Palliative Care Center and Hospice of the North Shore is an exceptional place, and Mary K. Sheehan, RN, MSN, MBA, felt that from the first moment she walked in the door. That was ten eventful years ago, and apparently the feeling has been mutual. Sheehan has recently been appointed Chief Operating Officer for the dynamic, visionary organization, following a series of advancements that began with her initial role there as Coordinator of Quality Assurance, Education and Research.

"There is no one better suited than Mary to serve in the newly established position of Chief Operating Officer as we stand on the brink of major expansion," says Dorothy Pitner Healy, President and CEO, PCCHNS. "She has been an integral part of our leadership team for many years. Mary’s passion, compassion, credentials and common sense will be crucial to the organization as we continue to provide the best possible palliative and end-of-life care to the growing aging population."

Sheehan, who has a master’s degree in oncology nursing from Loyola University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, began her career in hospice and palliative care as a staff nurse on the oncology unit at Loyola’s Foster G. McGaw Hospital. Caring primarily for patients with leukemia, she recognized the need for better pain management and better communication with families. When she heard that Northwestern Memorial Hospital was opening an inpatient hospice unit, she applied, instinctively sensing that this setting would be a good fit for her. According to Sheehan, "I had a rare opportunity to participate in the opening of a new program. It was a wonderful experience and I knew that hospice was what I was meant to do. I loved the team approach, the emphasis on spiritual and psychosocial needs and the caregiving. Hospice care is whole person care."

Sheehan’s professional journey took her through nursing positions in both hospital-based and home-based hospice care. She acquired a wealth of experience in assessing and coordinating referrals, discharge planning, patient care and pain management and family support. Eventually, she went to graduate school at Loyola, where she was the only person to request a hospice nursing program. "I knew that I wanted to use my master’s degree to advance the practice of hospice care. From my clinical experience, I had developed a vision and standards and I wanted to work with like-minded people."

She found those people at PCCHNS, beginning with Pitner Healy. "Dottie and the team at PCCHNS are completely mission-based. Dottie asks, ‘If it doesn’t serve the patient and family, why are we doing it?’ She never loses sight of that mission," Sheehan claims.

Sheehan has been able to utilize her clinical nursing experience as well as her business acumen in her quest to promote excellence in hospice care. She possesses a rare balance of the idealistic and the practical and believes that her strength lies in her ability to translate a vision into operations, making it happen and assuring that it meets appropriate clinical, legal, regulatory, financial and quality standards. Until her recent promotion, she served as Senior Vice-President for Clinical Services.

As COO, one of her primary roles is to assure service excellence throughout the organization. She achieves this, in part, by remaining close to the staff, whom she describes as experts. "I believe that it feels really good to care for patients and families in a positive way. We call our philosophy ‘Just Say Yes’ meaning that we go out of our way to honor their choices and preferences, to meet them right where they are. We encourage the staff to do this, knowing that they will be supported. This approach to customer service also means that we treat each other well. We say ‘yes’ to each other, too, working as a team and always supporting each other."

This approach creates the positive, productive culture that has enabled PCCHNS to undergo extraordinary physical and conceptual growth. From its humble origins in 1978, when five volunteers founded Hospice of the North Shore in Evanston as one of the nations first non-profit, community-based hospice programs, PCCHNS is now a national leader in the field and serves an average of 325 patients per day. PCCHNS is the largest non-profit hospice provider in Chicagoland and serves a sweeping geographic area encompassing north and south Cook County and Lake County. Services cover the continuum of hospice and palliative care, delivering compassionate care and comfort to patients, families and caregivers through a number of innovative, focused programs.

PCCHNS is looking forward to further growth in August, when the organization relocates to a brand new facility in Glenview and changes its name to Midwest Palliative and Hospice CareCenter, to reflect its broad service area. Currently, there are four locations, with the main administrative offices in the original Evanston location. Sheehan is overseeing the clinical transitions aspect of the move, which will combine administrative services in one central location while maintaining regional clinical sites. "The new facility will energize us even more in our commitment to meet the needs of patients and families experiencing life-threatening and terminal illnesses. I am proud of the ability of everyone here to work together to provide mission-based programs that work," she says.

Although Sheehan found deep satisfaction in the hands-on care that she once provided as a hospice nurse, she has no regrets about her move into management and believes that she is able to have a positive impact on many more lives in her present position. "I still spend time talking with patients and families. It’s how I learn. I’m still a nurse and I love nursing. The profession gave me the flexibility to work, attend school and raise a family. Nurses are natural leaders and managers; we have that whole-person focus and are accustomed to seeing the big picture and managing complex systems. Nursing skills translate well into management," she says. "I had the clinical expertise and the sense of mission; my MBA made it possible for me to apply business skills to turn a vision into reality."