Dedication. Collaboration. Inspiration.
Health care systems as large as SSM Health typically encounter a paradox that forces them to compromise connection and cohesion for expansion. For many health systems, expansion creates more complexities and inconsistency. At SSM Health, however, we’ve grown our healing ministry through a unified culture grounded in mission, collaboration, and thoughtful innovation.
Across SSM Health’s four-state footprint, physicians describe a practice environment that feels intentionally connected — where teams collaborate seamlessly, referrals move efficiently, and advanced care is both faithful and academic.
Collaboration that strengthens care.
At SSM Health, great medicine begins collaboration. Our multidisciplinary, team-based approach creates the foundation of our practice model. Physicians across our network cite the ease of collaboration across specialties and facilities as highlights to their practice.
“It makes it fun when you have a multidisciplinary team that knows how to take care of the patient the best way possible,” says Dr. Erica Ibendahl, a bariatric surgeon at SSM Health in Southern Illinois.
That shared commitment to collaborative care extends across facilities and regions. From rural clinics to metropolitan hospitals, SSM Health clinicians experience a consistent culture that prioritizes communication and partnership.
Dr. Alejandro Murillo, a cardiothoracic surgeon at SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, explains, “We have a comprehensive group of physicians where we work together frequently to treat patients in a multidisciplinary fashion.”
This collaboration enhances the clinical excellence and professional fulfillment our physicians’ experience. The collegiality of our medical teams allows clinicians to seek input, share expertise, and collectively problem-solve in pursuit of better patient outcomes.
A network designed to work together.
The culture of collaboration stretches from our clinics and medical groups to throughout our entire referral network. SSM Health’s infrastructure is designed to promote seamless access to specialists, diagnostics, and advanced services — enabling coordinated and timely care.
“When you make a referral, someone is checking those referrals daily,” says Dr. Kibwei McKinney, Otolaryngology with SSM Health Medical Group in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “That continuity helps ensure patients never feel lost in the process.”
This connectivity is particularly valuable for physicians practicing in rural settings. Even as our system expands into more remote communities, the connection to the systemwide resources, programs, and clinical expertise of peers remains intact. As Dr. Sharilyn Munneke, a family medicine physician with SSM Health Dean Medical Group in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, explains it, “I can contact one of my specialty colleagues, I can contact their nurse, I can talk to someone in the lab or in radiology. And we are all going to work together to give our patients the best experience.”
The connectivity of our system and clinicians creates a unified experience that feels cohesive, collaborative, and unique. “We really are functioning as a team model.” explains Dr. Munneke. “That’s not how it’s always been in medicine.”
Where mission and medicine meet.
For many clinicians, what ultimately distinguishes SSM Health is the commitment to its faith-based mission alongside its focus on progressing medicine through clinical innovation and academic medicine. Physicians are enamored with the transparency of our culture — knowing that we stand behind our mission and use it as our beacon for how we make decisions, build patient relationships, and pursue growth.
Reflecting on his decision to join SSM Health, Dr. Bob Pendleton, the Chief Clinical Officer for SSM Health St. Louis and Southern Illinois, shares, “The more I learned and understood about the really rich history of SSM Health, and the Mission and the vision, it was an easy sale. It was sort of putting together all the pieces that I believe are good about health care.”
Our mission-driven care is reinforced with a focus on pioneering progress and innovation through academic pursuits. “We have Saint Louis University School of Medicine and SLUCare, which really brings resources that you otherwise would not have had if you did not have an academic part to the organization,” says Dr. Kalyan Katakam, Vice President of Medical Practice for SSM Health Medical Group in St. Louis, Missouri.
The blend of community-focused care, academic medicine, and a faith-based mission creates a distinctive practice culture. As Dr. Erick Messias, Psychiatrist at SLUCare Physician Group in St. Louis, Missouri, describes it, “We have a very strong academic medical group working side by side with a very strong community-based medical group. We are putting it together in a way that very few health care systems are doing across the nation.”
Practicing with presence.
At SSM Health, the scale of the organization is not the defining characteristic; it’s the might of our collective purpose. Even as we continue to grow, our commitment remains unchanged: to create a practice environment where physicians can thrive professionally, practice faithfully, and pioneer advancements in medicine so that every patient in every community we serve can experience God’s healing presence through our exceptional care.
If you’re ready to practice within a system where your expertise is supported and your purpose is amplified, SSM Health is the place.
Join the SSM Health team.
Together — We Care.
