Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Timothy Seay-Morrison, Senior Vice President of Service Lines and Chief of Ambulatory Care Operations at Stanford Health Care

Transcript

Timothy Seay-Morrison, Senior Vice President of Service Lines and Chief of Ambulatory Care Operations at Stanford Health Care · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  The most important health care decisions don't happen
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  in isolation.
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  They happen when leaders come together.
• 0:08
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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  3,500
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  hospital and health system executives this April in
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  Chicago.
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  With 800 speakers from Ascension,
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  Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
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  real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
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  for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
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  barriers, and building clinical teams that translate
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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here at Becker's,
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  and I'm thrilled to interview
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  Timothy c Morrison,
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  senior vice president of cancer care at Stanford
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  Health Care on the podcast today. Thank you
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  so much for joining me. I'm so grateful
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  to share your insights with our podcast audience.
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  Thank you. I'm really glad to be here.
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  Before we dive in, could you
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  introduce yourself to our audience? Maybe tell us
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  a little bit about your role and your
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  organization?
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  Sure. Happy to. So, Timothy c Morrison. A
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  lot of people professionally call me Tim Morrison,
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  and I have been with Stanford Health Care
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  about fifteen years.
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  Stanford is,
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  an academic medical center, academic medical system here
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  in the Bay Area,
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  about 35 miles south of San Francisco in
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  Palo Alto.
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  And we have,
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  a large
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  on campus,
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  quaternary hospital system here in Palo Alto and
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  also a community hospital
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  in Pleasanton.
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  And the system is made up of not
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  only
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  faculty practice,
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  we also have a physician foundation
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  and a very close relationship with the,
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  Stanford Children's Health, which is,
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  here part of Stanford Medicine real large.
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  And I've been here about fifteen years. I
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  recently transitioned into this SVP role for the
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  cancer centers.
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  Cancer is our largest service line and where
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  both
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  the health system and the School of Medicine
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  and the University are very intent on focusing
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  attention and investment over the decade ahead as
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  we
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  aim to increase our capability of caring for
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  people with cancer as the cancer burden grows
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  in the world.
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  And the job I had most recently
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  was as the senior vice president of the
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  service lines,
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  10 of our service lines, and also as
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  the chief of ambulatory care operations.
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  And I'm excited to merge these things together.
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  Cancer is predominantly an ambulatory operation too, so
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  it kind of bridges my interest there
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  and lets me face a new challenge in
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  thinking about cancer care.
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  Perfect. Yeah. And, you know, our audience ranges
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  from the ASC to the academic medical center
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  medical center to those huge health systems. So
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  I think your experience,
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  you kind of touch all those different things.
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  So I'm I'm sure our audience will be
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  really excited to hear,
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  you know, how you're navigating the health industry
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  today.
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  I guess you can take this next question,
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  right, in maybe your previous role,
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  or if you've got something in the cancer
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  care
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  realm to share that. But
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  when you're looking back in the last year,
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  2025,
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  what do you feel is the most important
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  initiative you led?
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  And maybe
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  what did it take to get there, and
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  what were some of the results that you
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  saw?
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  Sure. I I'm really excited about work we've
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  done related to ambulatory governance and alignment.
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  So at Stanford Medicine, we don't have a
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  single practice plan. We're made up of
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  faculty physicians across 18 clinical departments and community
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  medical groups, and everyone has an interest in
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  the ambulatory environment.
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  And as the SVP, I also have a
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  physician partner, Chief Medical Officer Jenny Cruz.
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  And our work
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  over the last couple of years, but really
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  landing in this last year, has been around
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  advancing
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  and
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  maturing
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  the governance of the ambulatory platform, and really
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  building that trust and partnership of the key
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  leaders across
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  all of our service lines and all of
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  the departments and the community medical groups to
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  think about org wide decisions
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  so that we have standards in the way
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  that we provide ambulatory care across
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  our network, which has a pretty large geography.
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  And so that's taken, you know, it's taken
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  a couple years
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  of
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  trust building
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  and practicing and thinking about, the decision matrices
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  and where things go
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  in a very complex and matrix organization.
