Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Muhammad Owais Khan, MD, MBA, CPE, CHCQM, FAAFP, FHM, Chief Medical Officer and Designated Institutional Official at Three Crosses Regional Hospital

Transcript

Muhammad Owais Khan, MD, MBA, CPE, CHCQM, FAAFP, FHM, Chief Medical Officer and Designated Institutional Official at Three Crosses Regional Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings healthcare leaders
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  together to unpack the most pressing issues facing
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  the industry.
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  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  and unexpected ways.
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  This April, more than 3,500
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  healthcare executives will return to Chicago for Becker's
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  sixteenth annual meeting.
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  Seven ninety five elite speakers will offer new
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  lessons, new case studies, and predictions about what
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  comes next. Join us April 13 through the
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  sixteenth.
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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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  Hello everyone and welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm Mackenzie Bean, associate vice president and managing
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  editor of Becker's Hospital Review.
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  Today I am so thrilled to be joined
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  by Doctor. Muhammad Owaiz Khan, the chief medical
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  officer and designated institutional
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  official of Three Crosses Regional Hospital in Las
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  Cruces, New Mexico.
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  Doctor Khan, thank you so much for joining
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  us on the podcast today. Thank you very
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  much, and good morning.
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  Good morning. It's so nice to have you.
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  I was hoping you could kick things off
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  by telling us a little bit more about
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  yourself, your background,
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  and Three Crosses Regional as well.
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  Absolutely. Thank you very much, McKenzie, for having
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  me. It's an honor to speak for Becker's.
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  So,
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  I have been,
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  working after my residency
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  for the past, one decade, actually,
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  as of right now.
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  I did my medical school,
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  from Pakistan, after which I did my training
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  in family medicine
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  from East Tennessee State University,
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  in Bristol, Tennessee,
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  graduating in 2016,
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  after which I did my master's in business
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  administration
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  and health care law from King University in
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  Bristol, Tennessee.
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  I worked,
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  for a few years with Indiana University
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  as well as, Union Hospital in in, Terre
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  Haute in Indiana,
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  after which we decided to move to Las
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  Cruces, El Paso area here in the Southwest
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  Region.
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  During this time, I did my board certification
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  in hospital medicine through American Board of Internal
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  Medicine,
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  as well as my certified physician executive
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  course through a double a p l, which
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  is American
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  Association for Physician Leadership, as well as my
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  certification in health care quality management through American
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  Board of Quality Assurance.
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  I've been working as the chief medical officer
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  for almost five years this summer,
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  at this brand new, beautiful, and amazing hospital.
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  And, actually, Becker's gave us five stars,
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  during 2024
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  season as well in New Mexico,
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  as well as,
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  DIO, which is on the head of the
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  graduate medical education program here for internal medicine,
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  for the past two and a half years.
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  I'm very proud that in New Mexico to
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  start a third internal medicine residency program,
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  which is focused,
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  to,
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  help cater to primary care in this area,
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  and we lack primary care a lot.
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  As far as Three Crosses Regional Hospital is
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  concerned,
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  it's a small but a fully acute care
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  46 bed,
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  with 10 ICU beds,
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  10 ER beds,
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  hospital,
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  with almost every specialty. The only thing which
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  we don't do is open heart surgeries.
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  We have we see a lot of highly
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  acute care patients.
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  One very good thing about this hospital is
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  that it's privately owned,
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  by private investors and not through a corporation.
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  So we see a lot of physician
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  input,
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  in this hospital. We're very proud
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  to have,
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  all
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  most of our doctors hired locally
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  without any help of any third party organizations,
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  which, I think is very, very helpful to
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  provide excellent care,
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  to our patients, especially in the state of
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  New Mexico, which is, I think, one of
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  the worst, I think, five,
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  states in the country to practice medicine in
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  terms of litigation.
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  And I'm very proud to say that I
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  have hired a lot of doctors and very
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  successfully started an internal medicine program,
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  last year. So that's a little bit about
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  me and my organization.
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  I appreciate
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  that overview paint such a vivid picture of,
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  three crosses regional and the landscape that you're
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  leading in. You obviously mentioned
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  a big focus on expanding internal medicine, primary
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  care access
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  in in your region and the new,
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  internal medicine program, which is so exciting.
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  Can you talk more about that initiative
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  rolling it out last year,
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  and where you are in that process?
