Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Leading Through Uncertainty: Mark Marsh on Trust, Communication, and Rural Healthcare Strategy

Transcript

Leading Through Uncertainty: Mark Marsh on Trust, Communication, and Rural Healthcare Strategy · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
• 0:21
  - pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
• 0:26
  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
• 0:30
  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
• 0:32
  - around growth, financial sustainability,
• 0:35
  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
• 0:41
  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:50
  - Hello, everyone. This is Scott King live from
• 0:52
  - Becker's first ever rural health care leadership summit
• 0:55
  - joined by a very special guest right now,
• 0:57
  - Mark Marsh, president and chief executive officer of
• 1:00
  - Owensboro Health. Mark, how are you? Thanks so
• 1:02
  - much for making it. Doing great. Thank you,
• 1:03
  - Scott. Thanks for having me. No. It's a
• 1:05
  - pleasure. Absolutely. And before we kinda get started
• 1:07
  - and dive into some questions here, just wonder
• 1:08
  - if you could please just tell us briefly
• 1:10
  - about yourself, your role, your background, your organization.
• 1:13
  - Sure. Great, Scott. Yeah. Owensboro Health is is
• 1:16
  - Scott alluded to. We we reside in the
• 1:18
  - Western part of the state.
• 1:20
  - We we serve about 17 counties in about
• 1:23
  - 700,000
• 1:24
  - lives. And,
• 1:26
  - again,
• 1:28
  - you'd write it about a little over a
• 1:29
  - billion dollars, a billion 1 this year in
• 1:31
  - in net revenue. So it's certainly growing and
• 1:33
  - certainly looking to to expand those those services.
• 1:36
  - But, you know, I've been back five years,
• 1:38
  - and all of us,
• 1:40
  - we've earned these gray hairs on our head,
• 1:42
  - but, I've been up in all over the
• 1:43
  - world from Orlando, Nashville. And and so, again,
• 1:45
  - just very blessed to be back in Owensboro
• 1:47
  - and serving those communities. Oh, no. Appreciate you
• 1:49
  - sharing your your background info there. Very fascinating.
• 1:52
  - And, you know, with so much going on,
• 1:53
  - you know, always in health care, but especially
• 1:55
  - right now, what do you feel is commanding
• 1:57
  - the most of your attention as a leader
• 1:59
  - currently?
• 2:00
  - Yeah. I think, you know, there's a lot
• 2:01
  - of education going on. And so, I had
• 2:03
  - the pleasure yesterday. I'd, again, this is just
• 2:05
  - an example. We have a collaborative within Kentucky,
• 2:07
  - and so there's 10 of us, and we're
• 2:09
  - the largest health systems here. And so you
• 2:10
  - may have heard University of Kentucky, Norton's Baptist,
• 2:13
  - say, we get together periodically. So, obviously, this
• 2:15
  - big, this big beautiful bill, HR one, has
• 2:18
  - has got a lot of people little little
• 2:19
  - anxious. Right? Yes. That's right. But really understanding
• 2:22
  - what that looks like,
• 2:23
  - We we certainly we're putting a lot of
• 2:24
  - our playbook together. And a lot of my
• 2:26
  - time is spent certainly, educating,
• 2:28
  - team members. Right? We're about 5,500, so we're
• 2:31
  - a little over 5,000 team members. We're the
• 2:32
  - largest employer in Kentucky, West Of Lowell.
• 2:35
  - So a lot of my time is spent,
• 2:36
  - certainly educating doctors, communities. We now have 400
• 2:39
  - doctors in our health system. I'm I'm going
• 2:41
  - to DC, Frankfort, Kentucky. And so a lot
• 2:43
  - of just educating, letting people know,
• 2:46
  - not out of fear,
• 2:47
  - but, obviously, some of these changes are gonna
• 2:49
  - happen and and how we're gonna navigate through
• 2:51
  - that in these coming years. Of course. You
• 2:52
  - wanna be prepared. And with with 5,000 teammates,
• 2:55
  - that's a lot of education that's that's needed.
• 2:56
  - Absolutely.
• 2:57
  - In a in a year marked by rapid
• 2:59
  - change, what recent decision or pivot required the
• 3:02
  - most leadership conviction from you as an individual,
• 3:05
  - particularly when it came to aligning people, resources,
• 3:08
  - or capabilities? Yeah. A lot lot of these
• 3:10
  - are really redundant what I just shared. Yeah.
