Get to Know Taylor Warwick, COO of Mercy Springfield Communities

When Taylor Warwick stepped into the role of Chief Operating Officer at Mercy Springfield Communities, she embraced a fresh challenge in a new city, one that felt surprisingly bigger than it seemed. Coming from Kansas City, where she spent the last 15 years honing her leadership skills in health care operations, Warwick was intrigued by Springfield’s expansive health care footprint. “Mercy serves a community nearly as big as St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City when you look at things like bed size and revenue,” she says. “It’s a fascinating paradox.”

Warwick’s path to leadership began in strategic planning at St. Luke’s. In conjunction with developing business plans, she helped launch—and later, expand—numerous multi-specialty clinics across Kansas City, an endeavor she calls her proudest professional accomplishment. That experience led her to become vice president, overseeing everything from imaging clinics to surgery centers before moving into hospital operations. She served as VP of operations for two Kansas City hospitals and then COO before moving to Mercy. While her new role is similar, it has a slightly different scope, merging her expertise in hospital and clinic operations and broadening her impact across the entire healthcare continuum.