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  Yes. So,
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  to start a GME program,
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  is a very
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  difficult task.
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  As a brand new hospital,
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  privately owned with having no help from a
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  big corporation,
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  Our funds were very, very limited
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  with very limited resources.
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  But I think thanks to my program director,
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  my core faculty,
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  and our administration,
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  whatever support they could give,
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  we were successful
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  in getting our first program for and got
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  approval for 24 residents across three years,
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  just,
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  at the very first attempt,
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  with a few areas for improvement, which is
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  very natural.
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  And I think it was a huge success
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  for this region, for Dona Ana County,
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  for Southern
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  New Mexico,
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  because I am very hopeful that with the
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  culture
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  I have created in my hospital,
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  I will hopefully be able to keep
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  my, residents after they graduate,
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  to practice here, to stay here despite the
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  dwindling
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  health care landscape
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  and despite
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  the difficult
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  litigation,
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  laws which are in New Mexico.
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  I'm very, very hopeful that I will be
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  able to keep people here who can practice
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  good
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  medicine, evidence based medicine
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  for safe patient care. And by the way
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  and our population deserves that. So
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  I'm very, very hopeful.
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  We are in our in our second year
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  of,
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  matching our residents,
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  and I'm very hopeful we'll get, again, a
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  very, very good cohort.
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  My medical staff
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  supports us tremendously.
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  They thought we will never be able to
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  get it because of the limited resources.
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  But now that we have it, I think,
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  the entire med staff, all the subspecialties,
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  the community doctors, everyone supports it because they
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  all know
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  that the doctors here who live here are
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  getting older, and we need
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  a newer blood,
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  newer people who will stay here.
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  And,
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  yeah, that's it. So I'm very pleased with
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  our results,
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  in providing high quality care,
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  to our population.
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  Mhmm.
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  It's quite an accomplishment to be proud of.
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  And you mentioned retention here being a a
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  big piece of the puzzle,
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  for a thriving physician workforce.
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  Can you speak a bit more to that
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  culture that you work to build?
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  You know, what do you think is really
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  going to keep those new career early career
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  physicians at the hospital?
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  So culture is something very important. I mean,
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  if you,
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  check my LinkedIn,
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  I'm a very strong
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  advocate for mental health and burnout in physicians.
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  Physicians are one of the some of the
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  few or very few tough people,
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  who tough out everything for the amount of
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  training they go through, the aggressive
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  hours, the
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  no complaint culture.
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  During this process, they forget
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  that they also have a heart. They also
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  have a mind and a body they have
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  to cater to.
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  And and they don't realize that burnout,
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  they are already burned out. It's too late
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  or and they have mental health conditions or
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  they have physical problems.
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  And my one of my aim is to
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  prevent that, to identify that, and to support
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  my staff,
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  my my medical staff, my residents,
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  before
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  they even reach burnout.
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  How do we do that?
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  I have worked in a lot of bigger
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  corporations, and, unfortunately,
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  health care in the country,
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  in The United States is very, very corporate
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  led, which is all about numbers. And I
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  know and I'm very well aware that health
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  care is a business as well. We have
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  to make money to stay open,
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  but we have to listen to physicians. If
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  we want to give excellent patient care,
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  if we want to be profitable,
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  we have to
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  listen to the doctors.
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  We have to be patient
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  with the medical staff.
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  When I was doing my,
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  a big, my project for my certified physician
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  executive,
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  I presented
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  my whole project and I I to the
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  people who,
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  who gave me awarded me the CPE title.
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  And my project was pretty much that,
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  in every hospital I have worked at, it's
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  all about take care of patients, take care
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  of patients, patient satisfaction scores, you know, all
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  and but nobody ever talks about we need
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  to take care of our doctors as well.
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  Because if you're not gonna have doctors, how
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  are we gonna take care of our patients?
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  And I was like, I work in on
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  an inverse,
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  model, which is,
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  at the very bottom,
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  instead of rather than having you know, talking
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  only about patients, I wanna talk about doctors
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  to take care of our physicians, their health,
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  their satisfaction,
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  their well-being.
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  Because if I'm gonna talk I'm gonna take
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  care of that, they are going to move
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  mountains
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  to provide excellent patient care.
