Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Tina Garrison, Chief Operating Officer of SSM Health’s St. Louis and Southern Illinois Region

Transcript

Tina Garrison, Chief Operating Officer of SSM Health’s St. Louis and Southern Illinois Region · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  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.
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  Join us April 13 through the 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 Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Tina Garrison, chief operating officer at SSM Health
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  St. Louis in Southern Illinois region. Tina, it's
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  a pleasure to have you on the podcast
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  today. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Now
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  I'm excited for our conversation and just to
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  learn a little bit more about some of
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  the cool things you've been doing recently as
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  well as how you're thinking about the future.
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  But before we dive in, can you tell
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  me a little bit more about yourself?
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  Absolutely.
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  I have been fortunate to be with SSM
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  Health for my whole career. I've been with
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  SSM Health for almost twenty five years. I
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  started in the quality department. So before I
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  became an executive,
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  my career was in quality improvement, so clinical
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  quality improvement. I'm not a clinician by background,
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  but I was,
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  supported by many folks around me to help
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  me lead clinical quality initiatives without having that
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  vice president in some of our hospitals. I've
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  been a hospital president in a couple of
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  our locations.
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  And about three years ago, I became, my
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  present role, which is chief operating officer for
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  the regions of Saint Louis and Southern Illinois.
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  As you may know, SSM Health is a
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  Catholic not for profit hit system.
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  We serve Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
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  We're comprised of about 15,000 doctors and about
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  40,000
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  team members delivering exceptional care ranging from the
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  most routine to quaternary care at our academic
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  medical centers.
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  Everything we do at SSM Health is guided
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  by our mission,
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  which is through our exceptional health care services,
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  we reveal the healing presence of God.
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  When you ask people who've been at SSM
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  for any length of time what keeps you
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  here, the most common and most popular answer
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  is the mission. And so that's something that's
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  really special to be a part of. That's
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  amazing to hear and to have that, you
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  know, such a a strong,
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  strong,
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  belief system and mission in place to serve
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  the community and, really
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  help folks,
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  feel that your healing power makes a big
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  difference. Now when you think of the last
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  year or so, could you tell me a
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  little bit about an initiative that you led?
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  What did you do, and what were the
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  results?
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  Absolutely. We've been on a journey that we
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  call Project Core.
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  That stands for clinical optimization
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  and repositioning
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  for excellence.
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  Essentially, we look at this as our path
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  to strengthen our position
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  as a leader in patient centric value based
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  care
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  that supports our academic and community based care
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  models where we deliver
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  high care quality at centers of excellence throughout
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  our region.
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  We've looked at many work streams, everything from
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  workforce utilization,
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  care delivery,
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  efficiency,
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  staffing,
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  supply utilization,
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  appointment scheduling.
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  We really looked at everything from end to
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  end of our care delivery system
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  to identify the things that we believe we
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  can make the most difference in.
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  So the first year of that was in
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  2024,
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  and we set out to achieve a goal
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  of a $100,000,000,
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  which was really daunting when we set the
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  goal. We were able though to achieve a
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  $155,000,000.
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  In the second year, we took a look
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  at the chapters, as we call them, of
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  our project core plan, and we updated those
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  chapters to see where we could challenge ourselves
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  more, where we could iterate a little bit
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  differently, and where we could deliver more value
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  to our to our care system.
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  And we achieved an additional $139,000,000
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  through this initiative in 2025.
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  So once again, in 2026,
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  we have our third year ahead of us,
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  and we're continuing with refresh chapters.
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  It's our ongoing commitment to be ever better
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  every single day with the focus always being
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  on patients
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  and ensuring we deliver the most exceptional care,
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  right
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  place at the right
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  time. Absolutely.
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  That sounds incredible. And especially to look at
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  how much you, not only achieved your goal
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  but exceeded your goal,
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  and, you know, it it's cool to have
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  that opportunity then to look back and make
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  adjustments and really go above and beyond what
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  you thought was possible. And speaking of 2026,
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  what are some of your big priorities as
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  well as some of the headwinds that you're
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  focused on?
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  We have big priorities this year and big
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  opportunities.
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  We continue to look at how and where
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  we deliver care to ensure we deliver the
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  most optimal patient experience
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  for those we serve.
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  In health care, we often define patient experience
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  within our quality realm. We want the best
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  outcomes for patients. And we know when they
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  are happier, they perceive that as quality, and
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  we want to deliver that. It's our job
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  that we're focused both on clinical quality as
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  well as experience.
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  Also, we through Project Core, as I mentioned,
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  we set out to develop service lines. So
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  we've been iterating and innovating within our service
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  lines over the last couple of years.
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  That identifies
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  where
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  where we should deliver each level of service
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  within a particular
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  service line or specialty.
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  We've been able to improve outcomes,
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  improve quality, improve satisfaction,
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  and improve access to care by using service
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  lines and determining where we would invest most
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  per service lines.
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  We will continue to do that as we
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  develop more centers of excellence.
