Now that USF faculty members are graduating from the Leadership Institute, it’s time for them to take on a new task: joining the charge to lead reforms of the nation’s healthcare system.

That was the challenge issued Friday by Dr. Elliot J. Sussman, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, at the graduation ceremony of the Leadership Institute.

You’ve empowered yourselves by taking the first step in becoming more effective leaders, Dr. Sussman told the graduates, “In terms of affecting change in your community’s health, in our communities health and in the delivery of health care.”

Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Dr. Elliot Sussman

Dr. Sussman, who also is the immediate past chair of the American Association of Medical Colleges, urged the institute graduates to put their new knowledge to good, and immediate, use by pushing for change.

     “It’s as leaders in medicine, and equipped with new tools that you’ve acquired over the last 18 months and the opportunities and new tools that you’ll acquire in the future,” Dr. Sussman said, “That your involvement and your enthusiastic support that can make this transformation happen.”

     USF Health launched The Leadership Institute in 2005. The 18-month program prepares USF faculty members for leadership roles at USF and in the broader community.

     As the president and CEO at Lehigh Valley, Dr. Sussman is participating in another program to develop future leaders with the USF College of Medicine. Lehigh Valley and USF are partnering with an innovative leadership track that will prepare medical students to become physician leaders. It will allow them to train both at USF and in Pennsylvania at the Lehigh Valley Health Network, which is widely recognized as one of the nation’s best hospital systems.

     It’s USF’s commitment to such programs as The Leadership Institute, Dr. Sussman said, that have drawn Lehigh Valley to USF.

     “The understanding that USF has that medicine is a team sport…made us eager to work with you,” he told the group.

Dr. Sussman, Lehigh Valley President and CEO, and Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO for USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine, are partners in building the future of healthcare.

     Dr. Sussman also has close ties to Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Medicine. Dr. Klasko introduced Dr. Sussman to the group as his mentor and inspiration.

     “It was exactly the passion that Elliott took to do his job at Lehigh Valley Health Network that allowed me to dream big at USF,” Dr. Klasko said.

     In turn, Dr. Klasko wants The Leadership Institute to provide mentorship and training to his own faculty members, helping them become “the people who are going to be leaders of this great institution.”

     “Our goal is to take every faculty member and have each of you be everything you can be,” Dr. Klasko said. “The Leadership Institute has been a major, major part of that…It’s the group of people whom I can go to, and I know they’ve got it.”

Leadership Institute graduate Dr. Sumeeta Mazzarola (center), who spoke at the ceremony, with Mohamad Kasti, MS, MBB, MCA, chief information officer for USF Health’s Center for Transformation and Innovation, and Cynthia Mullen, MS, executive director fo LI.

     Three of the Leadership Institute graduates – Javier Cuevas, PhD., Stuart R. Hart, MD, and Sumeeta Mazzarolo, MD – also spoke at the ceremony. All three spoke about how their experiences with the institute had helped them professionally. Dr. Hart said the Institute had helped him realize and harness his passion for innovation, so that he and colleagues recently submitted a patent for new technology.

      “When I first came here, I struggled,” he said. “Now, I realized this passion for innovation. I think this is just a terrific program.”

       Just a day after the historic health care summit ended with few points of agreement between Democrats and Republicans, and with the future of the most substantial health care bill in generations still uncertain, Dr. Sussman stressed the need for healthcare leaders to work for change.

     “A few months ago, I was willing to bet my first born – luckily I didn’t, I really like my first born – on ‘Absolutely, we’re going to get really meaningful healthcare reform,’ “ he said. “That seemed likely. Now, perhaps, not so. …It’s really, ‘Who the heck knows?’ “

     But whatever path politicians take with that bill, Dr. Sussman said, the need for change – and the leadership role that healthcare professionals should take – is clear.

    “It’s really pretty simply stated: It’s up to us,” he said. “We must develop a system that provides better outcomes, higher quality and lower costs. …It’s incumbent on us to achieve quality care in more efficient ways. Frankly, we must do more with what we have.”

Leadership Institute Class of 2010

Orhan E. Arslan, DVM, PhD
Eric S.  Bennett, PhD
Steven D. Blair
Lori A. Bowers, MD
Basil  S. Cherpelis, MD
Rossitza I. Chichkova, MD, MS
Javier Cuevas, PhD
Chad A. Dickey, PhD
Rani S. Gereige, MD, MPH
Stuart R. Hart, MD
Lennox Hoyte, MD, MSEECS
Suneel Khetarpal, MD
Fabio M. Leonelli, MD
Sumeeta Mazzarolo, MD
Stephen G. Patterson, MD
Shayne M. Plosker, MD
Lewis P. Rubin, MD
Hamisu Salihu, MD, PhD
Kevin B. Sneed, PharmD
Sylvia W. Thomas, PhD
Deborah Williams, CRNP, PhD
Todd Wills, MD

Since The Leadership Institute was founded at USF Health in 2005, the program has grown nationally, serving client-partners at Creighton University in Omaha, NE; Berger Health, Ohio; The Iowa Clinic, Des Moines, IA; and Emory Healthcare, to name a few.

For more information, please contact Mohamad Kasti, chief transformation officer, Center for Transformation and Innovation, at (813) 974-3674 or mkasti@health.usf.edu; or Cynthia Mullen, executive director, The Leadership Institute at USF Health, (813) 263-3767 or cmullen@health.usf.edu.

— Story by Lisa Greene, photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications