Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leadership Through Crisis, Workforce Innovation, and Community Care with Russell Baxley

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Leadership Through Crisis, Workforce Innovation, and Community Care with Russell Baxley · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - Welcome to this episode of Leadership Unscripted at
• 1:01
  - Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host,
• 1:04
  - and I'm thrilled to be joined today by
• 1:06
  - Russell Baxley. Who, of course, is president and
• 1:08
  - CEO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital in South Carolina.
• 1:11
  - Russell, thank you for joining us today.
• 1:13
  - Hey, Chris. Thanks for having having me. Happy
• 1:15
  - to be here.
• 1:16
  - Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. We'd love to have you
• 1:18
  - on today for Leadership Unscripted, which, of course,
• 1:21
  - is our podcast where we go
• 1:23
  - into executive's health care journey. Right? So I'm
• 1:26
  - hoping you're
• 1:27
  - well equipped and and ready to talk about
• 1:29
  - that today, Russell.
• 1:30
  - Absolutely. I love talking about the the journey
• 1:33
  - that is health care.
• 1:35
  - Perfect. Perfect. Well, before we do that specifically,
• 1:38
  - just, introduce yourself for those of us of
• 1:40
  - those in our audience, I should say, who
• 1:42
  - are not as familiar with you and your
• 1:44
  - organization and tell us a bit about that
• 1:46
  - in your background.
• 1:47
  - Absolutely. So Beaufort Memorial Hospital is a sole
• 1:49
  - community provider nonprofit hospital that sits in Beaufort,
• 1:52
  - South Carolina.
• 1:54
  - Licensed, for over 201 beds, have both the
• 1:57
  - mental health hospital and rehab hospital and,
• 2:00
  - have a number of outpatient centers spanning across
• 2:03
  - both Beaufort and Jasper Counties. So in total,
• 2:05
  - we we do about what we call 750,000
• 2:08
  - patient contacts a year, across the organization health
• 2:11
  - system. And and growing as Beaufort and Jasper
• 2:13
  - County are some of the fastest growing counties
• 2:15
  - in South Carolina. And so
• 2:17
  - meeting,
• 2:18
  - that demand, the health care demand is is
• 2:20
  - top of top of mind at all times
• 2:22
  - and,
• 2:23
  - the challenge that lays before us is as
• 2:25
  - a growing health system and organization.
• 2:27
  - Personally, I'm from South Carolina,
• 2:29
  - and, have worked across many states, Texas and
• 2:32
  - Pennsylvania,
• 2:33
  - in many leadership roles. But I've been here
• 2:35
  - at Beaufort Memorial as president CEO for ten
• 2:37
  - years now.
• 2:38
  - Thank you so much, Russell. Yeah. No doubt
• 2:40
  - this is a challenge that, you and your
• 2:42
  - team are eager to tackle in in every
• 2:44
  - way, shape, and form, especially as the population
• 2:46
  - in the Southeast, including South Carolina, is just
• 2:49
  - seems
• 2:50
  - to be booming faster than anyone. It can
• 2:53
  - count sometimes.
• 2:54
  - Right?
• 2:56
  - Well, where do I start though is you
• 2:58
  - mentioned
• 2:59
  - you've been several places before you ended up,
• 3:02
  - down at Butte Memorial.
• 3:03
  - So
• 3:04
  - what would you consider your most memorable day
• 3:07
  - or period from your career?
• 3:09
  - Not since it's anywhere close to ending, but
• 3:11
  - so far, what would you say that highlight
• 3:13
  - is or highlights?
• 3:14
  - Yeah. You know, it's
• 3:16
  - it would have to be here in Beaufort
• 3:18
  - and the period is is pretty easy to
• 3:20
  - trap back to the COVID pandemic because I
• 3:22
  - don't I think that's burned in everybody's mind.
• 3:24
  - But, you know, really I'll focus on a
• 3:26
  - day and looking back on it is is
• 3:28
  - somewhat funny, but it wasn't in the moment.
• 3:31
  - I was two weeks into the job here
• 3:33
  - at Beaufort Memorial and was just learning everybody's
• 3:36
  - names and I was actually sitting in an
• 3:38
  - airport getting ready to go to a conference
• 3:40
  - to learn about health care foundations because,
• 3:43
  - I didn't know anything about foundations. Most of
• 3:45
  - my background had been in the, for profit
• 3:47
  - health care sector.
• 3:48
  - And, the first hurricane to hit Beaufort since
• 3:52
  - hurricane Hugo,
• 3:53
  - was about two days away, hurricane Matthew.
• 3:56
  - And I quickly came back to the hospital
• 3:58
  - and after,
• 4:00
  - looking at the storm's path and
• 4:02
  - understanding the storm surge, which was predicted to
• 4:05
  - be about 20 feet above sea level,
• 4:08
  - we ended up evacuating the entire hospital.
• 4:11
  - So two weeks into my tenure,
• 4:13
  - barely knowing most people's names at that point,
• 4:16
  - I find myself in our command center
• 4:18
  - looking at, our entire staff and medical staff,
• 4:21
  - devising a way that we're going to evacuate
• 4:23
  - a 120 patients to about 14 different hospitals
• 4:27
  - across the state.
• 4:28
  - My goodness. Russell, that is just yeah.
• 4:32
  - We're we here at Beckers are based in
• 4:34
  - the Midwest and, you know, we we do
• 4:36
  - not deal with hurricanes.
• 4:38
  - And certainly many of your colleagues in health
• 4:40
  - care do. But just to give
• 4:42
  - those of us in Mid Midwest and other
• 4:44
  - parts of the country an idea, when you're
• 4:46
  - talking about storm surge, what number really perks
• 4:49
  - up in your ears and says, you know
• 4:50
  - what? Yeah. We this is something that we
• 4:53
  - have to act on right away.
• 4:55
  - Well, you know, when you when you our
• 4:56
  - hospital in Beaufort sits right on what we
• 4:58
  - call the Beaufort River and we sit about
• 5:00
  - 15 feet above sea level here. K. And
• 5:03
  - so anything at about 15 feet storm surge
• 5:05
  - and above,
• 5:07
  - really creates,
• 5:08
  - problems for this hospital and and this area.
• 5:10
  - And at 20 feet, which was a predictive
• 5:13
  - storm surge for Matthew at the time, it
• 5:15
  - put our basement, which is where our, generators
• 5:18
  - and transfer switches sit
• 5:19
  - underwater almost. And so if you don't have
• 5:22
  - power, obviously, you can't condition the environment and
• 5:24
  - that puts you in a very,
• 5:28
  - I would say difficult and dangerous situation.
• 5:31
  - And, and we had never seen anything like
• 5:33
  - that before. I mean, again, Hugo, which was
• 5:34
  - in the early nineties, was the last time
• 5:37
  - a hurricane had hit me for South Carolina.
• 5:38
  - So fast forward in 2016,
• 5:41
  - there wasn't a lot of institutional knowledge as
• 5:43
  - to how to deal with that sort of
• 5:44
  - hurricane and
• 5:46
  - and evacuating the hospital. So, yeah, 20 feet,
• 5:48
  - we had to get out of dodge.
• 5:51
  - Man. And you said you're only a few
• 5:53
  - days on the job and didn't know everyone's
• 5:55
  - name yet? So
• 5:57
  - once you had that realization, say, okay, We
• 6:00
  - have to evacuate the hospital.
• 6:03
  - What gears turn in your mind then to
• 6:04
  - say, okay. We have to do this and
• 6:05
  - this and this and this is who I
• 6:07
  - have to call. What what
• 6:09
  - training did you call upon to to execute
• 6:11
  - this evacuation, which is, like you said, it
• 6:14
  - hardly ever happens?
