Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / John D. Couris, President and CEO of Tampa General Hospital

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John D. Couris, President and CEO of Tampa General Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
This is where health care leadership comes together.
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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w Bush. 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. We're looking forward to hosting you
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in Chicago.
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This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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John Kors, CEO of Florida Health Science Center
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and Tampa General Hospital. John, it's a pleasure
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to have you on the podcast today. It's
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great to be with you.
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Absolutely. Now I'm really excited for our conversation
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because I know Tampa General, and and Florida
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Health Science Center as well are very innovative
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health care organizations looking at many different ways
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to deliver care and always on the cutting
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edge. So I'm excited to learn a little
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bit more about what you've done this year
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and how you're thinking about the future. But
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before we dive into that, can you tell
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us, and especially for those who are just
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starting to listen to the Becker's Healthcare podcast,
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a little bit about your background in Tampa
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General as well?
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Yeah. So so I absolutely
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so I've been with Tampa General and Florida
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Health Sciences Center for over eight years.
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My background has been all in health care.
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I started my career at the Mass what
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is now called the Mass
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General Brigham Health System in Boston.
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I spent almost eleven years there, really in,
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like, my formative part of my career.
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Then I went on to the BayCare Health
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System in Tampa,
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went over to Jupiter, to Jupiter Medical Center
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for seven and a half years,
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and wanted to really get back to the
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academic environment,
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and so ended up back at Tampa General
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and really USF, USF Health,
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because between Tampa General and USF Health, which
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is part of the University of South Florida,
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we're one large
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academic health system.
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And so in my
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training, you know, I went to Boston University.
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I went on and ultimately
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got a doctorate in business administration, which is
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really oriented around management and social science from
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the University of South Florida.
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And obviously, in between all of that, got
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my master's
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in science, actually, in operations management and management.
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And so,
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I've always been in the health care space.
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I've always been,
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in either operations or clinical operations.
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And,
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and I've been here for eight years, as
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I said a moment ago, and it's it's
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been wonderful.
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Fantastic.
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Now I'm curious. Could you tell us a
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little bit about the most important initiative that
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you led in the last year? What did
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you do, and what were the results?
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I think, you know, the the the health
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system
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overall
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has done really
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incredible work. I mean, the teams are really
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focused,
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very disciplined,
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understand the importance of creating real value
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in the,
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communities that we serve.
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So we've been doing a lot of work
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from a service outcome and cost perspective.
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Some of the work that makes me most
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proud
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is, the that my team and I have
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been working on.
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One the one thing one thing that comes
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to mind is the work that we've done
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with the university, with the University of South
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Florida.
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I I think bringing
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the academic health system together
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with the university over the last year
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has been really meaningful work.
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And so it's taking a robust
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academic health system,
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connecting it with
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a university
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and a medical school, the Mersani College of
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Medicine,
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and integrating them, integrating them clinically,
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integrating them educationally,
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integrating them from a research perspective,
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and financially integrating them.
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Supporting faculty salaries,
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supporting and enhancing
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GME,
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and
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supporting and enhancing
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underfunded
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research.
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It's been it's been wonderful. I mean, we
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we invested the academic enterprise over at the
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university on an annual basis,
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roughly a $162,000,000
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a year.
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And I'm very proud of that investment. And
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it's some of the most important work that
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we've done,
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and it will continue to be some of
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the most important work
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that we're going to continue to work on.
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That's amazing to hear. And, certainly, that research
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investment, that care delivery,
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is so, so critical.
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Looking ahead into 2026,
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what are some of those big priorities,
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specifically that you have your eye on as
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well as the headwinds that could make an
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impact on the organization?
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Yeah. Just to set it up contextually,
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when I think about
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2026
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and I think about the headwinds that we
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are gonna be confronting as an industry,
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I not just I don't know I only
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I don't only think about it in terms
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of, like, what's in front of us for
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the next year, But I think about what
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what could the next three years look like?
