Page 10 - Susan Taylor

There were several factors that weighed heavily in Susan's deci- pretty comforting in an unsettled economy. No wonder Scripps is
sion to change careers and embark on an entirely new profes- repeatedly recognized by Fortune Magazine, AARP and Working
sion. One was a critical health crisis with her father. Five years Mother Magazine as one of the top employers in the nation!"
ago Susan's Dad had open heart surgery at Scripps Memorial But how did Susan end up as Executive Director of External Affairs
Hospital in La Jolla. He needed to have his aortic valve replaced. for Scripps? "Over the years I'd run into Chris at different commu-
The surgery went well. The new valve was working perfectly. But nity events and I told him that I would always owe him and Scripps
there were complications stemming from her father's other health a debt of gratitude for saving my Dad's life. He would respond
issues. "With a history of Parkinson's disease along with his heart by telling me that if I ever got tired of the news business, I would
trouble, both sides of Dad's heart were not squeezing in sync. One always have a home at Scripps."
minute his blood pressure was through the roof, the next minute it
was dangerously low. And the doctors were not able to completely When it came time for Susan to renew her contract at NBC, she
close his chest..because when the surgeon knitted the bones back was offered a long term deal that would have lasted until her son
together, it put too much pressure on Dad's lungs and he started was out of High School. "I realized that the schedule I was keep-
crashing. So the heart surgeon left the chest open..a little half inch ing made me miss out on so much of our son's life. These were
gap. You couldn't see anything. It wasn't grotesque. It was covered precious moments I could not get back. I didn't want to have regrets
with a sterile bandage." Susan's Dad was in a medically induced down the road. So I called Chris and almost jokingly asked if he
coma for more than 2 months. Susan would go to CCU in the was serious about his offer. Turns out, he was. We met and began
morning before going to the studio and would stop in again on her to have a series of discussions which led to this new job. "
way home. "I would come back to the hospital at midnight, after
anchoring the 11pm news and to my amazement, his surgeon was It is obvious when you speak with Susan that she truly loves her job
still there. Dad's cardiologist stayed up many nights trying to find and is very proud to be a part of this well respected organization. In
the right combination of drugs to help strengthen the right side of addition to keeping the public apprised of new innovations in medi-
his heart, so it would squeeze in sync with the left side of his heart. cal care and treatment at Scripps, Susan is also involved in major
This was an incredibly challenging case and Scripps did everything gift fund raising. "Our reimbursements from the state and federal
right." At one point Susan wondered, a little cynically, if her dad government over the next ten years will be cut by more than 300
was getting this incredible care because she happened to be on million dollars, so raising money for Scripps is of major importance.
TV. She came to realize, after walking the halls of Scripps at all We have to work smarter, cut costs, embrace innovation and rely
hours of the day and night, that everyone who enters those doors on the generosity of others. We have extraordinary philanthropists
gets treated the same way, with a profound sensitivity to the patient who help us improve the quality of care and finance cutting-edge
and their families. "They let us bring in family pictures. They let us technology that our patients expect and deserve."
bring in Dad's I-Pod. I will forever have etched in my memory, the
sounds of all of his favorite classical music composers enveloping Scripps is on the cutting edge of health care innovation. Scripps
him, punctuated by the low beeping sounds of all those machines has partnered with Qualcomm to explore the marriage of health
he was hooked up to." Eventually her Dad stabilized after a very care and wireless technology. The Scripps Translational Science
10 innovative procedure that allowed the surgeon to close the half Institute is doing genomics testing on patients. Scripps new Proton
inch gap in the chest..using her Dad's chest muscles. The surgeon Therapy Center which opened last month, is one of only 15 centers
said he'd done this type of procedure only 2-3 times in his 30 plus in the country giving doctor's unprecedented precision in treating
year career. With this unwavering attention and medical innovation, cancerous tumors. And the new state-of-the-art Scripps Prebys
Susan's Dad came out of the coma and began a very long road to Cardiovascular Institute opens next year. Thanks to these innova-
recovery. "The staff at Scripps calls my Dad their Miracle Man. I tions lives are being saved every day. One of the latest "gadgets"
call them the Miracle Workers." Susan's Dad spent 5 months at recently approved by the FDA is an ultrasound that attaches to your
Scripps, reaching goals that they had only hoped he would attain. cell phone giving doctors an instant look at blood flow. These units
"Dad was on a feeding tube for 4 months. After he was given the cost about $8,000 and go anywhere your doctor goes. It does basi-
okay, to eat real solid food, his Voice and Swallowing Coach asked cally the same job as an echocardiogram machine which could cost
what he wanted for his first meal. He smiled and replied: 'Costco up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such innovation is bringing
hotdog!' No one asked her to, but she went to Costco and got it down the cost of health care. It's helping with early detection and
for him. Now that's 'patient care'! My dad had the will to live, but improving survival rates. Since we, as a society, are living longer,
Scripps showed him the way." such technology will allow more people to be treated outside the
traditional hospital setting, closer to where they live work and play,
Susan credits much of the policy at Scripps, of putting patients first, making more hospital beds available, for those patients who really
to their CEO, Chris Van Gorder. A former police officer, Van Gorder need them.
was severely injured very early on his career by a suspect fleeing
the scene of a domestic violence call. That suspect rammed into I asked Susan if she missed being a TV anchor. "Sometimes I
him with her car. Van Gorder was hospitalized for almost a year. miss the pure adrenalin rush of being on the air. But I don't miss
That moment in time changed his life. Because of the severity the murders, the rapes, and the car chases. The business has also
of his injuries, Van Gorder left the police force. He went back to changed since I got into television more than 30 years ago. Now, it
college to earn a Master's Degree in Hospital Administration. His appears to be more celebrity driven. At Scripps, I'm part of an orga-
unique perspective from having been a patient for so long, allowed nization that saves peoples' lives. That's a pretty exquisite environ-
him to view hospital care from the patient's point of view. Susan ment in which to work. Plus our family owes Scripps an incredible
adds, "Chris has told me that the day of his injury was both the debt of gratitude, that hopefully, I will spend the rest of my working
worst day of his life and the best, since it led to his new career and years trying to repay. As for Dad? He just celebrated his 85th birth-
his mantra at Scripps, to always put patients first. And I'm constant- day. We had a big party! No, he didn't have a hot dog. But he had
ly awestruck by the sense of family. We have nearly 14,000 em- an extra big helping of birthday cake!"
ployees at Scripps 5 hospitals and 26 Clinics. We look out for each
other as family. And we have a no layoffs philosophy at Scripps.
Chris says it's a failure of management if we have to lay people off.
So if a job is going away because of the big changes taking place
in healthcare, we send employees to the Scripps Career Resource
Center to be retrained for other jobs in the organization. That's