"Nurses Can Do Anything"

Susan Fox, MBA, (BS ’84) is the President of White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y. and one of the few women presidents of an acute care hospital. She was hired in 2010 as the senior vice president of administration.

She has more than 25 years of experience in health management administration, including 14 years as a senior vice president of physician and ambulatory network services as North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. Prior to that, she was a Senior Manager of Health Care Consulting at Ernst and Young.

Q. Women now make up 19 percent of all hospital chief executive officers in the United States according to the American Hospital Association. How did your nursing education at Columbia and your nursing experience equip you with the leadership skills to become a senior executive?  

I can’t believe that it has been almost 30 years since I graduated from the program!  What stands out the most is how we were trained and encouraged to be leaders.  We were instilled with an intense sense of professionalism, autonomy and advocacy, rooted in the understanding that the team matters.  When I left nursing to pursue a career with a different angle on healthcare, the lessons I learned at Columbia stayed with me.

Q: Right after graduation, you worked as a nurse in pediatric intensive care at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. What was that experience like and how did your education at Columbia prepare for this experience?

I loved being a nurse working in the pediatric ICU. I enjoyed being an advocate for my patients, providing them with good care, and making sure the right things happened. My education provided me with good clinical skills and the comprehensiveness of the courses helped me to think about the whole person I was treating, not just care I was providing at that moment. I have very vivid memories of working with some of the first babies born with AIDS back then. In my office I still have a picture of one little girl—Gladys—sleeping on my shoulder.

Q. With the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, (ACA) the healthcare industry is changing rapidly. How will the role of nurses change?

The essence of the Affordable Care Act is to decrease the cost of health care while maintaining and improving quality of care.  Nurses are special people.  They are trained to be all things to all people when necessary, and are truly the “air traffic controllers” ensuring that the right care is being provided to the patient.  Increasing the role of nurses to provide higher levels of care as the Affordable Care Act takes shape will come easily to them.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue a nursing degree? What made you choose Columbia?

I was 18 years old and the first in my family to attend college, but I have to admit that the decision to pursue a nursing career did not come easily to me.  My mother never got to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse which was very instrumental in my decision. My choice of Columbia requires no explanation — Columbia University and the School of Nursing represent excellence. 

Q. Among the initiatives you led was spearheading a strategic plan to make White Plains Hospital a premier community hospital including the creation of White Plains Hospital Physician Associates. Full-service hospitals are vital to meeting the health care needs of the communities they serve by providing a wide range of acute care and diagnostic services. What other community services do you think are vital in this changing healthcare landscape to promote the health and well-being of the community?

The changing health care environment encourages close working relationships with health care providers working across the continuum of care which translates to care being provided in the right place at the right time to ensure cost effectiveness and quality. Working with the physician community, long term care, home care and other providers in a collaborative and coordinated way is essential to meeting these goals.

Q: One of the recommendations in The Institute of Medicine’s landmark 2010 report “The Future of Nursing” is for nurses to lead efforts with physicians and others to improve practice environments and health systems. What advice do you have for nurses and future nurses on collaborating with their fellow healthcare professionals?

As President of White Plains Hospital, a community hospital without a teaching program, I have seen what our nurses are capable of.  We were just named a Magnet hospital and are known by our patients and doctors as having “the best nurses”.  Our nurses are everything that I was trained to be; professional, proactive, team players and yes, leaders.  My ongoing message to our nurses is that “nurses can do anything."  So many others in my MBA class were nurses.  Nurses have pursued law degrees, advanced practice, administrative roles, and so much more.  I truly believe that my education, training and experience as a nurse has enabled my success today.  And of course, my mother—whose wisdom and guidance steered me to become a nurse in the first place.