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And when I think about it in terms
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like that, obviously, 2026
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being right in front of us,
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I the analogy I use is is, you
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know, the
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because we live in Florida and we're prone
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to hurricanes,
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I'm gonna use sort of an analogy around
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hurricanes.
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When a storm starts to
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accumulate,
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the barometric pressure starts to drop.
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Then you start to feel out of outer
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bands of the storm, and then you feel
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the hurricane itself.
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I feel like 2026
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is going to be about the barometric pressure
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dropping.
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I don't think we're going to see
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huge changes
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in healthcare in 2026.
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Now, do I clearly, if the ACA,
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sunsets
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and the federal government doesn't figure out a
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way
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to fix that, then, yeah, do I think
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expansion states are going to feel
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pressure that
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non expansion
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states,
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aren't gonna feel as much? Absolutely.
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That the
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ACA,
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the elimination of the ACA is something that
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we're all gonna have to reconcile
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unless something
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changes in the next couple of weeks.
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But with that said,
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I think a lot most other things are
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going to stay the same, and I think
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what we're gonna start to feel is atmospheric
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pressure changing.
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I think in 2027
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and 2028,
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we'll start to feel
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really some significant effects
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from both both policy,
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and funding
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changes
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that are being sort of put through the
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federal government.
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And I think we need to
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prepare for it.
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I don't look at this as the
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end of the world by any stretch of
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the imagination.
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Whatever challenges
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and obstacles get set in front of us,
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we will figure out as an industry. Our
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industry
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is very resilient.
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Our industry has really smart, thoughtful people in
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it and leading it. We will figure this
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out
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together. Right?
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So but as the
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atmospheric conditions
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start to change,
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what are we doing at Florida Health Sciences
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Center and USF and TGH,
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you know, what are we doing
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to to to prepare ourselves
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for it? Well, a couple things.
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One,
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we have a pretty significant initiative
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that we call three and thirty.
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We started it a year ago
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in anticipation
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for what we thought
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and still think could happen over the next
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three years
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with the changes that are being
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socialized,
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discussed, and some have already been legislated.
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And so three and thirty is we need
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to improve our operating margins by 3%
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over the next thirty months,
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our operating EBITDA margins,
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to be more specific.
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So we have teams of people working
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on continuing to improve processes
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and systems,
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efficiency and effectiveness.
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So we can
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build
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even a stronger
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operating EBITDA
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by leaning out
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inefficiencies
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throughout the system.
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So that's one big initiative
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that we're working on. And like I said
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a moment ago, we started this
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at the tail end of '24.
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We've worked through this all the way through
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'25,
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and we're going to continue to work on
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this over the next two to three years.
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I'm very excited about that this work
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because it's it's we get we've gotten way
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out ahead of it.
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We're being very thoughtful.
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We're taking a holistic
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view of it across the whole system
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in a very balanced way.
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And I'm excited
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about the work. We're already starting to see
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some improvements
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coming into
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the the the enterprise. So lots of activity
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around that, and we're trying to be as
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proactive
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as we we can be. So that's one
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big exciting initiative.
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The second
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activity that we're focusing on is
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our continued work around care coordination.
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We've been working on this for the last
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three or four years, and we've been slowly
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implementing
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a care coordination
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model that has the patient and the provider.
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So think about the doctor, the nurse, etcetera,
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in the center
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of that system of care.
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Because if you think about the type of
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business we're in,
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we're from our perspective, and I'm just giving
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you a perspective.
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We believe we're in the care coordination business.
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We're really not in the health and wellness
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business.
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A piece of what we do
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is oriented, obviously, and focused on health and
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wellness.
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And it's an important piece of our activity.
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But it's really not
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who we believe we are. We're in the
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care coordination business.
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Our job
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is to coordinate care
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for patients
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through the whole system
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that is seamless,
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that reduces fragmentation,
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that eliminates
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silos,
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and that applies a systems
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thinking approach
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to how we deliver care
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that's patient centered
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and provider
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centric.
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And so that's another big initiative
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that we're really excited about. I mean, really
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excited about.
