Suzanne Richards, system chief executive for for-profit, eight-hospital KPC Global Management LLC, has made a career as a hospital restructuring expert. She took on her first KPC hospital in 2012 and increased earnings of the 101-bed acute care hospital in Victor Valley from $300,000 to $6 million in a year.
A winner of the Business Journal’s 23rd Annual Women in Business Awards held at Hotel Irvine on May 2 (see related stories, pages 1, 8, 9 and 11) said she as a female executive got “a lot of girly comments—‘young lady’—I even got ‘kiddo’ when she first started the job. What helped me was my sense of humor,” she said. Yelling and screaming don’t bother me, I am Sicilian—we just talk loud to begin with. I want to strengthen the hospitals, and I know we are on the same side, because we both hope for the best patient care.”
Text Me
The KPC hospital system comprises eight acute-care hospitals, two surgery centers, two urgent care centers, and other outpatient centers. The four OC hospitals—Anaheim Global Medical Center, Orange County Global Medical Center, and Orange County Global Medical Center and South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana—are on this year’s Business Journal hospitals list and reported a combined revenue of $342.5 million.
The health system is owned by parent company KPC Group in Riverside. Healthcare entrepreneur Kali Chaudhuri, chairman and founder, acquired the hospitals in 2005 from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.
The hospitals struggled with financial and management problems, and Chaudhuri took them private under KPC Healthcare Inc. He tapped Richards, who began her career as a registered nurse and later took on management roles after completing a master’s degree in healthcare management at the University of California-Irvine, to head a restructuring.
“There was a sense of combativeness among staff and doctors that they had to fight off the administration. But as a nurse myself, I know that if the nurses aren’t happy, the patients aren’t happy. And if the patients aren’t happy, the physicians aren’t happy, and the CEO shouldn’t be happy,” Richards said. Improvements include equipment, vendor relationships and salaries.
More importantly, Richards stressed elevating morale. “The situation improved once I started handing out my cell phone number. They were shocked, and I was like, ‘Yeah, you can text me, call me, tell me what the issues were’—I want to listen and I want to make it better,” Richards said.
She helped pilot an employee stock ownership program that launched in 2015.
Richards said the hospitals are in a good position to grow.
“We are like a phoenix, like fire, a very beautiful small bird that is going to rise and be that cornerstone again, providing services that nobody else provides.”
Community Work
Richards joked that she’s going to retire, but that’s unlikely. She is, after all, a statistician—she holds a master’s degree in biostatistics in public health from Loma Linda University.
“I love healthcare, I love people, and I love to come in and fix a problem,” she said.
Each of the four hospitals, which have a combined 762 beds, plays a different role in helping provide comprehensive care.
Orange County Medical Center, previously known as Western Medical Center Santa Ana, is one of only two Level II Trauma Centers in the county, with 282 beds. It also has one of Orange County’s two burn centers, providing services to patients who need surgery to reattach severed hands, fingers or limbs. Anaheim Medical Center has one of the county’s largest psychiatric wards, with 73 beds. Chapman Medical Center has orthopedic and neurosurgical spine programs, and South Coast Medical Center offers minimally invasive treatment for gastro-esophageal reflux disease.
“It’s about how those hospitals work together to provide the best care,” Richards said.
She’s a proponent of community outreach, supporting the American Heart Association Inc., March of Dimes Foundation’s Inland Empire Walk and other community education programs.
Family Ties
Richards said she’s able to do what she does because of her family. She singled out her husband, T.J., as the source of her motivation.
“I was very shy … I was the girl with glasses alone in the library,” Richards said. She is a middle child, with two sisters and a brother. “My husband, T.J., was the one who convinced me that I was the smartest, prettiest woman he’s ever met.” The two met while Richards was at UCI and married when she was 25. She has two sons, the eldest, also named T.J., is attending Los Angeles Film School, and the youngest, Pierce, plays basketball for Chino Hills High School.
Richards said the family takes a vacation once a year and recently went to Renaissance Faire in Irwindale. She dressed up as a pirate.
She also enjoys rollercoasters, hopping on the latest ones.
