A return home, a new role for MMC's Caryn Iverson

When Caryn Iverson was asked whether she wanted to come home, the question carried more meaning than the people asking it might have realized.

She had spent more than four years traveling and working with hospital nursing leaders as a division chief nursing officer for Lifepoint Health. Before that, she had served as chief nursing officer at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, the community she has called home since 2011.

Now Lifepoint was offering her an opportunity to return to Memorial, this time as its interim chief executive officer. There was plenty to consider. The job would mean taking responsibility for a hospital in the midst of significant changes. But it would also mean less travel, more time with family and the opportunity to return to a place she already knew.

Her family didn't hesitate.

"They're like, you're going to be home," Iverson recalled.

The decision carried additional significance because Iverson was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, a diagnosis she received after becoming ill late last year. Being home would allow her to continue receiving care locally, surrounded by family and familiar colleagues.

And so, she returned to Memorial, bringing a career that began in emergency medicine and eventually took her into hospital administration. Although her title includes the word "interim," Iverson said the arrangement was designed to give both her and the hospital an opportunity to determine whether the position should become permanent.

"They said, let's do interim so that the people get to know you," she said. "But we'd like you to stay."

Iverson said she has already expressed her interest in remaining.

"I did throw my hat in the ring probably a couple weeks ago now," she said.

And when her supervisor asks whether she is enjoying the assignment, the answer has been easy.

"Absolutely, I'm having some fun."

An unexpected career

Iverson's path to the executive office began a long way from Las Cruces. The daughter of a military father, she spent much of her childhood in Germany, returning to the United States when she was about 15. Her father eventually retired at Fort Bliss, and Iverson established roots in the El Paso area.

She originally imagined becoming a veterinarian. Instead, after marriage and children, she pursued another avenue into health care. Her first experience came as a medic with Life Ambulance, a job that occasionally took her into situations considerably more dangerous than she had anticipated. One night, at about 3 a.m., she found herself rappelling down the side of Trans Mountain to reach a vehicle that had crashed and was burning.

She questioned whether anyone could have survived, but her colleagues insisted they still had to investigate. That experience helped convince her that nursing might be a better career.

"I don't have to do this if I'm a nurse," she recalled thinking.

She attended New Mexico State University, graduating during the final year of its associate degree nursing program. She later earned additional degrees, including a doctorate in business, through the University of Phoenix. Emergency medicine proved to be a natural fit.

Iverson described herself as an "adrenaline junkie" who loved the pace and unpredictability of the emergency department. She might have remained there indefinitely had a supervisor not approached her about helping establish a trauma program.

The position would require moving from the night shift to days and working with hospital administrators. Her initial response was emphatic. But after about a month of persuasion, she agreed.

"And then I got hooked on being an administrator," she said.

At Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso, she went on to oversee emergency department operations and participate in major construction and expansion projects, including emergency and neurological care facilities. She discovered that building programs and improving hospital operations could provide some of the same excitement she had found in emergency nursing.

"It's a different adrenaline," she said. "It's still adrenaline."

Coming back to Memorial

In 2018, Iverson received a call about an opportunity at Memorial. At the time, she was commuting from Las Cruces to El Paso, where she served as chief nursing officer at Las Palmas.

The appeal was immediate. Instead of spending roughly an hour each way on the road, she could work just a few miles from home.

She joined Memorial in 2018 and remained until 2022, when Lifepoint recruited her for a division-level position helping chief nursing officers at other hospitals develop their leadership skills and strengthen operations. She enjoyed the work, but the opportunity to return to Memorial offered something different: the chance to lead a hospital in her own community.

Her return also coincides with a substantial investment in the hospital's facilities and services. Memorial has announced nearly $10 million in campus improvements, including work on parking areas, the exterior of the hospital and the emergency department. The hospital also has announced additional investments in clinical facilities and services, including a new cardiac catheterization lab.

Iverson has been involved in selecting the exterior colors as part of the effort to modernize the building. She laughed about how familiar the hospital still looks.

"This building's exactly the same as it was when I went to school here," she said. "It looks exactly the same. It's time."

The improvements are being completed in phases, with additional projects anticipated next year. But Iverson's ambitions extend beyond the appearance of the building. She would like to see the hospital's operating rooms return to the level of activity she remembers, a goal that includes recruiting additional physicians.

She also pointed to a new partnership with La Clinica de Familia to provide obstetrical services as an example of opportunities to expand care. Ultimately, she wants Memorial to regain the position it once held in the minds of many local residents.

"I'd like Memorial to be like it was before where people, the only choice you had was, 'I'm going to go to Memorial,'" she said. "That's what I'd like to see for the future, is when you think of healthcare, that's the first thing you think of."

Iverson also believes there are opportunities for greater cooperation among Las Cruces hospitals. She said she knows Three Crosses Regional Hospital CEO Denten Park from their work during the COVID-19 pandemic and has plans to discuss potential partnerships with him.

"I think there's room for more collaboration," she said.

Knowing both sides

Iverson acknowledges that becoming a hospital executive required learning to leave some of her nursing instincts behind. Even after moving into administration, she found herself responding when she heard emergency calls in the hospital.

Eventually, colleagues reminded her that those responsibilities belonged to the clinical teams. She had a different job to do.

That distinction remains important as she settles into the CEO's office. Her supervisor has encouraged her to allow the nursing staff to do their jobs while she focuses on hers. But Iverson believes her clinical background provides a valuable perspective, particularly when combined with her education in business.

"The fun part for me is I know both sides," she said. "I know the healthcare side of it, and I know the business side, because my doctorate's business, it's not nursing."

Her own experience as a patient has added another perspective. Iverson receives cancer treatment at Memorial's cancer center, although she also sees a specialist in Albuquerque. She said receiving much of her care close to home makes an enormous difference.

"I can sleep in my bed that night," she said.

At the time of the interview, she had completed 13 of 22 scheduled treatments, with nine remaining. For Iverson, that meant she was on the downhill side of the process, and she was quick to clarify that she meant she was getting closer to finishing treatment.

There is still work ahead, both personally and professionally. But the former emergency nurse who once resisted a move into administration is now embracing the opportunity to lead the hospital in her hometown. She's having fun, and she says she'd like to stay.