- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] - You know the expression, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Well, that may be true about many things, but it's not true about health care.

If you were to sum up health care, you'd probably say the only constant in life is change.

The family doctor is now part of a physician practice group, and the local hospital is now part of a regional or national healthcare organization.

You're about to meet the CEO of the largest healthcare system in west Central Florida, with 16 hospitals and still growing.

Next on the Suncoast Business Forum.

- Suncoast Business Forum, brought to you by the financial services firm of Raymond James, offering personalized wealth management advice and banking and capital markets expertise, all with a commitment to putting client's financial well-being first.

More information is available at raymondjames.com.

[music] - There are more than 6000 hospitals in America.

Years ago, 90% of hospital CEOs were physicians.

Now, less than 10% of physicians in west Central Florida, the CEO of BayCare, the largest academic health care system, isn't a physician or a non-medical hospital administrator.

She's a nurse.

Stephanie Connors joined BayCare as CEO in 2022, and is one of only a few dozen nurses who are hospital CEOs in America.

Stephanie, welcome to the Suncoast Business Forum.

- Thank you for having me.

- BayCare is the largest academic health care provider in west Central Florida, with $7 billion in revenue in 2025.

There are 16 hospitals and that's growing.

And it provides one third of the health care services in west Central Florida.

And there's more than that.

Tell us about the broader scope of BayCare.

- Again, thank you for having me.

BayCare has deep roots in the communities that we serve.

We have 34,000 people that care for this community.

Our team members live and work in the community.

And when you think about the numbers that choose us 1 in 3, that's a pretty big number when you look at health care across the ecosystem.

We have our 17th hospital being built.

Currently we're in five counties, and with that we also have hundreds of outpatient facilities.

So over 400 touchpoints where you can access the BayCare Healthcare System to ensure that you get that continuity of care and the compassionate care that we're known for.

- BayCare Health System was started in 1997, and it began with just a few hospitals in the area coming together.

Since then it has grown, but Morton Plant was one of the first started over 100 years ago.

St.

Joseph's Hospital started about 90 years ago.

What was the impetus to begin putting these hospitals together?

- It was so innovative of its time.

This Franciscan Sisters of Allegheny, as well as Morton Plant and South Florida Baptist, all came together.

And the mission was incredibly important to those individuals.

Many of those are legacy community leaders that are still part of our organization today.

When they came together, their intent was to ensure that care would be delivered with that same mission.

And today, not only do we have this incredible health care organization, which is the largest academic health system in west Central Florida, highly mission based, never forgetting our roots.

- BayCare was formed in 1997, and the hospitals that joined BayCare formed a joint operating agreement.

It was a 50 year agreement.

What was the thought behind a 50 year joint operating agreement?

- When I arrived, we were about 25 years into the agreement and we started to think about our growth opportunities, how we could serve this community in even a more meaningful way, assets that we would build, ensuring that no patient had to leave our community, let alone our state for care.

And how would we advance care from first breath to last breath?

And all of that work really is going to go well beyond that 50 year mark.

So when I arrived, one of the first things we did was negotiate out of that joint operating agreement.

And it was really when you think about the arrival of BayCare into the community that was innovative of its time, but now being the largest health care system in west Central Florida.

Our innovative thinking, our bold Mindset.

All of that really needed us to have our independence so that there was no expiration date.

So now we're back here into perpetuity.

We are one large health system, but we will never forget our roots.

So each of our founding health systems, or I should say those that were our founders, more implant, South Florida Baptist and St.

Joseph's and also some of our other organizations have small boards because we believe that that local leadership is very important, and keeping those local leaders involved in our health care system is really when you think about the future of health care, if you're not paying attention to the community and those that need your services, then you're going to fail your community.

So those boards are in place and they're very, very important to us.

And we've seen it in our results.

Our results are extraordinary.

We had the best year in our history and safety, service quality and our outcomes and cost in 2024, and we outpaced that in 2025.

So the vision is set, and those 34,000 plus people being able to live to their full potential is what makes us truly extraordinary.

- BayCare is the largest healthcare system in west Central Florida.

It's also the largest academic healthcare system.

What is academic medicine?

Why is it important?

- So when you look at health care and physicians of the future, if you don't train the physician of the future, you have risk.

We had the opportunity to have 650 residents, but we didn't fill those slots.

When I arrived, a clock had started and we had about three years to fulfill the application to get those residents in place.

So I looked at my chief physician executive and I said, fill every position, we're going to grow our residency program.

That was our start.

So now we're anticipated to have the 650 residents by 2029.

We have over 500, almost 600 approved and in place.

We have over 330, I believe, that are actually on site.

