Success South Florida Magazine selected Suzanne Beauvoir as one of South Florida’s Top 25 Most Prominent and Successful Black Women in 2006. Beauvoir, Chief Operating Officer of Columbia Hospital part of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in West Palm Beach was both surprised and excited.
She was surprised because, having earned her B.S. in Community Health Planning from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana in 1997 and her Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1999, she is still comparatively new to her profession. But naturally she was genuinely excited.
“I was very honored to be mentioned as one of the top 25 women,” Beauvoir said, “because many of the other women honored have been in their chosen field for as long as I’ve been alive. I’m very humbled by it, because when I think of successful and influential black females in South Florida, I don’t necessarily think of myself; I think of other women in successful positions who have made an impact in their communities for many yearspeople I admire and see as a success. It is a great honor to know that I was viewed by others as successful and influential. I looked at the individuals who I was honored with and thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m being honored alongside a Congresswoman.’ Wow! There isn’t much more that you can say about that.”
True, but a lot more can be said about Beauvoir. A native of Chicago, she started her career with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. But while attending a conference of the American College of Health Care Executives, a friend introduced her to a recruiter for HCA.
Beauvoir explained, “(HCA) had an executive development program where they look for individuals who they could place in associated administrative roles in their hospitals. They train them to become senior leaders within their organization, initially COOs, and eventually CEOs.” HCA hired her in 2002 and she became an associate administrator at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center; was later promoted to Westside Regional Medical Center; and moved on to Columbia in early 2006.
Her responsibilities include managing the day-to-day operations and improvements for nine departments, working within a multi-million-dollar operating budget. Beauvoir described her position by saying, “My focus as a COO is on employees and operations, and making sure the work environment is one that is conducive for people to do their best work. I try to make sure they have the resources and equipment, so when they come to work all they have to worry about is the patient.”
Despite her surprise at being selected for the award, Beauvoir has thoughts on the subject: “I think, historically health care executive management positions have not been predominantly occupied by women of color. Over the past years, women have been able to rise above the glass ceiling and obtain levels they haven’t been able to before. As a result, we are starting to get recognition and are showing that we can perform at the same level or higher than our counterparts.”
Does receiving this award mean that Beauvoir has reached the top? Hardly. “(Being COO) is one goal in my career, but my career is just starting,” she said. “I don’t feel I have reached my maximum potential. I’m not sure my potential is unlimited, but I know that one day it would be nice to be CEO of a hospital. It would be an accomplishment to make significant contributions in the lives of my employees as well as those in my community.”
In fact, that’s her definition of a successful career: “I measure success by being able to look back at the work I’ve done in a specific organization or community to see if the improvements and decisions I made allowed that environment to be better for the long haul.”
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