Learning from homelessness to make changes for communities

By David Fleet
View Newspaper Group
Lorenzo Suter is on a mission.
“When you come from homelessness you have a sense of urgency,” said Suter, who was recently named president and CEO of McLaren Oakland, the Pontiac-based hospital with care locations throughout Oakland County. Suter assumes the role, replacing president and CEO Tracey Franovich, who transitioned to the same position at McLaren Macomb.
“I’m now serving the patients that have afforded me a job to do,” he said. “They have a sense of urgency for me to execute because they deserve it.”
Suter’s roots were established growing up homeless with his single parent mother just outside Lexington, Ky., decades ago.
“It was a very challenged community,” he said. “The area was full of alcoholism, drugs, so my mother made a choice to pull me out of that community. The choice was to become homeless, and it was one of the most creative and ingenious decisions I’ve ever witnessed in my career. It was a better suited environment for me as a teen. It allowed me not to do drugs or become an alcoholic what my peers were doing between the ages of 10 and 13 years old.”
The family moved and lived under a bridge, he said.
“Mom also worked three jobs, still we could not make ends meet,” he said.
The family eventually moved into a home thanks to Habitat for Humanity, an organization that Suter continues to support and for the past 25 years continues to serve on the board of directors.
“Now I get to give people houses,” he said. “Through those early experiences I found out you’re not a product of your environment, rather a product of your expectations. As a result, I started to expect more.”
During those early years growing up, Suter encountered a local pastor that instilled a keen insight growing his faith to serve Jesus and a local Rotarian who provided business mentoring along with instilling growth that nurtured a strong community-minded individual. The two mentors catapulted his professional and personal life to high levels, building the foundation for public service.
While Suter studied to be a Certified Nursing Assistant while attending Western Kentucky University he cared for a paraplegic on the weekends and worked at a daycare center to fund his education.
“All this led me to serving others above self,” he said.
His pathway in his college years was a Bachelor of Science Nursing to Nurse Practitioner to medical school and eventually a doctor.
“But dreams change,” he said.
Upon graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science, Nursing degree from Western Kentucky University, Suter continued his education with a Master of Health Administration and Doctor of Healthcare Administration from Vanderbilt University/University of Phoenix.
Due to Suter’s strong writing ability, he was introduced to the CEO of a Bowling Green, Ky. area hospital. The CEO provided Suter new insight regarding the role of administration in making changes for communities.
“In my communities growing up we did not have wellness visits, diabetes checks or pre-screenings, things to help longevity in life,” he said. “The CEO explained he could make a decision to bring effective changes to these communities, as a result I changed my education direction to Master of Health Administration.”
Suter’s career on the health care administration path has since included jobs in Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas, before landing in Michigan.
“Today, I have the influence to bring things to the community,” he said. “When you’re a clinician you’re serving that one patient, but in my seat here at McLaren I can serve 10,000 people by bringing a new program. I could serve all Oakland County by bringing a facility like the new McLaren Oxford-Oakland site to the community. That’s having a huge impact on people.”
The 54,000-square-foot McLaren-Oxford campus, located at 385 N. Lapeer Rd., which opened earlier this year, offers a highly-trained emergency and trauma staff, oncology clinic with a pharmacy, and a multi-specialty clinic. In addition, the Oxford facility has a wide range of services including advanced diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, cardiac rehab, primary care, occupational health and an outpatient medical lab
“In Oxford it’s about user accessibility,” he said.
Suter emphasized that the Oxford site provides close proximity to the community and creates high quality continual care. Similarly, the cancer program keeps patients from having to drive long distances to sites outside the area.
“It’s a robust facility,” he said.
While the McLaren Oxford facility offers the framework for exceptional healthcare locally, Suter has established other goals for Oakland County, including an ambulatory footprint, providing surgical procedures, and local specialists including cardiovascular, orthopedics and dermatology to name a few.
“It’s a challenge to make that long trip for medical care,” he said. “And finally, we need to bring holistic care to the community. It’s kind of an irony for me to keep people out of the hospital, but that’s the goal. Make it a healthy community.”
While Suter’s goals for McLaren Oakland are grounded in the community, he remains challenged by the pace in which things get done.
“I’m blessed with today, and given the fact my tomorrow is not promised, I go at a fast pace,” he said. “The patient comes first, it cascades down to decisions.”