Meet the Team: Nick Stainback
While Nick Stainback officially celebrates his first official year as U.S. HealthTek’s Vice President of Technical Operations, his savvy analysis and ability to find solutions to the thorniest issues involving IT Operations Management has actually been in place for nearly 15 years. In 2010, Stainback met founder Bryan Firestone when both were hired by Solstas Lab Partners, and he’s been on call for Firestone and President/CEO Cristy Reiter ever since. “I’ve always worked with Cristy and Bryan, so it was easy to make it official knowing that they are a family operation treating everyone who works with them as family,” he says.
His full-time commitment is critical as the company heads to new heights with great momentum, including new products and services soon to be unveiled. “I’ve always enjoyed the development process, and right now we’re working on a new application we’re getting ready to release,” he says. “Creating tools that make medical organizations run more efficiently is really exciting for me, as is being part of a team that makes it happen.”
The Executive Team at the recent EWC: Karen Saldaña, Jamie Papp, Bryan Firestone, Cristy Reiter, Nick Stainback, and Laurie Huard. (Missing: Lauren Sutton.)
Expanding Knowledge & Building Experience
Stainback grew up north of Henderson, NC, “a little dot on the map.” An early interest in all things computers in high school left no doubt as to what he would pursue: “I was always going into IT – repairing, software, programming.” He graduated from East Coast Polytechnic Institute (ECPI), and right out of school in 2003 he went to work for a big gun: IBM. “I was there for three years, supporting the network they were running for the U.S. Postal Service.” As a Tier III Technical Lead, he worked on the proprietary NT network that IBM designed, running half the USPS offices in the country. “We designed procedures around the express mail system and modules of the software, and the team I was on supported it.”
In 2010, he went to work as Senior Programmer Analyst, Lead, for Solstas. At the company orientation he met Firestone, who had stepped into the role of CIO. “We met on our first day there, and I’ve been working with him and Cristy from then on in various capacities through the years.” Solstas was sold to Quest, and shortly thereafter Stainback started his own consulting company assisting healthcare companies – including U.S. HealthTek. Finally, in June of 2024, he officially joined U.S. HealthTek full time as Vice President of Technical Operations. “It’s an opportunity to work at a different angle and be challenged in a different way – it keeps me on my toes!”
Stainback has many responsibilities, including managing the companies’ technologies and supporting the day-to-day operations plus some team management work. He’s also a “data hero”; if there’s a problem with an organization’s data, or it seems lost, he can almost always get to it. His knowledge and experience specifically with medical data is widely regarded and respected throughout the industry.
Yet there’s always more to learn. “Regarding integration and interoperability, it changes monthly if not daily,” he says. “The overall capabilities of what you can do today versus when I started working in this field are amazing. There is so much more we’re capable of doing for our clients, and I enjoy the challenge of staying on top of the constant changes. Always being up on the latest and greatest is key to U.S. HealthTek’s success.”
The Secret Sauce
With his wife Rebecca, he’s raised his three kids, Ethan (18), Choloe (16), and Kaylee (14) in picturesque Henderson (pop. 15,000), North Carolina. (Ethan must have inherited some of his father’s analytical/attention-to-detail skills as he just got hired by Boeing.)
Stainbeck’s big passion, which he shares with his wife, is the grill. They participate in their community’s big cook-off every Memorial Day, one where nothing purchased from a store shelf is allowed. It’s a big competition – this year there were almost 40 racks of ribs getting grilled. They make their own sauce, and their ribs have been award-winning. “My wife won the rib cook-off the first year it was held,” he says, adding with a laugh: “And I never heard the end of it!” Most recently Nick’s ribs came in, ahem, last place. But there is no dishonor in that. “There’s never anything bad about anybody’s ribs. We compete with these and have fun with it, and we call it the Pick Licker’s Memorial Day barbecue.” He’s had better luck in chili cook-offs: “I’m the current and returning champ, having won three of the last six contests.”
He wins a lot at work, too. “Nick has always been there for us, and we’re so grateful he decided to join the team full-time,” says Reiter. “He is absolutely one of the best of what he does in his field, and there’s so much in the pipeline that he’s been involved with. He’s making it an especially exciting time for U.S. HealthTek.”