Dr. Spence Taylor is breaking new ground as the first physician to lead the Greenville Health System in its more than 100 year history.
He joins the show today to say thank you to the Greenville Health System Community and lay out plans for the future.
Selected Podcast
Year End Thank You to the Community From the President of Greenville Health System
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Spence M. Taylor, M.D
Spence M. Taylor, MD
Spence M. Taylor, M.D., vice president of physician engagement, chief academic officer, and president of the GHS Clinical University at Greenville Health System, was elected president of the Southern Surgical Association (SSA) at the organization’s 2014 annual meeting. Dr. Taylor is the first Greenville surgeon — and only the second surgeon in South Carolina – to serve as SSA president.Learn more about Spence M. Taylor, M.D
Transcription:
Melanie Cole (Host): My guest today is breaking new ground as the first physician to lead the Greenville Health System in its more than 100-year history. Welcome to the show, Dr. Spence Taylor, President of Greenville Health System. So, Dr. Taylor, what are you most looking forward to as President of Greenville Health System?
Dr. Spence Taylor (Guest): Well, Melanie, thanks first for having me and involving this and I will tell you that it's a great honor to be the President of GHS at the outset, and also to be the first physician leader in its 104-year-old history is really quite amazing and actually quite humbling. I have the great pleasure, after being here for 25 years, to continue what I've been doing, and that's to further and continue to make people aware of our mission. If you look at what Mike Reardon, my predecessor's done, he's ingrained this mission of healing compassionately, and teaching innovatively, and improving constantly into our system, but I will tell you that if you're a physician and a physician leader, the way that translates is to basically set the standard of care for our community which we take great responsibility and pride in to create that future workforce of providers and physicians and nurses to care for everybody, whether they've come in at an inconvenient time or not, or with an inconvenient diagnosis and whether they can pay you or not, and then to make the dollars work. All of these are things that, on a day-to-day basis, we tackle as part of the mission and I think that's probably the most compelling and exciting thing as the leader of GHS to continue to make people aware of. And then also, we're a community asset, and to continue to be that community asset. If we're going to transform healthcare, as our mission statement suggests we are, the way to do that is to keep a healthy community and to interact in a positive manner with our community. So, looking forward to doing that as well, and continuing that tradition that my predecessors kept in terms of managing and maintaining a great relationship with the community.
Melanie: So, how do your experiences as a physician influence how you're approaching the role of president?
Dr. Taylor: You know, when I started here in 1992, I was one of, I think, 29 physicians that were employed, and it was a very typical model where there was a health system that employed physicians. Well, over time, you know, we now number almost 2,000 providers, if you look at our physicians and our nurse practitioners and physician assistants, so this whole idea has shifted slowly, but surely, over time to one and we're no longer thought of as employed physicians by a health system, but we're really owners of this health system. We feel like an owner mentality versus an employee mentality. So, this is our practice. I think we, as physicians, in this practice, we're a big practice of 2,000 physicians or so, or 2,000 providers or so, but this whole idea that as a physician leader, this is our practice. This is our practice to lead, our practice to be accountable for, these are our patients that we see and take great pride in managing with the mission that I said earlier. So, as a physician, we bring a totally different perspective. We're not employees that are supposed to maintain a certain relationship with an employer but we are a group of providers that are practicing medicine as a large practice of medicine for our patients.
Melanie: And, what are your top priorities for Greenville Health System?
Dr. Taylor: So, you know I think we've got unprecedented challenges as a large physician group and a health system, today. I mean, if you look at the rate of burnout with our physicians and the challenges around access, quality, and cost, we've got our work cut out for us, but in a really positive way. I think we've got an opportunity as a group of providers, and health professionals, and clinicians to tackle this. I think one of the early parts of what we will look towards is to improve the workflow and any of the barriers that exist between the clinicians and the patients. I think right now, we have administrative burdens that have sprung up from a variety of well-intentioned causes that I think we're going to take is one of our top priorities going forward. And then, lastly, to capitalize on the relationships academically that we've made. You know, we have new medical school, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. Soon, we're getting ready to bring to fruition a nursing school strategy with Clemson University and then, Furman University is our undergraduate partner that works for our undergraduate strategies to codify this into a single academic health center is going to be a priority over the next year, as well. So, some good old-fashioned workforce issues and enhancing that, and then an academic strategy. Those are going to be the two priorities going forward.
Melanie: How exciting. And, what is your message for the community, Dr. Taylor?
Dr. Taylor: So, we want the community to understand that we are their healthcare provider. We are homegrown in Greenville, we are a large health system, but we're their health system and when you look at the state of South Carolina, probably 60% of the health systems in South Carolina are either owned or managed by an outsider or out of state entity. We are Greenville based, Greenville bred. We are their health system, we are their providers, and we want them to feel the connectivity from the community to their provider, the Greenville Health System. We want to feel like that we are theirs. And so, that's going to be the message to the community, and we're all in this together to make Greenville a more healthy place, that we can actually improve the care, and move the needles in our society to make ourselves a healthier community. These are going to be the messages that they hear as long as I'm the president of Greenville Health System.
Melanie: And, is there anything else you'd like to add to your physicians and staff at Greenville Health System?
