In late June, Dallas-based Medical City Healthcare named Lita Kapuscinski senior vice president of strategy and development.
Medical City Healthcare is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and operates 20 hospitals.
With more than 25 years of healthcare leadership experience under her belt, Ms. Kapuscinski will oversee strategic growth initiatives like physician partnerships and service line development.
Becker’s connected with Ms. Kapuscinski to discuss her new role, where she underscored purpose-driven leadership and strategic collaboration to help shape the future of care delivery across Medical City Healthcare.
Question: What are your top strategic priorities for driving growth and innovation across the system in your new role at Medical City Healthcare? How do you plan to achieve these goals?
Lita Kapuscinski: In my role as division senior vice president of strategy and development, my top strategic priorities are data-informed, patient-centered and grounded in Medical City Healthcare and HCA Healthcare’s mission to care for and improve human life.
- Driving service excellence: I aim to elevate our key service lines by aligning with our national best practices and enhancing care coordination across the continuum.
- Enhancing operational integration and efficiency: I am focused on aligning strategic growth with operational excellence by streamlining processes, optimizing resource utilization and ensuring seamless integration across our hospitals, outpatient centers and physician practices. This enables us to scale effectively while maintaining high standards of care and service.
- Strengthening strategic partnerships: Building and nurturing high-impact relationships with physicians, other health systems, employers and community organizations enable us to better understand local health needs, co-develop innovative care models and expand access to high-quality services across North Texas.
To achieve these goals, I am working closely with our hospital CEOs, physician leaders and community partners to ensure alignment and accountability.
Q: Given your extensive background in business development and service line expansion, how do you envision strengthening physician partnerships to meet evolving community health needs?
LK: Physicians are at the heart of everything we do. My goal is to enhance our environment where physicians feel valued, supported and empowered to lead the transformation of care in North Texas. Strengthening these partnerships requires a multi-faceted approach:
- Collaborative planning: I will be involving key stakeholders early in strategic planning and service line development processes to ensure alignment with clinical needs and community demand.
- Empowering physician-led innovation: I am committed to creating an environment where physicians are encouraged and supported to lead innovation in care delivery. By fostering collaboration, providing access to data and insights and streamlining pathways for clinical input, we enable physicians to shape programs and services that directly respond to patient and community needs.
- Building trust and transparency: Open communication, shared governance and aligned incentives are key to fostering long-term relationships.
Q: What leadership principles have guided you throughout your 25-year career? What advice would you offer to emerging healthcare leaders navigating today’s ever-changing environment?
LK: I have been incredibly fortunate throughout my career to work alongside and learn from some of the most inspiring leaders in healthcare. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that who you are as a person shapes how you lead. Integrity and empathy are leadership essentials.
Here are a few principles that have consistently guided me:
- Lead with purpose: Stay grounded in the mission. In healthcare, our work has a profound impact on people’s lives — never lose sight of that.
- Listen first, act strategically: Great leaders listen deeply — to patients, physicians, staff, and the community—before making decisions. Strategy must be informed by real-world insights.
- Embrace change and innovation: The healthcare landscape is constantly evolving. Leaders must be agile, open to innovative ideas, and willing to challenge the status quo to drive meaningful progress.
- Develop and empower others: Leadership is about lifting others up. Mentorship, mentorship, mentorship! Investing in people — through coaching, empowerment, and continuous learning, we build resilient, high-performing teams and organizations.
To emerging leaders, I would offer this: stay curious, stay humble and stay committed. Challenges are full of opportunity and if you lead with authenticity and purpose, you will make a difference that matters.
