Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Mark LePage, Senior Vice President of Medical Groups and Ambulatory Strategy at Trinity Health

Transcript

Mark LePage, Senior Vice President of Medical Groups and Ambulatory Strategy at Trinity Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is Laura Virdo with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Mark
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  LePage, senior vice president of medical groups and
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  inventory strategy at Trinity Health. Mark, it's a
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  pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Laura, it's great to be with you and
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  looking forward to our conversation.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, this will be a
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  great conversation. I know we'll be talking about
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  some of the things you're doing at Trinity,
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  the ambulatory side, the ways that you're continuing
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  to expand and grow, within the broader system.
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  And so that's a really exciting topic. I
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  know it comes up,
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  as something that a lot of different organizations
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  are looking at and trying to figure out.
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  And so it'd be great to learn more
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  about what you're doing at Trinity. But before
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  we dive into that discussion,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself and the health system overall?
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  Yeah. I'd be glad to.
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  So,
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  currently, as you said, in my current role
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  at Trinity Health, which I've been in for
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  3 years, I oversee our medical groups and
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  ambulatory strategy.
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  In that role, I oversee our 15 medical
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  groups, which are really positioned across the country.
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  Within the medical group portion of Trinity Health,
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  we have about 2,800,000
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  members that call our primary care providers their
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  home.
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  And we employ 7,000,
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  physicians and advanced practice practitioners as part of
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  our medical groups.
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  As I said, we're organized into 15 regional
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  medical groups that really span across the country
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  from Fresno
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  all the way to Albany and down to
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  Fort Lauderdale,
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  and a number of sites in between.
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  And as you highlighted,
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  during your introduction,
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  a lot of our focus right now is
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  how do we continue to evolve our approach
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  into,
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  ambulatory care and the medical groups that we
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  oversee are a big portion of that. Prior
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  to my current role, I did have the
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  opportunity to lead our large medical group in
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  Southeast Michigan, IHA. I did that for 4
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  years with Trinity Health before my current role.
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  Well, that's fascinating to hear. And what trends
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  are you watching currently?
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  You know, there's a a number of things.
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  I think first and foremost, you know, as
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  we're looking at at, the demographic trends in
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  the country,
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  The country is aging and it's aging fairly
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  rapidly. And so in most markets, most parts
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  of the United States, the fastest growing segment
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  of the population is
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  the age segment that's traditionally retired, so over
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  65.
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  And we think this is gonna have some
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  unique challenges
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  for us in health care as we think
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  about that.
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  In particular, we know that those folks
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  that are aging
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  are gonna require more care. So we're gonna
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  have to figure out how to deliver more
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  care with a workforce that's roughly the same
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  size, as it is today because we don't
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  see a lot of growth in most of
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  our markets in the traditional working age population.
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  So that's certainly something that we're focused on.
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  We realize we're gonna have to deliver care,
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  in different ways than we have before in
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  order to meet the
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  demands of the population that we serve.
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  Along with that,
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  a lot of our
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  payer mix is going to be shifting toward
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  Medicare
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  as that population age
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  shift occurs over the next 20 to 25
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  years. And so really it just is gonna
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  require us to be very
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  operationally efficient.
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  And it also is gonna require us as
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  we transition
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  away from the acute care settings more toward
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  the ambulatory care settings to think about how
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  we best position those ambulatory,
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  sites of care for our patients, in this
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  aging,
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  demographic.
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  I think that makes a lot of sense
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  and, you know, it's really fascinating to think
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  about those demographic trends. Now what else are
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  you seeing?
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  Well, certainly, you know, within the, the overall
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  provider community including both physicians and APPs,
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  we've talked a bit about burnout for a
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  while now in healthcare and we certainly see
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  that as administrative burdens within healthcare
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  have increased. And so we're trying to think
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  about
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  how do we make our practice locations
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  and our practice environments as optimal for the
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  caregivers,
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  as we possibly can. And and a big
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  part of that is really thinking about how
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  do we,
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  lessen some of that administrative burden on our
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  caregivers
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  so that they can do what only they
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  can do, which is really to provide care,
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  at the frontline level to our patients.
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  We're thinking one of the things we're thinking
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  about is how do we leverage some of
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  the artificial intelligence tools to help offload some
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  of that work off of our caregivers
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  so that really they can spend more quality
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  time and more intense time with our patients,
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  which is really what we want them to
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  be able to do in the first place.
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  I definitely appreciate that too. I I know
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  in so many places across the country, having
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  that ability to focus more on the patient
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  and clinical care side is really a a
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  lot more fulfilling for health care providers.
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  Now looking at, as you mentioned, some of
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  the demographic changes as well as, provider wellness,
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  what are you most focused on right now
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  and excited about?
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  Really about,
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  well, a couple of things that like I
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  said, the, we've got a a tool that
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  we're using right now, Nuance DAX,
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  that is helping with documentation,
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  for our providers. So we're very excited about
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  that. We're also excited about the other
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  artificial intelligence tools that are, coming along,
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  to help us alleviate some of that care
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  burden for our caregivers.