Dr. Taylor: No. Just a great deal of gratitude and appreciation for all that we have. You know, we've got, as I said, 1,500-2,000 providers. They're all terrific people. We have unbelievable staff and wonderful employees, 15,000 employees that support the physicians and other clinicians. Great gratitude to all the employees for their dedicated service. They do tremendous work and we're very, very appreciative of all they do, in addition to the providers, as I said a little earlier. And, again, we have a lot of opportunity in front of us with the times that we have in healthcare today, and we look forward to solving these problems together, working closely with both our employees and our providers going forward. So, very, very exciting to be in Greenville right now. It's a great community, and we feel like they're a terrific partner, the community is with us, and we look forward to working all together to make Greenville a better place, a more healthy place to live.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today, Dr. Taylor. You're listening to Inside Health with Greenville Health System and for more information, you can go to www.ghs.org. That's www.ghs.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Melanie Cole (Host): My guest today is breaking new ground as the first physician to lead the Greenville Health System in its more than 100-year history. Welcome to the show, Dr. Spence Taylor, President of Greenville Health System. So, Dr. Taylor, what are you most looking forward to as President of Greenville Health System?
Dr. Spence Taylor (Guest): Well, Melanie, thanks first for having me and involving this and I will tell you that it's a great honor to be the President of GHS at the outset, and also to be the first physician leader in its 104-year-old history is really quite amazing and actually quite humbling. I have the great pleasure, after being here for 25 years, to continue what I've been doing, and that's to further and continue to make people aware of our mission. If you look at what Mike Reardon, my predecessor's done, he's ingrained this mission of healing compassionately, and teaching innovatively, and improving constantly into our system, but I will tell you that if you're a physician and a physician leader, the way that translates is to basically set the standard of care for our community which we take great responsibility and pride in to create that future workforce of providers and physicians and nurses to care for everybody, whether they've come in at an inconvenient time or not, or with an inconvenient diagnosis and whether they can pay you or not, and then to make the dollars work. All of these are things that, on a day-to-day basis, we tackle as part of the mission and I think that's probably the most compelling and exciting thing as the leader of GHS to continue to make people aware of. And then also, we're a community asset, and to continue to be that community asset. If we're going to transform healthcare, as our mission statement suggests we are, the way to do that is to keep a healthy community and to interact in a positive manner with our community. So, looking forward to doing that as well, and continuing that tradition that my predecessors kept in terms of managing and maintaining a great relationship with the community.
Melanie: So, how do your experiences as a physician influence how you're approaching the role of president?
Dr. Taylor: You know, when I started here in 1992, I was one of, I think, 29 physicians that were employed, and it was a very typical model where there was a health system that employed physicians. Well, over time, you know, we now number almost 2,000 providers, if you look at our physicians and our nurse practitioners and physician assistants, so this whole idea has shifted slowly, but surely, over time to one and we're no longer thought of as employed physicians by a health system, but we're really owners of this health system. We feel like an owner mentality versus an employee mentality. So, this is our practice. I think we, as physicians, in this practice, we're a big practice of 2,000 physicians or so, or 2,000 providers or so, but this whole idea that as a physician leader, this is our practice. This is our practice to lead, our practice to be accountable for, these are our patients that we see and take great pride in managing with the mission that I said earlier. So, as a physician, we bring a totally different perspective. We're not employees that are supposed to maintain a certain relationship with an employer but we are a group of providers that are practicing medicine as a large practice of medicine for our patients.
Melanie: And, what are your top priorities for Greenville Health System?
Dr. Taylor: So, you know I think we've got unprecedented challenges as a large physician group and a health system, today. I mean, if you look at the rate of burnout with our physicians and the challenges around access, quality, and cost, we've got our work cut out for us, but in a really positive way. I think we've got an opportunity as a group of providers, and health professionals, and clinicians to tackle this. I think one of the early parts of what we will look towards is to improve the workflow and any of the barriers that exist between the clinicians and the patients. I think right now, we have administrative burdens that have sprung up from a variety of well-intentioned causes that I think we're going to take is one of our top priorities going forward. And then, lastly, to capitalize on the relationships academically that we've made. You know, we have new medical school, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. Soon, we're getting ready to bring to fruition a nursing school strategy with Clemson University and then, Furman University is our undergraduate partner that works for our undergraduate strategies to codify this into a single academic health center is going to be a priority over the next year, as well. So, some good old-fashioned workforce issues and enhancing that, and then an academic strategy. Those are going to be the two priorities going forward.
Melanie: How exciting. And, what is your message for the community, Dr. Taylor?
Dr. Taylor: So, we want the community to understand that we are their healthcare provider. We are homegrown in Greenville, we are a large health system, but we're their health system and when you look at the state of South Carolina, probably 60% of the health systems in South Carolina are either owned or managed by an outsider or out of state entity. We are Greenville based, Greenville bred. We are their health system, we are their providers, and we want them to feel the connectivity from the community to their provider, the Greenville Health System. We want to feel like that we are theirs. And so, that's going to be the message to the community, and we're all in this together to make Greenville a more healthy place, that we can actually improve the care, and move the needles in our society to make ourselves a healthier community. These are going to be the messages that they hear as long as I'm the president of Greenville Health System.
Melanie: And, is there anything else you'd like to add to your physicians and staff at Greenville Health System?
Dr. Taylor: No. Just a great deal of gratitude and appreciation for all that we have. You know, we've got, as I said, 1,500-2,000 providers. They're all terrific people. We have unbelievable staff and wonderful employees, 15,000 employees that support the physicians and other clinicians. Great gratitude to all the employees for their dedicated service. They do tremendous work and we're very, very appreciative of all they do, in addition to the providers, as I said a little earlier. And, again, we have a lot of opportunity in front of us with the times that we have in healthcare today, and we look forward to solving these problems together, working closely with both our employees and our providers going forward. So, very, very exciting to be in Greenville right now. It's a great community, and we feel like they're a terrific partner, the community is with us, and we look forward to working all together to make Greenville a better place, a more healthy place to live.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today, Dr. Taylor. You're listening to Inside Health with Greenville Health System and for more information, you can go to www.ghs.org. That's www.ghs.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
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