Scott Wooten, former CFO at both Baptist Health and AdventHealth, has big plans for financial success in his new role.
Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States, recently tapped Scott Wooten, FACHE, MBA, as its CFO following a comprehensive national search process, but the financial landscape he is stepping into won’t be without its hurdles.
As we know, rural health systems like Sanford face a unique set of financial challenges that make serving the small communities in which they operate more difficult than their larger counterparts.
But, Wooten told me on the third day in his new role, between building relationships with his new team and placing a focus on its investments and long-term success and stewardship, he is confident in Sanford’s financial future.
“Sanford Health is an incredible organization,” Wooten said. “It has a strong team, and my job is to support the team in implementing the current plans that are already in place first and foremost,” he says.
From there, Wooten says he plans to begin to look more long-term and examine how Sanford will grow and invest.
Pictured: Scott Wooten, CFO of Stanford Health. Photo courtesy of Sanford Health.
"For example, right now we're investing huge in automation and AI to streamline how we do our work. We're also making investments in the future models of care," he says. "This includes a very large investment in virtual care to ensure that we can continue to provide access to world class healthcare in rural areas."
On top of this, Sanford is also looking at growing in the ambulatory and outpatient space.
In addition, Sanford will be making investments in growing its workforce—specifically in its graduate medical education (GME) program. “We will be adding 15 new programs to make it a total of 27 GME programs by 2027. Then, we'll have over 300 fellows and residents coming out of those programs,” Wooten says.
What comes hand-in-hand with investments, though, is capital.
Luckily for Sanford, Wooten, a seasoned finance leader with deep experience in the nonprofit healthcare sector, previously served as CFO at Florida-based Baptist Health for eight years. Wooten also held executive finance roles with Alegent Creighton Health in Nebraska, AdventHealth Central Florida, and AdventHealth North Texas.
The financial expertise he gained in those roles will help to foster the financial success of his new organization.
“What I’ve learned is every market is different, and every culture is different, so what we're going to focus on is long-term success and long-term stewardship here at Sanford,” Wooten says. “And to do that, a person needs to focus on what their balance sheet will look like in the future and then strategize on how to get there from a strength perspective.”
“In addition, that long-term stewardship sometimes creates different conversations, and Sanford has tremendous forward-looking structures in place. We're just going to align those a little bit and have some additional conversations about where we want to be in the future, both physically as well as from a balance sheet perspective,” Wooten says.
Amanda Norris is the Director of Content for HealthLeaders.