← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Leading Clinical and Operational Excellence at SSM Health with Sue Anderson
00:14:40
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- [00:02]
A
Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues facing the industry. And every year, those conversations shift in profound and unexpected ways. This April, more than 3,500 healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's 16th annual meeting. 795 elite speakers will offer new lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what comes next. Join us April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit BeckersHospReview.com and click on the events tab in the upper right.
- [00:38]
B
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. We're thrilled today to be joined by a brilliant leader who's had a tremendous leadership career. We're joined today by Sue Anderson. Sue is currently a regional president at ssm, one of the great faith based systems in the country. Previously she was on the west coast and I believe of the Virginia Mason Medical center is also a proud Notre Dame graduate. And we'll talk a little bit about that as well. Sue, can you take a moment and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your career?
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C
Hi, I'm Sue Anderson. I have been in healthcare for 40 years. This year spent the first half of my career in consulting and then went to work for a client which was Virginia Mason. And then for the past four years I have been at FSM Health in Madison, Wisconsin.
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B
Fantastic. And talk about, well, Madison is one of the great towns in the country. Talk about sort of the health care situation in Wisconsin today as ssm, it must be somewhat a tale of two cities because in rural Wisconsin it must be more challenging than it is in Madison. But talk about what does it look like in Wisconsin and healthcare today, if you don't mind.
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C
Yeah. So we have seven hospitals in our system in kind of southwest Wisconsin. Four of those seven are considered rural health care. And so as you said, the challenges in rural healthcare are very different than the ones in an urban setting. And then here in Madison itself in Dane county, we have, we're here and then the University of Wisconsin system is here. And we're very lucky that we have a lot of arrangements with the university. We get along very well, really help each other out in the community. So it's a great city to be.
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B
Based in a fantastic place. And take a moment and tell us about sort of what trends you're watching currently in health care. What are you most focused on and what are you watching the most closely.
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C
So I think I'm probably watching the same things that everybody else is. Healthcare financing is top of mind. What we've Been watching really a lot over the last month is the issue around the subsidies for the ACA plans. Because we've really seen our volumes be affected in January and we think that that's directly related to people not having insurance who previously had insurance. And we're worried about that because we think they're putting off coming in for care, obviously watching AI and technology and how can we do things more efficiently and better. Watching the workforce and talent development and really working on that and thinking about new models of care so that we can be more responsive to our patients in our communities and also be much more efficient in how we deliver that care.
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B
Thank you. And talk about sue, whether disappointed in no Name not making the college football championships or thought that was fair.
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C
Well, I think you can predict my response, which is I think it was extremely unfair. But they're going to come back next year. Definitely ready to prove a point.
- [04:06]
B
Let's hope so. And I won't. I'll wait a few more moments before I ask you another non serious question. Let me ask you first, before I get into packers and beers and stuff like that. Let me ask you about the, you know, what are you most focused on and excited about as you head into 2026? Then I want to ask you about leadership because you've had this remarkable leadership career. Talk a bit about what are you most focused on and excited about this year?
- [04:32]
C
You know, whenever the external environment is kind of roiling the way it is today, I think it can be helpful to really focus internally on the things that you can control. And FFM as a system over the last couple of years has really been focusing on clinical and operational excellence. And we've made some very good progress on our quality metrics, on our, you know, just efficiency metrics, just opening up access, which is a challenge in healthcare. And we've done a great job of doing that. And so I'm really excited about the work that our teams are doing that is making our operations stronger and that is being more responsive to what our patients need. And just seeing that and the pride on our team faces as they realize how much they can really improve the system themselves is exciting to watch.
- [05:31]
B
That's tremendous. And sue, talk a little bit about leadership and the advice that you give to emerging leaders a little bit. Your thoughts there?
- [05:41]
C
Yeah. So I think I have several pieces of advice for kind of developing emerging leaders. One would be what we were just talking about, which is to pay attention to trends, but don't follow every new shiny object. And so really being understanding the background where we're going, where the industry is going, but following your path to creating excellence in whatever area you're working on. Another piece would be to remember why you do what you do. So I am in health care because I really want to make the system better. And, you know, I want to make sure that we're providing the highest quality care and serving our communities the best way that we can. And whenever I get frustrated, I go back to my why. And as a system, SSM is very mission vision focused and that helps keep our teams grounded as well. I got two more pieces of advice. The third would be get used to constant change and learn how to navigate it and to deal with ambiguity because that's the way healthcare has been my entire career and it's only getting only doing that faster today than it did when I first started. And then finally, I think as a leader, I sometimes think that we have to have all the answers. And I know I don't have most of the answers, but you can't do it alone. And so really working with your colleagues because healthcare is a team sport. I'm getting back to your sports analogy there.