• 6:16
  - Well, you know, it's it's about it is
• 6:20
  - mostly about leadership training. Right? Because I think
• 6:22
  - you have to
• 6:24
  - really be humble in a situation like that
• 6:26
  - and understand that, hey, no one has done
• 6:28
  - this. So while they're looking to you to
• 6:30
  - lead,
• 6:31
  - right, what you need to draw on everyone's
• 6:33
  - experiences
• 6:34
  - and ideas in order to make a very
• 6:37
  - difficult situation,
• 6:38
  - into a manageable one. And, you know, we
• 6:41
  - literally, when we made the call, it was
• 6:44
  - 03:00 in the afternoon. The storm was approaching
• 6:46
  - the very next day. And so over the
• 6:49
  - course of about thirteen hours, so all the
• 6:51
  - way into about 04:00 in the morning, we
• 6:53
  - were transporting patients to different hospitals.
• 6:56
  - And so it was definitely an all hands
• 6:58
  - on deck from medical staff to nursing,
• 7:01
  - to the state, to different various transport,
• 7:04
  - companies trying to figure out how to move
• 7:06
  - these patients quickly and efficiently,
• 7:08
  - across the entire state of South Carolina to
• 7:10
  - include the Upstate, the Midlands,
• 7:13
  - you know, over more towards Georgia,
• 7:16
  - out of the storm's path. How can we
• 7:17
  - get these patients out of the hospital?
• 7:20
  - At what point,
• 7:21
  - once the storm
• 7:23
  - hit the area, what point did you realize
• 7:25
  - that okay, the worst has passed, we're gonna
• 7:28
  - be okay and now we can actually move
• 7:29
  - back into the hospital.
• 7:31
  - Well, you know, the the the great well,
• 7:33
  - I say the great thing, you know, the
• 7:34
  - the the great thing about the storm, we
• 7:36
  - never actually saw the storm surge. We we
• 7:38
  - did not experience any flooding, which was which
• 7:40
  - was great. The the problem we saw, however,
• 7:43
  - in terms of moving back into the hospital,
• 7:45
  - because we were all as employees sheltering in
• 7:47
  - place through the storm. So we rode it
• 7:49
  - out in the hospital,
• 7:50
  - and it it hit in the middle of
• 7:52
  - the night.
• 7:53
  - And so when we all sort of came
• 7:55
  - out into the light or in the early
• 7:57
  - morning hours, what we did see,
• 7:59
  - is a lot
• 8:01
  - of downed trees and power lines. I mean,
• 8:03
  - because a hurricane had not hit the South
• 8:05
  - Best area for years,
• 8:07
  - any tree that was leaning or that could
• 8:09
  - come down, and it was a heavy rain
• 8:11
  - so the ground was very wet, it did
• 8:13
  - come it did fall down. And so it
• 8:15
  - took weeks for the county to fully reopen,
• 8:18
  - and for us, it took us quite a
• 8:20
  - while just to clean up the campus,
• 8:22
  - so we could get, for example, EMS in
• 8:24
  - freely back and forth,
• 8:26
  - as we were trying to service the county.
• 8:28
  - Wow. That's
• 8:30
  - that's quite the timetable that you and your
• 8:32
  - staff had to work with. I mean,
• 8:34
  - yeah, it's just it's just unbelievable. And, again,
• 8:36
  - from our our Midwest sense sensibilities here that
• 8:39
  - when you're dealing with something like that let
• 8:42
  - me just ask one more thing about that.
• 8:43
  - So so when you're in the hospital sheltering
• 8:46
  - in place,
• 8:47
  - I mean, how are you keeping morale up?
• 8:49
  - I mean, what what are you guys doing
• 8:51
  - to just kind of connect with each other
• 8:53
  - in those moments?
• 8:54
  - Well, you know, we
• 8:57
  - I'm almost scared to say, but it was
• 8:59
  - it was actually a lot of fun.