You take that from three years ago where we had a handful of residents.

So our first, I would say action was train the future.

If we train the future with this amazing foundation, we have incredible physicians.

That's why 1 in 3 choose us.

That's why we're known as a leading healthcare system, and our outcomes are what they are today.

Our patients come for our physicians.

They stay for our extraordinary care.

We had another missing component.

So we are a great health system, but we don't take care of the sickest of the sick.

At that time, we didn't do the quaternary care.

We didn't have the services where patients could stay for their total care.

If it was complex to the level that you have very few diagnoses or you have these rare diseases.

So the vision was no patient would have to leave the community, let alone the state for care.

So we wanted to fill in that gap.

That's when we built the relationship with Northwestern.

Our goal is that we continue to advance our organization to take care of every aspect of care that would be necessary for our population.

- Let's talk about your formative years.

Let's talk about growing up in west Philadelphia and family.

- Sure.

So just like the song, "Born and Raised," I grew up in west Philadelphia.

My parents were fairly young when they had children.

I have a sister who's 18 months older than I am.

My mom, a waitress, would get up at five in the morning and work until 1 a.m., and neither one of my parents advanced past high school.

And in fact, my father did not advance past the eighth grade.

And they worked hard.

They were in labor jobs, and my father had somewhat transient jobs, did different things.

But one day I said to them, well, my grandmother was passing away who I was very close with, actually my great grandmother, because my parents were young.

So I was blessed to have a great grandmother.

She was passing of cancer and I was her caregiver, and I cared for a lot of individuals.

When I was young, I told them I wanted to be a nurse, and my father shared with me how challenging it would be.

I would be the first in our family to go to college, number one.

But number two, financially it would be difficult.

So instead of stopping there, I started volunteering.

I was an EMT I worked as.

Back in the day, called a candy striper and did a lot of things in the community to volunteer my time as well as I worked.

So I worked from a very young age.

My parents did the best they could, but financially we had housing and food insecurities and it was difficult.

So what my father did was he took a job at Villanova.

He decided that he was going to help me fulfill my dream.

And why did I pick Villanova?

Well, when my grandmother was passing, the nurse who was caring for her was a Villanova nurse, and I was so inspired by her that the only place I wanted to go was Villanova, because I saw her compassion and her kindness.

So that's what I knew.

It was a very expensive school.

So my father showed up one day and asked for a job in security.

He received a job, and it was probably his first really stable job in his life, and he did it for me.

I applied to Villanova, but coming from an underserved community, not having the finances, I was not the pedigree, I was denied.

Every day my father met the dean.

Dean Fitzpatrick, and he would have conversations with her.

So when I was denied, he asked her if she would meet me and she obliged.

And I went to her with just the anticipation of saying, what can I do?

How can I reach my goal?

And her response to me was, take classes in the summer.

If you get A's, I'll accept you in the fall.

I took two classes.

I was accepted in the fall.

It was an incredible journey for me.

All I really remember saying to her is, if you give me a chance, I'll make you proud.

And she did.

My father got sick.

He left.

I had tremendous financial difficulties.

I was working full time.

I take the train in the city every day to work in healthcare as a nursing assistant.

It was hard to get books, housing, food, and the dean helped me figure all of that out.

My father a big part of it.

My parents working hard to do what they could, but I couldn't do it without the dean.

I wouldn't have made it.

Philanthropy is very important to me because I'm a great example of investment in those that you have to look a little deeper in than where they come from.

And so I graduated and I became the youngest chief nurse across the country.

My career took off.

I was pretty well known in the leadership community in the northeast where I come from.

I was doing a speaking engagement on change management and leading with kindness and compassion.

Dean Fitzpatrick was there.

We reintroduced.

We had an emotional moment.

I ended up being on her board.

A big part of my career and everything that I achieved is because she took a chance on me.

When she passed away, Father Donohue read my story as her eulogy, and it was everything to do with her taking a chance on someone like me to make a difference in the world.

And as a result of that moment, I realized that my purpose in life was to make a difference.

It is amazing what you can do when you look at people deeper than the exterior.

When you give people a chance to be the best of who they can be and be the best human possible.

And she's a great example of that.

So I try to live that example every day of my life.

- When you graduated from Villanova, you did eventually become a chief nurse, the youngest chief nurse in the United States.

- So they tell me.

- But you started off as a nurse at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, and then you had a succession of nursing jobs.

How did being in the hospital at bedside shape you?

I mean, you had a vision of being a nurse you'd volunteered over the years.

Now you were doing it full time.

How did that inform you?

- As a nurse, you have the mindset of doing the impossible and creating a better life, not only for those that you're serving, but those that are around you.

