During her interim CEO stint, Huitt started writing a master plan for BCMC’s future.
Leslie Huitt was hired as controller at Bradley County Medical Center in May 2019 and promoted to chief financial officer a year later. Named as interim CEO in November 2021, she became CEO seven months later. In November 2022, Huitt won the Hospital CFO Award at the Arkansas Business CFO of the Year Awards.
She earned a bachelor of business administration in accounting degree at the University of Arkansas at Monticello in 2002. She earned her MBA from Harding University in Searcy in 2006.
What attracted you to the health care sector?
Opportunity attracted me to the health care sector. A Bradley County Medical Center board member approached me about taking a position as controller at the hospital. After a little research, I saw the opportunity to learn, grow and lead in a field where learning and improvement would be continuous, and the need was great.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The thing I enjoy most about my job is the ability to take care of people, love on people and be a positive influence in the hospital, as well as the community.
What are the biggest challenges for Bradley County Medical Center?
We have two major challenges ahead of us. First, our hospital is more than 70 years old and the lack of a long-term plan to address the aging facility threatens our sustainability. Second, Critical Access Hospitals were established to, as their name implies, provide critical access to care in rural areas. Medicare and Medicaid cost reimbursement has supported the sustainability of Critical Access Hospitals. The growth in Medicare Advantage plans and political influence to expand those plans, which are not cost reimbursed, threatens our stability as well as the stability of other Critical Access Hospitals.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
The best advice I ever received was to keep my priorities straight: faith, family and then everything else.
Mistakes are said to deliver some of the most meaningful lessons. What is a mistake that helped shape your career?
As a teenager and even going into college, I dreamed of being a doctor. I have always had a natural instinct to take care of people. I let the fear of failure deter me from pursuing that dream. Because of my nurturing instincts and compassion for others, I feel it could be considered a mistake that I didn’t pursue a career as a doctor, but it did put me on a different course and shape my career in business. I have been blessed to get to take care of people, just in a different way. I also learned to never fear a challenge.
Who are your mentors, people who made a difference in your life?
I do not have any one particular mentor. People who have made a difference in my life were, first, my family, who taught me at a young age the importance of faith, integrity and hard work. I have always been fascinated by people who were successful in business. The ones who shaped me the most are the ones who care for their employees, have stayed humble with success, are willing to whatever job is necessary and are willing to stand for what’s right at all costs.
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