Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Daniel G. Gollins, President of Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children's Urgent Care

Transcript

Daniel G. Gollins, President of Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children's Urgent Care · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Chris with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dan Golans,
• 0:05
  president of Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children's Urgent Care. Dan,
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  thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:11
  Thank you for having me. Good morning.
• 0:13
  Dan.
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  Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
• 0:17
  Sure. As you said, I'm Dan Go.
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  I'm president for of Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children's Urgent
• 0:22
  Care.
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  We have 80 plus locations across the central and southeast Texas regions,
• 0:28
  so throughout Houston, Austin, and College Station.
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  I have been in the president role since 2021 and have been with Texas Children's
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  for over 10 years.
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  I have my undergraduate degree in master's degree from University of Central
• 0:41
  Florida. I got into healthcare, uh, a little bit about why I,
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  how I got into this role. I got into healthcare thinking.
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  I actually wanted to be a physical therapist and quickly realized during my
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  undergraduate studies that, well, healthcare was where I wanted to be.
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  Patient care wasn't necessarily the thing I wanted to do.
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  And so quickly shifted my focus from the patient side to the business side of
• 1:03
  healthcare. I've spent my entire career on the physician side,
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  so I have not worked, uh, in the hospital setting,
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  but I've spent all my time with physician groups,
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  either on the adult side or in now in the pediatric world.
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  Uh, Dan,
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  what was it that made you want to make that change from physical therapy to your
• 1:20
  current path?
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  Well, I quickly realized in the anatomy and physiology classes that, uh,
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  looking at those very, very large textbooks,
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  that was not how my brain functioned to memorize, uh, information at a,
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  in a large quantity. I was more of a numbers person, data and analytics person.
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  Um, and in the background,
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  I had been taking a lot of the economics courses and finance courses.
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  So quickly shifted, uh,
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  shifted gears because I knew I wanted to do healthcare again,
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  thought I wanted to do patient care,
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  but recognized very quickly that that wasn't, wasn't for me,
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  but I could still have, uh, uh, the ability to impact patient care in a,
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  in a different way. And so utilized my, my finance and analytics skill set, um,
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  and, and went down that path.
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  Well, it certainly sounds like he lands here in the right place.
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  What would you say are your top priorities today?
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  Well, I'll gonna, I'll break that up into two, two buckets here. So,
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  from a patient standpoint, our, our,
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  our top priority is to continue to provide high quality best in class
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  experiences. Our families love us. They love their pediatricians.
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  Their pediatricians are a part of their daily lives. For some of our families,
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  they, you know,
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  they get to see your kids from the day that they're born until they leave,
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  leave for college. And we want our families, uh,
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  at least here in our organization, we want our families to,
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  to be a part of that.
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  And we want our pediatricians to be a part of our families. Um,
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  we have a responsibility to continue to make sure we have access for our
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  families. We have so many people that love us.
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  It's sometimes really hard to get in.
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  So we continue to look at different ways to provide access for our families. Um,
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  and that's where we're unique.
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  And our urgent care service line is very closely aligned with our primary care
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  service line.
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  So we have the ability for patients to get seen on a primary care side or on a
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  urgent care side, but we can see their entire history.
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  So while the provider might be different, the care is very seamless in,
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  in how we're providing it to our families.
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  From a physician and staff standpoint,
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  our prior priority coming out of the pandemic has really been around engagement
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  and wellness.
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  So what we heard from our team quite often was they felt abandoned or
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  alone, especially during the early parts of the pandemic,
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  because we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know, you know,
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  how to make sure everybody was truly protected. And while we had a ppe,
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  there's still a lot of questions out there. Uh, as we've come out of that,
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  we have really focused on the re-engagement and the wellness of our,
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  of our teams. Um, we are uniquely challenged due to our geographic spread.
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  So Texas is very large, and Houston is, um, has some,
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  some traffic barriers. And, and Austin is no different.
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  It can take you several hours to drive across town. Um,
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  but our geographic spread, while it is, uh, unique and challenging,
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  it is also provide us a unique opportunity to get out and,
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  and meet with our teams. So personally,
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  I make it an effort of mine to go out to our practices at least once or twice a
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  year to visit with our teams to listen. It's really important that we,
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  we go out and listen. We're not just there to shake hands and say hello.
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  We're there to listen and hear the direct feedback from our teams,
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  see what's going on in the clinic, hear from our patients,
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  or hear from our providers. Um, I have a very much have an open door policy.
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  Anybody has questions or concerns in our organization.