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  Once they provide excellent patient care, your patients
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  are gonna be happy. They'll keep on coming
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  to your hospital. They'll give you excellent reviews.
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  You will end up getting better insurance contracts,
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  and you will ultimately be profitable,
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  and will be able to sustain your hospital.
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  So if if and if we look it
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  at it in that aspect,
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  I think,
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  I think no hospital will have problems.
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  And I think that's what I have done
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  here in my capacity. It's been almost five
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  years as CMO.
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  When this hospital started, we literally had only
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  anesthesia
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  and podiatry as a subspecialty.
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  And now I'm very proud to say we
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  have over 15 surgical and internal medicine,
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  subspecialties,
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  and we are very, very happy to take
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  care of all our patients. We are working
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  on getting,
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  a pry our us a primary stroke center
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  certification.
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  We just got our initial joint commission accreditation,
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  and I'm
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  very proud of the work we all have
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  done here.
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  Very grateful to my medical staff who listens
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  to me
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  and who works as a team.
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  Absolutely. And going from two to over a
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  dozen of those subspecialties is
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  amazing. What was key there in terms of,
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  you know, recruiting those specialists and, like you
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  said, making sure they feel taken care of.
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  What does that really look like in practice?
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  Is it, you know, physician surveys, physician councils?
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  How how do you achieve that in your
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  day to day? So you know what? It's
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  a very good question.
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  We have done zero physician surveys. But what
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  you know what I do? You will never
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  find me in my office because I'm or
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  either if I'm in a meeting or I'm
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  or or I I I'm I'm I'm still
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  clinically active as well. I'm only 39 years
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  old. I came into leadership way earlier. So
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  but I talked to my doctors.
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  We did have all the subspecialists
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  here. They were tired of working in hospitals.
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  It was just conversations. It was reassurance
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  to them,
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  and it was proving
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  to them that when they come to this
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  hospital,
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  the culture will be different. Do we have
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  our problems and hardships? We absolutely do. But
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  I'll tell you, I'm very proud to say
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  that in my hospital,
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  we have
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  rarely used a physician recruiter to recruit,
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  probably two doctors, if that, in, like, orthopedics
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  or cardiology. We have recruited doctors all the
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  way from the Northeast Coast to
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  Nevada, the West Coast,
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  through contacts,
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  through our through our personal contacts
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  into this highly litigious state of New Mexico
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  because of our culture.
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  And the culture is listen to the doctors.
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  They are very they are important. They are
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  crucial. If you will not have a physician,
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  you will not have a hospital. And,
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  I think we are very successful. We do
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  have our hardships. We do have our struggles.
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  I personally have a lot of struggles in
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  the c suite as anyone
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  can imagine,
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  but I don't give up,
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  and I go home happy, and I sleep
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  happy that I've done a good job for
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  my people.
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  Yeah. That's very inspirational.
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  I know you mentioned the unique, legal landscape
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  in New Mexico. Do you mind just briefly
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  giving a snapshot of that for any listeners
• 13:55
  who might not be familiar?
• 13:57
  Yes. So New Mexico, unfortunately,
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  is very,
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  is is one of the worst states, unfortunately,
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  in the country to practice medicine in terms
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  of litigation.
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  These attorneys who work against the hospitals and
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  physicians are very, very powerful,
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  in this,
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  state.
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  And, unfortunately, the politicians don't help us either.
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  So what happens is that there is no
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  cap
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  on,
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  on on a malpractice lawsuit in the state
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  of New Mexico.
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  So we have, like, literally less than five
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  insurance companies
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  who are left. They all the insurance companies
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  have moved the meaning the medical malpractice companies
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  have moved out of New Mexico for the
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  horrible
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  hun
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  tens of millions of dollars of
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  lawsuits with the juries have awarded,
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  to,
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  the defendants.
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  They have been they had they could not
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  afford to stay here,
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  and they left. And we have lost
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  more than 30% of our physician workforce.
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  Either the doctors go and work for the
• 15:04
  VA or they go and work for a
• 15:05
  university hospital, which to some extent are protected,
• 15:09
  but they are not working for private hospitals
• 15:12
  because of this problem. There is no tort
• 15:15
  reform. There is nothing like Texas, for example,
• 15:18
  or Indiana
• 15:19
  have good tort reforms.
• 15:22
  They they protect their physician workforce.
