2014 Dynamic Dozen Top Local Financial Officer: Lisa Odom

When Lisa Odom heads to work each day, she knows she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be.

“I know without a doubt that I am in a position that lets me use my talents,” says Odom, chief financial officer at Jordan Valley Community Health Center.

“I am very grateful for that. ... I think to whom much is given, much is required. I live by that.”

Odom views her job as a supporting role few people see but without which the operation couldn’t continue. While not a government entity, the nonprofit Jordan Valley, which provides services for patients who struggle to receive care, is a federally qualified health center and is thus heavily regulated – with the paperwork to prove it. But if the unending deadlines ever start to overwhelm, Odom remembers Jordan Valley wouldn’t stay open if she didn’t do her job.

“People come in with issues every day I would never have imagined,” she says. “Most people who come in these doors desperately need us. ... There’s a lot of value underlying anything that would feel frustrating.”

Odom is a certified public accountant who has spent most of her career involved with the medical industry.

While at BKD LLP and then at Mercy Hospital Springfield, she prepared reports for Medicare and Medicaid, which proved helpful when she moved to Jordan Valley as its director of finance in 2010. She rose to CFO the next year.

Odom’s purview, however, includes more than Jordan Valley’s finances. Anything administrative runs through her office. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I would not be a happy accountant sitting at a desk not being involved in other things,” she says.

As CFO of a nonprofit, Odom continually seeks to contain costs while maintaining quality of patient care, which encompasses medical, oral, behavioral and pharmacy services. To that end, Odom negotiated a two-tiered discount on external laboratory services for self-pay patients who pay on a sliding fee. The change saves the center $60,000 a year and reduces patients’ costs.

She found another opportunity in the center’s translator services. Previously, Jordan Valley paid translators by the hour, regardless of whether a patient showed up. The center now uses a company that provides translators via phone who are called when needed and can translate more than 200 languages and dialects. While on-site translators are still used as necessary, the change saves Jordan Valley about $85,000 a year.

“With any change that we take into consideration, it is ... what is best for our patients and then what is best for the organization,” Odom says.

She also was instrumental in securing a $5 million federal grant to help fund a nearly $8.5 million expansion to Jordan Valley’s Springfield clinic. She then pursued tax-exempt revenue bonds for the balance.

Odom is involved at the state and federal levels as well. Especially critical in Jefferson City, term limits mean there are always new legislators to educate on Jordan Valley.

“It’s rewarding for me to share our story,” she says. “Jordan Valley serves a group of people who have had a hard time accessing care, and I don’t think that will ever change.”[[In-content Ad]]