Dive Brief:
- Dr. Susan L. Turney, former head of the Medical Group Management Association, is becoming the Marshfield Clinic Health System's first-ever CEO effective Sept. 1. The system's board of directors announced her appointment July 23.
- Turney has resigned her position as president & CEO of MGMA based in Englewood, Colo. Previously, she was CEO and executive vice president of the Wisconsin Medical Society.
- This represents a return home for Turney, a Wisconsin native, who completed her internal medicine residency at Marshfield Clinic and then worked there for 22 years in clinical practice and administrative roles.
Dive Insight:
Board chairman Mark Bugher cited Turney's expertise in clinical care as well as the depth of her knowledge about the business of healthcare delivery. She will lead a system of 6,600 employees, 700 doctors and about $2 billion worth of annual revenue. It provides patient care, research and education in more than 50 locations in northern, central and western Wisconsin.
"We won't have authority over the doctors and what kind of Band-Aids they buy, but we will have budget and planning authority, and the goal is to expand the clinic's presence in Wisconsin as the quality healthcare provider in our service area and compete very aggressively with providers in the state and in the rest of the country," Bugher told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Marshfield has a long tradition: Established in 1916 by six physicians, to date it has been run by physicians, who set policy and their own salaries. Now the clinic and its subsidiaries, including hospitals, a health plan and a medical records software company, are under the health system's control. Nonprofit Marshfield Clinic Health System was formed in 2012 to put all of the organization's parts under one governing body. At that time, an independent board was formed with Bugher, the retired director of Madison's University Research Park, as its chairman. Following the Internal Revenue Service's approval earlier this year, the board began seeking a CEO for the system.
Marshfield "has always placed patients first," Turney told Healthcare Dive in a statement. "The system includes a health plan that supports our population management; technology to share pertinent information and provide information for the best patient care across the entire system; and world-class physicians who provide high quality care." She described her interest in leading "such a successful organization as it evolves within a dynamic healthcare environment.”