Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Ron Gicca, President of Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital

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Ron Gicca, President of Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
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  - to pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  - I'm Kelly Gooch, managing editor at Becker's. And
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  - today, we're joined by Ron Gieker,
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  - president of Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital,
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  - who leading is leading one of the county's
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  - key community hospitals at a time of rapid
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  - growth and rising in competition.
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  - He'll share how community hospitals are redefining their
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  - role today, expanding advanced services while staying deeply
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  - connected to the people they serve. We'll also
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  - talk a little bit about what it takes
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  - to deliver consistent excellence within a large health
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  - system while maintaining the agility and personal touch
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  - that defines community based care. So, Ron, it's
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  - wonderful to have you with us today.
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  - Kelly, thank you so much for having me.
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  - Of course. Before we dive in, Ron, I
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  - was wondering if you could introduce yourself, share
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  - a little bit more about your background today.
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  - Yeah. I'm Ron Jika, president here at Orlando
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  - Health Melbourne Hospital.
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  - I've had the honor of actually being at
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  - the Melbourne Hospital for the bulk of my
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  - career the past fifteen years.
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  - Five years prior to that, kind of different
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  - for profit and non for profit entities around
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  - the country.
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  - Landed here in Melbourne, Florida at this great
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  - facility and, it's,
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  - it's where I wanted to make home and
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  - it's a wonderful hospital and wonderful community. So,
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  - excited to talk about our topic today.
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  - Wonderful. I'm excited for the conversation as well.
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  - And as we know, of course, community hospitals
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  - are evolving quickly. And so just to start
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  - off with and level set a little bit,
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  - how do you define the role of a
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  - community hospital today compared with maybe even five
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  - or ten years ago?
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  - Yeah. You know, I kind of feel the
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  - the core tenant hasn't changed too much. Right?
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  - Ultimately,
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  - we are
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  - there to drive the connection
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  - and the relationship
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  - with our patient and the community.
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  - So I don't really feel that that has
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  - that model or that understanding has shifted too
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  - much. I still think that that is our
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  - main driver. And I feel that when I
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  - work with my team and engage with our
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  - patients.
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  - What I have noticed, the biggest
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  - driver is
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  - the patient's
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  - expectations,
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  - around
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  - their understanding
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  - and their involvement with their healthcare.
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  - You know, I think as
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  - things like ACOs and risk based models have
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  - come, patients have had experiences with navigators,
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  - the ability to get information
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  - on the internet,
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  - and learn about their healthcare and their care
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  - plans and treatment plans,
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  - has really evolved. And so what we're seeing
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  - here is a lot of great conversation with
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  - patients
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  - that select us and choose us,
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  - because of information they found online.
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  - And we were recently awarded
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  - a US News World Report for high performance
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  - and hip replacement. We do a lot of
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  - orthopedic surgery.
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  - And I met some of the patients after
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  - their class. They come to a class prior
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  - to their total joint surgeries, and,
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  - patient was like, yeah. I picked here because
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  - of your the results that I found online
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  - and because this surgeon does, you know, anterior
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  - hip approach. And, like, I was like, alright.
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  - Well, like, you're fully informed. You're you're at
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  - the right place.
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  - So, you know, I think from from our
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  - standpoint in the community, that has really been
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  - the biggest driver and change that we've seen
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  - over the last decade.
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  - Yeah. Abs absolutely. And and you talked a
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  - little bit already about just maintaining that close
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  - personalized connection,
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  - as you mentioned with patients giving that that
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  - that feedback as well. So
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  - curious how you
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  - expand access to more advanced services while still
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  - maintaining that connection.
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  - Yeah. That's a good question. And,
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  - you know, our community
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  - over the last few years has really pushed
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  - us,
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  - in the area of, like, surgical robotics.
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  - And,
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  - you know, a lot of community hospitals don't
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  - have access to that, but as part of,
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  - Orlando Health and a bigger organization, we've, we've
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  - been really lucky and, to get
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  - a lot of robotic options. So whether it's
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  - general surgery or orthopedics or spine
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  - robots,
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  - we've been able to bring that technology
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  - to the community and to our facility.
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  - You know, and that is, being driven by
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  - patient expectation and and physician.
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  - And what's great about that too is that
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  - when you have these tools and resources available,
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  - that makes recruitment for physicians a lot easier
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  - too. Right? So as physicians come out of
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  - school trained on these
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  - these instruments, these robots,
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  - it gives us a leg up in recruitment.
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  - Right? We can bring new technology,
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  - new surgical techniques,
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  - and that drives
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  - that, you know, those advanced services in in
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  - the community. So, it's kinda like a closed
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  - loop. We continue to invest in what the
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  - community asks for.
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  - You know, we get rewarded by their trust
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  - and then the ability to bring on, new
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  - new well trained physicians.
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  - I'm I'd like to ask you too, Ron,
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  - just about scaling.
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  - That this excellence that that you've been been
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  - talking about because, of course, Orlando Health being
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  - a a large system and and being part
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  - of Orlando Health, how does
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  - how do you really leverage as your hospital
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  - those system wide resources and standards while preserving
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  - the agility of of being a community hospital
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  - within that larger system?
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  - Yeah. You know, I
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  - I think when people think of a bigger
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  - systems, you get concerned about maybe bureaucracy or,
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  - you know, how long it would take to
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  - get something accomplished. We we are incredibly lucky
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  - lucky with Orlando Health. We really,
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  - don't feel that pain. They're actually, I think,
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  - a great partner in the system side.
