CoxHealth's incoming CEO faces ongoing challenges

by Clarissa French

SBJ Editor

cfrench@sbj.net

CoxHealth Systems is changing from the top down.

CoxHealth one of the city's largest employers with three hospitals in Springfield, 54 physician clinics and close to 9,000 employees will have a new CEO effective Aug. 1.

Bob Bezanson, a 23-year veteran of the Cox system, will inherit the mantle of longtime CEO Larry Wallis, who announced his resignation plans last summer.

One of Bezanson's biggest challenges initially is to fill the position he leaves behind, that of chief operating officer a post he's held since 1995. CoxHealth will fill that position from within.

Meanwhile, Bezanson's move is not the only change in CoxHealth management.

The health system has hired Joan Roberts Cisna, RN, MA, MBA, as vice president of nursing services. Cisna replaces Ann Bryant, who retired in December. (See related story on Page 19.)

Shifting to strategy

For Bezanson, the promotion to CEO is a matter of shifting focus. As COO, day-to-day operations dominated his attention. "The CEO is a much more strategic position, one that is concerned with the strategic planning division," he said.

It's a change he looks forward to.

"I've been fortunate," he said. "First of all, Cox has a great legacy, and I've been part of that legacy; I've helped in the strategic planning in the past, so it will be, to me, a welcome transition."

He added, "I've had a great mentor in Larry Wallis. He has taken this organization to another level."

Bezanson plans to continue enhancing services in CoxHealth's approximately 18-county service area. But fresh challenges lie ahead.

"Health care's a complex business that is continually changing and has tremendous challenges," he said. "Probably my greatest concern is for our employees, because we do have a diminishing work force for the future."

The staffing crisis

Just as the aging baby boom generation begins to require more health care services, health care professionals, many of whom are baby boomers themselves, will begin to retire. It's a formula that could spell disaster if not planned for appropriately.

"We're very fortunate to have a college of nursing ... and we have been able to grow the college as far as the number of students," Bezanson said. The college also has new programs, such as the fast track program that "allows someone that has a (bachelor's of science degree) in another discipline a very accelerated opportunity to get their RN," he said.

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is lending a hand as well through its Health Care/Higher Education Task Force.

Bezanson just returned from a three-day seminar, "Tomorrow's Workforce," held in Atlanta. One of the topics emphasized there was the need for greater diversity in the work force.

For example, the proportion of blacks and Hispanics in health care is not reflective of their proportions in other industries and in the overall population. "Our college has a number of initiatives under way to help to attract diversity to the program," he said.

In addition to nursing, Bezanson also plans to focus on CoxHealth's relationship with physicians, to attract and retain the same high level of medical talent already in place.

Medicare

A significant challenge for the health care sector is Medicare. "The Medicare pie is only so large, and as different initiatives are developed, I have a very real concern that hospitals will receive their fair share in order to be able to provide the services that people are accustomed to."

Part of the problem is that Medicare does not recognize new technology when it comes to reimbursement.

"For instance, like the drug-eluting stents that we have, defibrillator pacemakers, those things are new in a sense, but the reimbursement for that has not come up as quickly as technology advances and you can count on technology advancing the reimbursement doesn't follow."

Perhaps the greatest issue in Medicare is uncertainty.

"We don't know where Medicare is headed really," Bezanson said, but he speculates that the issue will play a significant role in the upcoming presidential election.