• 3:11
  - Obviously, it's communication and maintaining trust. We're we're
• 3:14
  - very big on our mission. And and, again,
• 3:17
  - when you have a community and we know
• 3:18
  - how important health care and education is. So
• 3:20
  - it's really letting people know. Right? And here's
• 3:22
  - the changes. So I do a lot of
• 3:23
  - talks with the community,
• 3:25
  - with our board members, a lot of with
• 3:27
  - our 5,000 team members. But it's really trying
• 3:29
  - to people to understand. Here here's what's going
• 3:31
  - on. Here's what's happening.
• 3:33
  - Being very authentic,
• 3:34
  - very approachable. We're very visible, throughout the Western
• 3:37
  - part of the state. But it's just it's
• 3:38
  - it's really staying true to our core, and
• 3:40
  - that's being the best hospital we can. Our
• 3:42
  - mission statement is healing the sick and and
• 3:44
  - and improving the health and lives of the
• 3:45
  - communities we serve, and we live by that
• 3:47
  - every day.
• 3:48
  - Is there anything recently that's kinda changed how
• 3:50
  - you approach decision making either with with talent
• 3:53
  - or, you know, organizational readiness? Yeah. It's interesting.
• 3:56
  - And you said so this new we're we're
• 3:57
  - actually putting together a new strategic playbook. And
• 3:59
  - so, obviously,
• 4:00
  - you read anything with Becker's, you guys read
• 4:03
  - every day and I love love the articles.
• 4:04
  - Right? You see the how how we're transitioning.
• 4:06
  - And I have a lot of coming from
• 4:08
  - the for profit, not for profit, been with
• 4:09
  - HCA since I've been with all of them.
• 4:11
  - So we're all trying to navigate through these
• 4:13
  - new waters, a little bit of uncertainty. I
• 4:15
  - think it's how we approach it. It's it's
• 4:16
  - still the positivity is is people look at
• 4:19
  - us, and they wanna make sure, hey. We've
• 4:21
  - got this. We got a plan. We're building
• 4:22
  - that. We may not have all the answers,
• 4:23
  - but you're bringing people along and very much
• 4:25
  - inclusive. And so that's what we do. I
• 4:27
  - spend a lot of my time meeting with
• 4:29
  - our doctors to help them to explain the
• 4:30
  - why. We have something called GIMBA boards in
• 4:32
  - our hospital. We have a 100 of them
• 4:33
  - throughout the health system. The team members understand.
• 4:35
  - The best people I can have is to
• 4:37
  - make sure they're informed is those 5,000 team
• 4:39
  - members. So they understand what we're doing, the
• 4:41
  - why behind it. So I think it's a
• 4:43
  - lot of it's education,
• 4:44
  - communication right now, and just maintain that trust.
• 4:48
  - When you compare a system with 5,000, you
• 4:50
  - know, team members to a to a much
• 4:52
  - smaller system and, you know, there's the obvious,
• 4:54
  - like, how it would be different, but but
• 4:56
  - what are some maybe some things people don't
• 4:57
  - realize about what it takes to to manage
• 4:59
  - a system with 5,000 teammates? You know, so
• 5:01
  - I I came up. I've been now a
• 5:02
  - hospital CEO for twenty five years. So I
• 5:04
  - started I I did a hospital conversion to
• 5:06
  - a critical access hospital back in 2001, so
• 5:08
  - certainly understand. And and that taught me a
• 5:10
  - lot about working with people. Being a college
• 5:13
  - quarterback, I realized I was only as good
• 5:15
  - as the linemen around me. So that's what
• 5:17
  - I get the chance every day is to
• 5:18
  - be a coach, but it's instilling that faith
• 5:20
  - and that trust. And so even a small
• 5:22
  - maybe a smaller scale, but but you learn.
• 5:24
  - It's we're all in the people business. We
• 5:26
  - know AI. Those things are gonna have a
• 5:27
  - role, but, you know, there's a human factor,
• 5:29
  - human element. And I think as we do
• 5:30
  - that, that's what's really allowed us to propel
• 5:33
  - and still grow and do the right things
• 5:34
  - so we can serve our patients, our communities,
• 5:36
  - and fulfill that mission.
