Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Helping Rural Hospitals Thrive and Physicians Build Independence with Ericka Beeler

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Helping Rural Hospitals Thrive and Physicians Build Independence with Ericka Beeler · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a version of AI in health care
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  - that lives mostly in press releases,
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  - pilot programs, partnership announcements,
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  - theoretical
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  - use cases.
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  - And then there's the version that lives in
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  - the work, the CIO trying to get a
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  - model into production without breaking a dozen workflows,
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  - the revenue cycle leader weighing automation against accuracy,
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  - the CISO who knows that every new integration
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  - is a new attack surface.
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  - Becker's eleventh annual IT and revenue cycle conference
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  - is built for the people doing that work.
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  - More than 2,500
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  - executive level attendees,
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  - 600 plus speakers,
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  - and four days of sessions designed around the
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  - real operational questions behind
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  - AI, cybersecurity,
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  - revenue cycle performance, and digital health.
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  - Join us September 14 through the seventeenth.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:55
  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Health
• 1:02
  - Care Podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by an
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  - entrepreneur, a leader, a brilliant person in health
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  - care, Erica Beeler.
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  - Erica's gonna talk to us about her business,
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  - about some of the services she does, what
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  - trends she's watching, and a lot more. Erica,
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  - can you take a moment and introduce yourself
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  - and and tell us about how you got
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  - started in health care business?
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  - Yeah. Absolutely.
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  - Erica Beeler, CEO, founder of Beeler Consulting.
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  - I started in health care as a CNA.
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  - So I thought I wanted to be a
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  - nurse, started as a tech on the floor,
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  - worked inpatient hospice when I was 17.
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  - All of my patients died, and I quickly
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  - realized this probably isn't what I wanna do.
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  - It was a small hospital in a small
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  - town in Pittsburgh, Kansas, and I was a
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  - phlebotomist unit secretary. I worked my way up,
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  - started as an admin assistant at Research Medical
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  - Center, a level one trauma center here in
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  - Kansas City when I graduated college, and found
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  - myself just kinda doing all sorts of stuff.
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  - I was the physician support coordinator, then I
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  - managed some clinics for HCA, and then I,
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  - got into business development, was promoted up to
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  - a regional director of development, then went back
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  - and was a vice president of development for
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  - HCA and ran one of our surgery centers.
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  - Always had an entrepreneurial
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  - spirit and had my family, as always,
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  - ran their own companies. So
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  - went out on my own about two years
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  - and basically had a a vision and goal
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  - of how do I take this knowledge and
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  - everything we've learned from these health systems
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  - and deploy some of these strategies and principles
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  - into hospitals, and and how do we save
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  - rural hospitals and keep them open? And then
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  - how do we help independent physicians run better
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  - businesses? So that's what we do here at
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  - Baylor.
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  - It was simply remarkable. And what are some
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  - of the trends you're watching in both rural
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  - hospitals, physician practices? What
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. I think,
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  - two things really specifically,
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  - for different different segments. One is in the
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  - medical group side. I think we constantly see
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  - the pressure from payers, but I think you're
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  - now seeing a shift of physicians going back
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  - to entrepreneurship
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  - and really looking at creative models of how
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  - do I,
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  - you know, we know DPC concierge medicine is
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  - very alive and active and it's gonna continue
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  - to grow. We see employers making different shifts
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  - and different decisions
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  - on how do we get out of these,
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  - traditional models and how do we take better
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  - care of our employers.
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  - So I just think naturally you're seeing a
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  - shift in just in healthcare economics, and you're
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  - seeing
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  - physicians just really pursue entrepreneurship
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  - and ownership and wanting to own in the
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  - real estate, wanting to build their own ASCs.
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  - And it's fun. It's fun to be a
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  - part of that.
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  - Rebound to seeing that kind of interest in
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  - entrepreneurship because it seems like that was so
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  - present a while ago,
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  - then lacking a little bit. Are you seeing
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  - more of that interest again from physicians?
