Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Pediatric Care Across South Texas with Eric Hamon

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Expanding Pediatric Care Across South Texas with Eric Hamon · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Beckwith Healthcare Podcast. I'm Chris Sosa,
• 0:02
  your host. And I'm going to be joined
• 0:04
  today by Eric Hammond. He's president and CEO
• 0:06
  of Driscoll Children's Hospital in Texas.
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  Eric, thank you for joining us today. Thank
• 0:11
  you. Glad to be here. Appreciate it.
• 0:13
  Awesome. Thank you, Eric. So for those who
• 0:15
  are maybe not familiar with yourself and Driscoll
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  Children's, could you please introduce,
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  yourself and let us know a little bit
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  about it?
• 0:22
  Sure. I'd be happy to. Again, Eric Hammond,
• 0:25
  system
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  CEO for Driscoll Health System since 2018
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  and have been with Driscoll now going on
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  thirty three years. Started when I was five
• 0:35
  years old.
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  The, the the story of Driscoll,
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  you know, I'd I'm gonna start with the
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  the will of our founder, Claire Driscoll. In
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  '45,
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  1945,
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  she left her entire estate
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  to the children of South Texas
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  with the stipulation that it would be used
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  for for those kids of South Texas regardless
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  of their ability to pay.
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  And couple years later, about eight years later
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  in 1953,
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  we opened a 25 bed,
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  hospital in Corpus Christi
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  and have expanded that now to 377
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  beds,
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  as of 2026
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  and continue to grow.
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  Our market,
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  you know, I I wanna say it's like
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  a it's like a triangle from Port Lavaca,
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  Texas just south of, Port Lavaca to Eagle
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  Pass
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  down to Brownsville
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  at the tip of South Texas.
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  It's about 33,000
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  square miles literally in that footprint.
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  You can fit South Carolina.
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  And so that's the market,
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  that we've been serving since 1953
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  and and continue to grow.
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  But big picture, that's what we serve.
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  In addition to that, health care, we also
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  have an insurance product,
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  Driscoll Health Plan, where we manage,
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  Medicaid lives, just under 200 Medicaid lives in
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  that, in that footprint as well.
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  And, you know, we we, basically do all
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  the pediatric specialties that a children's hospital,
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  would provide. And we are the only stand
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  alone children's hospital
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  South Of San Antonio
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  and,
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  Houston, and the only level four NICU.
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  In addition to that, what we do is
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  in that footprint that I just described,
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  we we operationally
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  have responsibility
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  for 250
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  NICU beds.
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  So we manage NICU beds in Victoria, Texas,
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  Laredo,
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  Brownsville,
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  Harlingen,
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  McAllen, and Corpus Christi. So,
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  we really have our footprint in a lot
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  of the cities that we serve.
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  Thank you for sharing that, Eric. It's certainly
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  an immense footprint that Driscoll Children's is working
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  on. And we're gonna get into a little
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  bit about how you go about covering all
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  those children in the area a little bit.
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  But I do wanna talk about, the Driscoll
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  Children's
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  Hospital Rio Grande Valley and how that evolved
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  and and how it enhances care access since
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  you opened it in 2024.
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  Well, it started,
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  you know, a little bit before 2018 before
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  I became CEO. But what we were noticing
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  from the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Upper
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  Rio Grande Valley
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  was the families and the burden that they
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  were having for having to drive up from
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  Brownsville or McGowan
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  or Edinburgh.
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  It's about a two and a half hour,
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  drive to Corpus and two and a half
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  back, so it's five hours.
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  And it was really difficult for families.
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  And so we met our administrative team met
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  with our board in 2018
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  and said, you know what? We believe
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  that health care is local,
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  and we wanna take a quality product to
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  the McAllen Edinburgh market,
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  and provide the care to the kids closer
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  to home. So that's really was a driving
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  point in 2018
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  was to really
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  provide a quality product in the McAllen,
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  Edinburg area where those families
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  did not have to travel
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  five hours and and it's for a really
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  sick kid. Think about it this way. If
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  you've got a really sick kid that has
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  to spend time in the hospital
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  for five days, third for in some cases,
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  thirty days, how difficult that is for a
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  family to have to leave home
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  for thirty plus days.
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  And we just wanted to to bring that
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  health care to them closer to home.
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  Makes perfect sense. Thank you, Eric. So now
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  that the hospital's been open a few years,
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  in what ways do you expect it to
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  grow?
