This micro-influencer appreciates and teaches the intricacies healthcare to future leaders.

Debbie Keel dedicated her career and now semi-retirement to leading, mentoring, and teaching healthcare administration... and swimming lessons. Here's a look back at our interview and photo session.

In early 2022, after COVID restrictions were lifted, I developed a Member Advisory Team to provide regular feedback on their experience as members of a new Medicare Advantage Plan. The health plan used that input for continuous quality improvement. Deborah “Debbie” Keel, a Member Advisory Team participant, really KNOWS healthcare and served as an extremely valuable volunteer to that team. In fact, Debbie dedicated her 32-year career to leadership in the healthcare industry, much of that with Tenet Healthcare.

A New Orleans native, Debbie appreciates the integrated quality care she now receives from Ochsner Health and its physicians. With a new Medicare Advantage plan in the market. Louisiana's premier health system appreciated her input.

“I use Ochsner physicians almost exclusively, so was immediately interested in anything Ochsner,” said Debbie. She went on to say that competitive benefits and ease of access to her Ochsner physicians was the primary reason she switched her enrollment to the new OHP during the 2022 Annual Enrollment Period.

“Because I have Ochsner Health Plan, I can easily find good physicians in any specialty in a number of locations.” She also said she appreciates how helpful the representatives have been throughout her experience and will recommend OHP to others.

“I am a former hospital CEO and set a high bar for hospital performance and Ochsner has met or exceeded it a number of times,” said Debbie.

“I use Ochsner physicians almost exclusively, so was immediately interested in anything Ochsner,” said Debbie Keel. “Because I have Ochsner Health Plan, I can easily find good physicians in any specialty in a number of locations.”

“I am a former hospital CEO and set a high bar for hospital performance and Ochsner has met or exceeded it a number of times," said Debbie Keel.

Debbie certainly understands the importance of provider performance and access after spending more than 24 years as either chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer (COO). She served as CEO for then Tenet’s Kenner Regional Medical Center in Louisiana from 1997 to 2004 and COO from 1995 to 1997. Prior to that, she was COO of then Elmwood Medical Center from 1991 to 1995.

Debbie left Louisiana for the west coast in 2004 to take on a leadership role as vice president of operations for Tenet California in 2004. From there, she took over as CEO of Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center in California (2005-2009), where she was instrumental in establishing their neurosurgical program. Later and prior to retirement, she went on to serve as CEO for Tenet’s North Fulton Hospital in Georgia from 2009-2016.

However, retirement could not slow Debbie down. She continues to use her experience as a healthcare leader and executive to assist healthcare providers, educational institutions, and healthcare startups on an interim, part-time, or consultative basis. In fact, she started her own healthcare management consulting company, Keel and Associates, LLC, and even filled in as interim CEO for Touro Infirmary in New Orleans in 2019.

Always a mentor and teacher, Debbie now serves as an adjunct professor to graduate students at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Prior to that, she taught a Healthcare Management course to aspiring leaders as an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans’ Healthcare Management program from 2018-2022.

When Debbie’s not teaching future healthcare CEOs, she gives adult swim lessons in her backyard pool. In fact, from 2017 to 2022 she helped more than 60 adults from the Greater New Orleans Area to achieve American Red Cross Swim Goals.

A New Orleans native, Debbie received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia and a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University in New Orleans. She’s a proud alumnus of Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans.

She and her husband, Patrick, live in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. They have been married for over 40 years and have three daughters and eight grandchildren. She’s an avid swimmer and is on pace to swim more than 200 miles this year.

“Free access to the Ochsner Fitness Centers is my favorite benefit of being an Ochsner Health Plan member, outside of all of my physicians being in the network.”

“Thanks to Ochsner Health Plan, I find it easy to stay healthy,” said Debbie. “Ochsner Health Plan makes me feel like I get the most out of my Medicare coverage.”

“Free access to the Ochsner Fitness Centers is my favorite benefit of being an Ochsner Health Plan member, outside of all of my physicians being in the network.”

“Thanks to Ochsner Health Plan, I find it easy to stay healthy,” said Debbie. “Ochsner Health Plan makes me feel like I get the most out of my Medicare coverage.”

And thanks to Debbie Keel , Ochsner's new Medicare Advantage plan has a Member Advisory Team participant that can offer first-hand knowledge, experience, and suggestions for improvement from the perspective of a member and a healthcare expert. The Member Advisory Team met every two or three months in 2022 and 2023 to provide input into the Medicare Advantage plan's continuous quality improvement efforts.