• 9:01
  - We had a, we had pizza parties, we
• 9:03
  - had movie nights Thank you. For a movie
• 9:05
  - night, we had wheelchair races
• 9:08
  - down the hallway,
• 9:10
  - and I'm pretty sure they even found a
• 9:12
  - way to turn
• 9:14
  - some IV bags and, some other things into
• 9:16
  - cornhole sets.
• 9:20
  - So we got very creative in in how
• 9:23
  - we,
• 9:24
  - brought the team together for those who did
• 9:25
  - chose to shelter in place and really kept
• 9:28
  - morale up as we were riding down the
• 9:29
  - storm because, you know, the people that were
• 9:32
  - in the storm, their families got sent away.
• 9:33
  - Right? And so Yeah. You are alone overnight.
• 9:36
  - Right? Most of the county has evacuated and
• 9:38
  - we're waiting to see what happens in the
• 9:40
  - morning so we can get the hospital running
• 9:41
  - because without a running hospital, the county cannot
• 9:44
  - open up.
• 9:45
  - Man, Russell, thank you so much. We could
• 9:47
  - talk about that more at length another time.
• 9:49
  - I mean, because there's so much mining. More
• 9:52
  - so it's true we can mine there, but
• 9:54
  - I'll suffice to say that you you can't
• 9:56
  - really script those sorts of team bonding moments
• 10:00
  - as awful as that situation
• 10:03
  - was and could have been. You know, at
• 10:06
  - least it looks like you you definitely got
• 10:08
  - something good out of it. Absolutely.
• 10:11
  - Alright. So shifting gears a little bit here.
• 10:14
  - So, again, not that you're anywhere close to
• 10:16
  - the end of your career, but clearly you
• 10:18
  - learned a lot, not just from the the
• 10:20
  - hurricane episode, but in terms of your entire
• 10:23
  - career. So next question is, what would you
• 10:25
  - tell your successor?
• 10:27
  - And what what are the most important things
• 10:28
  - you would put at the top of that
• 10:29
  - list?
• 10:31
  - You know, here's what I mean. We here's
• 10:33
  - what I would tell my successor is as
• 10:35
  - a community hospital, you know, we we don't
• 10:38
  - are not part of a large system.
• 10:40
  - The first thing I would say is be
• 10:41
  - nimble.
• 10:42
  - Yeah. And, be innovative
• 10:45
  - because health care delivery requires innovation and innovation
• 10:48
  - is one of our core our our core
• 10:50
  - values.
• 10:51
  - And, and, you know, as a community provider,
• 10:54
  - a stand alone,
• 10:56
  - you you can't sit still. Right? You you
• 10:58
  - you have to keep moving. It's like a
• 11:00
  - like a shark.
• 11:01
  - You just can't stop. Right? And so be
• 11:03
  - nimble, be energetic,
• 11:05
  - and and be innovative is what I would
• 11:07
  - tell our successor because those are the sort
• 11:09
  - of qualities that are continue to allow us
• 11:11
  - to be a thriving,
• 11:12
  - community hospital.
• 11:14
  - In today's world, as you know, I mean,
• 11:16
  - mergers, acquisitions, consolidation
• 11:17
  - is becoming more and more of a thing.
• 11:20
  - And, there's very few community hospitals left such
• 11:23
  - as Buford
• 11:24
  - Memorial. And those that innovate and are nimble,
• 11:27
  - and creative, I think are the ones that
• 11:29
  - will will really,
• 11:30
  - continue to operate successfully as a community hospital.
• 11:34
  - That dovetails
• 11:36
  - fairly nicely into my next question, Russell, in
• 11:38
  - terms of what accomplishment are you most proud
• 11:41
  - of and why.
• 11:43
  - To frame that question a little bit further,
• 11:45
  - so as you think about innovation and how
• 11:47
  - you've had to be nimble, I mean, I'm
• 11:49
  - imagine that factors in a great deal, but
• 11:53
  - I want you to take that, question and
• 11:55
  - answer in whatever direction you feel most comfortable.