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  You know, we're gonna grow all of our
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  markets. You know, number one, DCH RGV,
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  we're we're in the process of expanding 15
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  ICU beds.
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  So just a little less than two years,
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  we're already adding 15 ICU beds to that
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  market.
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  The first,
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  eighteen months, we added 60 specialists.
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  That's planning on growing over the next twelve
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  months. We're gonna add another 20 to 25
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  specialists.
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  So two things. We're gonna add beds, and
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  then we're gonna add depth to our already
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  existing pediatric subspecialty care in that market. And
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  we're also looking at some outpatient locations
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  within the McGowan,
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  Edinburg,
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  West Laco,
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  Brownsville areas.
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  And then if you head a little bit,
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  west to Laredo,
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  which is about an hour and a half,
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  away, we're gonna build a new facility about
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  a 75,000
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  square foot clinic
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  in Laredo,
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  and we're gonna add another 25,000
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  in Brownsville, Texas that's,
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  call it Southeast
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  of McAllen, Edinburg. So really, in our markets
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  with 200,000
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  or more including Corpus Christi, we're really gonna
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  grow.
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  That's a crazy amount of growth, it sounds
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  like to me, Eric. What would you say
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  that you've learned
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  as a system and as a leader
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  in working on these projects? Because
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  it's just a lot, but, obviously, they're worthwhile.
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  Well, we we, you know, we learn something
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  every day, and and what we learn in
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  our our desire is the delivery of care
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  that we provide is just never good enough.
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  We have a strong appetite
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  to continue to always grow,
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  and and do better.
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  And so
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  what we think we're gonna do is just
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  continue to provide the care that we do
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  for these kids, knowing that tomorrow, we wanna
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  do better than what we did today.
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  That's a worthwhile goal, certainly, Eric. And and,
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  hopefully, you guys are well on your way
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  to achieving that even though, as you said,
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  it's never good enough. Right?
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  So one aspect,
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  it was fascinating to learn about this, Eric,
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  that sets traditional children apart is you have
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  a fleet of planes,
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  and it allows
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  physicians to treat children
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  in all sorts of areas. You said your
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  footprint is about the size of South Carolina.
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  That's just immense. So can you please share
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  as much as you like about how this
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  initiative evolved and what makes it stand out
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  to you?
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  Sure. And so in in the spirit of
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  the, you know, the the will that I
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  talked about with Clara Drysgaard, our founder, was
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  that we wanted to provide
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  access to quality health care to all children
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  of South Texas. Right? And so,
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  you know, it's very difficult for families, whether
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  they're in Laredo, Brownsville, Harland, and McAllen
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  to take time away from work for a
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  thirty minute visit
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  in Corpus Christi, Texas. So we were seeing
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  that. So either, a, they wouldn't go or
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  they wouldn't have access to that care. So
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  we came up with a plan
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  about ten years ago with how can we
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  provide
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  care to these kids in our market
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  so that they they don't miss their, clinic
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  visits. And so we work with a local
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  partner, a nonprofit,
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  and we've got six planes who are every
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  single morning,
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  physicians,
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  nurses, equipment
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  physically leave Corpus Christi
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  and go to those markets that you're talking
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  about, Laredo, Brownsville, Victoria,
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  Harlingen.
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  And we take the product to those,
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  moms and dads and the kids because
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  it's much easier on them. They can then
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  go to the clinic and then go back
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  to school or go to school and then
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  the clinic. And so what we found is
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  there is a significantly higher probability that if
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  you take that product to them, they're gonna
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  they're gonna get that preventive care and stay
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  out of the emergency room. So it's a
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  better quality of care, better access,
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  and it also reduces cost because these kids
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  are getting that preventive care and they're not
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  having to end up in the ED. Of
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  course, we still have emergency,
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  visits,
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  but this is one of those products where
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  there's no doubt that it's reduced the number
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  of emergency room visits because we've been able
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  to access these kids at an early stage.
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  Eric, certainly, there are many hospital systems that
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  have,
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  remote care, but they do not involve airplanes
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  as far as I know. Have you heard
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  of any other such system putting together this
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  sort of,
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  initiative?
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  You know, I it's I I really have
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  not,
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  you know, with my colleagues, got a lot
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  of great college in Texas and across this
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  country,
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  but I'm not aware of any
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  that have that kind of footprint where they're
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  actually,
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  taking physicians
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  and nurses
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  and equipment,
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  to the markets that they serve.
