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Written by: American Hospital Association • Created: Sep 17, 2026
William Davis, MBA Illinois Region President Deaconess Illinois
Rural healthcare transformation, regional operations and scalable care delivery
Scaling proven innovations to strengthen access to care across rural communities
William Davis is Illinois Region President for Deaconess Illinois, a growing network of hospitals serving rural communities across Southern Illinois.
His approach to transformation is shaped by an earlier career in manufacturing, where he developed expertise in Lean Six Sigma, standard work, with a focus on continuous improvement. Today, he applies those same principles to one of rural healthcare’s biggest opportunities: building stronger regional systems that bring care closer to patients.
For Davis, technology and innovation matter when they solve real problems. He focuses on identifying what works, testing it in practice, building a repeatable model and adapting it to the realities of different hospitals and communities.
That discipline is especially important in rural healthcare, where workforce, infrastructure and resources vary widely. The goal is not innovation for its own sake, but using proven approaches to strengthen local hospitals, expand access and help more patients receive care closer to home.
I came into healthcare about 10 years ago from manufacturing, where I learned Lean Six Sigma and the value of standard work and continuous improvement.
I have since moved from materials management into hospital leadership and now oversee the Illinois region for Deaconess.
One of the biggest shifts has been moving from individual hospitals operating on their own to thinking as a connected regional system. We are focused on how hospitals can work together, coordinate services and strengthen care across the region.
That is especially important in rural healthcare. We want patients to receive as much care as possible close to home and use our tertiary centers only for those who truly need that level of care.
That means strengthening local capabilities, expanding access to specialists and finding new ways to deliver services in communities where those resources have historically been harder to access.
We turn proven approaches into playbooks.
The playbook defines standard work, key stakeholders, and the steps for implementation so each hospital does not have to reinvent the process.
Standardization does not mean uniformity. Regulations, workforce, infrastructure, and local needs vary, so the model must remain adaptable.
We also prioritize testing before scaling. With tools like ambient documentation and virtual care, we start in select sites, evaluate performance, identify adjustments, and apply what we learn as we expand.
This balance of standard work and local flexibility enables scale without assuming a solution can be dropped into every hospital unchanged.
You have to account for realities that may not exist in larger markets.
Infrastructure is one example. In parts of Southern Illinois, broadband access is still limited, which directly affects what technology can support.
Resources are another constraint. Technology teams are often small, especially while hospitals are integrating systems and expanding services, so prioritization is essential.
There also is a community education component. When we introduce tools like patient portals or ambient technology, we cannot assume patients immediately understand how they work or why they matter.
Sometimes that means going directly into the community to explain what we are doing. With ambient technology, for example, clinicians have had to show how it can capture the visit while giving them more time to engage directly with the patient.
Innovation only works if people trust it and can use it. In rural communities, implementation has to include the technology, the workflow and the conversation with the people it is intended to serve.
You need a disciplined way to decide what to pursue, but also the speed to act before technology evolves again.
Our innovation roundtable helps us evaluate new tools and select what to pilot. We test in specific sites, learn quickly, and refine before scaling.
Equally important is involving the right people early. We bring physicians, nurses and operational leaders into the process while solutions are still being shaped, not after decisions are made.
That early involvement leads to better ideas and stronger adoption because people help design the solution.
In rural hospitals especially, where teams are small and roles overlap, you have to design with local workflows in mind. Implementation can’t be handed down — it has to be built with the people who will use it.
I have always been a collaborative leader. Better outcomes come from bringing different perspectives together, even when there is disagreement.
That same mindset applies across health systems. We regularly learn from other organizations by visiting sites and studying what they have already implemented.
I am a lifelong learner, which is why the Accelerator Champion Network appealed to me. I want to understand what other leaders have tried, what worked and what did not.
If another organization has already solved a problem, we should learn from it rather than repeat the same mistakes. When a solution improves access, value, or outcomes, it gives us a stronger starting point for adoption in our own communities.
That peer-to-peer exchange helps hospitals move faster and with more confidence.
Rural healthcare also must be part of these conversations. Rural hospitals face unique challenges and also develop innovative models that others can learn from. The Champion Network enables that two-way exchange and helps the entire field improve.
Pilot locally, build the playbook and scale with confidence.
For Davis, scaling innovation starts with evidence, not enthusiasm.
Hospitals can reduce risk by starting with focused pilots to see how technology performs in real clinical settings and address issues before scaling.
Successful approaches then become playbooks that create consistency while allowing for local differences in workforce, infrastructure, regulation, and community needs.
Equally important is learning from peers. Health systems do not need to relearn every lesson themselves—shared experience helps leaders invest more wisely.
For rural hospitals, this mix of piloting, standardization, local adaptation and peer learning makes innovation more practical and easier to scale.
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