Davison named president/CEO of Saint Francis Healthcare System

Saint Francis Healthcare System has removed the temporary tag from its president and chief executive officer.

Justin Davison has led the organization in an interim status since February, and a Wednesday news conference announced the system’s board of directors has named him to the position.

Davison joined the system in November 2019 as chief financial officer, after having served in that capacity for the Mercy organization, overseeing six facilities in the Springfield, Missouri, area. He is a Missouri native and has served his entire health care career in the state.

He said the organization’s goal of providing “world-class care close to home” has not changed.

“That is our legacy, and we have a responsibility to continue, to maintain,” he said.

Davison said a focus on people will be a hallmark of his tenure.

“Over these past few months, we have been reaching out and focusing on a number of tenets. First is this concept of people must come first, and ‘people’ are our patients; ‘people’ are our community; ‘people’ are our colleagues; ‘people’ are our doctors and advanced practice providers,” he explained.

Nodding to stresses on health care systems in recent years, Davison said Saint Francis has a unique responsibility.

“If we are not considerate of the individual or the collective community, we are not a regionally-based health care system. If we are not considerate of people, if we don’t embrace the dignity, we are not a faith-based organization with the beautiful heritage that we have. So, we must first be true to people and place them first.”

Davison said he does not envision Saint Francis following the industry trend of smaller organizations partnering or merging with larger systems, adding that Saint Francis is seeking to contain costs in other ways.

“We believe that by adjusting, by growing and diversifying the services that we offer, there is an opportunity to offset some of these fixed costs and overhead costs in such a way it actually grows the care, makes it more affordable and enables newer technologies to be closer to the patient,” he explained, pointing to past investments in an electronic medical records and expanded telehealth systems.

Davison contended the region’s health care providers serve residents in high-quality, if different, ways, alluding to SoutheastHEALTH’s potential coming merger with a larger health care organization.

“The reality is that not just at Saint Francis but also at Southeast (Hospital), excellent health care is delivered,” he said. “We believe that we have a unique opportunity as a faith-based organization with a history and complexity of services that we offer to deliver a different type of care. But, there are very good people, very good clinicians at Southeast. ... We wish them absolutely the best.”

Moving beyond COVID

Davison said Saint Francis has begun to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic stresses.

“The number of open positions, the number of staffing challenges that we have, has greatly diminished,” he noted. “We have seen some remarkable commitment from colleagues. We have so many talented people who remained with us during this COVID era, and they are resilient folks. They and the stories that they carry into the community have really buoyed up our recruitment, and we have seen a strong increase in the number of colleagues who have joined our organization. In addition, we have experienced just over 170 colleagues return who formerly were with the Saint Francis system.”

What challenges remain and are on the horizon?

Davison said the “funding mechanism” of government-set rates of pay for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will continue to be an issue as the region’s population ages. Balancing care and viability is key.

“That challenge is a sincere challenge because it is uniquely human. Health care in our country has gone through so much, not just with COVID but historically. I think right now we find ourselves at times in certain places at a point of perhaps conflict in our society. Saint Francis is uniquely positioned where we are focused on people working together for people.”