• 11:58
  - Yeah. I I would say that the
• 12:01
  - greatest accomplishment,
• 12:03
  - and is here at Beaufort Memorial, is really
• 12:05
  - our employee development program. We we've named it
• 12:08
  - PATH, which is people achieving their highest.
• 12:11
  - And it's a triple aim approach that looks
• 12:13
  - at, mental health and resiliency,
• 12:16
  - financial wellness, and, the cost of living,
• 12:20
  - and three, the education and the ability to
• 12:23
  - grow in the organization. And out of that
• 12:25
  - program,
• 12:26
  - I will say three things that, had have
• 12:29
  - happened that we're very proud of is,
• 12:31
  - one, we built a nursing school, on-site and
• 12:34
  - on campus with New York Stockton and Buford
• 12:36
  - that, it's a satellite school for them,
• 12:39
  - with high fidelity simulation labs and,
• 12:43
  - classrooms, and it allows us to train the
• 12:45
  - nurses of tomorrow,
• 12:47
  - and on our campus, but it also allowed
• 12:49
  - USCB to double their enrollment per year from
• 12:52
  - 24 nursing students to 48.
• 12:55
  - And then the other thing that I I
• 12:56
  - am extremely proud of, two things, is one,
• 12:59
  - we built childcare on-site,
• 13:01
  - understanding that childcare is an issue and we're
• 13:03
  - one of the few organizations that I think
• 13:05
  - has childcare on-site for our staff.
• 13:08
  - But recently, we even broke ground on our
• 13:11
  - first workforce housing project. And so we are
• 13:13
  - building a 120
• 13:14
  - apartments,
• 13:16
  - as a workforce housing project with a few
• 13:18
  - partners in the community of ours. And so
• 13:21
  - this PATH program, if you will, focuses on
• 13:23
  - the development of our workforce and how we
• 13:26
  - are investing in them because we we look
• 13:28
  - at them as working with us. They're investing
• 13:30
  - in us and their communities. So how can
• 13:31
  - we invest and reinvest in them? And that's
• 13:34
  - what this PATH program has done on on
• 13:36
  - multiple levels.
• 13:37
  - Glad you mentioned the workforce housing project. That
• 13:40
  - is something that's
• 13:41
  - a number at least a handful of health
• 13:43
  - systems have undertaken because of as you know,
• 13:46
  - this cost of living is is just very
• 13:48
  - high right now, and to be able to
• 13:50
  - provide
• 13:51
  - your employees that benefit is is gotta be
• 13:54
  - huge. So when you think about that project
• 13:57
  - in particular,
• 13:59
  - what was the catalyst in terms of, hey,
• 14:01
  - we need to undertake this project,
• 14:04
  - and and what was the progress that you're
• 14:06
  - making so far?
• 14:08
  - You know, Beaufort is an interesting,
• 14:11
  - community in that it has the second highest
• 14:13
  - cost of living in the state of South
• 14:14
  - Carolina.
• 14:15
  - Only next to Charleston and I think everyone
• 14:17
  - expects Charleston to have a high cost of
• 14:19
  - living,
• 14:20
  - but maybe not as much Beaufort.
• 14:22
  - And, you know, the community, the county, the
• 14:25
  - the different various cities and towns have have
• 14:27
  - been talking for quite a while about the
• 14:29
  - affordable housing
• 14:30
  - crisis
• 14:32
  - and it we weren't making a lot of
• 14:33
  - progress as a community. And so, Beaufort Memorial
• 14:36
  - being the largest private employer in the area,
• 14:40
  - and having, I think, a reputation for being
• 14:42
  - innovative,
• 14:43
  - really, we took the lead and said, why
• 14:44
  - don't why don't we take a stab at
• 14:46
  - this workforce housing project and just see if
• 14:49
  - we can make some progress?
