MHA Alum Brett Moorehouse (MHA '96) Finds Calling at SLU, Follows Pathways to Leadership and Success
Brett Moorehouse (MHA ‘96) is the Senior Vice President of Membership Services for the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) - a more than 100 year old not-for-profit member association which represents every acute care hospital in the state. The MHA also represents most of the federal and state hospitals and rehabilitation and psychiatric care facilities.
Since 2022 Moorehouse has been in his role at MHA to create an environment that enables member hospitals and health care systems to improve the health of their patients and communities.
Prior to his time at the Missouri Hospital Association, Moorehouse served as COO, President and CEO in various capacities for 16 years at the Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital. In all, he has spent 35 years in strategic planning and business development at various health systems.
A quick pivot, followed by an internship at a hospital led Moorehouse to find the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice where he eventually made lifelong connections including a future boss, friends, and his wife.
To get to this point in his career, Moorehouse has made tough decisions at various vital checkpoints. While at a crossroads for future interest, encouragement from his father near the end of his time as an undergrad helped him find healthcare administration.
“You have to love what you do and if you don’t you are going to be miserable,” he said.
Moorehouse has been an advocate for volunteering to try new things and finding honest relationships with leaders that help identify talent while pursuing a field that you’re passionate about.
As the landscape of health administration, public health, and healthcare have evolved over time, Moorehouse stresses the greater need for collaboration. While competition between organizations and health systems persists, the call for team building and working well with peers has remained a constant need, he says.
“You have to have people that are smarter than you and who have different perspectives to succeed,” he said.
Moorehouse points out that for early careerists some challenges include understanding payment and reimbursement competencies, including being familiar with learning the direction that payment models are heading.
As the competencies have changed or evolved so has the workforce’s needs.
Moorehouse identifies that current early careerists in a post-pandemic and more technologically advanced world have new needs, and new pressures that leadership teams and health systems need to be aware of while making the workplace more attractive and attainable.
He lists desirable physical locations, importance of work/life balance, incentivizing value, and overall creating a work culture that people desire to belong to.
The healthcare industry continues to evolve for patients, administrators and early careerists in similar yet very different ways. Moorehouse points out that accessibility and electronic transferability of data have made positive strides in the right direction but in general the same access to service barriers exist for many.
Moorehouse envisions improvements being the connection of all electronic health records, a VA-like system that is all online, universal access to health insurance regardless of employment, and enhanced integration of artificial intelligence.
College for Public Health and Social Justice
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities. It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the college offers nationally recognized programs in public health and health administration.