- [07:30]
B
Scott Noel, we appreciate it. Talk about it. You said something that's so interesting about. It's been constant change in healthcare for a long time. As the health care economy is, the world has gotten so much bigger. How do you deal with the fact that there's so many things that feel outside of your control as a leader? There's constant legislative changes, regulatory changes, there's shortages of physicians, there's evolution of technology. How do you deal with the fact as a leader that the world has become such a bigger place in some ways, you know, you're leading a system of seven different hospitals. I bet 30 years ago we didn't see so many hospitals being so large and part of bigger systems and everything else. Thought about, you know, being the CEO of a hospital, not a seven hospital system, and the world just seems to have gotten so much more complex and changing. How do you deal with that changing complexity and just change and stay centered and try and stay very effective?
- [08:36]
C
Yeah, I think it gets back to what I was saying about recognizing trends, understanding trends, trying to influence trends. So, for example, I'm on the Wisconsin Hospital association, right. That's one of the ways that we can, through advocacy efforts, try to impact the trends that we really can't control as an individual or even as a system. And so I think it's really understanding how do you play in the broader environment and try to influence where you can and then how do you control the things that you can control? You know, I did work at Virginia Mason, and Virginia Mason is very much known for being the first to ever implement the Toyota production system and kind of that continuous improvement, lean management. And that has really served me well, because if you. You think about the fact that you're really committed to continuous improvement, you're saying you're going to change all the time. And as we implemented things there, we taught our teams how to manage change and to think of change as an opportunity, not something being done to them. And so I think having an organized approach to how you. How you control what you can so that you're constantly improving and not afraid of change, and then putting it within that broader context that we were talking about.
- [10:13]
B
Thank you very, very much. You mentioned something which I have not heard people talk about in a little bit, but a few years ago, I had the chance to have Dr. Kaplan, Gary Kaplan for Virginia Mason on Medical center on the podcast, and if you had a chance to talk to him over the years, talk a little bit about the concept of Toyota leadership system in the production system, talk a bit about that and the concept of constant improvement and constant change.
- [10:46]
C
Yeah. So if you go back to when the Toyota production system was first created, quote, invented by Taiichi Ono, it was right after World War II. And if you think about Toyota in Japan, right after World War II, it was an economy that was totally devastated. And so a lot of the fundamental principles that people associate with Toyota, like just in time, inventory and things like that, were because Toyota didn't have any money to pay their suppliers. And so they learned to live within those constraints. And one of the things that's interesting about times of severe constraints is that is when people become the most innovative. And so if we can embrace the fact that today health care is full of constraints, we'll be much more innovative about how we do our business and how we approach things. And the Toyota production system really gives you a set of tools to allow you to know how to approach problems, how to work with others to solve those problems, and to really push it as close to where the work is being done as possible, because the people on the front lines know a lot more about what they should be doing to improve things than I do. I'm way too far removed, and I would just mess things up if I were to go do that today. And actually, that's one of the reasons why I came to ssm, is because SSM had the beginnings of a management system. We call it our operating model and it's run by our continuous improvement team. And what's been really fun for me over the years, last four years is I have a great continuous improvement leader and the two of us have really kind of doubled down on the SSM operating model and implemented a lot of things that I knew how to do, just having come from Virginia Mason. And now they're being spread throughout the entire SSM system. And that's really exciting to watch because I see our leaders here, we've trained now in Wisconsin, a little over 200 leaders. And I see the fruit roots of that when I round when I go visit our different locations and see the great work that's being done on the front lines.
- [13:25]
B
That's remarkable. And sue, what a remarkable leadership journey you've been on and congratulations on incredible work and SSM is a great system. So thank you so much. Sue, is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners today? Either team members, consumers, other leaders, Anything else you'd like to share for a moment?
- [13:47]
C
I think I'd go back to some of my leadership advice is remember the why. Remember the why. Because I think at times health care seems really hard and just creates a lot of stress. But if we remember the reason why we're here, those intimate moments our caregivers have as they are dealing with people at their most vulnerable times, it'll remind us why we're doing the hard work. And to me, that's why I get up in the morning is knowing that I can do something today that will hopefully make a difference.
- [14:25]
B
Sue, I want to thank you for joining us. You're a tremendous example of leadership. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Beckers Healthcare podcast. Thank you.
- [14:33]
C
Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.