• 14:51
  - Because we were the largest employer and because
• 14:53
  - I think we we have an ability to,
• 14:56
  - bring people together maybe more so than others
• 14:58
  - have in the past
• 14:59
  - and and that's what we did. We we
• 15:01
  - brought,
• 15:02
  - the county,
• 15:03
  - the town of Bluffton, ourselves and a workforce
• 15:06
  - housing developer together and sort of this four
• 15:08
  - way partnership and and we asked, how can
• 15:10
  - we find a way forward to to make
• 15:12
  - this work?
• 15:14
  - And then it took about two to three
• 15:15
  - years, to be honest. It was it was
• 15:17
  - quite the undertaking and and trying to get
• 15:19
  - these four partners together and on the same
• 15:21
  - page,
• 15:23
  - was interesting to say the least. But once
• 15:24
  - we found some momentum,
• 15:27
  - it really gained a lot of legs,
• 15:29
  - and we broke ground about three weeks ago
• 15:32
  - on the project, on in Bluffton, South Carolina.
• 15:34
  - So it's not quite done yet,
• 15:37
  - but what we think is is we've created
• 15:39
  - this sort of playbook that we can replicate
• 15:41
  - and model for other projects
• 15:43
  - and partnerships or even hand it over to
• 15:45
  - other
• 15:46
  - employers and say, here, use this. Do this.
• 15:49
  - This is how we did it. Maybe this
• 15:50
  - will help you on your workforce housing journey.
• 15:54
  - I think a lot of your colleagues across
• 15:56
  - health care are gonna look for a playbook
• 15:59
  - just like that, Russell. So I think it's
• 16:01
  - gonna definitely come in handy. But, yeah, congrats
• 16:04
  - on on coming this far, and hopefully, the
• 16:06
  - project ends up being exactly what you and
• 16:08
  - Buford want it to be. Absolutely.
• 16:11
  - Alright. So next question for you, Russell.
• 16:15
  - Shifting gears only only slightly,
• 16:17
  - but I would ask what issue or aspect
• 16:20
  - of health care do you think deserves a
• 16:22
  - brighter spotlight and who should be shining that
• 16:24
  - spotlight?
• 16:26
  - Well, you know, it's
• 16:28
  - there's a lot of spotlights that probably could
• 16:30
  - be shined.
• 16:31
  - True. Very true.
• 16:33
  - And there's a lot of discussion right now,
• 16:35
  - at both a federal and even the state
• 16:37
  - level in South Carolina about the impending changes,
• 16:41
  - with the big beautiful,
• 16:42
  - law and,
• 16:44
  - you know,
• 16:45
  - discussion around what what has happened, with Medicaid
• 16:48
  - expansion in those particular states and,
• 16:50
  - and, those cuts that are coming in 2028.
• 16:55
  - You know, here's what I would say. I
• 16:56
  - I'm gonna say
• 16:58
  - sort of disconnect between what we understand and
• 17:01
  - know as the soaring, you know, the soaring
• 17:03
  - spending, right, in in health care, and that's
• 17:05
  - only going to grow. But it doesn't seem
• 17:07
  - like the patient outcomes are are following suit.
• 17:10
  - Right? And so you've got sort of this
• 17:11
  - disparity of we continue to see higher and
• 17:14
  - higher spending in health care, but we're not
• 17:16
  - seeing what we believe or should be the
• 17:18
  - health outcomes that maybe other developed countries are
• 17:21
  - are seeing. Right? And so you're shining a
• 17:23
  - spotlight
• 17:24
  - there on why is there such a disparity
• 17:27
  - between us and other countries. I I I
• 17:29
  - think that is where I would I would
• 17:31
  - start and then it would sort of branch
• 17:33
  - out from there.
• 17:34
  - That sounds like the perfect place to start,
• 17:37
  - Russell. And I imagine that yeah. Hopefully, a
• 17:39
  - number of people are on the same page
• 17:41
  - with you there.
• 17:42
  - Lastly, so leadership
• 17:45
  - requires any number of traits that are developed,
• 17:48
  - not in a day, not in a week,
• 17:50
  - you know, sometimes not in a year, but
• 17:51
  - over a number of years.
