Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Paul Hiltz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Naples Comprehensive Health

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Paul Hiltz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Naples Comprehensive Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Paul
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  Hiltz, president and chief executive officer at Naples
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  Comprehensive Health. Paul, it's a pleasure to have
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  you on the podcast today.
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  Good morning, Laura. Great to be with you.
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  Absolutely. I'm thrilled to have you here as
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  well because I know there's so much happening
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  in health care and particularly everything you're doing
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  at Naples Comprehensive Health is really impressive. So
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  it'll be fun to share that with our
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  broader audience. And to start, could you briefly
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  introduce yourself, your role, and scope of the
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  organization? What's currently commanding most of your attention
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  as a leader?
• 0:34
  Well, thank you, Laura. So, Naples Comprehensive Health
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  Health is an independent
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  nonprofit health care system located here in Southwest
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  Florida. And as you probably know, Florida is
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  growing. The population is growing. And along that
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  population growth, NCH is growing. We have doubled
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  our size in the last five years, so
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  we're now over a billion dollars of net
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  revenue.
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  We've expanded our footprint and really focused on
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  access, and that continues to be a challenge
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  as more and more people come to Florida
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  and more and more people
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  live
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  full time year round in Southwest Florida. So
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  becoming less of a seasonal market and more
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  of a consistent market, And we're gonna focus
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  in on getting people access to really high
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  quality care so that they can stay right
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  here and be taken care of all year
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  long.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, certainly
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  makes a huge difference for patients in the
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  community and and certainly the consistency and quality
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  of care.
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  So when you look at, the the current
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  landscape out in the health care space today,
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  what do you focus most on as CEO
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  and and how do you think about some
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  of the challenges as well as opportunities that
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  are ahead?
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  Well, when you look across the country, and
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  Florida is no different. People here in Florida
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  and across the country are talking about
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  access to care. What are the barriers? And
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  there are many. Part of it is a
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  physician supply issue. There's some cost concerns to
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  keep keep people away, insurance changes,
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  and the complexity. What we're working on here
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  at NCH is giving people access in a
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  variety of formats
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  to include
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  telehealth,
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  in person,
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  emergency services,
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  and really giving people the tools they need
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  to get to the care they need as
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  soon as they need it. So we've improved
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  our digital front door. We've improved our customer
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  service with call centers,
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  and we've expanded the number of providers here,
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  focusing especially
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  on primary care because that is just like
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  the rest of the country. Folks need to
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  be able to get to a good primary
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  care provider
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  to keep them from getting sicker.
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  Absolutely. That's so critical to have that type
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  of,
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  connection into the health care system with the
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  primary care provider, and it really makes a
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  big difference. Now
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  the last year or so has been marked
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  by rapid change. So can you tell us
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  about a recent decision or pivot that has
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  required
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  the most leadership conviction from you and particularly
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  when it's come to aligning people, resources, or
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  capabilities?
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  You know, two decisions come to mind where
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  we've had to really pivot and rethink things.
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  The first is if you look across the
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  country, many more
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  women's services and children's services are being stopped
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  than are being started. Many health systems are
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  getting out of the OB and pediatric space.
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  Here at NCH in Southwest Florida, we have
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  a very active
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  OB service. We deliver about 4,000 babies a
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  year. And instead of
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  getting out of that business, we're actually doubling
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  down. We're gonna expand our services to women
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  and children's,
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  and that required a pivot. And we believe
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  even though there's challenges with reimbursement
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  as a community health care system,
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  we really need to be in the women
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  and children's businesses.
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  To do that, we've partnered with Nicholas Children's
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  out of Miami.
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  We've worked with some incredibly generous donors here
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  to really think about the future of women's
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  care, and we're excited to be making that
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  commitment to stay in women and children's service.
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  So that was one
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  big decision.
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  The second big decision that we've decided to
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  embark on a study to look at transplant
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  services here at NCH, which we would not
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  have thought of five or ten years ago.
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  But today, with the increase in what we've
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  done in cardiac services,
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  the idea of a transplant service here, we
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  believe, is gonna make a lot of sense.
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  So over this next year, we'll study
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  transplantation
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  and take a look at that for the
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  future so that people won't need to leave
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  this region if they need a transplant.
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  That's incredible to hear. And especially the idea
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  of expanding services is so attractive, I think,
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  and and encouraging,
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  for the community. I I think it's so
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  incredible to have that on the plate and
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  and continue to move forward, especially as you
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  mentioned, because there are so many places that
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  are trying to contract services that are needed,
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  for growing and thriving communities.
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  So how did that moment, when you are
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  thinking through, you know, being able to add
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  services while those are changing and,
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  really trying to figure out what services to
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  run at, how did that moment challenge your
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  assumptions? And what did it change about how
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  you are approaching decision making today as well
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  as talent or organizational readiness?
