SSM restructuring local operation

Friday, December 21, 2007
St. Louis Business Journal

SSM Health Care-St. Louis is restructuring its operations, including dividing some of its hospitals into north and south regions, the organization said Thursday.

SSM said it is creating the north and south regions to enhance a regional approach focused on delivery of medical services, patient satisfaction and patient safety. The new organizational structure comes with new leadership.

Mike Graue, the current executive vice president of St. Louis network operations, will now oversee the south region as executive vice president of operations/south region. The south region includes SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, SSM St. Mary's Health Center, SSM St. Joseph Hospital of Kirkwood (the future SSM St. Clare Health Center) and SSM Rehab.

Steve Johnson, president of SSM DePaul Health Center, will become the executive vice president of operations/north region. Johnson will oversee operations for SSM DePaul Health Center, SSM St. Joseph Health Center, SSM St. Joseph Hospital West and SSM Behavioral Medicine.

Also, SSM Health Care named Sherlyn Hailstone executive vice president and chief operating officer of SSM Cardinal Glennon. Hailstone has served as president of SSM St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles since 2005. The company has begun the search process for Hailstone's replacement.

SSM Health Care said it is also searching for a regional vice president/chief nursing officer who will oversee patient satisfaction and safety and the nursing practice.

"Our primary goal has always been to provide exceptional care for our patients and meet the health care needs of our community. We believe these organizational changes will further strengthen our ability to deliver on that goal," Jim Sanger, president and CEO of SSM Health Care-St. Louis, said in a statement.

The changes come a month after Sanger replaced Ron Levy, who announced he was leaving the health system's St. Louis organization in October. Sanger was previously president and chief executive of St. Mary's Good Samaritan Inc. in Southwestern Illinois, a two-hospital joint operating venture. Sanger was hired 10 years ago to lead the operation, which consists of St. Mary's Hospital in Centralia, part of the SSM network, and Good Samaritan Regional Health Center in Mount Vernon, part of the Felician Sisters health system.

St. Louis-based SSM Health Care (SSMHC), a health care ministry founded in 1872, is one of the largest Catholic systems in the nation. It is also one of the largest health-care providers in Missouri. SSMHC owns, operates and manages 20 acute-care hospitals.