As St. Louis-based Ascension continues to build upon its $2.6 billion financial turnaround, system executive vice president and CFO Saurabh Tripathi is thinking beyond the balance sheet.
“Find your purpose,” Mr. Tripathi said during a Becker’s “CFO+Revenue Cycle Podcast” episode. “If you engage in a purposeful vocation, your job doesn’t remain a job. It becomes something that you are waking up every day and living the dream, you are following the passion.”
Mr. Tripathi has been in healthcare for 25 years and joined Ascension more than two and a half years ago. He said a sense of purpose changes the entire calculus of a career, and added it is advice he has also shared with his children.
“At that point, you are not chasing a title, you are not chasing an office, you are not chasing a certain amount of compensation,” he said. “You are chasing a dream, and it becomes a passion.”
The advice comes after Mr. Tripathi broke down Ascension’s strong fiscal third-quarter results, which included a $262 million improvement in operating income driven by higher volumes, favorable commercial mix shifts and operational gains in contract labor and supply costs.
Ascension has also reduced its portfolio from 139 hospitals to roughly 90 fully owned facilities and 29 joint venture hospitals.
“In the last two and a half years, we have seen almost $2.6 billion of financial turnaround, and this last quarter wasn’t any surprise either,” Mr. Tripathi said on the podcast. “We saw a $426 million improvement in our net income, almost a 218% year-over-year improvement. This is frankly driven by consistent operational improvement to all our operating metrics, as well as mission-focused clinical care that our clinicians offer to our patients every single day.”
For healthcare finance leaders just entering the industry, Mr. Tripathi’s message was simple: “Follow your passion, find your purpose and you’ll be very successful.”
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