Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Baligh Yehia, MD, President of Jefferson Health and Executive Vice President of Jefferson

Transcript

Baligh Yehia, MD, President of Jefferson Health and Executive Vice President of Jefferson · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Clinical Leadership podcast.
• 1:02
  - I'm Mariah Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled
• 1:04
  - to be speaking with Bali Yahia,
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  - president of Jefferson Health.
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  - Thank you so much for joining me today.
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  - I'm really excited to learn more about about
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  - academic integrated delivery financing systems and what that
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  - means in practice.
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  - But before we dive into that, I would
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  - love for you to introduce yourself and tell
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  - us a little bit about your background.
• 1:23
  - Well, thanks so much. It's great to be
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  - with you. My name is Bali Uhia, and
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  - as you said, I'm president of Jefferson Health.
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  - I'm an I ID doctor, infectious diseases doctor
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  - by background,
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  - and have the pleasure of, really working with
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  - amazing colleagues here across Eastern PA and Southern
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  - Jersey,
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  - to take care of these communities
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  - that we're entrusted with.
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  - Excellent. Now today, we're gonna talk about kind
• 1:48
  - of niche aspect of health care. So can
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  - you give us a rundown
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  - of what an academic integrated delivery financing system
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  - is and what that looks like in day
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  - to day practice?
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  - Yes. In its simplest terms, being an integrated
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  - delivery and academic financing system
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  - really means you're putting together
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  - care delivery,
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  - the financing of health care, and also advancing
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  - academic medicine.
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  - For us, it's under our shared mission of
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  - improving lives. And when you think about Jefferson,
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  - another way to think about it is that
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  - we have a university
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  - and a medical college that's more than 200
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  - years old. We have a health system,
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  - that takes care of our communities across Eastern
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  - Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey and Delaware. And
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  - then we also have a health plan that
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  - mostly,
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  - serves
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  - beneficiaries that are Medicaid,
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  - ACA, and Medicare Advantage. And so how do
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  - you put those three pieces together in service
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  - of better health to our communities?
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  - Excellent.
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  - Now Jefferson offers one of the few of
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  - these systems. So from your vantage point leading
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  - across those pillars day to day, what does
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  - it actually take to keep the clinical, academic,
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  - and financing priorities moving in the same direction?
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  - Well, it it all starts with a shared
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  - mission and shared accountability, and and our our
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  - mission is really to improve lives. And so
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  - you think about how does that work for
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  - improving lives for patients and their families?
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  - How does it mean for improving lives of
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  - our beneficiaries in our health plan? And then
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  - improving lives for our students and trainees.
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  - And under that shared umbrella
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  - is where what we march towards and what
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  - we wake up every day thinking about.
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  - And then in practicality,
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  - it's around asking yourself,
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  - you know, how does this decision that you're
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  - making on the clinical side or the insurance
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  - side or the academic side influence the other?
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  - And, are there synergies that are able to
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  - be achieved to better improve health?
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  - That's really the the fun part of the
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  - job is really thinking about what we can
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  - do together,
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  - in order to move health care forward. I'll
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  - give you an example. We work very closely
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  - with our university
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  - and our College of Nursing,
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  - and that's been an amazing pipeline.
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  - And about sixty percent of the nurses that
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  - graduate
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  - from our college end up becoming nurses at
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  - Jefferson Health. And that's a really great way
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  - where we're able to connect the dots
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  - between our academic programs and our health care
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  - system.
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  - Similarly,
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  - on the payer side and the provider side,
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  - we think about how can we remove friction
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  - between payers and providers.
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  - For example, sometimes it's hard to get patients
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  - to their next level of care, like a
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  - nursing home or skilled facility,
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  - without a lot of paperwork.
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  - Well, we were able to remove that for
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  - our beneficiaries
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  - and made sure that they're able to get
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  - to their next site of care in a
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  - timely fashion.
