Today BJC HealthCare is a titan in the health care industry. It dominates the ºüÀêÊÓƵ market and is perceived as a must-have network for many employer health plans and residents. And with one of the area’s two adult academic medical centers, it takes on some of the most complicated cases with its partner, Washington University School of Medicine.
But BJC wasn’t always No. 1.
A little more than 20 years ago, BJC was just an idea. Those who were on the front lines of assembling the first pieces of the now nearly $5 billion health system credit its CEO, Steve Lipstein, with transforming a fledgling organization into the behemoth it is today.
After 18 years at the helm of BJC, Lipstein, 61, last week announced his plans to retire in a memo to his more than 31,000 employees. At the end of the year, Lipstein will turn over the reins to , the second-in-command at BJC, which is also the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area’s largest employer.
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“I think as a whole, people respect and take pride in the national and international recognition these institutions have developed together and it’s something I give Steve a lot of credit for,†said , former dean of Washington University School of Medicine, who worked closely with Lipstein for more than a decade.
In the beginning
In the early 1990s, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the flagship facility in BJC’s network of 15 hospitals, had yet to merge as one.
At the time, both Barnes Hospital and the Jewish Hospital of ºüÀêÊÓƵ were separate entities. They were within walking distance of one another, and each had a relationship with Washington University School of Medicine, said John Dubinsky, former board chair of BJC HealthCare.
For both chairmen of the hospital boards, it made sense to marry the two organizations.
“The belief was, if we put them together we would be more able to run an efficient institution, to attract the best and the brightest doctors, and to attract a first-tier administration,†Dubinsky said of his work with , the former board chair of Barnes Hospital.
In 1999, after a yearlong search, the BJC board tapped Steve Lipstein, then 43, to become the organization’s second CEO and to lead the organization into the future.
“What we were impressed by was his energy and his enthusiasm and his commitment to financial integrity in addition to high-quality medical care,†Dubinsky said.
It proved to be no small task.
Shortly before Lipstein took the reins, there were a handful of hospitals under the recently formed BJC umbrella, many of which were struggling with their own identity now that they were within a much larger organization.
“The result of all this was a lot of bruised egos,†Dubinsky said of the newly formed system. “It was tough in the trenches, particularly trying to build a singular culture,†he said.
And that’s the environment Lipstein stepped into when he decided to move his family from the Chicago area to ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
In the trenches
What makes Lipstein’s job so complex is the vast array of interests he has to represent — from academic to community hospitals, adult to pediatric, and rural to urban. On top of that, he has to maintain a close relationship with Washington University School of Medicine, which uses BJC hospitals as teaching facilities and provides care to many BJC patients throughout the region, both in a hospital setting and on an outpatient basis.
The two work in partnership together and share in the bottom line, said , the current medical school dean.
“Steve has run the hospital system in a way that the financial health of the hospital system allows it to invest in the programs in the medical school,†Perlmutter said.
Shapiro, a previous medical school dean, said what many may not realize is that Lipstein has a “remarkable head for finance,†a sentiment that was shared by others. Lipstein also previously served as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
“I quickly discovered I couldn’t keep up with him in terms of math,†Shapiro said of the times when Washington University and BJC would renegotiate their affiliation agreement.
Lipstein, in an interview Thursday with the Post-Dispatch, described how he gained passion for health care as an undergrad at Emory University in Atlanta.
He was looking for a job to bring in extra spending money while attending school, but he didn’t have a car, which limited his options.
But across the street from his dorm was a hospital and that’s where he landed his first job in health care, working Saturday and Sunday night shifts as a nursing unit clerk.
It was there that he gained an understanding for what it’s like to be on the front lines of health care, Lipstein said. From Emory, he went on to receive a master’s degree in health care administration from Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Much of his career was spent working within academic teaching hospitals, and he has lent his experience and voice at a national level, including his role as vice chair for the , a nonprofit group that uses information and data to help drive better decision making by patients and providers in health care.
“Steve has the uncanny ability to look around corners and help us prepare for the future faster,†said , CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association. “I’ve got to think extra hard when I go to a meeting with Steve.â€
Over the years, Lipstein said his philosophy on health care has been that it’s not actually a business.
“Business is a good thing but most businesses measure their success in dollars and cents, return on investment ... in health care we measure our success in what we’re able to do for patients and families,†he said.
Lipstein said that BJC is currently positioned to be counted among the great health care systems in America.
What makes BJC unique, he said, is that the health care system has a presence in every quadrant of the region, from Alton to Farmington to Belleville to St. Charles.
“We are able to serve people where they live, where they work, where they go to school, where they go to church, and so that means we get to take care of all the socio-demographics and all races and all ethnicities and that’s a really unique opportunity for a health care delivery system.â€
In 2013, Lipstein was named ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ and he’s still active on the boards of Teach for America in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and Ameren, in addition to other postings.