Serving as Mercy Hospital Springfield's first physician president for the past year, Dr. Robert Steele has just three weeks left at the helm of the Queen City's largest employer.
This morning's guest for Springfield Business Journal's 12 People You Need to Know editorial breakfast series held at Hilton Garden Inn, Steele reflected on his 17 years with Mercy.
"I'm officially a grand pediatrician now," he joked. "I have patients who have had kids."
Exiting his post May 2 to serve as chief strategy officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., Steele leaves the hospital amid fiscal 2015 budget planning, noting he will have the bulk of the work completed, but won't see the finished project before his departure.
Steele's predecessor, Mercy Central Region President Jon Swope, was named interim president of the hospital, and Steele said there isn't a specific timeline in place to fill the void.
"With all of the challenges, he is in no hurry to recruit immediately," Steele said. "I think he's going to come in and get through these first few months, then start the process for succession.
"There are too many moving parts to really pull somebody in immediately. Plus, Jon has done the job, so he knows the way it works."
As Steele exits, the hospital faces other challenges, including recent union talks by employees, the timing of which Steele called an "unfortunate coincidence."
"The position I'm taking, and all of those senior-level positions, are not ones you flip a switch and suddenly have. This was something that had been in the works for months," he said. "The union activity and financial challenges all health care has seen in the last 12 to 15 months are an unfortunate coincidence.
"I like the challenges and adversity. I'm upset I'm going to miss out on being able to tackle those challenges."
Steele said hospital administration is aware of union talks, but officials didn't know what organization initiated talks.
"I wouldn't even hazard a guess at that," he said. "We know there are talks. I joke the biggest oxymoron is a Springfield secret, so you hear about things. But I don't know about the level of activity and who is driving those conversations."
Mercy announced Steele’s decision to leave March 28, just four days after the physician administrator, as well as Chief Operating Officer Jay Guffey, penned a letter to hospital co-workers attempting to squash momentum that might be building for unionization.
Steele said the hospital looks at the situation as an opportunity to double down on its communications efforts with employees, adding Springfield has a unique set of challenges.
"Health care is a 24/7 business and the main leverage a union has is striking, so I'm not a big fan of putting patient care in the middle," he said. "If we as an organization can come together to identify those problems and come together on a solution, that is the ultimate goal."
Steele cited Mercy Springfield's increasing patient load as unique to the area. Nationally, the number of patients admitted to hospitals has gone down about 4 percent per year, but at Mercy, that figure is up 4-5 percent, he said.
"That puts a lot of on us to be able to take care of those patients and that can be pretty challenging," he said. "Meanwhile, those that are there are working very hard to take care of those patients. There will always be those talks about pay, but mainly, it's just that things are really busy.
"Finding that work/life balance is a tough thing. We are charged with taking care of those patients every minute of every day."
Steele said he doesn't anticipate any cuts to benefits or pay coming down the pike, noting the hospital needs to say competitive in recruitment efforts.
"We have 125 new nurses starting in June and to do that you have to stay competitive," he said. "It doesn't make sense to us to cut."
Steele believes it's feasible for another physician to take on the role as president, saying he made the transition to more administrative work about three years before taking on the presidency.
"I was doing a fair amount of administrative work at the time and people would ask me how I split my time '50/50?' and I would say, 'More like 80/80,'" he said. "When I got the job as senior vice president, I took that opportunity to revamp how I did things clinically. So, that transition from senior VP to president was smooth."
Serving a panel of about 4,000 patients prior to becoming president, Steele has worked in the clinic just two days a week for the past year, cutting his patient load down to around 1,000. Steele plans to continue practicing in Arkansas, but he said it would take six to nine months to get his medical license in place.
In his new role as chief strategy officer, Steele said he would set strategic direction for the hospital, helping to organize and execute its mission and values.[[In-content Ad]]
