Kate Becker
President SSM St. Mary’s Health Center
Service-Line Director SSM Heart Institute
As President of SSM St. Mary's Health Center and Director of SSM Heart Institute, Kate Becker, MPH, JD, is responsible for continuing to improve quality, safety and the growth of exceptional services at SSM St. Mary’s; deepening alignment and relationships with physicians; and strengthening patient, physician and employee satisfaction.
Becker joined SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in 2011 from Saint Louis University where she served as the Chief Executive Officer for SLUCare, the University’s multispecialty medical practice with more than 380 faculty physicians and 800 staff members in multiple inpatient and ambulatory locations. She has extensive experience in operations, program development, and strategic planning. Becker has also served as Associate General Counsel for the University and has held key positions in a variety of law firms.
Becker holds a master’s degree in public health and health policy from Saint Louis University, a JD degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law, and a bachelor of arts degree in English from Saint Louis University.
Patti Kelley
Executive Director of Nursing / Chief Nursing Officer SSM St. Mary’s Health Center
As Executive Director of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Patti Kelley, MSN, RN, oversees patient care at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center. Since 2007, Kelley has earned accolades for clinical excellence, including the 2010 and 2008 Premier Award for Quality and the 2011, 2010 and 2009 HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence. During the last three years at SSM St. Mary’s, Kelley has eliminated the use of contracted nursing staff and decreased overtime to < 2 % which contributed to a $13 million turnaround in the bottom line.
Kelley’s background includes extensive experience in emergency and critical-care services, nursing operations and health care administration. As a champion for quality nursing leadership and continuing education, Kelley’s commitment has boosted employee and patient satisfaction results as well as improving physician/nursing and interdepartmental relationships throughout the hospital.
Kelley holds Bachelor and Master of Science Nursing degrees from Webster University in St. Louis, Mo. She has been married for 32 years and has two children – one lives in Indiana and the other is currently a Junior at MIZZOU.
Stephen J. Kelly, MD
Vice President of Medical Affairs / Chief Medical Officer
SSM St. Mary’s Health Center
As vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, Stephen Kelly, MD, oversees a medical staff of more than 800 physicians. In addition to serving as assistant clinical professor of medicine at Saint Louis University, Dr. Kelly is also the medical director of St. Mary’s pulmonary rehabilitation program.
Since joining the SSM St. Mary’s medical staff in 1987, Dr. Kelly has served as director of internal medicine, medical director of case management/utilization review, physician champion of the electronic health record implementation, and director of inpatient resident education.
Dr. Kelly completed medical school at the University of Missouri at Kansas City where he also earned Bachelors of Biology and Chemistry degrees with distinction. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then completed a fellowship in pulmonary medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Dr. Kelly later earned a Masters of Business Administration degree with honors at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.