Becker's Hospital Review

65 65 A nthony Tersigni, EdD, is the first president and CEO of Ascension, a Catholic healthcare organization and parent of St. Louis-based Ascen- sion Health, the largest Catholic and nonprofit health system in the U.S. e system has 131 hospitals and more than 30 senior care facilities in 23 states and Washington, D.C. Other Ascension subsidiaries focus on different service areas like biomedical engineering, treasury management and venture capital investing. Ascension was formed in 2012 from a reorganization of Ascension Health, which was formed in 1999. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Tersigni was president and CEO of Ascension Health aer previously serving as the system's executive vice president and COO. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Tersigni was president and CEO of St. John Health (now St. John Providence Health System) in Detroit. He also served St. John Health System as executive vice president and COO from 1994 to 1995. He and his wife, Flora, have three children and four grandchildren. Here, Dr. Tersigni took the time to answer Becker's Hospital Review's seven questions. What's one thing that really piqued your interest in healthcare? Healthcare is a business model really focused on helping people, and helping people oentimes in their most vulnerable state. And what I love about it is you have to use all the business acumen to keep the organization sustainable while you're trying to meet the needs of the people that you're serving. It's always been of interest to me. People come to us and they're anxious. ey're sick. ey're intimidated by our organizational structures — [the] buildings and campuses. It's an oppor- tunity for us to really get personal with them and help them through that journey. I get a lot of satisfaction in helping eliminate red tape. at's what I love to do — eliminate red tape and kind of get through the very bureaucratic and fragmented state of healthcare in this country today. is [position] re- ally gives me, personally, an opportunity to do that. What do you enjoy most about the St. Louis area? My wife and I have lived in St. Louis for the last 15 years, and St. Louis is the best kept secret in the Midwest. It's got great arts, a great science center, great universities, great sports, great parks — that's one thing. e other thing is it has a great and active business leader community, which is really interest- ing. ey're very active in the community, wanting to make the community a better place to work, live and play, but they're also strong in philanthropic support for various parts of the community. ose are the kinds of things that really made my wife and I fall in love with St. Louis. If you could eliminate one of the healthcare industry's prob- lems overnight, which would it be? It would be trying to get this country to create one national health policy. Since World War II, we've cobbled together what I characterize as financ- ing policies, and we've actually taken models of care from other parts of the world and have brought it to this country. And that's what's complicating, that's what's fragmenting. If you're over 65 in this country, you're in a model very similar to the national health model in Canada, where virtually everyone participates at low admin- istrative fees and the government is the insurer and everybody pays into it. If you're under 65, you're in a model that's very similar to Germany, Japan or France, where employees or employers pay premiums [and] the insurance companies are paying the bills and passing on co-pays and deductibles, as well as sometimes a percentage of the bill, to the patient. If you're a Native American or a military veteran, you're in a model that's very similar to the National Health Service in [Great] Britain, where all the hospitals are owned, the physicians are all employed and no one gets a bill. And if you're uninsured, you're actually in a model that you'll see in Cambo- dia or rural India, where if you don't have cash and access to care you're either going to stay sick or injured, or die. And so you've got four different models of payment, of processes. As a soci- ety, let's step back. Let's decide what we want for every man, woman and child in this country, and then let's design the system around that. And that's what we've been lacking for over 70 years in this country. What do you consider your greatest talent or skill outside of the C-suite? The Corner Office: Ascension CEO Dr. Anthony Tersigni on Cutting Through the Red Tape By Kelly Gooch "Let's decide what we want for every man, woman and child in this country, and then let's design the system around that."

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