President and CEO Dr. Debra F. Sukin spoke to Modern Healthcare about how Texas Children’s kickstarted its financial turnaround plan.
Texas Children’s operations are back in the black and the system is seeking new growth opportunities, President and CEO Debra Sukin said.
Houston-based Texas Children’s has seen a more than $500 million financial turnaround from its last fiscal year. It has battled steep financial challenges in recent years, struggling with lower patient volumes and the delayed opening of its new Austin campus. It was forced to cut 5% of staff in 2024 and decreased its executive team by 10% by not filling vacant positions.
Sukin, who took over as president in January 2024 and CEO in October, has led the push for a revamped operating structure and clinical network model. The system also launched a more centralized research institute in the past year.
When asked, how did you make a turnaround happen, Sukin replied, “We set out to best address the redesign of our organizational structure and realign the leadership team. We began to chart a course, entity by entity, department by department, in terms of how we were going to achieve our strategic goals. I’m a very data-driven leader. Organizing the way that we look at data, share data and use data to make decisions became absolutely paramount. We could easily see all our respective entities and where there were opportunities for improvements, and most importantly, identify how we were going to look beyond just expense management. It was also about growth. It was about homing in on those opportunities and treating additional patients who needed our care.”
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