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  Well, we try to
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  be excellent listeners here. We listen to our
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  community. We listen to our physicians. We certainly
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  are
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  tightly,
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  aligned with our board and our philanthropy community
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  here. And after listening over these last six
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  to twelve months, it became clear that these
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  things I just talked about are top of
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  mind for our customers, our patients,
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  our community.
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  And we actually spend a lot of time
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  partnering with other community organizations,
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  the Federally Qualified Healthcare Network here,
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  what which is called the Health Network of
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  Southwest Florida. The Neighborhood Health Clinic is another
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  one. We like to partner with organizations that
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  are talking to our patients as well to
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  make sure that we're aligned with our partners
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  and that we are in this for the
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  long haul. So we do a lot of
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  listening and a lot of,
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  talking to the physician community to make sure
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  that we are on the right track. And
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  we believe that we have a very
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  compelling vision for our future, and we wanna
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  stay true to our mission, vision, and values
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  here. And, these are two big initiatives for
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  us.
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  That I think that makes so much sense
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  in being able to involve the community and
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  really truly
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  dig into the spaces where there are gaps
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  is so incredible.
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  And, you know, you mentioned partnerships in the
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  companies and community
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  organizations that you're working with. When you think
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  about some of the forces that are reshaping
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  health care right now, where do you believe
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  leaders need to be most decisive and especially
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  as you're trying to balance speed, risk, and
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  having the right teams in place?
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  Well, it's a it's a fabulous question. So,
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  as leaders and we look at what's reshaping
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  health care, one of the things that become
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  very obvious is the speed of change is
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  getting faster and faster. So here at NCH,
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  we've had an initiative where we really are
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  trying to develop leaders
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  at all levels. So we'll start our fourth,
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  cohort of a physician leadership academy where we
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  really work with up and coming physician leaders
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  to give them a much broader look at
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  health care so that they can help lead
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  the health care system in whatever discipline they're
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  in. We've received incredible feedback from our physician
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  community about that.
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  And related to that, we have what we
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  call here the president's forum of excellence where
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  we take other leaders,
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  mid level managers, and new people to health
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  care and try to educate them on the
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  broad issues in health care. Again, so that
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  we can have leaders at all levels,
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  that'll be our fourth cohort in the in
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  the,
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  CEO form of excellence here too.
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  So as we continue to develop leaders, we
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  think we'll be better equipped to handle all
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  the changes that are going on in health
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  care this year and for years to come.
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  That's such a good point. And I know
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  especially when you think about physician leaders, you
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  know, being able to lead teams and, really
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  make an impact on the organization is different
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  from some of the clinical skills. And so
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  it's cool to hear you've got that,
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  leadership pipeline and academy in place. What did
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  it take to build that? How did you
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  put those things together and and really make
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  it an effective pipeline for talent within the
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  organization?
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  Well, we've tried to listen to people and
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  look at the real time challenges that they're
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  facing here about staffing their departments, balancing cost
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  and quality,
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  patient satisfaction
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  measures, all the things that we deal with,
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  and we built that into a curriculum
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  that is very practical. It's not theoretical. It's
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  designed to give them skills that they can
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  go back and use today and tomorrow and
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  next week. So it's not a theoretical thing,
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  but it's a very practical hands on thing
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  where we actually use a lot of coaches
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  and mentoring
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  too. We find that the young people entering
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  the workforce, including young physicians,
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  really want this practical piece.
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  They want a best friend at work type
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  thing, and they want somebody that they can
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  talk to who has some experience in problem
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  solving
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  and can
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  bring real world solutions to the table
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  right now. We are seeing great returns
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  on both those programs. And concurrently too, are
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  we, have expanded our residency and fellowship program
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  here at NCH. We now have
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  80 residents
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  and fellows in training here at NCH, so
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  we've become
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  quite the training teaching organization here, which is
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  a an exciting place to be.
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  It it certainly is. Now before we wrap
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  up here, I'm curious. I know uncertainty has
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  become the norm these days in health care
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  especially. So what leadership habit or mindset has
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  been most critical in keeping your organization and
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  your people moving forward?
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  I believe that the most critical mindset shift
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  is that the decisions
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  can't be made out of the CEO's office
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  for the most part. We need more people
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  at the table. I want more frontline clinicians
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  at the table
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  to design our strategy and implement our strategy
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  and really make sure we're being responsive
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  to the frontline clinicians who are delivering the
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  care. They know best what the patients need.
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  And I always say if, if you're not
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  serving a patient, you better be serving somebody
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  who is serving a patient. So we wanna
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  make this a place where doctors
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  actually enjoy
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  practicing medicine.
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  We believe that if we can do that,
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  we are gonna win in the long run
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  because doctors and other clinicians really wanna be
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  where they're appreciated,
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  where their voice matters, and where they can
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  deliver the kind of care that they've been
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  trained to deliver.
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  I love that. Paul, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today. This
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  has been such a fun conversation. You're really
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  inspiring to hear everything that you're doing and
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  and look forward to keeping the conversation going
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  in the future.
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  Thanks so much, Laura. I'll see you next
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  week at the annual meeting.