Suntha takes on statewide focus with move to UMMS

When Mohan Suntha takes over as president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System Dec. 1, he will be moving from a role focused mostly on Baltimore to one with a statewide mission.

Suntha’s mission will be to take what he has learned from the University of Maryland Medical Center and turn it outward toward a system that encompasses 13 hospitals, more than $4 billion in revenue and 28,000 employees. The system provides about 25% of the state’s health care, according to the system.

“I think there is continued work effort for me, personally, to understand the needs and the challenges of all the local communities that we serve,” he said. “I would say that’s highest on my priority list, is to engage with local leaders, local boards, local workforces to understand where we have similarities in health care delivery solutions, whether it be Harford County, (the) Eastern Shore, Charles County, Prince George’s County, or west Baltimore and where we have unique circumstances, that have to be considered locally.”

Suntha, an oncologist who plans to continue practicing medicine, brings a physician’s mindset to a role that has not always been filled by a health care provider. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration.

Suntha joined the system as a resident in 1991 and joined the faculty four years later. In addition to the medical center, he led University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. 

It is his experience turning around that hospital that Suntha points to as an example of the leadership he can provide at a system where the job he enters now opened because of scandal. His predecessor, Robert A. Chrencik, resigned from the system amid the fallout of the “Healthy Holly” scandal that also led to the reform of the system’s board and the resignation of Baltimore’s mayor.

“When you think about some of the challenges that our organization has dealt with, and that I as a leader have helped steward the organization through, my hope is that what folks have seen is my demonstration as a leader who believes in our responsibility in terms of accountability, transparency and alignment with our stakeholders,” Suntha said.

Suntha hopes to build on the system’s strength as an academic medical center. The University of Maryland Medical Center works closely with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, but he thinks much of that relationship can be expanded throughout the entire system.

That plays into three areas, he said: delivering high-quality care, innovating and educating the workforce.

The system can help train physicians and other health care providers to serve the state’s urban, suburban and rural communities, Suntha said.

“We are right now working through health care organizations on the Eastern Shore on training programs that actually address primary care in physician shortage areas, (where) the education of these trainees would actually occur within the communities that we’re trying to attract them to,” he said. “That’s a very different way of thinking about it than training family medicine docs in west Baltimore and saying, ‘OK, now go down and practice on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.’”

Suntha will also find a familiar partner in moving from a Baltimore-focus to a statewide focus. The day after Suntha was announced as the next leader of the medical system, Jay Perman was announced as the leader of the University System of Maryland.

Perman has been the leader of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, which includes the School of Medicine.

“I think we’ve demonstrated in my role here and his role at UMB that we are formidable partners as we tackle some of the challenges that exist within our communities and we demonstrate institutional commitment to taking on some of these toughest challenges,” Suntha said.

Suntha has also set his sights beyond the system.

“There are great health systems and great health care entities that exist across our city and across our state and we, as the University of Maryland Medical System, have to be willing, and willing partners as we take on some of these challenges that exist in communities,” he said. “The truth is other health systems who have health care resources in other locations of the state are tackling some of the same challenges and so it would be silly for us to think about a solution and not share that with our colleagues, and vice versa.”