Joy. What started as a discussion with a certified nursing assistant about protecting patient privacy during delicate moments in their room, lead to placing Aubergine magnets on patient door jambs to notify other team members to slow their entry. Greear fast-tracked the launch.
Bull in a china shop? No. Doing what it takes to elevate the patient – and family – experience? Of course.
Joy Greear, outside the office
Joy Greear loves her work, and it’s part of her identity. But she has a full life outside the office, too. For instance:
- Greear’s family includes two adult children – a married daughter, who’s a teacher (“She’s living out my passion,” Greear said) and mother to one son; and a married son with a newborn son. The Greear children and their families live within 15 minutes of their parents, and they get together often.
- She’s involved with her church and sings in the praise choir. “Music has always been a big part of my life,” she said.
- The Greears love to travel, especially with the kids and their spouses. Greear’s daughter-in-law is an only child whose parents have become part of the extended family and often travel with them. Japan is their favorite destination; they go every other year to visit family. Greaar’s father-in-law, a widower, was in the Air Force and stationed for a time in Okinawa. He married a Japanese woman with three children when Bill Greear was 7. (Bill’s biological mother died when he was less than a year old; his grandparents raised him until his dad remarried.) “The Okinawan people are big on respect,” she said. “They’re very compassionate, even if they’re not always outwardly affectionate. They’re respectful of nature – something we instilled in our children.”
- Two Goldendoodle brothers, Oki and Sami – short for Okinawa and Samurai – are part of the Greear family. They came to work with her when they were puppies. The dogs appreciated the attention, and staff appreciated “pet therapy.” The pups still get excited when Greear’s car pulls in to the hospital when they get to visit occasionally.
- Reading is a favorite form of escape. “I used to read leadership books,” she said. “I’ve read all the classics, including Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great,’ but not anymore. I want to read something that helps me disconnect.” She recently read a book her sister sent – “A Lineage of Grace: Biblical Stories of 5 Women in the Lineage of Jesus.” Greear said, “All five were ordinary, yet extraordinary in some way.” Other recent books she enjoyed: Molly Grantham’s “The Juggle is Real” and Suze Orman’s “The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50%20.”
Three decades … and counting
Novant Health and Joy and Bill Greear are inextricably linked.
Joy has been with the healthcare system nearly her entire career. She and Bill both joined Presbyterian Hospital around the same time – Bill in 1991 and Joy in 1992 after the birth of their daughter. Bill has held a couple of radiology roles outside the system, but he returned to Novant Health in 2017 to lead outpatient imaging services.
In the 33 years Joy’s been with the Novant Health, she’s served as vice president of professional and support services at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center and as president of Novant Health Thomasville Medical Center.
Along the way, she earned two graduate degrees – an MBA and an MHA.
Joy said it’s the people and the culture that have kept her here – and kept her challenged and fulfilled – for over three decades. She can’t imagine working anywhere else. And it’s impossible to think of Novant Health without considering the impact Joy Greear has had on the organization.
