Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leading Clinical and Operational Excellence at SSM Health with Sue Anderson

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Leading Clinical and Operational Excellence at SSM Health with Sue Anderson · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
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leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues
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facing the industry.
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And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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and unexpected ways.
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This April, more than 3,500
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healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's
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sixteenth annual meeting.
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Seven ninety five elite speakers will offer new
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lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what
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comes next. Join us April 13 through the
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sixteenth.
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For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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and click on the events tab in the
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upper right.
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This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
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podcast.
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We're thrilled today to be joined by a
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brilliant leader who's had a tremendous leadership career.
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We're joined today by Sue Anderson.
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Sue is, is currently a regional president at
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SSM, one of the great faith based systems
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in the country.
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Previously, she was on the West Coast at,
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I believe, the Virginia Mason Medical Center.
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He is also a proud Notre Dame graduate,
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and we'll talk a little bit about that
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as well.
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Sue,
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can you take a moment and introduce yourself
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and tell us a little bit about yourself
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and your career?
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Hi. I'm Sue Anderson.
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I have been in health care for,
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forty years this year.
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Spent the first half of my career in
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consulting and then went to work for a
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client, which was Virginia Mason.
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And then for the past four years, I
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have been at SSM Health in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Fantastic. And and talk about well, Madison's one
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of the great talents in the country.
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Talk about sort of the health care situation
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in in Wisconsin today as SSM.
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It it must be somewhat a tale of
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two cities because
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in in rural Wisconsin, it must be more
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challenging than it is in Madison. But talk
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about what does it look like in in
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Wisconsin health care today, if you if you
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don't mind.
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Yeah. So we have seven hospitals in our
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system in kind of Southwest Wisconsin.
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Four of those seven are considered rural health
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care. And so as you said, the challenges
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in rural health care are very different than
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the ones in an urban setting.
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And then here in
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Madison itself
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in Dane County,
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we have,
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we're here and then the University of Wisconsin
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system is here. And,
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we're very lucky that we have a lot
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of arrangements with the university. We get
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along very well,
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really help each other out in the community.
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So it's a great city to be,
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based in.
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You're you're a fantastic place.
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And and take a moment and tell us
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about
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sort of
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what trends you're watching currently in health care.
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What are you most focused on, and and
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what are you watching the most closely?
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So I think, I'm probably watching the same
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things that everybody else is. Health care financing
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is top of mind. What we've been watching
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really a lot over the last month is
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the issue around the subsidies for the ACA
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plans because we've really seen our volumes be
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affected,
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in January, and we think that that's directly
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related to people not having insurance who previously
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had insurance. And we're worried about that because
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we think they're putting off coming in for
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care.
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Obviously, watching AI and technology and how can
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we do things more efficiently
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and better,
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watching the workforce and talent development and really
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working on that, and thinking about new models
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of care,
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so that we can be more responsive to
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our patients and our communities and also,
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be much more efficient in how we deliver
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that care.
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Thank you. And talk about, Sue, whether disappointed
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and no name not making the college football
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championships or thought that was fair.
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Well, I think you can predict my response,
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which is I think it was extremely
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unfair, but they're gonna come back next year
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definitely,
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ready to prove a point.
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Let's hope so. And I I won't I'll
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I'll wait a a few more moments before
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I ask you another nonserious question.
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Let me ask you first before I get
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into Packers and beers and stuff like that.
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Let let me ask you about the, you
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know, what are you most focused on and
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excited about as you head into 2026?
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Then I wanna ask you about leadership because
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you've had this remarkable leadership career.
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Talk a bit about what are you most
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focused on and excited about this year?
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You know, whenever the external environment is kind
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of roiling the way it is today,
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I think it can be helpful to really
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focus internally on the things that you can
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control.
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And FSM as a system over the last
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couple of years has really been focusing on
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clinical and operational excellence,
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and we've made some very good progress on
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our quality metrics, on our,
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you know, just efficiency metrics, just opening up
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access, which is a challenge in health care,
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and we've done a great job of doing
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that. And so I'm really excited about the
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work that our teams are doing
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that is making our
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operations
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stronger and that is being more responsive to
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what our patients need. And just seeing that
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and the pride on our team's faces as
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they realize how much they can really improve
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the system themselves,
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is exciting to watch.
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That's tremendous.
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And, Sue,
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talk a little bit about
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leadership and the advice that you give to
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emerging leaders.
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What will be your thoughts there?
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Yeah. So I I think I have several
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pieces of advice for kind of developing emerging
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leaders.
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One would be what we were just talking
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about,
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which is to pay attention to trends,
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but don't follow every new shiny object.
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And so really being
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understanding the background, where we're going, where the
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industry is going,
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but following your path
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to
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creating excellence in what area whatever area you're
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working on.
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Another piece would be
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to remember why you do what you do.
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So I am in health care because I
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really wanna make the system better.
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And, you know, I wanna make sure that
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we're providing the highest quality care and serving
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our communities the best way that we can.
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And whenever I get frustrated,
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I go back to my why.
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And as a system, SSM,
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is very mission
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vision
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focused, and,
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that helps keeps our keep our teams grounded
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as well.
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A third I got two more pieces of
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advice. The third would be,
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get used to constant change
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and learn how to navigate it and to
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deal with ambiguity
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because
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that's the way health care has been my
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entire career,
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and it's only getting
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only doing that faster today than it did
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when I first started.