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  But in the last year, it really matured,
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  and and we were able to,
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  through that governance group and I think the
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  the growth of the trust that exists in
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  those leaders,
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  advance standards really specifically around
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  access goals and standards,
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  agreeing on room utilization standards that we use
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  now for allocation for further future growth, but
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  also recalibration
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  of buildings,
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  who has operational oversight of different footprints,
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  and also our quality goals.
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  And in this last year too, we unified
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  our Visiant quality data and reporting to include
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  the foundation practices in addition to our faculty
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  practices.
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  And
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  that takes our agreement and alignment. But
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  we we moved ourselves into number six in
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  the ambulatory quality and accountability scorecard
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  because we saw how that unified system helps
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  us improve new patient access, overall patient access,
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  reduce our lag time to getting people in,
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  as well as improving things like our, you
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  know,
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  high utilization
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  rates and and management of complex conditions
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  that we don't want having,
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  additional utilization of hospital emergency rooms. So I'm
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  I'm really, really proud of that kind of
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  energy that I think took a lot of
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  leaders,
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  coming together.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I
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  I have seen just that shift into
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  outpatient and ambulatory
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  care
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  so
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  heavily covered this past year. And and I
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  always love to hear from leaders when they
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  say it took a lot of people coming
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  together to, you know, make care
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  access for all sorts of different service lines.
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  Right? It's not just cancer care. It's not
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  just one or the other.
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  So I think a lot of our listeners
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  will be able to relate to what you
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  said and and probably learn from that kind
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  of shared governance mindset.
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  Shifting gears a little bit, instead of looking
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  back, I'd love to look ahead.
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  As you step into your new role as
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  well, are there any kind of big priorities
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  or maybe even headwinds that you're focused on
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  as you look into 2026?
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  Definitely.
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  Certainly, like many
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  of the listeners,
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  we're all focused on headwinds with sort of
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  a changing
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  regulatory environment and pressure on health systems. And
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  so for us
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  in in this academic system, we think about
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  site of service changes, the the Medicaid
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  shifts, and sort of the liability of
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  understanding
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  what will be covered and won't, and,
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  the liability of telehealth legislation. That has a
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  big impact here at Stanford Healthcare. We're a
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  very high user of virtual care. We have
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  remained
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  at a very high percentage
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  of virtual visits across our enterprise,
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  and it is a it's a leading part
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  of our access strategy
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  because
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  of sort of the real estate compression that
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  exists. We're able to extend our reach by
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  using
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  telehealth. So it's really, really important to us.
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  Sort of stepping into cancer, but it bridges
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  these things to,
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  the research funding implications
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  and changes in overhead and,
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  NIH funding,
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  I think are things we're really watching because
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  in our minds, they pose a threat to
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  the integrity of academic medicine and also our
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  shared mission, which
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  is about being able to advance
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  the science so that we can then
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  continue to help the democratization
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  of great healthcare treatments and expand
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  the kind of care that places like Stanford
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  and other AMC's get get the privilege of
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  engaging in the development of, but making sure
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  that that kind of research and innovation can
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  then reach other people.
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  And so,
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  specifically in cancer, we look to continue to
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  think about
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  making sure that our research enterprise and our
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  capability to expand clinical trials and clinical trials
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  enrollment across geographies and across all across our
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  network, can be strong
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  through and that takes, you know, infrastructure
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  capability and enhancement, and it takes creativity around
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  funding and efficiency.
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  And and I think it's really important. And
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  it's also a super exciting part about why
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  we work in academic medicine is this integration
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  of where science meets care. And so I'm
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  really, I am looking forward to that, even
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  though
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  I know that it's going to be a
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  big challenge for the years ahead.
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  Absolutely. And speaking of challenges,
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  you teed me up perfectly for my next
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  question.
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  We can't, you know, only talk about the
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  exciting,
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  priorities and growth opportunities
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  without, you know,
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  talking about maybe some of the harder things
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  or the challenges that you'll have to face
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  in the coming year. Are there any that
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  are top of mind that you're thinking about
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  right now?
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  Well, most pressing for me in the year
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  ahead, I'm gonna transition my oldest kid to
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  middle school. That kind of thing.
