Although Susan Cooper, RN, MSN, FANN, has worn a number of hats during a distinguished career dotted with titles and commendations, the chief integration officer and senior vice president for ambulatory care at Regional One Health claims to have received most of her accolades simply by being a good listener.
“You hear a lot about patient-centered care, but here we talk about person-centered care,” she said, “because every person who comes to see you doesn’t necessarily have just a healthcare issue, they may have other needs to be addressed."
Only about 10 percent of an individual’s health status is attributable to the care he or she receives as a patient, Cooper said. Socioeconomic status, genetics, behavior and environmental issues also dramatically impact one’s health. And while Regional One had always provided ambulatory care within what was previously four primary-care clinics and campus clinics, “that model was really not sufficient to meet the needs of the community,” she concluded. "We had a very different view of what care should be.”
When Cooper retired in 2012 from her role as the state commissioner of health – the first registered nurse to be appointed to the position in Tennessee — she went to work as a consultant to Dr. Reginald Coopwood, president and CEO of Regional One Health, and quickly recognized and embraced the power of his vision of healthcare for Memphians. Her temporary commitment to assist him with creating an ambulatory strategy became something greater: “I just changed hats one day and never left,” she said.
Steps toward realizing that shared vision led to the development of Regional One’s new East Campus at 6555 Quince Road, at Kirby Parkway and the Bill Morris Parkway (State Route 385). Cooper describes it as an effort to pilot out the new model of care.
The campus houses services that include a new reproductive medicine program, urogynecology, outpatient physical rehabilitation, a multispecialty care site, and an outpatient pharmacy. A diagnostic/imaging center opening in June will offer DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan, mammography and MRI capabilities within the same building.
“We wanted to design care from the patient’s point of view,” said Cooper, who notes that more than 50 percent of adults have one or more chronic diseases; more than 25 percent of adults have two or more chronic diseases, so oftentimes patients have multiple concerns.
Patients referred by one physician for specialized care can often receive that care from a physician just across the hall — or, better yet, referral doctors might come to the patient.
“We believe that we should bring care to people — we should not make people go to care,” Cooper said. “We feel very proud not only of what we’ve built out there, we’re trying to apply what we’ve learned to improve other clinical operations across the system.”
She points also to a new infusion center in the Regional One Outpatient Center that can best be described as “state surpassing the art,” designed with help from a patient advisory council of individuals who live with chronic diseases and need regular infusions. Custom-designed chairs with special foam, heat, massage and drop-down sides convert to recliners or beds; high-tech “sound domes” allow patients in shared space to hear only their own TV.
But trying to shift the popular view from emergency and trauma care at Regional One to also the system of choice takes time.
“Oftentimes when people think of us,” Cooper said, “they don’t think of us for those outpatient ambulatory services, but for the Elvis Presley Trauma Center, the Sheldon Korones Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or the Firefighters Burn Center. But our extraordinary group of physicians who provide care for other populations of patients is really second to none.”
Looking back, Cooper points with pride to her state commissioner’s role in promoting passage of the non-smoker protection act. “During that period from 2007 to 2012, we had the largest improvements in health status of any state in the nation," she said. "As I traveled across the state during those years and listened to folks, the conversations were crucial to trying to help us make healthier options available to people.”
Cooper also served as assistant dean and assistant professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, where she received her own degrees. Encouraged by her father, a physician, and her mother, a nurse, she began her own career as a nurse specializing in emergency and intensive care.
As a student, still filled with doubts about her career choice, Cooper took a summer job as a nursing assistant and experienced a life-changing moment she still recalls with clarity: An elderly man with a neurosurgical condition talked to her at length about his life and the knowledge that he was not going to live.
“He arrested and died that night,” Cooper said. “I remember sitting on the floor and sobbing, not only because he lost his life but because of the gift of the conversation that he gave to me, and the doctor’s words about the importance of that connection — and that time spent.”
It left her profoundly shaken but certain of her calling – and the nurse’s heart that guides her still.
“I never wanted to do anything else from that point on," she said. "I always asked, ‘How can I improve the experience for someone who is in a difficult situation?’”
Her words to remember: “I think as a healthcare system we can always do better. Inasmuch as the world now requires us to focus on the financial health of healthcare systems, we cannot lose sight of the patient or the person who comes to us for care. Our job is to listen— and to deliver upon their need in the most efficient way possible.”
Cooper is an avid reader who grew up in West Tennessee; she enjoys travel and spending time with her three grown children and four grandchildren.
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