Susan Szuch

Susan Szuch reports at the point where health, food, work and the places people live and gather meet, with a focus on how policy decisions play out in everyday life. At the Springfield News-Leader she is a health and public policy reporter, with a beat that stretches across health care systems, local businesses, housing-related disputes and community institutions. Her stories tend to track concrete consequences for patients, workers, diners and voters, rather than treating health or real estate as abstract sectors.

Health care access and Missouri law

Szuch’s health reporting centers on access to care and the way state and federal rules shape that access.

She broke the story of a patient whose doctors said she needed an abortion but who was turned away under Missouri law, work that helped trigger a federal investigation into whether a hospital violated federal requirements to provide necessary medical care. In follow-up conversations about the case, she laid out how clinicians’ judgment was overridden by statutory language, highlighting the friction between medical standards and legal constraints. This kind of coverage treats health care as a lived experience for individual patients, not just as a legislative talking point.

Her health beat also includes coverage of new services and facilities that change what care looks like on the ground.

She has reported on an autism center opened by Arc of the Ozarks, describing how a local nonprofit and community partners created a new space for families seeking support. Across these pieces, she links bricks-and-mortar decisions - where centers are built, how they are funded and staffed - to questions of long-term access for people with chronic needs or disabilities. Earlier in her career she worked in a newsroom in west-central Nebraska covering the COVID-19 pandemic, local hospitals and health departments, experience that informs her attention to public health infrastructure and its gaps.

Food, restaurants and where people gather

Food is a second core strand in Szuch’s work, and she treats restaurants as both businesses and social spaces.

She has covered the opening of a new Mexican restaurant that revamped a downtown Springfield space previously occupied by another establishment, noting how operators rework existing venues to fit new concepts. That story sat alongside her broader role reporting on health and food, in which she tracks how local dining options and food-related businesses contribute to the community’s wellbeing.

Her coverage of the hospitality sector is grounded in specific addresses and tenants, with attention to how those spaces change hands over time.

Szuch also reports on disputes tied to food businesses and the properties they occupy.[anchor] In one piece, a landlord’s lawsuit against a Springfield restaurant for failing to pay rent allowed her to explore the pressures on small operators when lease obligations clash with cash flow.[anchor] The story is framed through the relationship between property owners and tenants, but the emphasis is on what the conflict means for staff and patrons who rely on the restaurant as a workplace and gathering place.[anchor] Taken together, her food and real estate coverage shows an interest in how commercial spaces succeed or break down, and what that means for the broader neighborhood around them.[anchor]

Workers, utilities and local policy

Beyond health and food, Szuch spends significant time on stories about workers, public services and local governance. She has reported on Springfield dispensary workers who say they were fired for unionizing, documenting their allegations and situating them within broader questions about labor rights in a newly regulated industry. In that coverage, she foregrounds workers’ voices and the practical impact of employment decisions, rather than treating the episode solely as a legal dispute.

It fits a pattern in her work of examining how policy and management decisions affect people’s jobs and livelihoods.

Her reporting also touches on how public agencies shape daily routines through service decisions. She has covered plans by Springfield’s City Utilities to provide free rides on Election Day, a service story that connects transit policy to civic participation and voter access. In another piece, she looked at leadership changes at Mercy Springfield Communities, explaining how new senior roles within the health system could influence operations and patient care.

Szuch has also written about southwest Missouri dog breeders who appeared on Humane Society of the United States “Horrible Hundred” lists, using that topic to examine regulatory oversight and animal welfare in the region. Across these subjects - transit, hospital administration, labor disputes and regulation - she keeps her focus on how institutions’ decisions filter down to residents.

Community events in shared spaces

Szuch’s file includes lighter community coverage that still reflects her interest in shared spaces and public life. She has produced visual and event-focused pieces on occasions such as a Fourth of July celebration at Route 66 Stadium, capturing music, food and family activities despite challenging summer heat. Those stories highlight how people use local venues, parks and stadiums, rounding out her more policy-heavy work with scenes from everyday life.

Whether she is writing about a holiday crowd, a new clinic or a restaurant dispute, her reporting is anchored in specific places and the people who move through them.[anchor]