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  That's really hard.
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  But, you know, like, the changing pressures of
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  aging family members and their needs, you know,
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  at the same time. I'm sure all of
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  you appreciate, like, the
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  the the other part of our lives. Right?
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  Right. It's still still is happening at the
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  same time.
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  That's right.
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  But related to work, you know, I
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  I think the hardest stuff continues
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  to
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  think about how we motivate the healthcare workforce
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  physicians
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  to remain engaged and feel excited about this
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  work
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  at a time that feels highly pressured
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  and where there are many, many financial headwinds
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  facing not only us, but many other
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  organizations in the nation,
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  the struggle of the community health organizations to
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  meet the demand of the community
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  at the time ahead where we're unsure about
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  the funding of,
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  people who don't have good access to care
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  or,
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  don't have the financial means that everybody does.
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  And I think we're all gonna need to
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  focus on that balance so that all the
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  health systems can remain
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  healthy
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  and,
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  and think about the shared burden of, you
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  know, the American health system. I think that's
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  some of the hardest stuff. And I worry
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  about
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  the, resilience of our physician workforce and the
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  pressures on physicians. And so our challenge to
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  provide all the professional fulfillment that comes from
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  the joy of taking care of people
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  and what it the reason we were called
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  to this work,
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  and and why physicians were called to this
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  work, that we're making sure our practice environments
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  continue to support that so that that we're
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  thinking about, you know, the marathon, not just
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  the sprint.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, I think all of
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  the
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  important initiatives and programs and everything you've shared
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  with us today, the backbone of all that,
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  right, is the health care workforce. So I
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  think that's such an important point that,
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  like you said, our audience will be able
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  to relate to as as always kind of
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  that ever present concern that, everyone's focusing on.
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  That's right. Yeah. You know, AI is super
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  exciting, and and we're gonna see so many
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  opportunities to
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  to advance and democratize
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  protocols and how healthcare is delivered. And we're
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  still a human service at the core of
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  it. All the people
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  have to be
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  shored up through this journey together.
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  Definitely.
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  Well, for my last question, I'd love to
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  wrap it off. On a high note, where
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  do you see the best opportunities
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  for organizational
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  growth at your organization right now?
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  This is a a really exciting year for
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  Stanford Cancer Centers. We are embarking on some
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  new things for us, and we have a
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  joint venture with another health system
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  in Northern California, and we're building a building
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  together that we intend to open in the
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  fall. And this is an incredible learning experience
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  about bringing a very large
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  community system together with an academic system that
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  helps us extend our reach into
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  Oakland, a different geography, an area that
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  we are excited about serving the community and
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  bringing the best of both organizations together. And
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  it's a a really exciting,
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  I think, learning opportunity about bringing these systems
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  together.
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  That sort of coupled with other cancer network
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  capabilities as we look at how we're partnering
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  with other organizations throughout the state and here
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  in the in the Western Region
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  to think about extending the capabilities
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  of what Stanford offers,
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  again, to other communities as we think about
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  expanding access and care.
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  And
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  and and the opportunities for those of us
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  in academic medicine
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  are are helping us think about the prioritization
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  of our portfolio so that we continue to
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  do what we're best at and are providing
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  the power
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  and leverage and support to deliver
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  the other types of care that exist in
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  in other communities. And I think that's gonna
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  help us
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  grow because it's going to,
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  provide the strength that the community needs and
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  at the same time then provide the capacity
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  and capability to do what's best in an
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  academic center.
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  Perfect. And, yeah, you know, selfishly, I do
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  cover oncology news and access,
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  you know, in the community is always such
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  a hot topic. So I'm really excited to
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  hear more about the cancer center that you're,
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  partnering on and and excited to cover its
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  opening
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  later this year.
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  Thank you so much for joining me on
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  the podcast. I I feel like it's been
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  an amazing and informative discussion, so I really
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  appreciate you sharing your time and your insights.
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  Thank Thank you so much. Thanks for having
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  me.
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  Perfect. And I invite our listeners to tune
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  in to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare
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  by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
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  I hope you all have a wonderful rest
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  of your day. Bye.