Gerard Colman

Dr Gerard Colman
Chief Executive Officer
Baptist Health

Gerard Colman, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of Baptist Health, the largest healthcare system in Kentucky. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Baptist Health has more than 24,000 employees, 10 hospitals, an extensive provider network of over 1700 employed providers, and over 360 points of care across Kentucky, southern Illinois, northern Tennessee, and southern Indiana. Dr. Colman joined Baptist Health in 2017 and brings more than 30 years of healthcare leadership experience spanning operations, finance, information technology, and physician engagement.

Before joining Baptist Health, Dr. Colman served as Chief Operating Officer of Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin’s largest private employer, where he led the development of clinical service lines and expanded outpatient centers to improve access to care. Before Aurora, he spent a decade at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, rising to Senior Vice President and Chief of Clinical Operations for the three-campus cancer care and research institution.

Dr. Colman began his career as a U.S. Navy corpsman. He holds a doctorate in healthcare management and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in healthcare administration. A frequent speaker and published author, he also serves on numerous healthcare, business, and civic boards.

Presentation Synopsis
HM 6 - Healthcare Systematization

Healthcare systematization is the deliberate design and alignment of clinical, operational, and administrative processes across a health system to reduce variation, improve quality and safety, and enable consistent performance at scale. As health systems grow in size and complexity, systematization becomes essential to ensuring that patients receive reliable, high‑quality care regardless of where they enter the system.At its foundation, systematization focuses on standardizing best practices while respecting local context. Systematization also strengthens safety, quality, and patient experience by reducing unwanted variation—one of the primary drivers of harm, inefficiency, and inconsistent outcomes in healthcare. Through shared metrics, defined performance expectations, and structured improvement methodologies, leadership can focus effort on priority areas that require urgent and sustained improvement, while ensuring accountability across the enterprise.From an organizational perspective, healthcare systematization enables enterprise‑level alignment and scalability. Common processes, standardized workflows, and shared infrastructure support financial stewardship, workforce effectiveness, and regulatory compliance, while allowing care delivery teams to focus on patients rather than reinventing processes at each site. This approach is particularly critical as health systems expand outpatient and digital care models across multiple settings and communities. We are seeing more and more consolidation in health care, so it is more important then ever to understand why systematization is important, and how to implement it across a variety of community settings.Successful systematization creates a unified operating framework that promotes quality, safety, and efficiency. By centralizing some functions such as lab, laundry, pharmacy, telehealth, facility management, and others, the health care system can provide a unified experience and improve efficiency for the patient as well as the provider. When done well, healthcare systematization advances the organization’s mission, improves patient outcomes, and positions the health system to thrive in an increasingly complex and resource‑constrained environment.

HM 23 - Building a Successful Ambulatory Care Network

A successful ambulatory care network is a strategically integrated system of outpatient services designed to improve access, quality, and affordability while supporting the organization’s long‑term financial sustainability. As care continues to shift away from acute inpatient settings, ambulatory networks have become central to a successful patient care model, payer strategy, and patient experience. At its core, an effective ambulatory care network is patient‑centered and access‑driven—providing convenient, timely, and coordinated care across primary, specialty, diagnostic, procedural, and post‑acute services. To maintain consistent quality and patient satisfaction across all sites of care, you must implement standardized clinical protocols, reliable scheduling and staffing models, and clear scopes of care at each site.Success also depends on strong clinical and operational integration. Ambulatory services must be seamlessly connected to hospitals, care management, home health, and specialty follow‑up, with defined referral pathways that ensure an efficient and safe patient experience. Shared performance metrics across all sites enable ongoing performance management and encourage continuous improvement.From a financial and strategic standpoint, ambulatory networks improve payer alignment and managed care optimization. Expanded ambulatory access supports network loyalty, strengthens negotiating positions with payers, and enables care to be delivered in lower‑cost settings while maintaining clinical outcomes. Ambulatory care has become essential to managing risk, utilization, and outcomes across the continuum of care. It is critical that ambulatory growth align with an organization’s mission, quality standards, and community needs. When designed thoughtfully, an ambulatory care network not only supports clinical excellence and patient satisfaction but also positions the health system for long‑term resilience in an increasingly outpatient‑focused healthcare environment. 

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