And as a leader, it's the same thing.

So I would say as a leader, being a nurse really prepared me to take care of people at a scale that I do today so that they could take care of the community.

And it is the blessing that, you know, most people don't realize nurses have financial acumen, they have tremendous skills, but they have that compassion and that focus on what's most important.

So you wrap all of that together and you have amazing outcomes.

It's when I was going through the journey, I used to think as I was fulfilling other people's visions, if I was able to lead in a way that gave people the runway to be the best of themselves and to set up a standard, which was, we're here to serve and we're here to serve with the highest safety, service and quality.

The financials come with it, that I would prove that all of those things are important to have strong financial out, you know, an output and I'm living that.

So you learn it as a nurse, because as a nurse you have to learn that skill.

And then when you're a leader, you help everybody else learn it.

- Early in your nursing career, you had the opportunity to take Six Sigma black belt training.

What is that and how did it help you?

- Young.

In my career, prior to becoming a chief nurse, I was asked to be one of the first five black belts in health care trained by GE.

Actually, it was when Jack Welch was first creating the program and bringing it out into the health care world.

And so I was in that first group of five.

So really, I was this young leader going to different organizations and doing change management, measuring in a way that you looked at a process and understood it and really knew where the gaps were versus making assumptions.

You had data that directed you, but also you had strong stakeholders that were a part of solutions.

And it's how do you listen and learn from people.

And that was in the early part of my career.

So in the early part of my career, I was talking to Individuals with high level experience today, and teaching them how to use data and how to create change management in a positive way.

It was a great platform for my career.

- Along the way, you also were able to study for your MBA.

How did that evolve?

How did that come about?

- I had great mentors in my life and I could talk endlessly about them.

But one day I was sitting at lunch with a colleague of mine, and I advanced into a leadership role, and she just looked at me and she said, here's where you stop if you don't get your advanced degree.

She said, if I were you, I would start and just start today.

And I thought, oh, because I thought about my undergraduate, how hard it was working full time, getting through that was very, very difficult.

But I was successful.

But I listened and I went for my MBA.

It was a 22 month fast track program, I believe, and I was pregnant with my third child.

I actually delivered my third daughter days before I had to sit for my final.

The MBA was very unique for a nurse.

It was not a common degree, so having an MBA and being a nurse really was another catapult opportunity for me for individuals to recognize that nurses do have financial acumen.

They do understand that healthcare is also a business, and I would say that it was highly beneficial.

- While you were doing all this, you were also building a family.

Yes, you were having kids and you were married and you had four children.

- I do, I have an amazing husband of 30 plus years.

I am super blessed.

The day that he asked me to marry him and with him.

We have four beautiful children, three grandchildren and one on the way.

So I can say soon to be my fourth grandchild and coming to daycare.

What was most important to me is that my whole family, my immediate family, would join me.

Otherwise, I'm not sure I would be here because my whole I would say everything I do in life is for my family.

I am very family oriented and I think everyone should be.

Your life, your job is important, but your life that you fulfill outside your job, a lot of what you do in your job is so that you can fulfill those goals with your family.

And I never really take that for granted.

So coming here, the deal was that my whole family would come with me, and they did.

- So along the way.

In addition to being the chief nursing officer, getting a Six Sigma Black belt training, getting your MBA, you then really started entering the ranks of hospital administration, healthcare administration.

Tell us about that.

And the latter.

- Absolutely.

So another mentor that I had, she's worth mentioning, Doctor Adrian Kirby, a nurse CEO.

She called me one day and she said, I need a change agent.

I want you to come be my COO.

And I said, I'm a nurse.

I am a chief nurse.

And she told me to get over it.

I could have both titles.

So she gave me the title of Chief Nurse and COO.

And at that point I realized that I was at Cooper Health System in Camden.

At that moment, I realized I had brought her skills, and she saw me as a change agent and someone who could come in and do turnarounds.

And at that time, we needed some extra support in the work that we were doing to grow there.

And I worked for her for five years and held the COO title, and at the point she decided to retire, she told me I was built for bigger things, that she wanted me to apply for the inaugural COO position at Jefferson Health, which is at the time $10 billion health system over two states.

So I remember saying to her, I'm good, I'm happy, I'm fine where I am.

And she said, no, you're built for bigger things.

And I reminded her that she couldn't hire the person there because she didn't work there and she wasn't the CEO there.

But she said to me fondly in a, in a very incredible way that I promise you, when they meet you, they will hire you.

And I took the leap, and that was my next job.

I was a COO over the Jefferson Health System, and that was a remarkable journey because a very large health system over two states and again, change management, a lot of integration, hospitals coming together.

