Deborah Proctor is cognizant of passion, skills, values and mission in her role as leader of one of Orange County’s dominant healthcare providers.
“In the kind of business that I am [in], because it’s Catholic healthcare, the first and most important thing is fidelity to our mission,” said Proctor, president and chief executive of Irvine-based St. Joseph Health.
She was one of the five winners at the Business Journal’s 20th annual Women in Business awards luncheon on June 17 at the Hotel Irvine (see related stories, pages 4, 5, 6 and 8).
The registered nurse by training has been at the helm of what was previously known as St. Joseph Health System since 2004, when she arrived from St. Louis-based Ascension Health to take over from longtime leader Richard Statuto.
She leads the 16-hospital, $5.2 billion nonprofit healthcare organization serving communities in California, Texas and New Mexico.
The system includes St. Joseph Hospital-Orange, St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, and Mission Hospital, which has facilities in Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach.
Alliance
Proctor is perhaps best known recently for her effort that led to the regional alliance of St. Joseph Health and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, a $1 billion healthcare system with campuses in Newport Beach and Irvine.
“I think it’s going exceptionally well,” she said of St. Joseph Hoag Health, which was previously known as Covenant Health Network.
“Our goal in coming together was to be able to create a more easily accessible and a more integrated system of delivery of care in Orange County so that we could increase access and improve the health of the community,” Proctor said.
She said a good example of how that’s playing out is that the alliance enables businesses to ensure they have a wide geographic coverage area for their workers.
“They’re not relying on just Hoag or just the St. Joseph hospitals,” she said.
Proctor also shared her thoughts on personnel matters, including her outlook on hiring, or “being able to invite people to join you on the journey who have the same passion [for healthcare] that you have.”
She said one thing she wants to do is to support employees, “give them what they need to do it and get out of their way. I believe you have to excite people around your vision—a vision that’s clear enough for them to understand.”
Others Notice
Observers have noticed her work, said Susan Solomon, St. Joseph Health’s vice president of marketing and communications, in her nomination of Proctor for the Business Journal award.
“Proctor has earned a widely respected reputation for guiding a decade of change at St. Joseph Health, even though large healthcare systems are rarely noted for nimbleness and agility,” Solomon wrote.
The nomination noted that Proctor made “real change” by moving people rather than institutions, and aligning “many disparate entities to share a common vision for better healthcare.”
Proctor said it’s also important for employees to be aware of the health system’s mission because of the heritage of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph Health has its roots in the 1920s, when the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange started a 28-bed hospital in Northern California. The system as it’s known today was formed in 1982.
Proctor said she was “definitely honored” to be recognized as a leader in business “when it’s just my passion. … I love my work so much.”
But she added that she wished “there wasn’t still a need to separate awards for men and women. … I wish we were further along culturally” in terms of recognizing leadership regardless of gender.
Outside OC
She has also taken her leadership outside Orange County.
Proctor is the outgoing board chairperson of the Washington, D.C.-based Catholic Health Association. Her work with that group includes traveling to Haiti to speak to the country’s leaders and to help oversee the reconstruction of St. Francois de Sales Hospital, which was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.
