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Like any farm kid, Kim Spencer learned from childhood to lend a helping hand wherever it was needed. “I was raised taking care of animals and the land on our farm,” she says. “I always knew that I wanted to be in a caretaking profession, whether as a veterinarian, a physician, or some other role.”
For Spencer, pharmacy proved to be the perfect fit. The field allowed her to combine her aptitude for chemistry with a passion for care that continues to drive her to this day. She keeps patients front and center in her current role as chief pharmacy officer at SSM Health—a Catholic health system with twenty-three hospitals across the Midwest—and, in her time outside of work, prioritizes giving back to her community.
“To me, fostering is just another part of healthcare because the mental and physical health of these children is so important. It’s an extension of my work as a pharmacist, and it also matches with our faith. We’re not changing the world, but hopefully we’re changing one life at a time.”
Kim Spencer
Although she had no doubt about her choice of career, Spencer admits that she took a circuitous path in her journey to SSM Health. “When I graduated from pharmacy school, I thought that I would never go back to hospital pharmacy,” she says. “I took a job at CVS because I thought that my future was in retail pharmacy. I quickly learned that was not the case, and within that first year, I was back to hospital full-time.”
Spencer has remained in hospitals ever since, but her responsibilities have varied widely. Amid holding operations manager and clinical coordinator positions, she returned multiple times to the role of clinical pharmacist, often to enable her to be closer to her family or to spend more time with her young children. Because of her own experiences, she now encourages aspiring pharmacists to throw the idea of a five-year plan out the window. “You don’t need to have all the answers,” she says. “It’s okay to want something for your life in the moment that is different from what you want for your life five or ten years down the line. Just do what you’re doing right now really well, and those next jobs will come.”
Spencer also advises against skipping steps to get to the top. “Don’t feel like you need to go straight from resident to manager,” she says. “You learn so much along the way—not just professional skills, but empathy, compassion and sympathy. You understand what your teams are going through on a daily basis because you’ve been there.”
Much of Spencer’s personal growth as a leader occurred at Advocate Health, the large system where she served as regional vice president of pharmacy services before joining SSM in 2021. Although she loved working at Advocate, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to build a pharmacy infrastructure—and a supportive team culture—from the ground up at her current employer.
“Culture is my highest priority. I want every person on my team to feel valued, respected, and inspired to help each other in their day-to-day roles. If everybody feels that way, we’re going to provide truly excellent care.”
Kim Spencer
“I was the first person in this role for SSM Health,” Spencer explains. “SSM Health has a strong pharmacy history, but before I got here, the teams were either ministry-based or regional-based—and, in some cases, a mix of both. I set out to bring all the teams together into one system team and then create the organizational clarity around that.”
Spencer developed an understanding of the existing individual teams to ensure that they would come together in such a way as to meet SSM Health’s unique pharmacy needs. With the full support of senior leadership, not to mention on-the-ground assistance from her six system pharmacy leaders, she standardized key aspects of systemwide pharmacy operations while leaving site-specific workflows in the hands of frontline teams.
Jerame Hill, managing partner at Visante Consulting, emphasizes how Spencer’s leadership creates notable outcomes. “We are proud to partner with Kim in her focus to provide excellent patient care through a high-performing pharmacy organization,” he says. “Kim’s leadership, innovative approach, and positive culture has positioned SSM for long-term success. It’s exciting to be part of their growth and results.”
And among their many achievements over the past few years, Spencer and her team have established an antimicrobial stewardship program, championed the principles of high reliability within SSM Health, and embarked on a complex initiative to monitor and manage the entire patient lifecycle as it relates to pharmacy. In each endeavor, Spencer has maintained a clear focus on patient care. That focus likewise informs her approach to leadership, which sees her engage with her team from a place of transparency, vulnerability, and curiosity.
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“Culture is my highest priority,” she says. “I want every person on my team to feel valued, respected, and inspired to help each other in their day-to-day roles. If everybody feels that way, we’re going to provide truly excellent care.”
Spencer carries her efforts to help others into the community as well. In addition to providing short-term care through the organization Safe Families, she and her husband, a theologian, became licensed foster parents to support local children in need. This service, like her career in pharmacy, is about doing what she can to make a difference.
“To me, fostering is just another part of healthcare because the mental and physical health of these children is so important. It’s an extension of my work as a pharmacist, and it also matches with our faith,” says Spencer. “We’re not changing the world, but hopefully we’re changing one life at a time.”
BD is proud to partner with innovative healthcare executives like Dr. Kim Spencer and her exemplary team at SSM Health. Spencer is a shining patient safety advocate that utilizes technology to help make healthcare safer, simpler and smarter. Spencer and her team serve on the BD Strategic Advisory Board for Medication Management, partnering with other health systems on BD’s journey to reinvent medication management across the continuum of care. BD (NYSE:BDX) is one of the largest global medical technology companies and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics, and the delivery of care. bd.com
Lumicera Health Services congratulates Kim Spencer for being a leader in healthcare pharmacy and one of our executive sponsors for our health system specialty pharmacy division with SSM Health. In our partnerships, we provide real-world operational and clinical excellence to help grow health system specialty pharmacies. With our portfolio of nationwide services, we can provide technology solutions, accreditation, operational and contractual support, and highly rated clinical expertise to accelerate a program through development or expansion of specialty pharmacy services and business opportunities.
Visante is a specialized consulting firm focused on helping health systems accelerate strong financial and operational performance through pharmacy. Our team of professionals brings deep, contemporary expertise and innovation to optimizing all aspects of a fully integrated health system pharmacy program, driving significant value quickly. We partner with clients to elevate their 340B compliance and optimization, specialty pharmacy and infusion services, pharmacy revenue cycle, consolidated pharmacy service centers, and more. By providing customized solutions to fit the needs of our clients, we deliver sustained financial results through revenue growth, cost savings, assured compliance, and optimal business performance.