And I was fortunate to work during that time.

So I would tell you in my life that a lot of my mentors saw more in me sometimes than I saw them myself.

And the leaps and risks that I've taken have been with tremendous guidance and support, reminding me that I was capable.

And I live with courage because from my childhood to adulthood, I have a lot of resiliency and courage.

So I took those mentors and I held on to them tight, and they believed in me, and I believed in them.

And a part of why I am where I am today is because of so many of them.

- You came to Baker in 2022 as the CEO.

What challenges and opportunities did you see at Baker at the time.

- We were coming out of the pandemic.

And the interesting thing about BayCare is they were laser focused on the pandemic.

They weren't really thinking about where are we going to grow next?

How much are we going to spend?

That whole growth mindset, it was all around ensuring that the community was safe from the pandemic, but we had a lot of individuals entrance coming into our community.

So we're the largest healthcare system, and all of a sudden you're starting to see all these competitors entering in.

And although my original statement is there's enough health care for all of us, I still believe that.

But there is a time where it can get saturated and the market that we have, if we don't fill in those gaps, somebody else will fill them in, right?

Naturally, you would expect that.

So we had a growth opportunity.

What we did was the first thing was we presented to the board of the billions of dollars of opportunity that we have in west Central Florida, and we made a commitment to spend over $2.9 billion in filling in the gaps for the community to live that Vision where no patient would have to leave their community for care.

Our obligation runs deep to this community, so our investments also run deep.

So I would say the opportunity when I first came was to move out of that pandemic mindset and move into a growth mindset.

We realized we had opportunities.

One in particular was in Manatee County.

Manatee County had no not for profit health care.

That community really needed BayCare.

So we made an incredible investment to build a hospital.

That's our 17th hospital.

At the same time, we are the largest provider of children's services, Pediatrics BayCare Kids.

We serve the most children in west Central Florida.

So we made an investment to build a freestanding children's hospital, which will go live in 2030.

So our goal is to not only fill in gaps with freestanding emergency rooms and our ambulatory surgical centers and our physicians throughout the community so that we have access, which is very important.

You shouldn't have to wait for a doctor's appointment.

So improving access is critical.

We also have infrastructure.

Ultimately, I don't believe that bricks and mortar are the future of health care.

We also are building out our virtual hospital to ensure that when patients can stay home and be with their loved ones, that we're caring for them in their home.

Think about the future of healthcare.

There is this metaverse out there right now, and in the future, imagine being in your living room knowing that maybe a couple years prior you would be in the hospital, but you're being cared for because you have all the patient monitoring on you that's being monitored by the healthcare professionals, and you're actually talking to your physician that you feel is in your living room, but they're in a virtual space.

That's the future of healthcare.

And how do we prepare for that?

So it's not only bricks and mortar, but it's care from home.

And how do you care for that patient in the home or the most acute in your most acute environments?

Which is why we're building out our academic mission.

- Giving back to the community is an important part of BayCare's culture.

Tell us about daycares community benefit.

- Our community benefit is incredibly strong, and it started with the sisters in our founding members, which is we contribute significant dollars to the community, whether that's in the underserved population or that's feeding the community.

And I will give you a couple examples, but we estimate about $450 million a year that we give back to the community.

Great example is when you looked at the hurricane and food insecurities, we stood up food banks almost immediately with our partners to ensure that not only our team members, but the communities that we serve were able to get access for food.

We ensured that we had gasoline so that our team members could get gas during the government shutdown, and there were some risks with salaries and risk with food.

We again stood up the food banks.

So a lot of work that we do is caring for the underserved.

But we also go above and beyond and care for the community in very meaningful ways that are real time, real time crisis.

- Before we did this interview, I looked you up on LinkedIn and anybody could look you up on LinkedIn.

And what I saw, I thought was fascinating it, said Stephanie Connors, nurse and CEO.

I was intrigued that you put nurse before a CEO.

Why?

- I often tell people that nursing is a fabric of who I am.

It's not a profession.

The person that I was meant to be was one to care for others, and my legacy that I want one day when I'm no longer on this earth, is to be remembered by the lives I've influenced and where I made a difference.

It's not that I was a CEO.

I'm privileged and honored to be the CEO of BayCare, but ultimately those lives that you touch sometimes one person at a time.

And in situations like mine, 34,000 is a true blessing.

And for me, that's who I am.

- Stephanie, I'd like to thank you so much for being our guest today.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure.

- If you'd like to see this program again or any of the CEO profiles in our Suncoast Business Forum archive, you can find them on the web at wedu.org/sbf.

Thanks for joining us for the Suncoast Business Forum.

[music]