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And then finally, I think as a leader,
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I sometimes think that we have to have
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all the answers,
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and I know
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I don't have
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most of the answers.
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But you can't do it alone. And so
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really working with your colleagues,
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because health care is a team sport. I'm
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getting back to your sports analogy there, Scott.
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No. We appreciate it. Talk about it. You
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said something that's so interesting about
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it it's been constant change in health care
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for a long time.
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Yes. The health care economy
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is the world has gotten so much bigger.
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How do you deal with the fact that
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there's so many things that feel outside of
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your control as a leader?
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There's constant different legislative changes, regulatory changes. There's
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shortages of physicians.
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There's
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evolution of technology.
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How do you deal with the fact as
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a leader
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that the world has become such a bigger
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place in some ways? You know, you're leading
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a system of seven different hospitals.
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I bet thirty years ago,
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we didn't see so many hospitals being so
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large and part of bigger systems and everything
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else. Thought about, you know, being the CEO
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of a of a hospital, not not a
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seven hospital system. And the world just seems
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to have gotten so much more complex
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and changing.
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How do you deal with that changing complexity
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and and just change
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and stay centered and try and stay very
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effective?
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Yeah. I I think it gets back to
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what I was saying about
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recognizing
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trends, understanding
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trends,
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trying to influence
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trends. So, for example,
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I'm on the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
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Right? That's one of the ways that we
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can, through advocacy efforts,
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try to impact
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the trends that we really can't control,
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as an individual or even as a system.
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And so I think it's really understanding how
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do you play in the broader,
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environment
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and try to influence where you can.
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And then how do you control the things
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that you can control?
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You know, I I did work at Virginia
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Mason, and Virginia Mason is very much known
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for,
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being the first to ever implement the Toyota
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production system and kind of that continuous improvement,
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lean management. And
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that has really served me well because if
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you
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you think about the fact
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that you're really committed
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to continuous improvement, you're saying you're gonna change
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all the time.
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And as we implemented
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things there,
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it we taught our teams
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how to manage change and to think of
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change as an opportunity,
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not something being done to them.
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And so I I think having a
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an organized approach
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to how you
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how you control
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what you can
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so that you're constantly improving and not afraid
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of change
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and then putting it within that broader context
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that we were talking about.
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Thank you very, very much. You mentioned something
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which
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I have not heard people talk about in
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a little bit, but a few years ago,
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I had the chance to have doctor Kaplan,
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Gary Kaplan
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from Virginia Mason on medical center on the
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podcast.
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If you had a chance to talk to
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him over the years,
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talk a little bit about the the concept
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of Toyota
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leadership system,
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in in the
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in
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in the production system. Talk a bit about
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that and the concept of constant improvement and
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constant change.
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Yeah.
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So if you go back to when
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the Toyota production system was first, quote, invented
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by Taiichi Ohno, it was right after World
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War two.
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And if you think about Toyota in Japan
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right after World War two, it was a
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an economy that was totally
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devastated.
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And so a lot of the fundamental
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principles that people associate
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with
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Toyota,
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like just in time inventory,
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and things like that, were because Toyota didn't
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have any money to pay their suppliers.
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And so they learned to live within those
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constraints.
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And one of the things that's interesting about
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times of severe constraints
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is that is when people become the most
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innovative.
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And so if we can embrace the fact
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that today,
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health care is full of constraints,
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we'll be much more innovative
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about how we do our business
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and,
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how we approach things.
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And the Toyota Production System really gives you
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a set of tools
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to allow you to know how to approach
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problems,
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how to work with others,
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to solve those problems, and to really push
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it as close to where the work is
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being done as possible. Because the people on
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the front lines know a lot more about
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what they should be doing to improve things
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than I do.
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I'm way too far removed, and I would
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just mess things up if I were to
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go do that today.
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And and, actually, that's one of the reasons
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why I came to SSM
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is because
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SSM had the beginnings
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of a management system. It's we call it
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our operating model, and it's run by our
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continuous improvement team. And what's been really fun
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for me over the last four years is
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I have a great continuous improvement leader,
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and the two of us
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have really kinda doubled down on the SSM
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operating model and implemented a lot of things
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that I knew how to do just having
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come from Virginia Mason.
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And now they're being spread throughout the entire
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SSM system.
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And, that's really exciting to watch because I
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see our leaders here. We've trained now in
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Wisconsin,
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a little over 200 leaders, and I see
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the fruits of that when I round
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when I go visit our our different locations
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and and see the great work that's being
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done on the front lines.
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That's
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a remarkable. And and, Sue, what a remarkable
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leadership journey you've been on, and and congratulations
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on incredible work. And SSM is a great
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system.
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So thank you so much. So is there
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anything else you'd like to share with listeners
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today,
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either team members, consumers, other leaders, anything else
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you'd like to to share for a moment?
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I think I'd go back to some of
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my leadership advices.
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Remember the why.
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Remember the why.
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Because I think at times,
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health care
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seems
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really hard
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and
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just creates a lot of stress. But if
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we remember
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the reason why we're here, those intimate moments
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our caregivers have as they are dealing with
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people at their most vulnerable times,
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it'll remind us why we're doing the hard
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work.
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And to me, that's why I get up
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in the morning is knowing that I can
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do something today that will hopefully make a
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difference.
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So I wanna thank you for joining us.
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You're a tremendous example of leadership. Thank you
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so much for joining us today on the
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Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you. Oh, thank you
14:33
for having me. I I appreciate it.