• 5:38
  - Being a a college former college quarterback, I'll
• 5:41
  - have to ask you what you think of
• 5:42
  - Barris Caleb Williams on another podcast. But,
• 5:45
  - Yeah. Love to get your opinion maybe after
• 5:47
  - this one. But what do you what do
• 5:48
  - you think about the forces reshaping health care
• 5:50
  - right now? Where do you believe leaders need
• 5:52
  - to be more decisive, especially when balancing speed
• 5:55
  - risk and and having the right teams in
• 5:57
  - place? Yeah. I think it's it's having the
• 5:58
  - right approach. It's not a shock, and we've
• 6:00
  - been very steadfast in our approach. And so
• 6:02
  - the as I said, it's been a very
• 6:03
  - much a cascade, and so we may have
• 6:05
  - some tactics.
• 6:06
  - We we're trying to make things frictionless is
• 6:08
  - our word. Yeah. We gotta be adaptable.
• 6:10
  - But, again, we gotta be decisive. And so
• 6:12
  - we use a lot of data, a lot
• 6:13
  - of our analytics that help us involving people
• 6:15
  - that I think, know what you're gonna be.
• 6:17
  - I'd rather be really good just like in
• 6:19
  - in sports. Right? I don't need to be
• 6:21
  - every playbook, but the ones I do, I
• 6:22
  - wanna execute to a high level perfection, same
• 6:24
  - as sport, same as as health care. We're
• 6:26
  - finding the 80% on how we can serve.
• 6:28
  - And then through those partnerships, like we have
• 6:30
  - with Otham, with the other university settings, that's
• 6:32
  - how we can best care for our patients.
• 6:34
  - Yeah. Yeah. I think an analogy that works
• 6:35
  - with with sports and health care is culture.
• 6:37
  - Right? Especially when you talk to to leaders,
• 6:39
  - how important it is for a system. What
• 6:41
  - do you think you've done or or in
• 6:43
  - a process of doing to instill the right
• 6:44
  - culture? I think that's the piece that I
• 6:46
  - love because I get a a chance in
• 6:48
  - my my story. Again, I had a chance
• 6:49
  - to coach with, coach Harbaugh after I got
• 6:51
  - done playing football.
• 6:53
  - And, of course, you know, the situation, Jim
• 6:56
  - and John, knew Jim. Jim was playing at
• 6:57
  - the time, so knew the family well. And
• 6:59
  - but I decided to go down and do
• 7:00
  - this health care. I did it because I
• 7:02
  - feel like I can make a difference. And
• 7:03
  - as a quarterback, again, a lot of those
• 7:05
  - virtues I've learned, I've instilled in those 5,000.
• 7:07
  - It's about building trust and and keeping, confidence
• 7:11
  - and and making sure because you can get
• 7:12
  - people in a panic mode. Right now, these
• 7:14
  - uncertainty. Right? And the world's already gotten out
• 7:15
  - of it. So it's this calmness being deliberate,
• 7:18
  - explaining the why, but taking the time and
• 7:20
  - being very authentic, very approachable. And that's what
• 7:22
  - I try to strive and instill within our
• 7:24
  - leadership team. You might just touch on a
• 7:26
  - little bit of this, but, you know, with
• 7:27
  - things so uncertain now, it's kind of the
• 7:29
  - norm for things so much change for things
• 7:31
  - to be uncertain in health care. What leadership
• 7:33
  - habit or mindset has been most critical in
• 7:35
  - keeping your organization
• 7:36
  - and your people moving forward? Yeah. I think
• 7:39
  - it's it's it's it's making sure we kept
• 7:40
  - them informed. It takes a lot of time
• 7:42
  - Yeah. To do that, but it's daily facing
• 7:44
  - every day.
• 7:45
  - We're down. It's unheard of. In a health
• 7:47
  - system our size, we have one traveling nurse
• 7:50
  - in our entire health system. Our retention, our
• 7:52
  - 80 we got a 90% physician retention.
• 7:55
  - We got a 85%
• 7:56
  - retention in our team members. So I think
• 7:58
  - it's because we built that trust, very approachable.
• 8:01
  - We're out there every day. And so, obviously,
• 8:03
  - we're two hours away from the big cities,
• 8:05
  - but, I think it is building that culture.
• 8:06
  - And that's what I love doing. That's that's
• 8:08
  - football
• 8:09
  - has taught me a lot of of values
• 8:10
  - and virtue. I hope that I can apply
• 8:12
  - those. I've been applying those for thirty five
• 8:13
  - years now in health care. Yeah. And you
• 8:15
  - have the retention numbers that show it that
• 8:16
  - show that trust you're talking about. Mark, thanks
• 8:17
  - so much for joining us on the podcast
• 8:19
  - and for being here at the World Health
• 8:20
  - Care Leadership Summit. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank
• 8:22
  - you.