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  And we're gonna do we're gonna continue to
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  do this, in the foreseeable future. Now what
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  we're also doing is we will continue with
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  these flights, and we're also
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  simultaneously,
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  invested in these communities, Laredo, Brownsville, Harlingen, where
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  we're recruiting physicians
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  to those markets as well. So it's a
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  combination of recruitment of the physicians and nurses
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  as well as the continued flights to those
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  markets.
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  Eric, as best you can tell, is is
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  there ever a possibility
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  where
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  your footprints
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  physical footprint will be large enough that these
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  planes will no longer be necessary, or is
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  this something that you plan to keep on
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  on using as far as
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  in in the future as you can tell?
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  You know, I would you know, if I
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  had to forecast over the next five to
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  ten years, which in health care, that's like
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  50,
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  in in dog years. But,
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  I would say that we're gonna continue to
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  fly,
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  to those markets. We wanna develop the markets
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  and add physicians,
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  but I think that flights are gonna continue
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  for the foreseeable future.
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  Gotcha. Thanks for sharing that, Eric. Again, that's
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  a program that just
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  blows my mind, and this is something that
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  a health system is able to do. But,
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  you know, obviously, it's a huge benefit to
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  your patients.
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  And I was just gonna say, you know
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  you know, we're we're proud of a lot
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  of things, but the this program, we're very
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  proud of because we know
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  that if we didn't do it, then these
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  kids either wouldn't get the care,
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  or end up in emergency room. So we
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  believe that it's just a it's a great,
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  community service for these kids and the families.
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  On that note, let me ask you this.
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  So
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  it's been ten years
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  in the making more or less. You've it's
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  been going on ten years, I should say.
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  So how
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  what was the process of getting
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  everyone on board to forgive a terrible pun
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  in in doing this program?
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  You know, it was it was really at
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  the end of the day,
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  it was it was all about the patient
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  and taking care of the kid. And so
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  our governing board and our administrative team,
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  when we get up in the morning and
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  we show up,
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  we are all rowing together. And we know
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  that the only reason we show up every
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  single morning, every single day is for the
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  kids.
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  And when you think about the program that
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  we started ten plus years ago
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  is there's no downside
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  to getting up in the morning, getting on
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  a plane, and go deliver care to kids
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  in our market.
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  Got it. Thank you so much again, Eric.
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  So the last question I wanna ask you
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  today is simply, what is one aspect of
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  children's health care that deserves a brighter spotlight
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  in your mind?
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  You know, if if if I had to
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  be simplistic,
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  I would say,
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  across the country or at Driscoll,
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  invest
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  in health care for the kids today. Think
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  about it. You make the right investments zero
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  to 18.
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  When these kids
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  are 35, 45, 65,
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  how much better they will be off when
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  they're when they're older,
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  adults. So make the investments today
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  so that you don't have to make those
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  difficult investments when when they get older. And
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  then the other one is more financial,
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  that I think that I'd like to place
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  a spotlight on is
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  Medicaid
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  is paid about 30 percent less than Medicare.
• 12:55
  Pick your specialty, whether it's cardiology, pulmonology,
• 12:59
  radiology.
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  If you go to an adult doctor,
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  they're paid 30%
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  higher for every specialty than Medicaid.
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  And at some point, I think we're gonna
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  all have to figure out that we wanna
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  have some parity between Medicaid
• 13:15
  and Medicare for these doctors because that's one
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  reason
• 13:19
  why there's a shortage
• 13:20
  of pediatric specialists in this country is because
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  the payment
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  for
• 13:26
  pediatrics is 30% less than adults. So I
• 13:29
  think we're gonna have to figure that out
• 13:31
  as a country moving forward. Otherwise, we're gonna
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  continue to have the shortages.
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  And so if you make those investments now,
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  they're gonna be healthier when they're 45.
• 13:40
  Eric, it's been wonderful having you on the
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  podcast today.
• 13:43
  We love all the insights you've been able
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  to share. Hopefully, you'll be able to share
• 13:46
  them, not only with our audience, but any
• 13:48
  number of your colleagues in the very near
• 13:50
  future.
• 13:51
  Yeah. We can't wait to, the next time
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  our paths cross.
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  I can't wait. Thank you for having me.
• 13:57
  I look forward to maybe doing it again.
• 13:59
  And anytime if you're in the South Texas
• 14:01
  or Corpus,
• 14:03
  consider at home. Come by and visit us.