Opinion: Region becomes medical Mecca in 25 years

But I was right. Publisher/owner Dianne Elizabeth hired me as a full-time staff writer in May 1991. It was my first “professional” job after graduating from Drury. I had been a freelance writer for the Journal and other publications for the previous six months while planning my wedding to fellow Drury graduate Jeff Scott.

I was so excited to become a professional reporter. Since I was about 9 years old, I had published everything from family newsletters to school newspapers.

At SBJ, I had the opportunity to work with great mentors like Dianne and veteran reporter and PR man Eddie Bass. Although officially retired, Eddie was the prize writer for SBJ in those days. He would regale me with stories about Springfield’s history that I found always had an impact on the current business climate.

I also had the opportunity to interview business leaders from all industries, which taught me a great deal about a variety of subjects. It taught me a lot about the power of the human spirit and to dare to be myself, even in the face of adversity. Some of these business owners endured great hardship while building their businesses, but nevertheless they persevered.

During that year I was promoted to managing editor and learned the invaluable lessons of being on a management team. When I think back, I am so impressed that Dianne allowed me, then a 22-year-old, to be involved in the strategic planning of Springfield Business Journal.

It certainly helped me to understand the importance of knowing all facets of the business and taught me to look beyond my specific duties at a bigger picture.

Since my tenure at SBJ, both the publication itself and the community it serves have grown tremendously. The Springfield metro workforce has increased more than 27 percent and the city’s economic output doubled.

Some of the major business stories “in my day” are still issues affecting today’s business economy: an increase in the number of service-industry jobs; shrinking numbers in manufacturing; an emphasis on entering the global stage; and the strength of our area’s health and medical industry. In the early 1990s, Springfield Business Journal’s strongest special sections revolved around banking and financial services, health care and construction.

Today, Editor Clarissa French tells me the strongest issues are construction/ design-related, real estate, financial and health care.

The health care industry as a whole in our region has evolved impressively during the past 15 years. When I came to work for St. John’s, it was a large regional hospital. Now it is a health system including 92 physician offices, six hospitals and a health plan.

The term “medical mile,” coined by the Springfield media in the 1980s, still applies as growth continues along National Avenue. Today, however, it is certainly only one facet of the growth. Today’s reporters refer to the entire region as a “medical Mecca” that extends well beyond the borders of Greene and surrounding counties.

St. John’s, CoxHealth, and independent physicians are all expanding facilities and services to meet the needs of our aging and increasingly more chronically ill population. It’s a challenge to meet individual needs, but also one to meet the needs of area businesses that carry the responsibility of providing insurance coverage.

My career nicely blends my biggest interests: business, health care and communication.

Over the past year and a half, I have had the opportunity to work with St. John’s administrative and physician leaders on an extraordinary partnership program that provides employers with an answer to keeping insurance cost trends down, while quality of medical care high.

I find myself again interviewing business leaders at companies like O’Reilly Automotive, Bass Pro and St. John’s own human resources department to learn about their challenges with medical cost inflation. I help to provide communication avenues that maximize this partnership.

Having been in public relations for 12 years, I recognize that I am still a storyteller at heart. Being an effective communication specialist requires some of the same attributes of a good journalist: a curiosity for how things work; a need for understanding the truth; and the passion for sharing that information with those who need it.

I’m glad to be a part of Springfield Business Journal’s 25-year legacy. Not everyone is so lucky to have had a supportive environment from which to launch a career. After all of those late nights putting the paper to bed, I’ll always be driven by the satisfaction of working hard, never settling for a mediocre product, and choosing right over wrong and ethics over convenience.

I think these are the choices that measure your life!

Congratulations to Dianne, Dorothy, Clarissa and the entire team at SBJ.

Cora Scott is media relations director at St. John’s Health System. She served as managing editor at Springfield Business Journal 1991-92. Some of her accomplishments at St. John’s include the launch of St. John’s Healthy People magazine, www.stjohns.com; St. John’s Today in-house video magazine; and an award-winning youth education outreach program called St. John’s Flip Side. She is working on a motion-picture screenplay and historical novel when not spending time with 5-year-old daughter Sophia and husband Jeff.

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