Susan Edwards was recently named the new president and chief executive officer of Pewaukee-based ProHealth Care Inc. Edwards will succeed outgoing president and CEO Ford Titus, who plans to retire in April 2011. Titus has worked for ProHealth Care for 42 years.
Prior to accepting the position at ProHealth care, Edwards was the president of the Arizona region for Banner Health System, one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the nation.
Edwards was born and raised in Sparta, N.C., and has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Emory and Henry College, a master’s of health administration degree from Duke University and a law degree from Wayne State University. She has also earned board certification in health care management as a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Alysha Schertz recently spoke with Edwards about coming to Milwaukee, ProHealth Care’s role in a competitive health care marketplace and how the system will be affected by health care reform. The following are excerpts from that interview.
BizTimes: What was appealing about ProHealth Care and Wisconsin in general? Why did you accept this position?
Edwards: “ProHealth Care has been a great system for over 90 years. It has a great legacy in this community. I came here because I was going to get the opportunity to replace someone who had been here for 42 years. I recognized that this organization was at a point in time where it was going to be facing a lot of changes, not only because of the environment, but also because of some of the regulatory changes that were going to occur because of reform. I had the fortunate privilege of working in a lot of markets that had gone through a lot of change; a lot of decline from an economic standpoint but also growth markets, so I felt like I was well-positioned to come in and make a difference in an organization that was very stable and solid already. The other great thing I learned was that this is really a community organization in many respects. It’s locally owned and community governed, and the community really embraces this system in an amazing way. I have to tell you that can really make a difference when you have a community that you can reach out to.”
BizTimes: What was the most glaring difference between the health care market in southeastern Wisconsin and the health care market in Phoenix where you previously worked?
Edwards: “When I went to Phoenix to join Banner Health in 2002, I was in charge of the Arizona market. The population in that market was growing exponentially at the time. We were under-bedded and had to become incredibly efficient at managing our beds and our inpatient services. We had to get patients in and out as efficiently as we could, while still providing outstanding care. We had a very high turnover of patients because we had to. We didn’t have the beds. We became very efficient and had to because the physician reimbursement market in Phoenix is very poor in comparison to here. So, the experience was really understanding how you were capable of being lean and efficient when your reimbursement rate was consistent with that as well. I thought that was something that gave me strength here. I understood what our cost structure could look like. We are still in an environment that has a pretty decent reimbursement rate, but we’re seeing those decline everywhere all the time. In Phoenix, because the population was growing so quickly, I became well-versed in establishing new facilities, new programs and expanding the curriculum that we had, and I think every system needs to do that. Every system needs to reinvent itself consistently in order to provide the best level of patient care possible to our community.”
BizTimes: With such a saturated health care market, particularly with the Aurora Summit Hospital being located so close to ProHealth Care’s Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, most facilities have seen a decline in inpatient admissions. What are your plans to rectify that for the long term?
Edwards: “Nationally, inpatient admissions have been down 5 to 6 percent. It occurred in other areas before it did here, but I think we are just starting to see this now. Everyone is facing the issue in terms of inpatient declines, but I think as far as the competition goes, whether it’s Oconomowoc or anywhere, there is always going to be competition. We’re going to do what we’ve always been doing, which is provide great care, great outcomes and great satisfaction to our patients. Oconomowoc is truly one of our leaders in that; their patient satisfaction rate is in the 90-plus percentile and they recently received an award for the highest emergency department satisfaction rate, one in the 99th percentile, over three years. I think when you deliver that kind of care, even if there is competition, you are going to go where you are taken care of. It’s challenging for anyone to open a new facility these days, but the inpatient census numbers at Oconomowoc Memorial are significantly higher than that of the Summit facility. The procedures and the technology at our facilities is top notch and they are doing some pretty amazing things at Oconomowoc Memorial. It’s not only providing great work, but doing it in a great way.”
BizTimes: What are your longer-term goals and plans for ProHealth Care?
Edwards: “We are in the process of putting together our strategic plan for 2011. That will really drive the initiatives around how we align with physicians and how we utilize and optimize our new information technology system (from Verona-based) Epic (Systems Corp.) that will link all of our facilities with all of our providers, employed or private physicians. It’s that database that gives us the information that we need to most effectively manage patients across a continuum. Providers can securely access information about any patient at any given time and on top of that the patients will have access to their own e-record as well, which is very forward thinking. The use of that platform will allow us to cut patient costs by not having to duplicate tests or expenses, the same lab work results can be viewed for any given month and that makes a lot of sense. Epic is a big part of our preparation for the future. It’s not just the system but what we do with it. We’re going to focus a lot on cost management and make sure our bond rating stays very strong so our capital capacity potential is always there. We are also going to be spending a lot of effort on care coordination, on getting people who can help us have the appropriate and effective handoffs from one level of care to another. If a patient is diagnosed with cancer, for instance, we’re going to work on how that person gets to surgery or another specialist or to home care or in home hospice or whatever that might be. We will be making sure we have effective handoffs between levels of care and focus on providing an even better experience for our patients.”
BizTimes: As more components of health care reform come into play, how will that affect the market in the Milwaukee area? How will it affect the way the ProHealth Care system serves its patients?
Edwards: “We don’t know what is going to happen with reform, but our perspective is right now, it doesn’t really matter. The whole premise around expanded coverage, reduced cost and improved quality of care is something that isn’t gong to be an issue for us. We are putting in place the competencies we need to be ready for reform. For example, long ago the reality was that hospitals and physicians were incented differently. We were paid to do less and they were paid to do more. So we’ve never been incented correctly, and the great thing under reform is, regardless of what you think of the politics around it, is that it is finally incentivizing providers, hospitals and physicians, to have the same expectations in terms of incentives. That means great care and lower costs. That’s the right thing for patients, and we are preparing for that. Even if reform gets knocked off the boat in a few years, we are going to be providing a very different level of care with our hospitals and physicians aligned. We are going to be making sure our care is coordinated and not fragmented for patients, and we are going to treat them at the right place and do the right thing for the patient. I believe eventually the payers will catch up with that. Some proactive forward-thinking payers will jump on board early on even if reform doesn’t drive it. It’s the right thing for patients.”
