Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Jason Mouzakes, MD, FAAP, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albany Medical Center Hospital and Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics

Transcript

Jason Mouzakes, MD, FAAP, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albany Medical Center Hospital and Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Kelly
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  Gucci, senior editor and enterprise lead at Becker's,
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  and I'm thrilled to be joined today by
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  Doctor. Jason Muzakas, president and CEO of Albany
• 0:09
  Medical Center Hospital. Doctor. Muzakas serves more than
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  brings more than thirty five years of experience
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  in Albany Med, where he has served a
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  wide range of roles from surgeon and department
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  founder to executive leadership before stepping into the
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  CEO role recently.
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  And Doctor. Mazzocas, thank you so much for
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  joining me. And before we dive in, I'd
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  love to have you introduce yourself and share
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  a little bit more about your background and
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  organization.
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  Great. And, Kelly, I really appreciate this opportunity,
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  so thank you for having me.
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  So, yeah, as you mentioned, I started here
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  as
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  a wide
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  eyed, bright eyed young 18 year old as
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  a high school senior. There was
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  an accelerated,
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  medical program with Union College in Schenectady. It
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  was a seven year program. So I first
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  set foot on this campus in 1988.
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  And, you know, foundational to all steps of
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  my journey, I would say, is is really
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  the people
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  that allowed me to, succeed in these, opportunities
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  on this campus.
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  So not forgetting my learner experience and workforce
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  experience,
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  all of the scientists and, the great clinicians
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  that helped shape my academic career.
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  I spent a short bit of time after
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  my residency here in Ear, Nose and Throat,
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  and went to Seattle, Washington
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  to the Children's Hospital where I learned about
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  pediatric ear, nose, and throat.
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  Spent a year with
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  those individuals who are still my mentors and
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  friends.
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  Returned to Albany Med as a practicing physician
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  and spent the last two plus decades,
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  in clinical medicine. And throughout that time,
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  really,
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  was afforded, again, through the people that surrounded
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  me, opportunities for leadership starting with,
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  leadership in education. So serving as the residency
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  program director for, thirteen years. I know it's
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  an exciting
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  time of year. We have match day coming
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  up in the nation tomorrow and a lot
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  of exciting
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  moments for people opening
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  their, their
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  destinations and their further training.
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  So, I haven't forgotten about that.
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  And then thereafter serving as the division chief
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  and then becoming the inaugural chair of the
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  Department of Otolaryngology
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  here. And then most recently,
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  in November '3,
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  serving as the hospital general director, so responsible
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  for the operations
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  on this campus. And then ultimately,
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  Mr. Pickett, who I know you interviewed earlier
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  this month as our system CEO,
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  nominated me and our board approved me in
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  the role of
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  CEO of the campus.
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  So really exciting. But all steps of the
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  way, my deepest gratitude is for the the
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  people
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  that helped shape my decisions and, really helped
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  mentor me.
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  Absolutely. And such a rich history there. And,
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  yes, we'll definitely be watching match day as
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  well coming up, and that's so great to
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  hear, you just keeping an eye on on
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  that as well. And as you just outlined,
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  of course, that's
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  a lot of time there, just Albany and
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  the organization stew as a student surgeon, founder,
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  hospital leader. And so now stepping into the
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  CEO role, how does that deep institutional history
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  really shape how you think about leading the
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  organization
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  today?
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  Yeah. It's a great, great,
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  point, Kelly. I I think for me,
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  I think about the word experience. I know
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  that often we talk about experience and certainly
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  patient experience is centric to what we do.
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  But,
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  no doubt
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  the experience
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  really shapes
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  not only
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  our delivery of care to our patients, but
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  we need to
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  remember all elements of what I'm calling the
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  human experience. So,
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  going back to, again,
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  my journey,
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  not
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  forgetting what it felt like to be a
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  learner.
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  So, the learner experience incredibly important. The workforce
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  experience
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  being shaped by the early days of my
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  career and understanding some of the challenges.
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  Our faculty experience,
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  investigator
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  experience for some of our basic scientists and
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  researchers that are advancing some of the cutting
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  edge discovery.
