MARSHFIELD – Marshfield Clinic Health System today announced that Susan Turney, MD, MS, FACP, FACMPE, is stepping down as CEO in September 2023.
Turney became the organization’s first CEO in September 2014 and has guided it through unprecedented growth and expansion while serving as an industry leader advocating for rural health care. Turney will continue to lead the Health System as it progresses through the proposed merger with Essentia Health announced in October. The two health systems anticipate reaching a definitive agreement in the coming months.
“I thank Dr. Turney for the passion and commitment she shows to the Health System,” said Mark Bugher, chair of the Marshfield Clinic Health System board of directors. “Her leadership has transformed the organization into one of the leading rural health care systems in the country, expanding access to care for patients and communities throughout rural Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s truly an honor to work side-by-side with her and seeing firsthand the dedication she shows this organization.”
A Wisconsin native, Turney completed her internal medicine residency at Marshfield Clinic and then served for 22 years in clinical practice and administrative roles there. She then went on to serve as CEO and Executive Vice President of the Wisconsin Medical Society. Among the Society’s accomplishments under her leadership was the founding of the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network, created to improve individual and community health, promote patient-centered healthcare, and advance the use of information technology to improve healthcare quality and efficiency.
Later she was President and CEO of Medical Group Management Association/American College of Medical Practice Executives (MGMA-ACMPE) a national membership association for professional administrators and leaders of medical group practices whose members work in organizations that deliver 40 percent of healthcare services in the United States.
In the meantime, Marshfield Clinic transformed into a true integrated health system combining a large and highly-specialized provider group, a growing network of hospitals, an internationally-renowned research institute, and an award winning health plan. Needing a leader to oversee the newly named Marshfield Clinic Health System, the opportunity to become CEO represented a return home for Turney.
In an ever competitive and changing business, the Health System now operates 11 hospitals and 65 clinical locations in 45 communities, supported by more than 13,000 employees and 1,600 care providers.
“My time as CEO here has been the greatest professional experience of my life, and I am deeply proud of what we have achieved together,” Turney said. “Rural health care was in crisis long before COVID-19, and the pandemic deepened those challenges and created new ones. Despite those hurdles, through the last decade we have grown, executed our strategy, cared for our communities and stayed true to our values.”
While much has changed over the past decade, she appreciates what has remained constant– providing world-class rural health care.
“Our workforce has more than doubled, we’ve brought hospital care to nearly a dozen communities, we’ve expanded into Michigan and battled through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” Turney said. “In the process, we have fundamentally transformed our approach to caring for patients and communities.”
Turney is recognized as a national thought leader on health care, serving on committees for the National Quality Forum and the American Medical Association and fulfilled appointments by the Wisconsin governor and the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. She’s been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of Top 25 Women Leaders in 2021 and Top 25 Women Leaders Luminary Award in 2022, on its list of 50 Most Influential Physician/Clinical Executives from 2012-2016, 2018-2022, and on its list of 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare in 2012-2014, and 2019.
