Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding GME and Building a Sustainable Physician Workforce at Sutter Health with Leon Clark

Transcript

Expanding GME and Building a Sustainable Physician Workforce at Sutter Health with Leon Clark · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:04
  Leon Clark, chief academic affairs officer at Sutter
• 0:07
  Health. Leon, it's a pleasure to have you
• 0:08
  on the podcast today. Well, thank you. It's
• 0:10
  my, my pleasure to, be here with you,
• 0:12
  Laura. Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation.
• 0:15
  I know we're gonna be digging into some
• 0:16
  of the things you're doing at Sutter,
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  around,
• 0:19
  additional medical education and Sutter Health's GNE program.
• 0:23
  So, we'll dive right in here. I know
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  it's no secret that hospitals and health systems
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  nationwide are grappling with how to address, some
• 0:29
  of the combination of the aging population that
• 0:31
  will require more care as well as a
• 0:33
  larger population of the physician workforce nearing retirement.
• 0:36
  So could you tell us a little bit
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  about Sutter Health GME program and how important
• 0:40
  it is, for that program to create solutions
• 0:43
  to these challenges beyond just hiring more physicians?
• 0:46
  Yeah. Laura, thank you. Thank you for the
• 0:48
  question. I think, from from my perspective,
• 0:51
  GME growth is, central to our strategy. It
• 0:55
  is,
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  it's highlighted within our strategic plan.
• 1:00
  It's how we think about
• 1:01
  building a sustainable
• 1:03
  physician workforce to address
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  some of our pressing
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  challenges
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  that I think are consistent across the health
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  care landscape,
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  critical issues like, you know, access and population
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  health.
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  And for us, it's about how we support,
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  our growth as a health care delivery system,
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  overall.
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  And,
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  so it's not just about, you know, filling,
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  filling
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  physician vacancies today, although,
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  that remains,
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  important to us, and we've had
• 1:34
  quite a bit of success in growing
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  the number of new physicians,
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  in our practice.
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  I think what we've come to realize, though,
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  is that, you know, you can't really, hire
• 1:45
  your way out of, you know, the physician
• 1:48
  workforce shortage in the short term. So,
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  the GME,
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  expansion and growth is really, about,
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  how do we train and, retain
• 1:58
  our own,
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  over time.
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  And, you know, if we can provide, an
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  outstanding training experience for
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  our residents and fellows, if
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  we can create an environment and reinforce an
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  environment that feels,
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  fair and just,
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  to them,
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  what we know is that,
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  the retention is going to be a lot
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  easier to,
• 2:21
  achieve.
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  Physicians are more likely,
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  to practice where they're they're trained,
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  and that's been our our strategy all along.
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  That makes a lot of sense and is,
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  you know, such helpful context because I think
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  when you are trying to solve big problems
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  like physician shortages and access to care in
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  talent pipeline there, you know, there's no easy
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  solutions, it seems, and a lot of different
• 2:45
  factors that can go into,
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  solving that problem. So I know that Sutter
• 2:50
  Health GME program saw a lot of growth
• 2:52
  in 2025, both in terms of administrative support
• 2:56
  and the number of residents
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  with more planned for 2026.
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  How do you scale that growth year to
• 3:01
  year and keep the program trajectory on track?
• 3:04
  Well, I think that's, so first that's true.
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  I think the the growth trajectory,
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  that we're on,
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  only works, under two conditions. One of that
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  is you you have to be thoughtful about
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  it,
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  and you have to be, intentional.
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  In our case, we've decided to
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  approach this in more of a stepwise fashion.
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  So our growth plan is being executed over
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  a series of phases that
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  looks at how do we balance strategic priorities.
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  I mentioned
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  about
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  aligning our growth to
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  priorities
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  like service line growth and development. So how
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  do we balance that
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  against operational readiness? So,
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  a lot of the growth is occurring in,
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  what we call GME naive hospitals.
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  That takes a lot of work to prepare
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  the environment for new programs. And so
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  we're trying to balance strategic
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  intent with
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  speed and and
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  readiness. The one other
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  essential part of it is really
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  trying to support growth
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  through a strong system level governance that provides
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  both shared services for common functions
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  like accreditation,
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  and accreditation
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  readiness,
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  things like faculty development,
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  financial planning, accounting,
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  things that are common across, all of our
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  programs while at the same time,
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  empowering the the local teams at the hospital,
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  level, the foundation level to really,
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  lead day to day operations. It's that that
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  balance,
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  between system wide standards and local ownership that,
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  allows us to grow,
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  while at the same time,
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  maintaining the quality of
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  of our,
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  clinical learning environment. Those those are the the
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  keys in my view.
• 4:59
  Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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  You know? It is really helpful to understand
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  that balance. I think, you know, trying to
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  find the right type of ways where you
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  can accelerate and be innovative, but making sure
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  that you're safe with it and truly,
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  having that foundation of excellence,
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  it makes a big difference.
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  I'm curious,
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  one of the unique aspects of Sutter Health's
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  G and E approach is its partnership with
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  other institutions like the Charles r Drew University.
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  How do these types of partnerships contribute to
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  expanding the number of residents and fellows that
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  Sutter is able to train?
• 5:33
  Yeah. That's a really, good and important question.
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  In fact, we have a number of, academic
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  partners. Charles Drew is,
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  but one of many,
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  I think of partnerships
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  as force multipliers.