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  Also remembering and recalling what it feels like
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  to be a visitor or a a collaborator
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  in our community. So all of those things
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  I think have really influenced me in the
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  way I approach my work
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  is looking at experience. We are really trying
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  to promote very heavily on this campus really
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  three elements
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  that are shaping the way we make decisions.
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  And certainly me as a CEO,
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  I think about patient experience, quality, and clinical
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  excellence as really the important pillars that are
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  driving
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  our decisions forward.
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  Absolutely. And you just mentioned, of course, clinical
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  excellence there as well. So I'd I'd love
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  to see if there's anything you'd expand on
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  to, of course, building as we've outlined, just
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  building your career first as a physician and
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  academic leader and just how that clinical perspective
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  influence
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  is just the way you approach decisions around
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  operations workforce and strategy.
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  Yeah. No. I and this is really kind
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  of a gift for me as a, an
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  executive.
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  That clinical experience,
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  is is really invaluable.
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  One of my favorite days of the week
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  and it'll probably make you laugh, but it's
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  Saturday. And, Saturday is the one day where
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  my schedule
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  is fairly open. So, I arrive
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  very early. My wife encourages me to leave
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  early. I think she's got stuff going on
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  at home. And I head into the hospital
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  and I start rounds
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  after a bit of a safety huddle that
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  we do on Saturday mornings. We can be
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  in a group on the campus around 08:00
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  and I spend most of the morning until
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  the early afternoon
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  literally connecting with
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  clinicians, non clinicians, our workforce that supports us,
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  our facilities folks, security workforce.
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  And,
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  being on this campus,
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  this
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  campus itself, the infrastructure is about four and
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  a half million square feet. So, it's like
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  a small city, nearly 10,000 employees. I try
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  very hard to learn little bits and pieces
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  about everyone.
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  And so, some of it is really just
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  being exposed to all elements, certainly as a
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  surgeon,
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  ranging from our ED,
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  the clinical spaces including our perioperative spaces,
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  our units where our nurses are working incredibly
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  hard, our support staff that really,
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  foster a positive environment
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  for our patients and visitors.
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  So that's really my opportunity to listen.
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  It's something that Mr. Pickett has really been
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  a great influence for me is the importance
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  of listening and empowerment of our workforce.
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  So walking around collecting intel on what are
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  the
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  opportunities for improvement,
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  what are some of the highlights.
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  Yesterday our hospital affairs board meeting.
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  I love sharing my kudos and shout outs
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  to so many of the areas both clinically
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  and non clinically,
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  what we do here on this campus. So
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  I think
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  being
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  embedded,
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  as a person who was a former
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  student, learner, part of the workforce, part of
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  the front lines,
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  I can't forget that. And it's a constant
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  reminder. And, it's been a huge advantage.
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  Yeah. That's amazing that you're using Saturdays in
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  that way and just that knowledge that you're
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  gaining to, from from really being on the
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  ground. So that's that's great to hear. And
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  I wanted to ask you too just about
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  academic,
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  aspect as well. Of course, Albany Med's only
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  academic systems are in Northeastern New York and
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  Western New England. So I was curious as
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  health care continues to evolve, how do you
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  see the role of an academic medical center
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  changing in terms of access research and and
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  training the next generation of clinicians?
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  Kelly, I I love this question,
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  but I'm gonna pivot a bit. I'm gonna
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  focus on
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  perhaps what won't change at first. So what
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  won't change is the need for incredible education,
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  foundational education,
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  provision
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  of innovation to serve our advancements and understanding,
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  and certainly, as I mentioned earlier, the promotion
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  of clinical excellence to serve the needs of
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  our community.
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  And to me, I think the word that
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  you use that underlies all of this is
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  the assurance of access. To me,
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  access is absolutely foundational to our success.
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  And I reaffirmed this in multiple venues during
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  my leadership.
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  Access to healthcare
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  is a basic human right and should never
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  ever be considered a privilege, and I resonate
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  that far and wide.
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  I'm very fortunate that Albany Med
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  embraces that.
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  I know that currently our healthcare is really
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  tough work and it faces significant
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  workforce challenges.
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  We need to continue to search for creative
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  opportunities to expand access, create capacity to serve
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  our region,
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  not unlike many regions of the nation.
