San Francisco-based UCSF Health is a 1,290-bed system with multiple hospitals and annual revenue of more than $5 billion. How does CEO Suresh Gunasekaran maintain engagement and collaboration throughout the organization?
He told Becker's he is intentional about being team-based.
"When you run such a large organization, you're usually blessed with a wonderful team, and I have that, but you only get the impact that you want if you're able to engage every member of your team on the work that we're doing," Mr. Gunasekaran said. "Bringing together those diverse perspectives, to bring different parts of the organization together, to face challenges together or to create opportunities is really powerful."
His top priorities include patient care and experience and understanding the most efficient ways to support front-line staff in that regard.
"How is the work that we do each and every day going to make that clinical care better, make that experience of care better and, ultimately, improve the health of the patient that's walking through that door?" Mr. Gunasekaran said.
Throughout his tenure as CEO of the system since 2022 and his two decades of healthcare experience, Mr. Gunasekaran has found patient care is at its best when front-line team members feel they are doing the right work.
"We spend a lot of time thinking about what is the most efficient way for our care teams to take care of patients," he said. "How do we best support them, whether it is with technology, whether it is with support services, what can we do to put our staff in a position to succeed for the patient that's right in front of them?"
Mr. Gunasekaran also noted that many patients experience issues with healthcare fragmentation, in which emergency room staff might not be familiar with a specific physician the patient has worked with — even though they are in the same system — or a different physician might not be familiar with a specific aspect of one's care.
UCSF Health leaders prioritize and discuss how to create a unified team, which is accomplished by consistent collaboration, Mr. Gunasekaran said.
"We have to put our clinicians in a place where they can collaborate outside of their own emergency room, outside of their operating room, outside of their clinic, with other colleagues that are integral to the success of a patient," he said.