Director of Procurement and Sustainability Rachel Hart has been with Nexus almost since day one. Over the past decade, as our network has matured, Rachel’s role has continuously evolved – giving her the true autonomy to challenge the status quo, drive clever solutions, and shape the future of Australian healthcare.
Driving positive disruption
Rachel Hart has always steered towards action and results over internal politics and red tape. When she joined Nexus in 2015, she found an organisation perfectly aligned with her forward-thinking approach.
“In my early days at Nexus, we only had three hospitals. It was always about doing something different to our competitors. That’s what attracted me,” Rachel reflects. “It’s about forming and creating something and having the trust and autonomy to get things done.”
More than a decade later, that agility remains. As Director of Procurement and Sustainability, Rachel says it’s a mindset that fuels her daily because she can see the tangible difference Nexus is making on a national scale.
“What we are doing at Nexus is positive disruption. The healthcare model in Australia needs to be challenged – we need to make healthcare sustainable. Our value proposition at Nexus is a different model of care that is focused on what’s best clinically, on better patient outcomes, which correlate with greater efficiency and affordability. We’re proving it can be done, and we’re influencing policymakers at the highest levels.”
A high-trust culture
Rachel has built a successful leadership career by anchoring herself within early-stage and rapidly growing businesses. She credits the unique, high-trust culture at Nexus as the main reason she has chosen to make it her long-term professional home.
“We have this high-trust, high-expectation environment,” Rachel shares. “I’ve been lucky to work with people at Nexus who give me the freedom to explore the best way to get something done. You have that ability to influence change. And the approachability of our executive is really important to me. Our CEO and CFO make a point of visiting hospitals and talking to staff. They make this effort because they see the value in people’s roles at every level in the hospital structure.”
Rachel is incredibly proud that, despite expanding to 21 specialist hospitals, Nexus has retained its local heart and foundational values.
Innovation in action
One of Rachel’s greatest passions is helping Nexus make measurable gains in reducing environmental impact. Under her guidance, an industry-leading 95% of electricity across the Nexus network is now drawn from sustainable sources. But for Rachel, that milestone is just the beginning.
As a driving force behind the Nexus ‘Green Team’, Rachel collaborates with team members and suppliers monthly to turn eco-friendly ideas into real-world hospital practices. A standout success has been reinventing a clinical staple: the ‘Bluey’ leak-proof disposable underpad.
“We try to work with suppliers to do things a little differently,” Rachel says. “Traditional Blueys take more than 100 years to break down, so we worked with an organisation to bring a product to market that breaks down in 100 days. We gave the manufacturer input into product development and launched the sustainable Blueys across Nexus in 2024. It’s a measurable difference, as almost every procedure in Nexus would use a Bluey. We’re really focusing on products that have less environmental harm.”
It’s an inspiring mission, and Rachel loves seeing how deeply the rest of the organisation has rallied behind it.