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  And,
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  so what I would say is we realize
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  the incredible role, and the profound role for
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  that matter, that we play as an academic
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  center. We are the only children's hospital.
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  We're the only medical college for the region
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  and we are also the only level one
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  trauma center
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  taking on nearly 17,000
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  transfers per year. So
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  we get to yes.
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  We understand our role in the community, but
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  most importantly, the thing that won't change is
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  the need to really reinforce and reaffirm access
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  to healthcare.
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  Absolutely. Yeah. That's definitely across the board, A
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  a through line,
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  systems across the board, that access component specifically.
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  So
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  great
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  to great to hear more about that as
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  well. And I wanted to also just more
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  forward looking here, but as you're stepping into
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  the CEO role, what do you see as
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  the biggest opportunity or or challenge for Omni
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  Med Center over the next few years? And
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  and how are you really thinking about positioning
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  the organization for for the future?
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  No. I'm I'm glad you asked this, Kelly.
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  We our vision
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  for this next,
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  several years is, First Choice 2030, and I'm
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  sure mister Pickett may have shared some
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  ideas around this.
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  And it's really the importance of first choice
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  is that we want to remain the first
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  choice
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  in our region for our patients,
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  for our patient experience, quality, clinical excellence. We
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  want to be a destination.
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  No doubt. We want to be that destination
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  for our learners, for folks visiting and collaborating.
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  I think the enormous opportunities to work collaboratively
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  with our campus affiliates across our system. We
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  are so lucky
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  to have in our system four amazing hospitals,
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  our Visiting Nurses Association, our Medical College, our
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  Children's Hospital.
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  On this campus, the Albany Medical Center campus,
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  we are embracing our tertiary, quaternary identity and
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  the importance of those community partnerships.
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  Some of this also includes strengthening
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  partnerships with our primary care relationships,
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  again, with the thought of improving patient access.
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  I think
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  the big challenge now is to continue
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  vigorously our journey of systemness,
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  which will really galvanize our first choice
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  vision.
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  The challenges that really I often think, what
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  keeps me up at night?
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  I'm going to go right back to what
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  we started this conversation with. It's about people.
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  Our success,
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  Kelly, is hinged on the success of our
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  greatest asset, our workforce.
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  Our industry
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  is faced with a lot of volatility, shifts
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  in the workforce, things that others have spoken
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  about
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  from the days of the great resignation and
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  loss of deep institutional knowledge,
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  to our more recent over reliance on temporary
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  travel staff. And we know that travel staff
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  and temporary staff plays a role, but not
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  a sustainable role.
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  So as I mentioned, our campus having nearly
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  10,000 employees over nine twenty job types, it's
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  imperative that we focus on the roles and
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  development of each and every member of our
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  team.
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  This mission
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  is really hard work, but we always must
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  recognize and maintain awareness around the challenges of
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  our teammates,
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  and the challenges they face. So I I
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  think
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  the biggest challenge that we continue to face
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  is keeping our workforce engaged.
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  And that's really, as I mentioned earlier, active
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  listening, empowerment, that has to be fundamental.
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  Again, I can't say it enough. I welcome
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  our frontline staff to share their insights, their
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  highlights, their opportunities.
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  As I always mention to them, they often
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  come to me sometimes apologetically bringing a concern.
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  And I welcome those concerns
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  because to me,
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  the day that,
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  somebody doesn't bring a concern, that to me
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  is the
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  true, I would say, insidious enemy. When a
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  complaint isn't raised, it's that enemy that we
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  call indifference. And to me, that's my role
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  is to keep people highly engaged,
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  bringing forth
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  problems and solutions.
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  And
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  again, our momentum right now, especially under mister
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  Pickett's leadership, is so positive,
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  as we embrace our first choice 2030
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  vision.
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  Yeah. It's that that employee engagement stuff social,
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  and it's it'll be great to stay updated,
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  of course, on, everything that moves forward with
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  First Choice and just how everything continues to
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  evolve. So
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  thank you so much, doctor Mizzoucas, for this
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  fun and interesting conversation.
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  And I really appreciate your time, and I
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  look forward to working with you again soon.
• 13:30
  Same, Kelly, and have a great day. Thank
• 13:32
  you so much.