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  There's a lot of headwinds for the whole
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  industry of health care. And when we make
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  decisions at SSM Health, we make sure we
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  keep our focus for the patient. And as
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  I mentioned earlier, our mission, we are always
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  guided by our mission.
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  Those two things are the things that keep
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  us grounded to make sure we make the
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  best decisions with the information we have for
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  our organization.
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  And as new headwinds come and as new
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  information comes, we must be nimble in health
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  care. So we will make changes when we
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  need to, but we will always lean into
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  patient centered care, delivering the best value, grounded
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  in our mission.
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  I love that. I think it's so helpful
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  to have that grounding and that mission in
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  place so that no matter what happens, you're
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  able to make adjustments,
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  you know, with the patient and community in
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  mind. And I think, you know, having that
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  understanding of where you wanna invest in the
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  specialties and the service lines that are in
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  a particular need,
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  is so helpful and critical. Now what do
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  you think is gonna be the hardest thing
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  you have to do in the coming year?
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  One of the biggest challenges
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  of this year will be navigating continued financial
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  pressures and industry changes.
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  These are high stakes issues,
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  but they also present an opportunity for us
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  to rethink how we operate,
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  prioritize what matters most, and innovate in ways
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  that strengthen our organization for the future.
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  It's about turning challenges into catalyst for improvement,
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  ensuring we deliver exceptional care while while building
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  a sustainable path forward.
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  I mentioned our our scope and breadth of
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  SSM Health, and we sure stand on the
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  shoulders of giants,
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  our sisters who came over a hundred and
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  fifty years ago that started the health ministry
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  that we lead today.
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  And I know that they also faced many
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  headwinds, financial and others other stressors,
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  and they were able to pivot
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  and iterate and change into what the community
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  needs to continue the health ministry, and we
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  will do the same.
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  We are entrusted with that, so we will
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  do the same and to deliver exceptional care.
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  Absolutely. Having that, you know, strong history and
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  foundation
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  into
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  exceptional care delivery,
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  really makes a big difference no matter what
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  the financial as well as industry,
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  changes that are occurring.
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  Now before we wrap up, I wanted to
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  ask you about growth too. Where do you
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  see some of the best opportunities for growth
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  at SSM Health?
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  One of the great things about health care
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  is by and large, we collaborate a lot
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  more than we compete.
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  And in Saint Louis, we are really blessed
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  to have really four strong health systems
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  in one market.
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  So we look for ways to partner with
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  organizations
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  to better serve our community,
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  where that makes sense. And so we have
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  a a couple of examples of that. We
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  have some food distribution events where we're able
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  to support,
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  those suffering from food insecurity and the social
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  determinants of health. We partner with Saint Lucero
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  Food Bank and some other organizations to ensure
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  that we can support patients.
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  And we also, are opening have opened a
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  new laundry facility, which is a joint venture
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  of another system within s s within Saint
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  Louis along side SSM.
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  And we're able to provide new jobs
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  to perform laundry services
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  where the facility is actually located in one
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  of our most challenged most challenged ZIP codes
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  while we work
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  to better provide laundry and linen
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  to our hospitals, which is really amazing to
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  see because
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  we know that laundry and linen are some
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  of the most basic needs that we have
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  to take care of patients,
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  to per to protect their infection status as
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  well as their dignity and to provide proper
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  care for gowns and scrubs and sheets and
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  all of the things that are are, linen.
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  And so it's really wonderful to be able
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  to collaborate
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  with a partner inside Saint Louis and be
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  able to, provide that improvement.
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  We also thinking about growth, we also have
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  an affiliate strategy. So we know that there
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  are a lot of really exceptional
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  organizations
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  in rural, markets across Missouri and Illinois,
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  and rural health care is changing all the
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  time. We're
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  determining how what services can be provided in
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  critical access and other locations.
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  And we have a strategy to make sure
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  that we can support those rural locations to
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  the best of our ability and provide that
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  tertiary and quaternary care in our facilities
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  when it's something that's beyond that hospital's capability.
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  So we see that as a way to
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  continue our mission
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  and support the care of patients in their
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  own community when it's possible,
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  but also a growth strategy for us to
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  ensure that we can take care of even
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  more patients,
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  as they need that higher level care.
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  And then lastly, I'll circle back around to
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  our centers of excellence.
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  As I mentioned, we've leaned into centers of
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  excellence and really developed our service line strategy
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  over the last couple of years, and we
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  believe that is the path to ensuring we
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  have the highest level of care
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  while having a mechanism for growth. So that
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  is another area that we will continue to
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  focus and identify the right service lines to
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  create more centers of excellence.
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  Fantastic. It sounds like a lot happening there
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  at FSM Health and, you know, really truly
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  exciting things for,
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  your community and the patients that you serve.
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  Tina, thank you so much for joining us
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  on the podcast today. This has been a
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  very informative and interesting podcast, and I look
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  forward to seeing you as well at our
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  annual meeting in April. I know you'll be
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  speaking on a panel, and we'll dig deeper
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  into a lot of the themes we talked
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  about today. So looking forward to that and
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  seeing you soon. Awesome. Can't wait.