The Physicians' President

Two notable area promotions at Mercy have resulted in Springfield becoming the home of the first physician-led hospital within the St. Louis-based health care system.

On March 1, Dr. Robert Steele, former senior vice president of market growth and development, was officially named president of Mercy Springfield Communities, which covers Aurora, Cassville, Lebanon, Mountain View and Berryville, Ark. The move follows former Springfield President Jon Swope’s transition to regional president for Mercy Central Communities, which oversees hospital systems in southwest Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.

Swope succeeds Kim Day – also a former president of Mercy in Springfield – who Swope said announced his plans to retire in the fall.

Steele, a physician with 15 years of experience at Mercy, said he became active in the hospital’s administration about six years ago after an invitation to the Mercy Health Plans board.

The move was aimed at getting Mercy physicians more engaged in running the hospital.

“There has been a very concerted effort across Mercy to develop talent at all levels, because if you can develop talent for succession planning, that tends to work better than pulling in a bunch of folks from the outside,” Steele said. “Being in the senior vice president position was just part of that talent development, and that led to the opportunity to be president.”  

For several years, Steele said Mercy has been led at the hospital level by groups of two individuals called dyads. For example, the chief operating officer has been paired with a physician, who also is chief of staff, and they work together to make decisions that affect the hospital.

With his finger on the pulse of patient care, Steele’s role for Mercy Health Plans expanded into the board chairman position. “That was right in line with what Mercy was trying to do with respect to having physicians and administrators working together,” Steele said. “I got involved in a lot of the health plan, managed-care part of the administration.”

Two years ago, Steele was asked by Swope to take on the senior vice president role. Steele said he didn’t feel he was being groomed for the president’s post. But he recalls Mercy CEO Lynn Britton about two years ago saying it was his desire to see a physician in the president’s spot. Amid sweeping health care reforms, Steele said Britton feels having an administrator with clinical expertise coordinating care could be very valuable.

Mercy spokeswoman Sonya Kullmann said Britton was unavailable for comment. Steele and Swope said senior leaders in St. Louis made the final decisions on the promotions.

Swope said at least a couple of times per year since he took the president post in 2009, he has been asked by senior leadership about possible successors. Though he declined to name finalists, he said there were several qualified individuals, but Steele stood out to him as the best in the group to lead the 10,000-employee, 90-facility region with roughly $900 million in 2012 revenues.

“I have been asked a number of times, ‘Which is more important, the fact that Rob is a physician or has become a good leader?’ I always answer the question by saying Rob was named president in Springfield because fundamentally he was the best leader we had,” Swope said.

Swope, a 33-year Mercy veteran, now manages Mercy Central Communities and hospital systems in Joplin and Carthage in Missouri; Fort Smith and Rogers in Arkansas; and Fort Scott, Independence and Columbus in Kansas. Swope’s territory comprises nearly 20,000 workers at about 200 hospitals, clinics and offices within Mercy’s 300-facility and 38,000 employee system.

“I entered into discussions with ministry leadership in St. Louis about three months ago … and was finalized about a month ago,” Swope said on March 6, adding he met with board chairmen from around the central communities region as he considered pursuing Day’s position.

“The central communities, because it is so large geographically, doesn’t have a single board. It has a collection of multiple boards representing all the communities. One of my key responsibilities will be as the president of the central region representing the broader Mercy ministry in each of those various board meetings.”

Swope said he’ll continue to be based in Springfield.   

Steele took the senior vice president role just as plans for the $116 million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital and other projects were developing.

At the Springfield campus, construction continues on the $19 million Mercy Children’s Hospital, which is expected to be completed this fall. Steele also has overseen the announcement of two 60,000-square-foot facilities along the U.S. Highway 65 corridor – a clinic in Branson and a rehabilitation hospital adjacent to the orthopedic hospital – representing an investment of roughly $60 million.

Also, beginning March 4, Mercy ophthalmologists began utilizing the 77,000-square-foot, former Orthopaedic Specialists of Springfield building for cataract surgeries. Mercy, which purchased the building in August, is planning to relocate a portion of its Eye and Ear Center to the building at National Avenue and Montclair Street from clinic offices inside the Mercy Surgery Center at 1229 E. Seminole St.

“We are going to put our ophthalmology team and our otolaryngology, or (ear, nose and throat) team into that building. It already has surgical capabilities, so it fulfills a lot of things for us. One, from a care standpoint, having ophthalmology and otolaryngology in one building makes a lot of sense. Also, we’ve been trying to decompress this campus because we have been maxed in terms of surgical capabilities from a real estate point of view,” Steele said, adding the recent development projects on Highway 65 are examples of Mercy’s efforts to expand beyond its Springfield campus.

He said renovations on the second floor of the facility are ongoing, and regular office visits will continue at the Mercy Surgery Center for now.