Sr. Mary Jean Ryan

SSM Health Care’s Journey to Excellence

Sr. Mary Jean Ryan, FSM
Chair/CEO, SSM Health Care

Abstract

In 1990, SSM Health Care was a little-known health care system in the Midwest portion of the United States. In 2002, it became the first ever health care recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest award for quality in the United States.

Sr. Mary Jean Ryan, the woman who pushed SSM to fulfill its potential, will speak about the journey to excellence that SSM Health Care has pursued for nearly 20 years. She will explain how she, as a relatively new system CEO, and other system executives settled on continuous quality improvement (CQI) as a means to get better. She will discuss the implementation of continuous quality improvement (CQI) throughout the system in 1990, the use of state quality awards in the mid-‘90s to boost improvement efforts, and the system’s applications to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1999 to 2002 as a way to focus and refine efforts. All three have helped SSM Health Care move from a slightly better than average organization to one that is closer to excellence. She will also talk about the difficulty of sustaining change over time.

In a presentation filled with true stories both from her personal experience and from SSM Health Care, Sr. Mary Jean will illustrate what it takes to lead change in today’s world. She will underscore how critical it is to call forth the leadership potential of all employees for an organization to excel.