Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leading a Thriving Critical Access Hospital in a Challenging Market with Joe Caristi

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Leading a Thriving Critical Access Hospital in a Challenging Market with Joe Caristi · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  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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  health care executives will return to Chicago for
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  Becker's 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.
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  Join us April 13 through the 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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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast.
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  We're thrilled today to be joined by a
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  brilliant leader in healthcare. We're joined today by
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  Joe Caristi,
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  and Joe's the chief financial officer of Spirit
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  Memorial Hospital.
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  He's in the Northeast. We're gonna talk to
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  Joe about New England winters, whether it's freezing
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  or not, and a lot more, and whether
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  he's a Patriots fan. Joe, can you take
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  a moment and introduce yourself and and tell
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  us a little bit about Spear Memorial Hospital
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  and and about your career?
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  Sure. So as you mentioned, I'm Joe Christie,
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  the CFO at Spear Memorial Hospital.
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  We are a proudly independent critical access hospital
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  located in Central New Hampshire.
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  And, you know, I think much like other
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  critical access hospitals really strive to provide local
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  care to our patients.
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  And we provide a whole lot of local
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  specialty services that we're pretty proud of, including,
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  labor and delivery, obstetrics, and pediatrics.
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  Fantastic. And talk about the world of critical
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  access hospitals today. What what's the key to
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  a critical access hospital
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  thriving and doing okay? Because I I know
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  it's a challenging time for small and independent
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  hospitals.
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  Some though that really have clarity about what
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  they're doing seem to do fine. Tell us
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  a little bit about what what works, what
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  doesn't work. What is the what is the
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  key?
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  I I think in a lot of critical
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  access hospitals today, you're seeing,
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  obviously increased pressure from a reimbursement
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  perspective. And how do you balance that with
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  the needs of your community and potentially any
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  growth strategies that, that your organization might be
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  able to,
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  pursue?
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  And so at Spear, we're focusing very hard
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  on on those two things, making sure we're
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  we're staying very on top of changes to
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  reimbursement as they're coming,
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  mitigating the impacts of those changes to the
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  best of our abilities,
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  and really trying to ensure that we have
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  the resources we need to
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  continue delivering the services we currently provide to
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  our community, but also be able to expand.
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  And there there's there's some opportunity for us,
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  to to do more, and we're really trying
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  hard to to make that happen.
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  Thank you. When when where are the areas
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  that you'd like to expand into? Where where
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  where where are you trying to do that?
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  Yeah. You know, in our, geography,
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  there's,
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  a pretty broad need for both primary care
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  and specialty services.
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  And, you know, as a critical access hospital,
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  there's no reason we can't provide,
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  both of those things,
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  to to our community. So,
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  the the challenge is when it comes to
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  the kind of the cost and the outlay
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  of establishing new locations, new clinics,
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  etcetera. And so,
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  we're we're being very mindful and careful about
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  how we execute that strategy.
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  You know, we're we're,
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  able to benefit from,
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  cost reimbursement for Medicare,
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  so ensuring that we're maximizing that whenever we
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  can with new locations.
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  But, again, it ties back to that relationship
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  between reimbursement
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  and and kind of our cost outlay and
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  and,
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  making sure that those two things balance.
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  Thank you.
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  You've been a a a chief financial officer
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  for some time.
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  What are some of the lessons that you've
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  learned as a CFO? What are some of
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  the things that,
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  that that sort of like that maybe you
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  didn't think about originally in health care when
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  you were a practice manager doing performance improvement.
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  But when you have the whole picture now
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  of of being a CFO,
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  how do you look at things differently or
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  if you do look at things differently?
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  I certainly think I look at things differently
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  now being, having some some CFO experience. You
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  know, I guess I would say,
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  at least in my professional career, looking back,
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  and especially, again, being CFO now,
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  there's never been a time in health care
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  where we have ever felt like we had
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  the appropriate amount of staff, whether it's rev
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  cycle or nursing or on the provider side
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  of things.
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  We always feel chronically understaffed.
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  And so from a finance perspective, you know,
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  we're not gonna staff our way through those
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  challenges. Really, we're gonna be able to meet
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  the the needs of today through process improvement,
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  new technology,
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  investments in in workflow,
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  and,
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  structural design.
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  So I, you know, I think that's something
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  I've certainly come to appreciate more and more
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  as a CFO, and it's a talking point
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  I often repeat with our leaders and directors
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  across the organization.
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  Thank you. When you look at this year
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  coming up, what are you most focused on
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  and excited about?
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  I would say we're most focused on,
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  the changes to reimbursement. We're most excited about
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  the new innovations that are coming to market,
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  particularly,
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  with the advent of AI.
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  There's a lot of legacy workflows in health
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  care
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  that,
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  are right for innovation, and I think AI
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  is really going to,
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  bring a lot of those workflows,
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  to a much more modernized state. So we've
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  we've heavily invested in AI.
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  We were early adopters of, NBL listening for,
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  documentation assistance for our providers.
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  We are,
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  looking at all kinds of AI tools that
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  might be applied to our revenue cycle,
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  And we're also trying to help our staff
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  just understand,
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  even with the large language models that are
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  out there, you know, what are the
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  safe and effective ways that we can use
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  those in health care,
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  to do things like help our leaders write
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  job descriptions
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  and maybe help them write policies.
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  You know, cutting a few hours out of,
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  all of their days,
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  can can really make a big difference.
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  Thank you. And and you've had this great
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  career. Your lifelong learner went back to Johns
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  Hopkins for a master's degree. You must be
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  proud of that. And aside from being proud
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  of that,
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  what advice do you give to other emerging
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  leaders about lifelong learning, about professional skills?
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  What advice would you give to people that
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  are emerging professionals and leaders?
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  Sure. I think,
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  so the the master's degree you mentioned was
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  in systems engineering,
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  and might seem like an atypical
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  degree,
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  but I don't think it could be any
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  more relevant than, than it is today in
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  health care. We operate and and function,
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  and manage
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  highly complex
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  systems in health care,
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  And so having a a mindset and a
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  framework for systems thinking and how we approach
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  complex problems,
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  I think is really important. The other piece
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  of advice I would really give, a new
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  leader, especially somebody,
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  you know, looking to to grow, and this
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  is a piece of advice I was given
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  once upon a time in my career,
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  is the way you get stuff done is
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  through relationships and influence.
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  And so at every step, at every point
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  in your career,
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  use every interaction as an opportunity to form
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  a relationship,
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  and that will serve you incredibly well,
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  as you go about being a change agent,
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  try to implement new new technology, new services,
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  any kinda process improvements.
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  All of those things are far more successful
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  if you have established
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  trustworthy relationships with with those involved.
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  Fantastic.
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  And and I I I'd love your career.
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  Congratulations on what you're doing at Spirit Memorial.
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  Is it is it ski season up there
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  in New Hampshire or in the in the
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  Northeast or or not so much ski weather?
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  It's definitely ski season. We've had a wonderful
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  start to the winter. Although the past week
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  or so, it's been a little bit little
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  bit warm, but we got plenty of snow
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  on the ground, and I know the the
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  ski mountains are quite happy right now. So
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  That is fantastic.
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  It is great to visit with you. I
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  I loved your success stories from critical access
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  hospitals and thriving. Thank you so much for
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  taking the time to visit with us today
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  and continued good work. What a pleasure to
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  visit with you, Joe. Thank you so much.
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  Likewise, Scott. Really appreciate it.