Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Trudy Sullivan Stoudamire, MBA Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Duke University Health System

Transcript

Trudy Sullivan Stoudamire, MBA Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Duke University Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  thirteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
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  I'm currently joined by Trudy Sullivan Stottemire, who
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  is the senior vice president and chief marketing
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  and communications officer at Duke University Health System.
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  Trudy, thank you so much for being here.
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  I'm gonna have you start off by introducing
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  yourself a little bit further and telling us
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  more about your background. Okay. Thank you, Grace.
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  It's an honor to be here. I'm Trudy
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  Sullivan Stoudemire, and I'm privileged to serve as
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  the senior vice president and chief marketing and
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  communications officer at Duke University Health System.
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  I've been in this role for eight months.
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  And while my time here is relatively new,
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  the journey to the seat feels like it's
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  always been meant to be. Cool. I'm a
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  middle child from Boise, Idaho, a proud wife
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  to Charles, and together we have six children
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  and seven grandchildren.
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  My career path has been eclectic.
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  I think of it as a lattice, not
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  a ladder. I began at the American Red
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  Cross,
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  and I cut my teeth there in biomedical
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  services in marketing and communications.
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  And I later became the CEO of one
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  of our nation's largest blood regions
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  before serving as the chief marketing officer
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  at national headquarters.
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  And from there, I pivoted into senior leadership
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  roles across industries,
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  semiconductor industry at Micron, aerospace and defense at
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  Raytheon,
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  and then health care IT at Health Catalyst.
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  So during my career, I've stepped away from
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  work to have and care for our children,
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  to support my dying father, and then to
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  return to work with renewed purpose.
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  And I consider myself a multi hyphenate. I
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  don't know if you've been reading
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  Fast Company. There's a great article about multi
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  hyphenates and the power of our various experiences
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  adding to the unique perspective we bring to
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  our roles today. So at points along the
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  way, I've been an advisor,
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  a founder, a caregiver,
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  a p and l leader, a community volunteer,
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  and a marketing strategist.
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  So I came to Duke Health because my
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  personal purpose
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  is to improve human health and wellness.
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  And I believe few places align more deeply
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  with that purpose than Duke, where the mission
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  driven, kind people are second to none. And
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  our four missions,
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  research, clinical care, education, and community health inspire
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  and impact lives every day. And our powerful
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  purpose of leading with heart and innovation to
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  contribute to a healthier humanity
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  is so deeply aligned with my own purpose.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you for joining me.
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  And let's start our conversation talking about growth
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  strategies. So can you kind of give us
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  an overview of what your growth strategy is
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  over the next year or two?
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  Our system growth strategy is centered on expanding
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  access to hope, health, and healing for more
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  North Carolinians.
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  And we're doing this by putting our people
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  first
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  and with a strategic growth effort tied to
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  buying, building, and partnering.
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  And some of our most exciting initiatives, and
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  it's not a comprehensive list by any means,
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  include our unique partnership with UNC to create
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  North Carolina's only freestanding children's standing children's hospital,
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  the integration of Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital,
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  building care sites across the state to close
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  access gaps,
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  and expanding ambulatory services through strategic partnerships.
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  And what's really exciting is the tight alignment
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  between our marketing and communication strategy
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  and this vision for growth. So we're focused
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  as a team on increasing awareness and visibility
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  of Duke Health across our primary service areas
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  and especially in our own backyard of Durham
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  where we serve as a safety net. And
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  our outstanding marketing team is driving growth in
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  three key areas,
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  growing the business, so with a perspective on
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  increasing new patient volume to feed our services,
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  growing the margin
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  by driving volume to high margin services,
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  and then, of course, growing the brand so
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  we can touch more lives through our strategic
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  partnerships and our growth opportunities.
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  I'll just give an example of some of
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  the work. We're currently running two major marketing
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  campaigns,
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  One, introducing Duke Health to Lake Norman,
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  and another focused on forty eight hour access
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  for heart and ortho care, which builds on
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  the success of our forty eight hour access
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  cancer campaign. And our communications
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  teams are ensuring that we're tightly aligned to
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  our team members, supporting them in the ways
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  that make most sense. And the news office
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  is new is doing really new and different
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  thought leadership and PR work.
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  Wonderful.
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  And can you tell us about the most
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  exciting or impact
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  initiatives. I think one of the most energizing
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  initiatives that we're leading is our full circle
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  storytelling strategy,
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  and it's really more than a communications effort.
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  It's
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  a collaborative and transformational
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  initiative. So we're spotlighting the real stories we've
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  not shared in the past about impact across
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  our communities,
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  and we're collaborating with our university and local
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  partners
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  to do so. So an example would be
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  engaging more closely with our CEO community health
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  advisory board
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  and our faith and ministry advisory board and
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  working very closely with our government relations teams
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  to amplify our message.
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  And another example I'd share of a story
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  that we just told recently that was really
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  exciting, I think, to all of us is
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  about root causes.
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  So I did not know that Duke University
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  has a farm, and that farm produces thousands
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  of pounds of food annually.
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  But we also collaborate with other organizations, the
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  school of medicine,
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  our endocrinologists,
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  our medical school school students,
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  community volunteers. And since 2016,
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  we've repurposed more than 273
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  tons
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  of food, and we now feed 700 families
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  a week with that food. So food is
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  medicine, and I love this story, and I
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  love that we were able to come together
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  and share it. Wonderful.
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  And then what is the most important thing
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  that you think health care executives should be
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  doing right now to make sure their organizations
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  are successful
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  in the future?
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  I believe the most important thing that health
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  care executives can do right now is serve
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  as beacons of
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  hope. So why do I say that? I
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  think the challenges that we face, I've been
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  here all week at the conference,
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  and the topics are pretty tough from
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  all of the financial headwinds to workforce shortages
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  to payer dynamics,
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  regulatory changes, site neutrality.
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  All these are real
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  challenges,
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  and we need to be able to see
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  them as opportunities.
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  And our people need to know that we're
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  with them, that we see them, and that
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  together we can create a better future. And
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  the power of hope is grounded in research.
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  For example, I've long followed the Gallup leadership
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  study. They do it globally.
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  And this year's findings are pretty striking.
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  56%
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  of those surveyed indicated that the most important
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  leadership trait that they're seeking
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  in their workplace is hope, not trust as
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  it's been over the years, but hope. And
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  it outranks every other every other trait to
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  include compassion
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  and stability.
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  And so when leaders inspire hope, the data
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  shows that organizations thrive,
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  well-being improves, engagement deepens. And
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  I believe as health care leaders, we have
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  a really unique opportunity to be beacons of
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  hope for our teams, for our patients, for
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  our communities.
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  And when our people feel hopeful,
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  that energy transforms every interaction.
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  So my recommendation is to lead with hope.
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  And at Duke Health, we've turned hope into
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  an acronym,
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  a way of being,
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  an
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  action focused
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  word for us, and it's honor our purpose
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  every day.
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  And I think all leaders should embrace the
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  power of hope for a better future for
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  all of us in this industry.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being
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  on the podcast today and sharing these insights.
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  Again, we are recording live at the thirteenth
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  annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
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  Thank you, Grace.