Robert "Bob" Porter, JD, MBA, PCC

Robert "Bob" Porter, JD, MBA, PCC is an accomplished organizational leader with over 30 years’ experience in health system leadership. Bob has extensive experience in working with senior leadership executives in complex organizational settings, with a proven track record for engaging diverse stakeholders in the redesign of organizational systems and processes to achieve breakthrough improvement in performance. His accumulated experience and expertise allows him to create enduring improvement in the quality of healthcare.

Bob’s career has been characterized by a deep commitment to exceptional performance through engagement of staff, physicians and community members in a collaborative process to design innovative solutions centered on the patient experience. He led the development of a “hospital of the future” project for SSM and the resulting facility which opened in 2009 has been widely recognized for its innovative design and impact on the patient experience, patient safety, and operating performance. In recognition of his work on patient experience and facility redesign, he was recognized as a “Master of Design” by Fast Company magazine.

Bob also led ACO development efforts for SSM St. Louis, pioneering the design of an integrated platform to navigate the journey from traditional payment to assumption of increasing levels of financial risk. Most recently, Bob has been in a leadership role with Healthways, a leader in well-being improvement and disease management. Bob’s transition to Healthways was driven by his desire to continue to work toward the badly needed transformation of the US healthcare system, improving care and reducing cost by focusing on improving well-being.

A frequent speaker and author on a variety of leadership topics in and out of healthcare, Bob has been an influential player in the movement toward population health management. He holds an MBA and JD from Stanford University, and his proudest achievement is having had the status of “lay affiliate” bestowed on him by the community of the Daughters of Charity in recognition of his work in Catholic healthcare and in the broader social ministry of that Vincentian order. Bob is accredited in coaching by the prestigious Hudson Institute of Coaching.

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