One year after a dramatic change in direction, Baptist Health System (BHS) CEO Beth O’Brien reflected on the lessons learned and the challenges ahead.
“This has been a hard year for us,” she said. But “the turnaround story starts with purpose” — purpose that has been reflected in the work of BHS’ board of trustees.
“The board has been very focused by clear expectations. They are being very thoughtful and purposeful in their work,” she explained.
O’Brien said the focus of that work has been on reorganizing BHS’ infrastructure, strengthening it and laying groundwork in several areas.
“Baptist is moving toward a balance of governance, leadership and mission,” O’Brien said. “We had to do a lot of work on governance and leadership in the past months, but we’ve always been clear on our mission.”
The system’s focus on the mission of providing faith-based health care has seen BHS through the changes of the past year, she said.
On July 12, 2003, the BHS board of trustees stopped a possible sale of the system and chose to reorganize the Birmingham-based system. It dismissed then-CEO Dennis Hall, elected a new board chairman and reaffirmed its commitment to BHS as a locally-controlled faith-based organization.
The system named O’Brien as CEO in January, pared down the size of its board from a possible 28 to a maximum of 12 trustees, decided to sell three hospitals and its long-term nursing care facilities, and changed its board chairman again.
BHS also began discussions in April about returning ownership and management of Cullman Regional Medical Center to the Health Care Authority of Cullman County.
Since January, eight of 11 senior leadership positions have been filled. The remaining three will be named soon.
In May, the system eliminated 300 positions, resulting in the lay off of 200 employees. The downsizing has allowed the system’s leadership to be under one roof, bringing those in the offices on Highway 280 to join the staff in the downtown Birmingham office. “This is a symbol of a new team together in the same place,” O’Brien said.
That unified team and Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) have worked together to clarify the structure of the BHS board of trustees, O’Brien said.
Currently led by interim chairman Aubrey Miller, the board now has 11 trustees, with a 12th one to be named soon. It also has two non-voting representatives — the director of missions and the moderator from BBA, the parent organization of BHS. O’Brien said once the board is at full size, the board’s governance committee will begin searching for a chairman.
“This is a very different governance structure,” O’Brien noted. “It is more streamlined and effective.”
This new structure decentralizes the leadership and is more committee-oriented, involving people from beyond the board to ensure community input.
O’Brien said she hopes this will increase trust within the system, as well as between BHS and the community. “We’re trying to create a sense of mutual accountability,” she said.
“We are trying to make very clear that we are all about supporting our hospitals and the care of our patients,” O’Brien said. “We feel we have a mission and ministry that needs to be part of the collective conversation of health care in and around Birmingham.”
This includes an internal examination of the system’s ministries as well as talking with the community, she said. “We want to be very clear about what the community is asking of us. We want to know how we can make a difference.”
O’Brien said acute care and the clinic setting will continue to be BHS’ main objectives as it maintains six hospitals, home health care operations and SportsFirst.
Although optimistic about BHS’ future, O’Brien acknowledged the health system still has many challenges ahead. From increasing BHS’ financial health, to continuing changes, to rebuilding trust within the system and in the community, the next year or so will demonstrate just how well BHS has been able to reorganize.
It is also facing challenges within the larger health care community, such as the recent lawsuits against nonprofit hospitals, including BHS.
But O’Brien believes the character of the system has proven to be strong as it stays true to its mission.
“We want people to believe in what we are about before they wait to see the results of what we are about,” she said. “During the six months I’ve been here I’ve seen people of tremendous character, faith and wisdom say, ‘We can do this.’ ”
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