A message from our CEO

Dear Providence family,

As we embark on 2025, I am excited to begin a new journey with you as president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health. Because of you, our vision — Health for a Better World — isn’t just a noble aim that we hope to accomplish “someday.” You bring it to life every day through sacred encounters with those we serve and your personal commitment to making the world a better, healthier place, one patient at a time.

A bit about my personal journey

I grew up in Aberdeen, N.J., attended public schools and graduated from the University of Hartford in Connecticut. My wife, Stephanie, and I have been married for 31 years, and we love our life together which includes our two rescue dogs (Tess and Joey) and a shared passion for hiking, cycling, exploring the country in our RV, and focusing on our health and well-being every day.

As I reflect on my own calling, I am struck by how life has a way of coming full circle. I was drawn to caring for people at a young age. As a nine-year-old, I vividly remember sitting at the hospital bedside of my dying grandfather. Terrified of losing someone who I loved so much, I will never forget the kindness and compassion my family and I felt from his entire care team. They treated us as if we were their own family, and it made a lifelong impression on me. Then, during college, I served as a hospital security officer and caught glimpses of families experiencing key moments in life, from birth to death and everything in between. It made me realize that health care is like no other in that it offers the privilege to walk alongside others in times of both joy and grief.

And then, 25 years ago, Providence Little Company of Mary saved my stepfather’s life. He suffered a massive heart attack while in California on business. When my mother and I flew urgently cross country to be with him, I was relieved and grateful for the compassionate lifesaving care he received. More than a decade later, I was called to join Providence as chief executive of the Southern California region. I believed it was a sign, and I jumped at the opportunity to serve the ministry that made such a difference in my family’s life.

Each of you likely has similar experiences that shape your call to serve and help people live their healthiest lives. In my new role, I will support you in achieving clinical excellence and delivering safe, high-quality compassionate care. Together, we will make Providence a destination for health care professionals, celebrating our diverse backgrounds and empowering everyone to excel — all while improving the health of every community we serve.

But it won’t be easy.

The path ahead

Providence, like other health systems, has been navigating massive challenges that affect access to care in our communities. This includes the national shortage of health care personnel; the rising cost of drugs and medical supplies; health inequities in all our communities; and inadequate reimbursement from payers that is simply not keeping pace with inflation.

The headwinds are significant, but they are not insurmountable. While we have made great progress to secure our long-term sustainability, we are not yet where we need to be. But together, we will ensure the upward trajectory continues in 2025 and beyond. How will we do this?

First, safe, high-quality compassionate care will remain our top priority. To ensure we are preserving resources for the front lines of care, we will continue to streamline our administrative costs and optimize our shared services to enhance support at the local level. All the while, we will remain committed to creating opportunities for career advancement from entry-level positions to skilled roles where caregivers can thrive.

Second, we believe we can best serve our communities by focusing on and expanding the services that Providence is best suited to provide. At the same time, we will collaborate with like-minded organizations that share our values and bring expertise and resources to help us fill gaps in the continuum of care and build additional capacity. Together, we will deliver an exceptional patient experience, providing most of the care people need close to home while offering seamless access to specialty and sub-specialty services when a higher level of care is needed.

Third, as a faith-based organization, we are called to support not just the physical health of patients, but their mental, emotional, social and spiritual health, as well. This includes working to remove the inequities that persist in health care to ensure every person can live their healthiest life. Our commitment to the whole person, especially those who are poor and vulnerable, will continue to be our compass on the journey ahead.

Fourth, it’s time for us to acknowledge that much of the technology we use in health care has not removed the crushing demands on our medical staff and caregivers. We will immediately leverage solutions that make the biggest difference for physicians and caregivers at Providence. This will help create more balance in our lives and more time for those who need us the most – our patients, co-workers and most importantly, our loved ones. There is great potential for artificial intelligence to better support clinical decision making, as well as the opportunity to make genomics and DNA sequencing available to every patient, so we can finally unlock the promise of precision medicine.

To that end, we will soon share more about a new Office of Transformation which will be a disciplined and focused effort to implement solutions that hold the most promise for improving the health of our patients while reducing the administrative workload that has been taxing our medical staff and caregivers. This office will leverage existing resources, not increase overhead, to focus even more energy on transforming the way care is delivered.

Faith and optimism

Though we will have our work cut out for us in the year ahead, your unfaltering dedication to our patients and communities fills me with faith and optimism for the future — faith in our pathway forward, faith in ourselves and one another, and faith in whatever inner spirit inspires each of us to contribute to a healthier world.

After spending the last eight years serving Providence, and the last five months visiting our ministries and hearing your feedback, encouragement and excitement about what is possible, I look forward to more time with you throughout the year and keeping you apprised of the changes and progress we are making in the coming weeks and months. What I have always felt in my encounters is that for each of us, every step of the way, the Mission guides us.

Thanks to each of you for serving as a beacon of hope and healing in our communities and to each other. Stephanie and I wish you and your loved ones a joyous and healthy New Year!

With faith and optimism,

Erik G. Wexler
President & CEO