Orange-based St. Joseph Health System could be the ultimate credo company.
Like Johnson & Johnson, hospital operator St. Joseph is run on a broad set of ideals that serve as a framework for daily operations.
But while Johnson & Johnson’s 1940s-era credo stresses fundamentals like serving customers and making profits, St. Joseph has a higher calling: “the healing mission of Jesus.”
St. Joseph dates back to the 1920s, when the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange started a hospital in Northern California.
The vision set by the nuns guides the corporate culture of St. Joseph today. The hospital operator even has a mission integration division, run by Sister Jayne Helmlinger, a St. Joseph executive vice president.
Her job is to make sure St. Joseph’s delivery of healthcare stays true to the vision of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Deborah Proctor, St. Joseph’s chief executive, sets a high bar.
“We want every encounter in our organization to be a sacred encounter,” she said. “We want every patient to get perfect care. We want every one of our communities to be the healthiest communities. You can walk anywhere in our organization and people can tell you that’s our focus.”
A shared purpose is the defining part of St. Joseph’s corporate culture.
“People can relate to that,” Proctor said. “They understand it (and) it doesn’t take interpretation.”
Proctor relies on a group of senior executives to fuse St. Joseph’s values into its everyday business.
St. Joseph is a not-for-profit hospital operator. But it’s still a big business. It has yearly revenue of $3.7 billion, 24,000 workers (including 10,840 in Orange County) and 14 hospitals in California, Texas and New Mexico.
Among them are three of OC’s largest hospitals,St. Joseph Hospital-Orange, St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton and Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
You don’t have to be Catholic to work for St. Joseph. But Proctor said she looks for “spiritually grounded” executives to help drive the hospital operator’s mission.
“They have more to their life,” she said. “They have a place from which they draw strength, which allows them to be a leader in this organization.”
Beyond the larger religious mission, daily business at St. Joseph isn’t too different than it is at other hospital operators.
Executives
The leadership team is made up of seasoned hospital and healthcare executives. They meet regularly and communicate daily via voicemail and BlackBerrys, according to Joe Randolph, a St. Joseph veteran who’s been chief operating officer since 2006.
Proctor and other senior executives meet regularly on Mondays.
“If there’s a crisis, we come together immediately and address what the issue is,” Randolph said.
The team can come to “conclusions very fast” when faced with challenges, said Adriana Lynch, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications.
“We also do quite a lot of walking,” she said. “It’s amazing the amount of work than can get done when we just go there and touch bases.”
Most of the executives’ offices are along a wall in St. Joseph’s corporate headquarters at the corner of Main Street and La Veta Avenue, next to the Orange hospital.
“It’s an open-door policy and it’s very easy to communicate” with Proctor, said Clyde Wesp, vice president and chief medical information officer, whose office is one floor below Proctor’s.
Wesp is a newcomer, having joined St. Joseph 10 months ago after retiring from his pediatric practice.
Travel
With hospitals across California and in Texas and New Mexico, travel is a big part of the job for St. Joseph executives.
The team is “pretty BlackBerry-oriented, probably more than I’d like us to be, but given how much we travel (they are necessary),” Proctor said.
Proctor, who worked at St. Joseph from 1976 to 1990, returned as chief executive at the end of 2004.
Her predecessor Richard Statuto now runs Bon Secours Health System Inc. of Marriottsville, Md.
Longevity with St. Joseph is common among senior executives, including Randolph and Helmlinger, who have been around since 1988.
Wesp and Lynch, who worked at the former Irvine-based retail foods unit of ConAgra Foods Inc., are relative newcomers.
“Bringing (Lynch) from outside of healthcare was purposeful,” Proctor said. “Often times, we only have our own way of doing it and we can learn a lot from other industries.”
St. Joseph has a clear No. 2 in Randolph, who previously was chief financial officer.
“Joe and I are a great complement to each other,” said Proctor, who sets the vision for the business. “He’s a terrific operations person. He has a passion for operations. He thrives in that.”
Uses Humor
Randolph calls himself a “team builder” who relies on humor.
“This industry is very difficult and very complicated, especially in light of some of the challenges we face,” he said. “If you don’t have humor in the workplace, it can get depressing pretty quick.”
Executives said they’re given room to do their jobs.
Proctor doesn’t micromanage, “which is very helpful to me,” Helmlinger said.
“At the same time, if I want to run something by her, (it’s OK) because she has a wide breath of experience,” Helmlinger said.
“Deborah really lets you do your job,” said Bill Murin, senior vice president and chief human resources officer.
Lynch calls Proctor “very trusting.”
Several members of the team are capable of running an organization, Proctor said, including Randolph, Lynch, Helmlinger, Wesp and Murin.
Other potential leaders include Katie Skelton, chief nursing officer at St. Joseph-Orange, and Jim Hartung, who works in marketing and communications, Proctor said.
The executives get together on occasion for golf, bowling or croquet.
“We pull a lot of practical jokes on each other,” Helmlinger said. “People have a good sense of humor. We play off each other.”
The team also bonds by working together and dealing with tough issues, Murin said.
Hobbies
Outside the office, the executives have various interests, including golf, reading and spending time with family.
Wesp, who previously practiced with South Orange County Pediatric Associates, has sung and acted. He’s a country music fan.
Lynch, mother of a 5-year-old son, plans to have one of her two dogs recertified for pet therapy, something that she’s done with patients at nearby Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
“The other one doesn’t have a bone of pet therapy in him, so forget about that,” she said with a laugh. “I get tremendous satisfaction being in the hospital with my dog, bringing a different healing environment.”
The Team
– Deborah Proctor: 56, chief executive since 2004. Came to St. Joseph from Ascension Health in St. Louis, where she was chief administrative officer. Worked at St. Joseph from 1976 to 1990 in various positions.
– Joe Randolph: 50, executive vice president, chief operating officer since 2006. With St. Joseph since 1988. Earlier positions included chief financial officer. Began career at St. Jude Medical Center.
– Darrin Montalvo: 43, senior vice president, chief financial officer since 2006. Earlier was vice president of finance and senior vice president, financial chief of St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare medical group.
– Jayne Helmlinger: 50, executive vice president, mission integration, since 2006. A nun, with St. Joseph since 1988. Career also includes serving on hospital boards, including Mission Hospital.
– Elliot Sternberg: 55, executive vice president, chief medical officer since 2006. With St. Joseph since 1996. An internal medicine doctor, previously was with Bristol Park Medical Group.
– Bill Murin: 59, senior vice president, chief human resources officer since 2006. Spent seven years as chief operating officer of Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Was senior human resources executive at St. Joseph-Orange.
– Adriana Pozzani Lynch: 42, senior vice president, marketing, corporate communications since 2007. Came from ConAgra Retail Foods. Earlier held management positions with Walt Disney, Haagen-Dazs, Pillsbury, Procter & Gamble, Citibank.
– Suzanne Sassus: 75, senior vice president, governance/sponsorship since 2006. A nun, with St. Joseph since 1983. Earlier served on faculty of St. Joseph College, Loyola Marymount University.
– Margaret Hambleton: 48, senior vice president, ministry integrity since March. Before was system director of corporate compliance at Catholic Healthcare West.
– Susan Whittaker: 50, senior vice president, chief administrative officer, governance counsel. With St. Joseph for more than 20 years. Previously was senior vice president, general counsel for St. Joseph ministries.
– Clyde Wesp: 57, vice president and chief medical information officer, performance improvement, since September. Was pediatrician for more than 25 years with South Orange County Pediatric Associates.