• 17:53
  - So what I would like to ask you
• 17:55
  - is what is an underrated leadership trait that
• 17:57
  - you've
• 17:58
  - discovered or or seen put into play over
• 18:02
  - the years, and specifically, who have you seen
• 18:05
  - embody that?
• 18:06
  - Right. That's a great question. You know, I
• 18:08
  - I think one of the traits that maybe
• 18:10
  - is undervalued and I I mentioned it previously
• 18:13
  - in my hurricane story is is humility.
• 18:17
  - Humility, you know, or being humble leads what
• 18:19
  - I think to,
• 18:21
  - active listening and and maybe intentionally pausing,
• 18:24
  - and and not rushing to make quick decisions.
• 18:27
  - You know, and what that means is understanding
• 18:29
  - that you're not the smartest person in the
• 18:31
  - room. Hopefully, you've hired people on your team
• 18:34
  - smarter than you and
• 18:35
  - you need to be humble enough to, you
• 18:37
  - know, let others run with the conversation, you
• 18:40
  - know, manage the meetings and, you know, actively
• 18:43
  - listen and intentionally pause before decisions are made.
• 18:47
  - You know, I think that gets overlooked in
• 18:48
  - a lot of ways because I think a
• 18:50
  - lot of people look for leaders to to
• 18:52
  - be the strongest voice and the most talkative
• 18:54
  - in the room and I'm not always sure
• 18:56
  - that is the the appropriate approach.
• 18:59
  - And so I think that's underrated in terms
• 19:01
  - of,
• 19:02
  - who has embodied that. You know, I would
• 19:04
  - say I had a previous mentor,
• 19:06
  - name was Bob Moore, who was a market
• 19:08
  - CEO
• 19:09
  - for us up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
• 19:12
  - and I was running, I was a COO
• 19:14
  - at one of the hospitals in the markets.
• 19:16
  - And
• 19:16
  - I always thought that he was good at,
• 19:18
  - a, being humble.
• 19:20
  - You know, Bob never acted as if he
• 19:22
  - he was the smartest person in the room,
• 19:24
  - but he also
• 19:25
  - actively listened,
• 19:27
  - in a lot of ways to his different
• 19:28
  - and various teams.
• 19:30
  - And I took that home with me as
• 19:32
  - a as a sign of strength,
• 19:34
  - that Bob wasn't always the loudest voice in
• 19:35
  - the room and didn't always dominate every conversation.
• 19:38
  - So I would I would say being humble,
• 19:41
  - is a trait that more health care leaders
• 19:43
  - should should should look at and look for,
• 19:44
  - and and Bob Moore probably embodied that the
• 19:47
  - most for me as I was kind of
• 19:49
  - coming up through the ranks in health care.
• 19:52
  - I I think that's a perfect sentiment, Russell.
• 19:55
  - Certainly, even if you are the smartest person
• 19:57
  - in the room,
• 19:58
  - as you said, you don't have to act
• 20:00
  - like it, and you're gonna learn a whole
• 20:01
  - lot more by, you know, absorbing all the
• 20:04
  - the wisdom and knowledge from people around you.
• 20:05
  - So, yeah, I'm glad that that's that lesson
• 20:07
  - from Bob has has stuck.
• 20:10
  - Absolutely.
• 20:11
  - Well, Russell, this has been such a terrific
• 20:15
  - conversation from everything from that you you learned
• 20:18
  - from the hurricane to your housing project to,
• 20:20
  - you know, what
• 20:22
  - needs to happen next in health care. I
• 20:23
  - mean, honestly, I can't wait till our past
• 20:25
  - crawls again. So we can have another such
• 20:27
  - conversation.
• 20:28
  - Well, Chris, I I've really enjoyed it. I
• 20:30
  - appreciate the dialogue and the questions and happy
• 20:33
  - to do it again.