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An example of that, to put a finer
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point on it,
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is
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the work we're doing, Laura,
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with a Jentec AI
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in our
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experience center,
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which is
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our call center.
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We just deployed
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a couple of months ago a Gentic AI
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that was designed
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to triage
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phone calls just a couple of months ago.
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It has triaged
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hundreds of thousands of calls
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seamlessly
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and effortlessly.
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About a week ago, we turned on our
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agentic
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AI tool to schedule appointments.
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So to answer the call, schedule the appointment.
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When we turned Ajentic AI on,
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our call abandonment rate
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dropped to zero.
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Every
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call was answered.
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And care coordination
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was applied
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in scheduling appointments
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and making sure that patients
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got to where they needed to get to
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in a very efficient manner,
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starting the journey around care coordination
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from the first phone call.
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Is it perfect? It's not.
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Are we learning
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with the tool? We are.
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Is it incredibly
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effective?
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Absolutely. It's been
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an absolute game changer for us. So when
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I talk about care coordination,
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it starts
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with when someone calls us for help,
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for an appointment.
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And it runs through the entire system of
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care that we're building.
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It's all about
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it's all about
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coordinating care for the patients that we're responsible
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for.
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Those are the a few initiatives
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that we're really excited about.
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That's fantastic to hear. You know, really cool
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to think about those results, especially on the
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care coordination side, as you mentioned.
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You know, and then how you're looking at
13:44
and thinking about that margin improvement as well,
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is just so critical across all fronts to
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dovetail into that overall mission too of being
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able to provide care for patients, improve access,
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and then those types of things. Now looking
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ahead, I'm curious as well, what is the
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hardest thing you'll have to do in the
14:00
next year or so?
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It's a great question.
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I think that some of the hardest work
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that we're gonna have to, you know, really
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continue to focus on
14:10
ties to what I mentioned a moment ago
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around our three and thirty initiatives.
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Three three points of operating EBITDA over the
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next thirty months. That just we're gonna we're
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gonna have to stay really, really focused on
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that. Really focused.
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We're doing it through process improvement.
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We're doing it through improving efficiency and effectiveness
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of care.
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We have, you know, we have no plans
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to
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furlough people, lay people off, all that, freeze
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positions.
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We're not that is not in our playbook.
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But but everything else sort of oriented around
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sort of just providing
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real value to the consumer,
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but doing that by building really efficient and
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effective models
15:00
of care.
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That's gonna be some of the most difficult
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work
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we have in front of us. And we're
15:06
probably not alone in that, Laura.
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Lots of health systems are doing lots of
15:11
really
15:12
interesting and important and impactful work. We're probably
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all confronted with
15:19
the complexity
15:20
and challenges of remaining
15:22
really focused
15:24
and disciplined.
15:25
It's and it's a lot of work. I
15:27
mean, this kind of work that I just
15:29
explained to you,
15:31
it's a grind. It's a real grind,
15:33
and it requires
15:35
lots and lots of focus
15:38
and teamwork.
15:39
And and thankfully,
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you know, I've got a team that's absolutely
15:44
outstanding. I mean, they are world class.
15:47
A 100%. I think, you know, really, really
15:50
cool to hear about some of that work
15:52
that you're doing and continue to, have that
15:54
mission of keeping the team on board, but
15:56
then also,
15:57
you know, making those improvements with them as
16:00
well. Before we wrap up here, where do
16:02
you see some of the best opportunities for
16:03
organizational growth?
16:06
Another great question. Where do I see opportunities
16:09
in in organizational
16:11
growth?
16:12
I think it's
16:14
probably in the category of models of care
16:18
that are being developed and implemented across the
16:22
country.
16:24
I think with health systems that can provide
16:28
new and innovative ways to deliver care
16:32
efficiently and effectively. So high degrees of quality,
16:37
low in competitive cost,
16:40
passed on in part to the consumer of
16:42
health care,
16:43
defined as the patient, the payer, and the
16:46
employer.