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  So many of our partners bring
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  complimentary expertise
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  that allows us to gain access to a
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  diverse
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  talent pipeline.
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  You know, California, as you know, is
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  a is a diverse
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  state, and we want to grow
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  a physician workforce that is reflective of that.
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  I I also realized that, you know, working
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  together, we can train more physicians and train
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  them better, in fact,
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  than any of us, could do
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  alone. So we'll continue to
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  forge
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  strong
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  and lasting academic partnerships
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  to support our workforce development needs
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  across the organization. But partnerships
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  such as Charles Drew is really really important
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  to us.
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  That makes sense. And, you know, when you
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  think about,
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  alignment and and those partnerships,
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  where do you see some of the the,
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  areas that you've been able to expand and,
• 6:49
  you know, create the great partnerships? How do
• 6:51
  you have the right culture in place as
• 6:53
  you're developing,
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  these relationships so that, you know, you can
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  make the most out of their potential?
• 6:59
  Yeah. I think growing and developing,
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  partnerships is a is a skill. And so,
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  the first thing that we try and look
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  for is
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  mission alignment.
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  It's helpful to be
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  culturally
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  aligned.
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  I think that to the extent that
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  there is complimentary expertise that one,
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  organization
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  brings whether it's capabilities
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  and faculty development, we we are, very thoughtful
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  about identifying those kinds of things.
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  So with that sort of framework, it's really,
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  an an approach,
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  mission alignment,
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  cultural alignment,
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  complementary,
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  capabilities and expertise, and it really comes down
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  to managing the relationship.
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  And I would perhaps look,
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  underscore,
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  management. Right? It's it's, what we're looking for
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  in our partners is something that rises above
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  the level of a transaction.
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  And so these are intended to be
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  long lasting,
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  and and, in order to do that successfully,
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  you have to manage the relationship with intent.
• 8:08
  Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for shedding a little
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  bit more color on how you, develop those
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  and really make sure that they're flourishing.
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  Part of Sutter Health's Destination twenty thirty initiative
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  is training a thousand plus residents and fellows
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  annually. What's next for the GME program to
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  help reach that goal?
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  Well, we're about halfway to,
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  towards our goal, but I think the the
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  next chapter beyond just,
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  growing the number of, new programs that, that
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  we're aspiring to,
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  is really about, you know,
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  differentiating and strengthening the clinical learning environment, etcetera.
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  Our goal again is to train and retain,
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  for our system and for California
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  more broadly, but the opportunity,
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  for us, I think, is to train in
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  a way that is reflective of the Sutter
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  model of care.
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  That means, team based care. That means,
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  building expertise in population health management,
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  emphasizing things like innovation,
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  and research.
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  So it's, you know, this balance of, of
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  scale plus purpose, that we're we're after.
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  So we'll, we'll hit our goal of training,
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  nearly a thousand residents a year by 2032.
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  But along the way,
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  we're thinking about what direction
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  is medicine and,
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  medical education going,
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  for example,
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  with more emphasis on AI and digital capabilities,
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  digital knowledge, and how that gets applied and
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  how it
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  can, help support,
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  new models of care. All of that is
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  being
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  thought about and embedded
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  in our
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  residency and and, fellowship training programs.
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  That makes a lot of sense and helpful
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  to understand. That's a huge goal and, really
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  impressive,
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  you know, that you're already halfway there training,
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  you know, 500 around residents and then looking
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  to add the rest by 2032,
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  a huge, huge goal. What piece of advice
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  would you have and and share with graduate
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  students exploring fellowships and residencies like Sutter Health
• 10:13
  offers, through its GME program?
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  Well, I think,
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  you know, my advice,
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  is to,
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  you know, look for a place that treats
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  education as
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  as a a core strategy and not a
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  side project.
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  Where you train, shapes how you practice.
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  And, again, one of our our goals is
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  to, you know, train our residents and fellows,
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  in a way that is reflective of how
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  we,
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  as a system, want to care for patients.
• 10:43
  Again, it's, you know, team based care.
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  It's
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  rooted in
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  advanced technology, including AI. It's forward
• 10:53
  looking approaches. And so,
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  I think,
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  you know, the graduate students, the medical students
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  should should really think about the learning environment,
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  at any place that they're
• 11:04
  looking to join. I also would encourage them
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  to actually come and take a look.
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  Sometimes,
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  you don't know until you see,
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  And so we're very interested,
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  and active in inviting,
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  medical students,
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  and residents to take a look, at our
• 11:21
  practice. Come here,
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  spend some time with us,
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  look for the things that are, going to
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  be important to you over time,
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  like the clinical learning environment,
• 11:32
  like,
• 11:33
  you know, fair and just culture. I think
• 11:35
  all of those things, really matter,
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  when thinking about, you know, where you're gonna,
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  take your next step and spend
• 11:44
  time practicing medicine.
• 11:46
  Absolutely. That's amazing to hear. Leon, thank you
• 11:48
  so much for joining us on the podcast
• 11:50
  today. This has been a really fascinating conversation.
• 11:52
  It's been really cool to hear more about
• 11:55
  everything that you've been doing at Sutter Health,
• 11:57
  and I look forward to connecting with you
• 11:58
  again soon.
• 12:00
  Laura, my pleasure. Again, thanks for, allowing me
• 12:03
  to share this platform with you. It's, been
• 12:06
  really good. Thank you.