“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
John C. Maxwell’s quote set the tone for one of the most relatable sessions at ESO Wave 2025. Led by Melissa “Missy” Sorensen, who oversees trauma registry management for CommonSpirit Health’s Mountain Region (Colorado, Kansas, Utah), Missy brought heart, strategy, and clarity to a topic that resonates across every health system: how do you lead teams through change and come out stronger?
A Journey of Change — And Opportunity
The Mountain Region trauma registry team has navigated a lot of change in just a few years:
- In 2019, Centura created a centralized registry while hospitals retained individual processes
- Then, the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic added pressure and uncertainty
- In 2023, the twenty-seven year Centura-AdventHealth partnership ended
- Finally, Centura acquired Steward Health in Utah and integrated into CommonSpirit Health
Each event brought structural, operational, and cultural change — not just for the organization, but for every person, process, and platform involved.
Missy got even more specific stating that while a tool or program might be the same across a health system, how it’s used can vary dramatically. From tasks to data definitions, the lack of a unified data management strategy posed a major challenge for CommonSpirit.
Standardization as a Tool for Resilience
The trauma service line embarked on an 18-month journey of deep discovery before even thinking about vendors. They followed what Missy described as the “3 Ps” framework: People, Processes, and Product — in that order.
They conducted assessments, mapped processes, and inventoried existing systems. Why? Because implementing a tool is not the same as delivering a service. “Our goal wasn’t just to launch new tech. We needed to deliver usable, valid data to the PI teams, and we needed our team bought in along the journey,” Missy said.
Missy’s team includes 25 registry professionals across multiple states, so developing a culture of collaboration didn’t happen overnight. But investing in consistent communication — even something as simple as a shared team chat — laid the foundation for collaboration, trust, and a stronger data culture.
Amid all the change, Missy never lost sight of the importance of recognition. The team’s work on the “Inter-Rater Reliability: TQIP Proceed Measures Dashboard” won them an award at the TQIP conference — a meaningful milestone for a team working hard behind the scenes.
Transparency is huge for building trust with your teams.
Missy Sorensen
“Transparency is huge for building trust with your teams,” Missy said. Fostering candor is what fosters resilience: creating space for learning, clarity, and shared progress. Change management driven by empathy and purposeful processes is key to successful healthcare leadership.
What Other Teams Can Learn
Missy’s lessons are applicable for any healthcare organization navigating change— whether in trauma registry management or other service lines. These are simple but powerful things to keep in mind:
- Start with people, not products. Invest in understanding current workflows and team needs before rushing in to adopt new tools.
- Make collaboration easy, not optional. Standardization is a team sport.
- Trust builds resilience. Be transparent about challenges, decisions, and outcomes.
- Recognize progress. Momentum comes from seeing how work adds up — even if it’s incremental steps.
When you combine standardization with heart, you get more than operational improvement. You get teams that can weather any storm — and keep delivering better outcomes, together.