Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare: One Health System’s Journey to Systemness

In response to growing challenges in health care, such as regulatory changes, financial pressure, and physician and workforce shortages, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) has embraced “systemness,” a concept emphasizing coordinated, unified operations with a shared focus on high quality and efficiency, to ensure sustainability. Drawing from foundational theories in systems thinking, MLH applies a systemness mindset to improve care quality, operational efficiency, and patient experience across its six hospitals and dozens of physician practices and outpatient services. MLH’s strategic initiatives have included chartering a Systems Operational Improvement Team (SOIT) to achieve $73 million in savings in its first year, and the Methodist Associate Advancement Program (MAAP) to support workforce development. To actualize a branded commitment to enterprise-wide excellence, MLH implemented a transformational change in its accountability framework to boost Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) star ratings with the Organizational Performance Tracker (OPT), an innovative dashboard aligning more than 90 performance goals to national benchmarks. Technology integration has been central to MLH’s systemness journey with a transition to unified Epic electronic health record (EHR) and Workday platforms to streamline operations and enhance care coordination. The interprofessional care model supports important collaboration across disciplines and facilities to ensure consistent patient-centered care. Key to the systemness strategy is a balance between standardization with local innovation, recognizing unique needs of diverse patient populations. Programs like the Power of One Idea and Performance Excellence Award have encouraged staff-driven improvements to realize measurable gains. For MLH, systemness is an ongoing journey to deliver the exceptional care each patient deserves.