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  They can pick up the phone and call, they can email me. I am available. And,
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  and my leadership team, our directors, our executive team,
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  everybody has that same open access to them because we are very much here about
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  transparency, listening, communicating. Um,
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  I think the other thing that's really important to us is about two years ago,
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  we stood up our physician engagement and wellness committee as a physician
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  group. We are a physician-led organization,
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  and it's really important for us to be successful,
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  we have to have physician buy-in.
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  So we started this engagement and wellness committee really focused on combating
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  burnout. And we don't even like to say the word burnout.
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  We want to improve engagement and improve wellness. Um,
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  subsequently that's gone so well that we've done, uh,
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  subsequent groups for managers, advanced practice providers, staff,
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  and one specific to our urgent care setting,
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  just because there's some unique challenges that they have that might be
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  different on the, the primary care setting. Um,
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  but what I didn't talk about,
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  what you didn't hear me say was talk about finance or quality or, uh,
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  growth. You know,
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  we're confident that if we improve the engagement and the wellness of our staff
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  and our physicians, all the other stuff, the business stuff will come.
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  We will be successful in finance. We will have better quality outcomes. And,
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  and we've seen that. So we've seen our financial position improve.
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  We've seen our quality outcomes improve, um,
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  over time as we've continued to launch and, um,
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  navigate our way through the pandemic and, and really reengage with our,
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  with our staff and our physicians differently.
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  You mentioned the challenges that were faced by your teams during the pandemic.
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  Uh, with the recent wave of R S V,
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  what sort of feedback were you getting from your providers?
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  Yeah, that, that surge was over the,
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  the winter break was really heavy,
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  and I would tell you that outpaced any volumes that we
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  had seen during the, the pandemic, um, previously. But, you know,
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  everybody felt supported. They felt that we communicated appropriately.
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  Was it perfect? No. Were there times that we were like,
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  you just gotta figure out how we can get open, how we can see our families?
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  Absolutely. Um, but, you know,
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  I also think this was a unique challenge and nobody really knew what to do.
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  These were volumes and numbers across the, the country that patients weren't,
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  that we've never seen before. Um, I think as an organization,
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  having our urgent cares single-handedly saved our organization to be able to
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  function. Our emergency rooms were over capacity.
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  Our urgent cares were filled to the brim.
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  Our primary cares were filled to the brim.
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  And so we would leverage all those assets.
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  We leveraged our telemedicine program.
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  We were seeing 180 to 200 kids a night on telemedicine,
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  where normally we see a hundred. We were open till three o'clock in the morning.
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  So we, we pulled all the leverage that we could,
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  and our staff and our physicians felt very much supported. And, you know,
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  at some point we just said, this is as much as we can do,
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  and we're here to serve as many patients as we can, but we have to do it safely,
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  uh, for everybody.
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  Given all that you have seen, and it sometimes seems just overwhelming,
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  how do you anticipate your role and your teams will evolve over the next 18
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  months or so?
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  Yes, I think the word evolved is a, is a,
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  is a good term to use here. So Texas Children's, we have a very,
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  very strong history of growth and expansion, and we're really proud of,
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  of Texas Children's Pediatrics and urgent care. We've been around for 28 years,
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  so we've really, um, had a physician group that started,
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  started with one practice 28 years ago, and now with our urgent cares,
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  we're over 80. Uh, the next 18 months is gonna continue to be an evolution.
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  We have a new hospital that's opening up in Austin in February of 2024.
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  We've got additional urgent cares, additional primary care, uh,
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  service line offerings. So we need to continue to evolve and be flexible.
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  And what does it mean to provide care in not only just another part of
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  town, but a place that's three hours away? How do we support those practices,
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  support our physicians, support our families? Um,
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  Austin is a little different than Houston.
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  How do we support families differently there than we might here in Houston?
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  I think for my team,
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  we talk a lot about the evolution of our structure. So our finance,
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  our quality teams, our value-based care,
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  we know we need to evolve in those areas to continue to support the growth and
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  the expansion, um, that we have going on. And I think for me in particular,
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  I actually don't think there's a, a ton of evolution in my role.
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  My role continues to be an advocate. I need to advocate for my physicians.
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  We need to advocate for our staff, need to advocate for our leadership team,
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  need to provide them with those tools that they need to support and care for our
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  families. I can't do that. I cannot go in and serve our families.
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  I cannot go in and provide care for our families,
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  but what I can do is I could fight for whatever it is that they need.
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  I could advocate for those tools, those resources,
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  whatever it is that they need to do to be successful,
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  to be able to support our families. And I think in my role,
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  in our leadership team's role, like if we don't do that, then we are failing.
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  Uh, doesn't mean we can't evolve as leaders, but at the core of what we do,
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  we need to be an advocate for our, for our team. So I don't,
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  I don't see my role changing much in, in, uh, in that sense.