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  - And that's really how health care should work
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  - is being able to remove as much friction
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  - out of the system as possible
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  - and make sure that we're able to improve
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  - lives along the way.
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  - I love that.
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  - And I'm sure most leaders like you are
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  - always moving towards that kind of ideal. But
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  - I imagine it can be difficult to figure
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  - out how to do that. Right? So what
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  - are some advice you have for how to
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  - align those incentives and teams to get those
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  - best outcomes across the pillars?
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  - Well, I think first, it starts with culture.
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  - It's so important to have the culture really,
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  - aligned and right. And for us, it it
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  - starts, as I mentioned, with our mission,
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  - to improve lives. And that starts first is
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  - how do you create the right culture, the
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  - right the right North Star?
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  - And then from there is really having a
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  - a an approach towards collaboration.
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  - The more likely you are to raise your
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  - hand, ask for help,
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  - think about how things might be connected,
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  - the solutions that then arise from that type
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  - of collaboration,
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  - sometimes are pretty amazing. And there are things
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  - that you might think about in in different
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  - ways. And so we encourage our leaders to
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  - really look for opportunities
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  - in our spaces between each of our various
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  - business units where care,
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  - delivery, financing, and academics
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  - intersect
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  - and looking about how we can create the
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  - greatest value for our patients and our communities.
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  - And then we also clarify ownership.
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  - As you can imagine, this is a very
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  - matrix like organization.
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  - And so clarify ownership and responsibilities where they
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  - overlap as often as you can.
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  - And then ultimately,
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  - make sure that you're keeping our mission and
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  - our patients and our communities and our learners
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  - first. And when you think about that and
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  - keep that top of mind, the solutions then,
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  - make sense along the way.
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  - Interesting.
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  - Now as a leader and the leaders that
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  - work with you on this, I feel like
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  - there must be some different
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  - competencies,
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  - some different demands
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  - of time or roles
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  - that you have to adjust in order to
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  - make this operate smoothly. So what are some
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  - of those competencies
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  - or demands that your leaders are facing and
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  - working with on a daily basis that others
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  - in a more traditional leadership role might not
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  - encounter?
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  - That's a great question. You know, I think
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  - when we think about our leadership and and
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  - where health care is today and where it's
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  - going,
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  - I think being in Philadelphia,
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  - I'm often reminded of Ben Franklin's quote around
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  - nothing is certain but death and taxes.
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  - Well, we can add uncertainty to that.
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  - Is that health care and where the world
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  - is going, there's a lot of uncertainty.
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  - And leaders that are comfortable
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  - leading through uncertainty, managing uncertainty for their teams
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  - are definitely a trait that we look for.
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  - It's more about being a compass than being
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  - a map. And so how do we make
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  - sure that we have leaders that are comfortable
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  - there?
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  - Similarly, it's around complexity.
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  - Health care is complex, and then you add
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  - academics and you add insurance to it, and
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  - it makes it even more complex. So how
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  - are you able to navigate
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  - that complexity
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  - towards solutions that are meaningful
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  - towards our our patients and our communities?
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  - And as I mentioned before, collaboration
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  - is critical.
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  - You won't know everything,
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  - and your team won't know everything. And so
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  - how do you make sure you rely on
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  - others to do that, collaborate across
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  - these different areas to reach better solutions?
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  - And then lastly,
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  - it was really about communication and transparency.
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  - The more you're able to communicate
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  - effectively around the intent,
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  - what you're looking for, what you're trying to
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  - solve for, and bring people along,
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  - that's really how you start to lead teams
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  - and ultimately organizations.
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  - And so those are some of the skill
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  - sets that we look for in our leaders
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  - here.
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  - Amazing.
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  - Well, thank you so much for taking the
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  - time to share a little bit more and
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  - sharing all of your great advice for how
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  - to be an integrated delivery and academic financing
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  - system. It's been a pleasure talking with you
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  - today.
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  - Pleasure's all mine. Thank you so much for
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  - having me.