• 15:26
  They protect their providers,
• 15:27
  their health care,
• 15:29
  you know,
• 15:31
  individuals, but not here in New Mexico. And
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  it is I think a lot of our
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  doctors, a lot of our local societies, New
• 15:38
  Mexico Medical Society, are are working
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  to
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  reverse or to put a certain cap
• 15:46
  because,
• 15:47
  you can up you can say that I'm
• 15:49
  going to sue so and so doctor for
• 15:51
  $100,000,000
• 15:52
  of punitive
• 15:53
  damages.
• 15:54
  Who can have that? I have personally heard
• 15:57
  of multiple doctors going bankrupt
• 15:59
  who would not settle
• 16:01
  for,
• 16:03
  for,
• 16:04
  based on the insurance company and they went
• 16:06
  for trial and they lost it and they
• 16:09
  had to file bankruptcy.
• 16:11
  This is not how you deal. No country
• 16:13
  in the world does that. And if people
• 16:15
  think doctors make a lot of money, then
• 16:16
  please go ahead and become a doctor because
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  I don't tell my kids to become a
• 16:22
  physician
• 16:23
  for what I have gone through.
• 16:25
  So this is a big, big, big struggle
• 16:28
  in the state of New Mexico, and, we
• 16:31
  are still dealing with it.
• 16:33
  Yeah.
• 16:34
  A significant challenge, and I think it it
• 16:37
  paints in,
• 16:39
  you know, even in more impressive picture of
• 16:41
  some of the success that you have had
• 16:42
  in expanding your physician workforce. So I appreciate
• 16:45
  you elaborating elaborating on that. Before we wrap
• 16:48
  today, I just wanna turn it to you.
• 16:49
  Are there any final thoughts you'd like to
• 16:51
  share about, you know, your work in terms
• 16:53
  of physician workforce or what's coming down the
• 16:55
  pipeline in 2026?
• 16:57
  Yes. So our program our plan is, of
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  course, you know,
• 17:01
  a profitable hospital,
• 17:04
  expanding service lines,
• 17:06
  making sure our patients don't leave Dona Ana
• 17:09
  County to go to either Texas or Albuquerque
• 17:12
  to seek care because we lead a we
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  lose a lot of patients
• 17:17
  to change
• 17:18
  the outlook of peep of of of the
• 17:21
  community that Las Cruces provides
• 17:23
  excellent health care that Southwest United States is
• 17:27
  as good as any other institution,
• 17:30
  in the country, the top institutions in the
• 17:33
  country. And if you look at Mayo Clinic
• 17:35
  and Cleveland Clinic, these are two physician
• 17:38
  run
• 17:39
  hospitals. Their CEOs are physicians. They have heavy
• 17:42
  physician
• 17:44
  overlook,
• 17:45
  and they are one of the most successful
• 17:47
  hospitals in the country. They are community hospitals
• 17:50
  who have excellent graduate medical education programs,
• 17:55
  and doctors love to work over there and
• 17:57
  patients love to go over there to be
• 17:58
  taken care of. And they are all five
• 18:01
  star hospitals. So why can't I make a
• 18:04
  community hospital,
• 18:05
  which is physician led, which has excellent graduate
• 18:09
  medical education
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  programs,
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  and make it as successful,
• 18:15
  with very, very limited resources. I think I
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  have done that, and all the doctors here
• 18:19
  have done that. And our goal is to
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  expand,
• 18:23
  our physician workforce,
• 18:25
  to hope and pray
• 18:27
  for medical malpractice to see if our politicians,
• 18:31
  you know, listen to us to see that
• 18:34
  we cannot afford to lose more doctors from
• 18:37
  New Mexico
• 18:38
  and, just keep on working hard.
• 18:41
  Absolutely. I think you're a great case study
• 18:44
  for community hospitals across the country of,
• 18:46
  what's possible and the progress being made. So,
• 18:48
  doctor Khan, thank you so much for taking
• 18:50
  the time to share some of your experience
• 18:51
  on the podcast. We so appreciate it.
• 18:54
  No problem. Thank you, Mackenzie. Thank you very,
• 18:56
  very much for having me.
• 18:58
  Thank you.
• 18:59
  Listeners, you can tune into more podcasts on
• 19:02
  our website.
• 19:03
  Otherwise, thank you all and hope you have
• 19:05
  a wonderful rest of the day.