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  - I am. I am. And it's usually after
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  - employment, so I don't think most physicians don't
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  - come out wanting to open their own practice.
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  - I think a lot of them go into
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  - employment models. They get burned out. They try
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  - to figure out how do I buy back
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  - my time? How do I have freedom? How
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  - do I get out of these production based
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  - models?
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  - What does the ownership look like? So,
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  - I think you just see that physician, and
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  - and it's not always in medicine. Some of
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  - the entrepreneurship
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  - and what physicians are doing is
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  - car washes or,
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  - you know, real estate empires. It it's not
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  - always medicine. I think they're all just looking
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  - for a different way to to make money.
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  - And you have some independence and autonomy.
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  - When I grew into health care a long
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  - time ago now,
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  - a lot of physicians and small, mid sized
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  - talents particularly
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  - would be a doctor, primary care, a surgeon,
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  - whatever they were doing, and also be a
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  - local investor in real estate, maybe a local
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  - member of the board of directors of a
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  - bank, and those kinds of things. It was
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  - sort of a very almost feels like a
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  - bygone era, but you almost see a return
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  - to some of that interest, don't you?
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  - Yeah. Yeah. We do. And I I love
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  - it. I think it's the way for them
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  - to build wealth and and to not have
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  - to be so tied
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  - to the employment and to the hospital systems,
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  - which is a great fit for some doctors.
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  - There's some doctors that can take that paycheck
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  - and they're happy as can be, and and
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  - that's that's what they wanna do. And I
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  - think that's great. But for the physicians that
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  - want something
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  - different, I think it's important to have groups
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  - out there like us that can help support
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  - them, execute that vision, and
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  - stay viable.
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  - And you do a terrific job both with
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  - the groups and with hospitals. Talk a bit
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  - about what a typical engagement might look like
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  - and what you're doing.
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  - Yeah. So right now, we're opening
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  - five practices, and so we're project managers in
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  - the sense that we help execute the checklist
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  - of getting you gotta get your med mountain,
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  - you gotta get your payer contracts, we gotta
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  - get your credential, we've gotta and our team
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  - does that and actually executes the work. We're
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  - not the people that just say, okay, doctor,
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  - go do this. I think we pride ourselves
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  - on
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  - execution and deliverables,
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  - not just handing you a bunch of decks
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  - and a project plan and saying, knock yourself
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  - out. Good luck.
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  - So right now we're opening up a cardiology
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  - clinic. We're opening up a direct primary care
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  - clinic. We're helping a physician open up an
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  - emergency dental practice.
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  - We're actually building out a cardiovascular
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  - service line for a physician owned hospital, which
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  - is really fun.
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  - Yeah. And then for all hospitals, we typically
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  - come in, if they have less than thirty
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  - days of cash on hand and try our
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  - best to deploy our team to turn them
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  - around.
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  - So that's a very different engagement.
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  - And then sometimes we end up staffing, like
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  - COO, CNO type roles.
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  - And and is the work that you're doing
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  - national or located in the Midwest or sort
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  - of every place?
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  - We're just in the Midwest. So we've only
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  - been around for two years. We're a young
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  - company. We're in Kansas, Missouri, Texas,
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  - Nebraska, and Iowa.
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  - You know, and that's a that's a broad
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  - definition of the Midwest because it seems like
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  - it's growing tremendously, and there's lots of interest.
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  - That's that's really fantastic.
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  - And and and and
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  - what are you most focused on and excited
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  - about as we get into
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  - the second half of this year? I cannot
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  - believe it's almost the second year half of
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  - 2026.
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  - What what are you most focused on and
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  - excited about and so forth?
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  - What I'm so excited about is we have
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  - three hospital engagements that are turnarounds, and they're
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  - just,
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  - you know, good people, great communities,
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  - just didn't have the leadership,
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  - expertise per se. It was just hard to
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  - recruit to rural communities.