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  - Just about,
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  - I'm trying to think, just about every corporate
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  - support
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  - is available in our region
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  - and they work with us to achieve our
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  - goals
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  - pretty rapidly.
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  - Good example,
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  - IT can always
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  - be a little bit of a challenge, but
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  - we got our own IT team here that
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  - reached out to us
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  - and said, hey, we're gonna be launching,
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  - new ICU
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  - smart rooms in across the organization.
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  - And we're looking for volunteers. Right? Who who's
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  - interested in maybe trialing this and going first?
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  - And I think to your point of that
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  - flexibility,
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  - the agility of being, you know, a smaller
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  - community hospital being able to do that, we
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  - were able to put everything in place to
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  - raise our hand, right, and be the one
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  - of the first in the organization
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  - to to get that. So,
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  - you know,
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  - I think I think holding on to that
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  - flexibility
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  - and being willing to, you know, embrace change,
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  - you know, helps us align with the goals
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  - of Orlando Health and how we roll out
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  - those those new changes.
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  - Yeah. I'd I'd love to expand there even
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  - a little bit bit more too. I know
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  - you mentioned that that flexibility component. And
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  - any other specific strategies you found particularly effective
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  - in driving that consistent quality patient experience and
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  - operational efficiency across your hospital that would be
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  - useful to share with our our listeners?
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  - Yeah. It that it is particularly in the
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  - in the regulatory
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  - environment.
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  - Right?
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  - Joint
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  - commission or in our case in the state
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  - of Florida, ACA,
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  - or federal mandates, those rules can sometimes change
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  - quickly.
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  - And to the same point, we have regional
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  - support team in the regulatory and quality side
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  - to help us roll out those
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  - changes if they occur
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  - on a rapid fashion. And so, you know,
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  - that's where I think our strength,
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  - and our agility and flexibility
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  - of being a smaller facility really come into
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  - play, right, because we are able
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  - it's not turning a huge, huge ship at
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  - this point.
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  - You can work with a few key players,
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  - drive those changes home, you know, make the
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  - policy update,
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  - educate your team pretty rapidly, which,
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  - is a little bit easier
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  - than at scale.
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  - And so we we're able to to make
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  - that turn quickly, which is great. And
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  - the partnership of the larger organization getting us
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  - those inputs fast and the best practice on
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  - how to do it and our ability to
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  - implement them quickly is is key.
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  - Yeah. And, just following up with that, Chiron,
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  - I'm curious for maybe listeners who are not
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  - part of a larger system or maybe have
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  - different geographies to is is there anything you
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  - would tell them to do first if they're
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  - really looking to to drive that consistency?
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  - Yeah. I I think the most important key
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  - is to have an individual driver at the
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  - organization
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  - who is on top of that. I think
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  - sometimes we
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  - spread out,
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  - you know, that obligation,
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  - to number of departments or or teams.
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  - And if you're not if you don't have
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  - a corporate resource or a big team, you've
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  - got to really drive that home with one
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  - key player that has a lot of trust
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  - and understanding of that regulatory or quality environment.
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  - And then really
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  - take that information as he gets funneled through
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  - that person and then divvy it out.
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  - We've been in that situation in the past
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  - and we've found that that really for us
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  - anyway,
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  - was the best method of quickly adapting to
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  - change,
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  - you know, in their quality and regulatory,
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  - field.
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  - Thank you so much for sharing that. And
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  - I another
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  - aspect I'd I'd like to talk with you
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  - about today is
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  - your geography also specifically just as being in
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  - a county that's, of course, fast growing and
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  - in a competitive market
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  - in Florida. And I know many systems are
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  - also expanding
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  - in Florida and to Florida as well. And
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  - so what are the biggest leadership challenges
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  - with respect to that that you're really navigating
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  - right now? And and what maybe is working
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  - well? And and what maybe are the
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  - biggest challenges?
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  - Yeah. No. It's
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  - yeah. Right now, our biggest problem, and it's,
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  - it it's a it's a good problem, but
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  - it's it's managing growth.
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  - So this year alone, our ED volume is
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  - up 23%,
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  - which is a big number, right? It's a
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  - big growth number for an ER on year
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  - over year volume.
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  - And so our biggest challenge is the impact
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  - on the team and
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  - our output to patient's
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  - expectation and expectations of our own,
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  - to make sure that that patient experience,
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  - that safety,
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  - and and those expectations are met.
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  - You know, growth like that,
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  - you got increased wait times, you know, and
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  - maybe potential for holds in the ED,
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  - where before those were not as commonplace. And
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  - so that patient experience impact, is really important
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  - to us to make sure that we're on
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  - top of it. So,
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  - right now that that's our our biggest challenge.
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  - And, you know, the the
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  - the great part of that is the growth
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  - in the community choosing us
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  - because of the efforts that we put out
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  - there in the community and relationships that we've
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  - made. But again,
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  - our opportunity
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  - still it lies in making sure
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  - that our output and our experience
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  - match why they chose us in the first
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  - place.
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  - And I think that's that's our our big
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  - challenge in front of us today.
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  - Thank you so much for an interesting conversation
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  - today, Ron. I truly appreciate it and
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  - hope to stay connected with you and
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  - continue the conversation
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  - moving forward. Thank you so much. Thank you,
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  - Kelly.