As a child, Todd Suntrapak became familiar with healthcare through his time as a patient at Valley Children's Healthcare in Madera, Calif. Today, he spearheads that same organization in a severely economically disadvantaged region.
Mr. Suntrapak has held leadership roles at Valley Children's for more than 25 years. He served in roles including strategy, clinical operations and business development before being named executive vice president and COO in 2005. He became president and CEO of the health system in 2012.
Mr. Suntrapak told Becker's he's excited about the comprehensive delivery network now serving 1.3 million children and where it is headed. He shared his path to the CEO role, discussed a few of the top challenges facing Valley Children's and offered some insights into the organization's current initiatives.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What piqued your interest in healthcare?
Todd Suntrapak: I was severely asthmatic as a child. And back when I was a kid, there weren't that many drugs available to treat asthma as severe as I had without going to the hospital. According to my pediatrician, my life was saved many times at Valley Children's. So, I think my interest in healthcare stems from having extraordinary experiences at Valley Children's as a child. I would beg my parents to take me to Valley Children's because I couldn't breathe and would be turning blue. The entire team was reassuring and confident and was really fantastic with me all those times, which were almost weekly for a period of years. My young formative years and reliance upon healthcare informed my future decisions.
Q: What was the path like from former patient to CEO?
TS: It was, in a way, almost accidental. If you had asked me when I was in my 20s, "What would be the ultimate fulfillment of your career?" it would have been the chief operating officer role, which I did hold for a number of years, and I loved every single second of that work. It was an incredible time in my career. And later, toward the end of my tenure as COO, there were a number of things that were occurring, both in the industry and in our marketplace. Both opportunities and challenges, and I was a little more focused at the time in the 2010 and 2011 time frame to the challenges that Valley Children's faced. That inspired me to have an interest in advancing to the CEO role.
Q: Valley Children's serves a 70+ percent Medicaid population in a significantly economically disadvantaged region. How do you ensure all patients receive the care they need while also remaining sustainable as an organization?
TS: We have to stay focused on the mission, which is to provide high-quality healthcare services to children, regardless of their ability to pay. We're 70 years in now, and that has not changed. And I think it's part of the fabric and culture of Valley Children's that stems from the five founding mothers of our organization. That's part of us. That's part of our team, part of the ethos of our team.
We all have an understanding that, with close to 75 percent Medicaid, we have got to be absolutely rigorous in our discipline around execution and efficiency because there is no one for us to fall back on. There's not a larger state-based health system to fall back on. We have got to have a level of discipline in the execution of our operating plan to be able to recapitalize the business and make sure we're here to serve kids and their families for decades to come.
It's always a balance of serving the mission while preserving our resources and planning. We work off a 10-year financial plan, and we don't vary from that. The reason for that is we know that given the payer mix challenges we have and the other market-based dynamics, we've got to be here. We are the last line of defense for the kids in this part of California in terms of their health needs and keeping them healthy. We've got to be committed to executing on our operating plan and our 10-year financial plan.
Q: In April, Valley Children's launched an energy resilience and environmental strategy which will include building the largest pediatric healthcare-based microgrid in the country. What prompted the move? What specifically is planned?
TS: Ten years ago, we would not have been in the place to be able to formulate a path forward in the way that we have over the last couple of years. And there are a number of things that drove us to our decision set, not the least of which is we currently have a 500-acre campus that is rural in its location. And over the 25 years we've been at this location, we've experienced interruptions in various services, whether it's internet or power or water. None of us wants to have an interruption in access to cloud-based solutions because of a power outage. And so we really started to understand that being off the grid and/or creating our own microgrid, in this case, was the best way to mitigate any interruption in patient care. That's important because any one of those interruptions could distract anyone, especially our clinical team, at an inopportune time.
We have also been very focused on how we play a role in changing the understanding of the impact of fuel sources that are not as environmentally friendly. After all, all adults will turn this world over to children at some point. We certainly would like to play a leadership role in raising awareness of how our consumption of energy resources contributes both positively and negatively to the environment. And certainly some of the energy sources that are traditional have been demonstrated to have an impact on the environment, and we can do better. So we're investing to do better for future generations.
The third component was one that ties directly to reduction in cost over time. We know that there will be a return on this investment to the organization, and that return will immediately be reinvested in supporting our team and their work in healing kids.
Q: Valley Children's also has established an expansive 10-year partnership with California State University, Fresno to extend the number of health professionals in the community by providing funding for scholarships, increased opportunities for students pursuing degrees in health professions and other collaborative opportunities. Can you talk a little about this partnership?
TS: Our partnership is one that is very focused on developing future talent and addressing workforce challenges and shortages. At the very top of the pyramid, perhaps, is working together to expand the number of nursing training slots available in the nursing school at California State University, Fresno. And in particular, creating a road map of opportunity for our existing staff who have an interest in going from a medical office assistant or any number of other roles, even revenue cycle, to becoming a registered nurse. We want to make sure that we provide that opportunity and then we repatriate those RNs who came from the Valley Children's workforce in the future. And we keep them in our arms, and we help address our vital nursing capacity and shortages through an innovative and collaborative partnership.
But that model that I just described in nursing will then cascade throughout other areas that are impacted in the continuum of care and healthcare, whether it's related to the pharmacy or physical therapy or radiology techs, imaging techs, clinical lab scientists. The list goes on. It's really every facet of our workforce. It turns out California State University, Fresno is a primary educational training ground for all of those disciplines. And we want to get upstream with our partner in creating more opportunity and educating and training more professionals to help us meet patient demand in the future. That will benefit Valley Children's, but it will also benefit all the hospitals in the central part of the state.