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  Uh, beyond advocacy, which is exer certainly very important. Uh,
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  what do you think is the key to cohesion among your network, considering,
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  as you said, it's spread all over Texas?
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  Yes, I think transparency and communication.
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  If there's one thing that we've learned throughout the pandemic,
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  you can't over communicate to your, to your, to your team.
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  So, uh,
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  what we've seen be the most success that we've had is our constant communication
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  around changes in protocols or updates around covid guidelines.
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  Um, going forward, it's, it's not necessarily covid, but what communication,
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  explaining the why, why are we doing something?
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  And it can't just be an email . Our doctors are staff. They're busy,
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  they're caring for patients. They're not sitting at their computer all day,
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  like we might be on the, on the business side.
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  So how do we communicate differently to them? Is it a quick phone call?
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  Is it a lunch and learn? Is it a night meeting? Um,
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  is it a quick text, uh, message that might go out to folks,
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  cell phones if it's something that's really, really important?
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  So we've learned a lot about communication,
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  how to communicate with our teams better, and in order for us to be successful,
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  that's gonna be even more key given our geographic spread, uh, that we have,
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  that we have today.
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  Uh, switching gears a little bit here, Dan,
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  what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous?
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  So, you know,
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  I'm most excited about the opportunities that we've had to build upon our
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  successes for the last 27 years. So we, again, have a strong,
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  strong core operations. We've been really successful,
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  but when you have a strong core, uh, basis for your operations,
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  it allows you to do all the fun stuff. You can't do all the fun stuff.
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  If you can't turn the lights on, you can't serve our patients,
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  provide high quality. All of that has to come first. So one of the,
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  one of the fun projects that we're working on is behavioral health.
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  So we know if you read any article across the country, there is a very,
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  very large need for behavioral health services for patients, adult and,
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  and pediatric. Uh,
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  but there is not a ton of opportunities for these families in these patients to
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  get that care.
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  We have started an integrated behavioral health program that has social workers,
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  psychiatrists, and psychologists embedded in our practices. So it takes,
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  that behavioral health program,
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  takes it out of the hospital and brings it closer to home.
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  But if we don't have the ability to do the basic primary care
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  work that we do,
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  we can't do this other fun additional work that our families really need.
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  And it's really important. So, you know,
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  I'd say that's what I'm really excited about because that's just the start of
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  what we have to come. If we can do integrated health,
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  we can do name the next thing in line and we can,
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  we can easily roll that out and support our families. Uh,
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  in ter in terms of what makes me nervous, I'll be honest,
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  not a whole lot makes me nervous. I look at all as an opportunity. You know, we,
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  especially when you, you step into the president's role of,
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  of the largest primary care group during the middle of a pandemic, it,
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  that was pretty tough.
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  I had a really great team around me and I had a great mentor who left me in a
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  very, very good position, uh, to be in with her, with her, uh,
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  leadership that she had shared with me when, uh, when we transitioned. But,
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  you know, we used the pandemic, for example,
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  to launch our telemedicine programs for our primary care and urgent care teams,
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  our virtual urgent care. We'll see 30 thou over 30,000 patients this year.
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  It's the largest urgent care that we have.
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  A site of service that we have is our virtual urgent care platform that came
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  within a week because it took us so long to talk through virtual
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  care. And is it something we can do? As soon as the pandemic hit,
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  we launched virtual care. We've invested in it, and it's continued to grow.
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  It's, it's been a very, very wonderful success, um, success story.
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  You know, I, I don't, don't get me wrong,
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  not being nervous doesn't mean it's not going to be easy.
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  There's not going to be challenges ahead. Um,
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  but when you have the strong core operations, you have a strong team,
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  you can face those headwinds, and we can make it, we can make it through.
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  You know, I have, I, I really feel like I'm in a, an amazing position.
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  I have a strong leadership team, my chief medical officer,
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  my assistant vice presidents, my directors of operations,
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  and then at the core of that,
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  we have a physician leadership team that we meet with monthly.
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  We have a board of physicians that we can go to and say, Hey,
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  here's what we're thinking. Are we on track? Um,
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  and these are all physicians who practice daily.
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  So it's not falling on deaf ears. It's not people who don't, uh,
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  work and see what's going on.
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  It's really important to stay close to it so we can ensure that we are serving
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  our families appropriately. We are supporting our, uh,
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  physicians and our staff appropriately,
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  which will ultimately just make us more successful for the future.
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  Yeah, it was an absolute pleasure speaking with you today,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
• 14:54
  Absolutely. Thank you very much.