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  - So our team's really excited to get in
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  - there, dig in, see what can we do
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  - to get this hospital back on track,
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  - and really work alongside on a mentorship program
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  - with these facilities. So the leaders we do
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  - put in place that we set them up
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  - for success,
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  - and we're not just like the fly by
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  - night consulting firm that bounces once they get
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  - stable and turned around. So I I'm really
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  - excited to have one of those projects.
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  - And then I'm these physician practices,
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  - seeing them, like, one of our we separated
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  - them from a larger corporation,
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  - and we just did their quarterly business review,
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  - and they absolutely are crushing it.
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  - And so I'm excited to see how our
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  - other clients do long term.
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  - Yeah. And just continue to help people. You
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  - know? That's what it's all about.
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  - And talk about that motor that you have,
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  - that energy that you have. Where does that
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  - come from? Were you born with that energy
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  - and motor that that makes you so effective
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  - in dealing with people and growing? Talk a
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  - little bit about that, or do you have
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  - to cultivate that energy level and that ability
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  - to to visit and and work with people
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  - so closely?
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  - Yeah. I've it's my parents. So my dad
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  - my parents all came from farm roots.
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  - So the day was half over by 8AM
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  - if we were awake.
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  - And, we had full time jobs when we
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  - were 14. My brother is a hospital CEO
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  - and ran a mowing business that he grew
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  - and sold when he was like 20.
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  - And then I, I would have weekly garage
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  - sales and baby, I was a babysitter. So
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  - we were always just taught hustle and work
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  - ethic. And, there's no such word as can't
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  - and you figure it out and you do
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  - your best
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  - and you have respect. And, and I think
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  - that work ethic has carried me through and
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  - I just love it. Like I, people ask
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  - what my hobby is. I was like, man,
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  - I'm I'm living my dream.
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  - Like, this is my hobby.
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  - Well so, yeah, I know. I'm just born
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  - born that way, I guess.
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  - And and what does the future look like
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  - for Bueller Consulting?
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  - That is a really good question.
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  - You know, the Lord has blessed us, and
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  - I just continue to lean into him and
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  - say, put us where you need us. Like,
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  - we're a bunch of health care executives that
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  - left corporate America and just wanna go make
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  - the world a better place. So
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  - I don't have some grand plan. Right? Like,
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  - I I wanna serve and help as many
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  - people as I possibly can.
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  - So our future is
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  - is is I don't know.
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  - It it actually a great, great answer and
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  - a true answer
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  - That that most great businesses are built a
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  - year at a time without a grand vision
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  - and incrementally and trying to figure it out.
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  - So I actually love that answer versus no
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  - of that answer. So no. Thank you so
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  - much. What what advice would you give to
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  - evolving and emerging entrepreneurs?
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  - What advice do you give to people?
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  - I would say read Scott Becker's book.
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  - I wish I would have read it, like,
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  - two years before I opened my company.
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  - And I think lean into mentors. Like, like,
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  - find people that have done what you're trying
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  - to do and listen to them.
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  - That's been huge to me. I feel like
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  - I have been able to scale this company
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  - and buy back our time in so many
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  - ways by listening to strong advisors, even just
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  - such as you, Scott. Just giving me, like,
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  - a a little bit of advice will go
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  - so so and and just execute on it.
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  - Don't be the people that, you know, you
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  - hop on the phone, they give you advice,
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  - and then you do nothing about it. Like,
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  - actually, go do the work.
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  - Nothing nothing in entrepreneurship is easy.
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  - Could not agree more. Erica, as always, it's
• 10:44
  - great to speak with you. Where can people
• 10:46
  - learn more about Dealer Consulting and what you're
• 10:48
  - doing?
• 10:50
  - Yeah. So message me on LinkedIn. I check
• 10:52
  - all my messages. I will respond. And then
• 10:55
  - our website's buellerconsulting.org.
• 10:58
  - Again, Erica Bueller, just a fantastic leader and
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  - person and consultant.
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  - Erica, thank you so much for joining us
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  - today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I really
• 11:06
  - appreciate it. Thank you so much.
• 11:09
  - Thanks, Scott.