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  That those are things that we're excited about.
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  In addition to that, we're thinking about,
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  how do we as you mentioned, we and
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  I as you mentioned, we're thinking of our
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  transition from, acute care to ambulatory care.
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  And one of those is,
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  what Mike Hlebowski has spoken about our our
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  CEO,
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  which is our community division and really thinking
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  about how do we set up an appropriate
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  governance and operating model
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  for our community division, which, includes our medical
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  groups as well as our efforts around ambulatory
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  surgery centers and ambulatory imaging sites.
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  I could imagine that takes a lot of
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  work and time and effort and planning as
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  well as resources, but, truly, it seems like
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  it'll make a big difference for the community,
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  you know, once,
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  everything is fully in place, you know, and
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  and you're able to live out that strategy,
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  that vision of what it looks like to
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  have that type of community support in in
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  full ambulatory network.
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  Well, looking back over the last 6 months
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  or so, what are you most proud of?
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  Well, there's a number of things I'm really
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  proud of. I I guess I'd highlight 3,
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  three things.
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  First, the medical groups across Trinity have been
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  doing incredible work on hypertension management.
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  We've partnered with the, American Medical Association, American
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  Heart Association's
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  MAPBP
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  program,
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  to really leverage some of their best learnings
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  around hypertension management.
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  And we've seen incredible results and across across
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  our medical groups, our rate of blood pressure
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  control is getting,
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  up toward 80%, which is really quite remarkable
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  when you consider that the average across the
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  country is probably closer to 45 to 50%.
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  So really incredible work, and we're continuing to
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  improve those overall rates of blood pressure control.
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  So very, very, proud of all of the
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  work that's gone into that on the part
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  of our medical groups.
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  In addition to that, you know, thinking about
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  our work on access because we know that
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  the experience that our patients and members have
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  is really tied to their ability to get
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  into our practice sites
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  when they want and need care.
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  And so really, as an organization doubling down
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  to make sure that our patients can get
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  in and be seen when they wanna be
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  seen for care. And so that's been a
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  big effort, and we've made,
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  really incredible progress on that
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  as we've
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  increased our our rate of fulfillment in a
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  way that we measure that access by about
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  8.5
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  percentage points over the past year.
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  And then finally, I'd mentioned the fact that
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  from a stewardship perspective as all of us
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  in healthcare have really faced this
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  inflationary environment that
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  we're continuing to face,
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  really
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  dramatic improvement in our overall
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  operating performance with a
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  significant improvement in our operating margin across all
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  of Trinity Health Medical Groups,
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  to the tune of 8 percentage point improvement.
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  So really a lot of things to be
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  proud of and and and the medical groups
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  are doing tremendous work across Trinity Health.
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  That's amazing to hear and and really impressive
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  on all fronts when you think about, as
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  you mentioned, some of the quality improvements and
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  things you've been doing around that hypertension management.
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  And then 2, and not to forget the
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  financial aspect of it, in in having that
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  improvement within the operating margin, I think so
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  much, you know,
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  sometimes it can get lost in terms of,
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  having that ability to have the strong financial
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  back bone in order to do everything else
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  you wanna do to be innovative on the
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  clinical side, it seems like it would make
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  a really big difference.
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  It really does. And and and I think
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  all of us in health care are facing
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  a lot of headwinds. And so,
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  you know, declining reimbursements
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  and frankly
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  declining rates of Medicare reimbursement. And so it
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  really is imperative for us to be able
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  to continue to live out our mission that
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  we steward our resources
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  as well as we possibly can. And that
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  really just demands
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  a heightened level of operational
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  performance and rigor across all of our medical
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  groups.
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  Fantastic. Well, before we wrap up here, I'm
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  wondering what advice would you give evolving leaders
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  today? What is really important for them to
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  know and understand as they grow into the
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  health care space?
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  I think a couple of things. You know,
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  I think for for leaders evolving leaders who
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  have who come from a clinical background, I
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  think it's really important to make sure
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  that you bridge into the sort of business
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  and financial sides of overall health care delivery,
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  because I think that will really,
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  amplify the voice of our clinician
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  leaders, across health care.
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  I think for folks that aren't that, you
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  know, are leaders, evolving leaders, but haven't been
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  historically
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  involved in care delivery, getting close to care
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  delivery, you know, at the front line to
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  better understand it, I think will help facilitate
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  their understanding of,
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  exactly the the different challenges that are being
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  faced across health care right now.
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  And then I think more generally just saying,
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  you know,
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  be brave. Right? Step into the discomfort and
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  find those troublesome problems
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  or opportunities for improvement and step into those.
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  Those they're the the the most challenging things
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  to solve, but they're also the most rewarding
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  things to solve. So I encourage
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  I'd encourage,
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  bravery in in stepping into those problem areas,
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  within health care or within the health care
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  system.
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  I love that. Mark, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today. This
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  has been such a fascinating conversation, and I
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  look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  Thank you so much, Laura. I really appreciate
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  it.