16:47
I think there's a lot of opportunity
16:50
in that space to collaborate, to innovate,
16:53
to partner
16:55
with organizations.
16:57
I think
16:58
that's gonna be some exciting space, and it's
17:00
gonna represent
17:02
some really interesting areas to grow your business.
17:07
I'm not, you know, I think the, you
17:09
know, this may be a little controversial.
17:11
You know, building more hospitals,
17:15
that's an old model. It's an old paradigm.
17:17
And candidly, it's an incredibly expensive one. I'm
17:20
not sure how much
17:22
value building net new hospitals
17:25
are. I mean, there are there are exceptions,
17:27
obviously. There are
17:29
parts of our community that are growing that
17:31
need it, but those are those are few
17:33
and far between.
17:36
So but there are there are some of
17:38
those those opportunities.
17:40
There's maybe some opportunity
17:42
to buy an old hospital
17:44
and and then, you know, raise it and
17:46
then replace it with a new hospital.
17:49
Those are but those again are sort of
17:51
far and few between.
17:52
It's not really,
17:54
you know, building things indiscriminately.
17:57
That's just that's an old
17:59
paradigm.
18:01
I think it centers more around
18:05
how do you do a better job with
18:07
the portfolio
18:09
of services
18:10
that you have?
18:12
How do you take
18:14
your platform
18:16
and maximize it?
18:17
And I think one big way to do
18:19
that
18:20
is through new delivery
18:23
care models
18:25
that improve quality
18:27
and lower cost. Let me give you an
18:29
example, Laura.
18:31
Hospital at home.
18:33
We don't have the largest hospital at home
18:35
program in the country.
18:37
We have one of the largest programs in
18:39
The United States, but we have one of
18:41
the fastest growing ones.
18:44
And we are very, very busy.
18:47
And this is this hospital at home program
18:50
is a game changer.
18:53
We're seeing better outcomes,
18:55
better quality,
18:57
better patient and staff satisfaction
19:01
over time at a lower cost.
19:04
That's a totally different model of care.
19:09
And what we're planning for in the future
19:12
is pivoting from a hospital at home program
19:16
to what we're calling a health system at
19:18
home
19:19
program,
19:20
where we can bring in
19:23
vertical clinical service lines
19:25
into the home
19:27
beyond the traditional
19:29
inpatient
19:30
model.
19:31
For example,
19:33
infusions.
19:34
Instead of going to the hospital for your
19:37
infusion,
19:38
you can
19:39
get that at home
19:41
as part of
19:43
our health system at home
19:46
offering.
19:47
So that's what I mean by, like, a
19:50
different model of care.
19:52
We're really excited about it. Hospital at home
19:56
has been a huge win for us. Our
19:58
average daily census of some pretty sick patients
20:02
is floats between sixteen and eighteen
20:05
on
20:06
on on any given day.
20:08
It's helped our
20:10
ER throughput.
20:11
It's helped,
20:13
some of our busy clinical service lines
20:16
and getting people out of the hospital,
20:19
and getting them getting their care delivered at
20:21
home, which patients absolutely love it. So it's
20:25
been a it's been a huge win for
20:27
everyone.
20:29
So when I talk about new models of
20:30
care,
20:31
that's an example of a new model of
20:33
care
20:34
that I think
20:36
is
20:37
going to grow pretty significantly in 2026.
20:40
We're certainly doubling down on it because it's
20:43
been hugely impactful for us and for the
20:46
patients that we care for. I'm really excited
20:49
about that
20:50
that that,
20:51
that work.
20:53
Absolutely. A lot to be excited about there.
20:55
John, thank you so much for joining us
20:57
on the podcast today. This has been a
20:58
really fun conversation.
21:00
I look forward to seeing you as well
21:01
at our annual meeting in April. I I
21:03
know you'll be, speaking their upcoming. So look
21:06
forward to, learning more and digging a bit
21:08
deeper into these themes.
21:10
Thanks, Laura. Really appreciate it.