President's Message: Kauffman Appointed to Additional SLUCare Role

01/16/2020

Dear Members of the SLU Community,

For more than 24 years, Bill Kauffman has been a go-to administrator to take on some of the most difficult, strategic assignments here at Saint Louis University. He served as interim president from September 2013 through June 2014, helped rekindle trust, and brought stability to our institution.

He led the team that achieved SLU Hospital’s separation from Tenet Healthcare and renewed our subsequent partnership with SSM Health. Bill led each of these consequential assignments with resoluteness, collegiality, and good humor.

As I shared in the past, we have faced significant financial stress at SLUCare, our clinical practice. Our challenges have not been unique to SLU. Our continued, rapid strategic response is necessary for us to maintain high-quality care for those whom our mission calls us to serve while generating revenue to cover our expenses.

At the request of Dr. Robert Wilmott, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, the University is concentrating significant attention on SLUCare. Last year we made it the primary focus of the Operational Excellence Team. We hired the global consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal to assist with the day-to-day operations and to implement a restructuring of many of our processes. And we have made some key new hires, particularly in the finance area. All of these efforts are paying off. After ending last year with a significant loss, SLUCare has performed better than budget each month of this fiscal year. But more work needs to be done, particularly with our major funder and partner SSM Health.

In consultation with Dr. Wilmott, I am asking Bill to further accelerate our collective efforts. To this end, I have appointed Bill as special assistant to the president for clinical affairs while continuing to serve as general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees.

 

In this additional role, Bill will help execute Dr. Wilmott’s plans to optimize the clinical strengths of SLUCare, and accelerate improvements to SLUCare’s financial health. He will focus particularly on our partnership with SSM Health and upcoming negotiations of the Academic Affiliation Agreement (AAA).

 

Dr. Wilmott and I are grateful to Bill for taking on this additional role. If you have constructive feedback on how we can continue to move SLUCare to the next level in clinical education, innovative research, and quality care, particularly for the underserved, please send them to Dr. Wilmott and Mr. Kauffman.

 

Best wishes,

 

Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.

President