Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / John Meier, CEO of Aurora Charter Oak Behavioral Health Hospital

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John Meier, CEO of Aurora Charter Oak Behavioral Health Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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This is where health care leadership comes together.
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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speakers to Chicago April.
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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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visit beckershospitalreview.com
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and click on the events tab in the
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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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in Chicago.
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This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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Podcast
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with a special episode that will also go
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in the Becker's Behavioral Healthcare Podcast.
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We're talking today with a brilliant leader,
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John
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Meyer. John's the CEO, chief executive officer of
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Aurora Charter Oak Hospital.
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We're going to talk to John about the
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issues he's watching about his career and a
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lot more.
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I noticed when I was looking him up
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this morning, he's also an Indiana University graduate.
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So we will talk for a moment about
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Indiana Hoosier football as well.
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John, let me ask you to take a
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moment to introduce yourself and tell us a
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little bit about
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your background,
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and how you ended up in the behavioral
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health field. I know you worked at Crowe
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for a period of time, a great, great
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consulting firm,
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that we've got close colleagues at. Talk a
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bit about your career and how you ended
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up in leadership in behavioral health.
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Yeah. Thanks for having me on.
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My career in behavioral health is a bit
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of a circuitous one.
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I grew up in a family where,
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my parents work in health care. My mom's
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a nurse. My father's a physician. My oldest
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sister's a nurse. My other sister, she's a
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psychologist.
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And just grew up at the dinner table
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having a lot of conversations,
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you know, either directly related or tangentially related
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to the health care space.
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So I always
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knew I was going into this field.
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My career path to behavioral health is one
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that is really dictated and and built,
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upon relationships.
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When I was an undergrad at Indiana University,
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I, one of my professors, Dean Scallon,
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was an adjunct professor, a CEO in Bloomington
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of a behavioral health facility. I was lucky
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enough to intern with her, and that was
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really my initial foray
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into, health care administration
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in general, but specifically in the behavioral space.
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I worked in management consulting before moving into
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administration,
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but was presented with an opportunity,
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in San Antonio at San Antonio Behavioral Healthcare
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Hospital as the chief operating officer.
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And the
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attractive
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thing about that position was
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their services that they provide for active duty
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service members and veterans.
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My brother-in-law,
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you know, did three tours. Three of my
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uncles served in Vietnam.
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Both of my grandfathers in World War two.
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So that holds a very special place in
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my heart,
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and was a big selling point for me.
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You know, fast forward a few years,
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and
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I was presented with an opportunity
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to move out here to California,
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and that arrives us where we're at today,
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in in leading Charter Oak Hospital, which is
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one of the largest privately held,
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psychiatric hospitals in Southern California.
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Well well, thank you. And tell us about
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Charter Oak Hospital and about the core trends
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that you're watching right now in behavioral health.
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Charter Oak,
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I had mentioned
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for
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a a psychiatric
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facility or behavioral health care provider is quite
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large. We operate a 134
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inpatient beds. We have an on campus residential
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treatment center,
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and we also offer,
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multiple levels of outpatient treatment,
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on campus.
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In behavioral health care and health care in
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general, it's, an extremely dynamic
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environment. And California is at an interesting inflection
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point and some, you know, some trends or,
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you know, hot ticket items that
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I
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and our entire organization
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is watching is, you know, one, what's the
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role of technology in the delivery of health
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care?
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You know, just today, OpenAI announced CHATCPT
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Health,
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which I think, you know, has the potential
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to be,
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monumental for the consumer.
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But how does technology get integrated into
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the delivery of health care,
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is a really interesting future proposition.
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I think the the second topic,
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for us specifically
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are the,
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dynamic and and changing clinical challenges,
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of our patients and how do we as
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a provider adapt
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with the recruitment of expertise, with the changing
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of the physical environment, with the structuring of
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teams,
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with the delivery of services.
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And the third topic,
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that's really top of mind
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for me and our entire leadership team right
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now, most notably, is the impact of regulation
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and legislation,
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that's impacting the entire industry.
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Your,
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publication has done a great job of covering,
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the the most recent,
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regulatory change, which is the,
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imposition
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of new nursing staffing ratios
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for acute psychiatric hospitals, which is going to,
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have a
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massive widespread effect.
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And and it's a really monumental,
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sort of inflection point for the entire behavioral
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health care industry,
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across California.
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Thank you very, very much. And and and
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talk about that. The nurse staffing ratios at
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a time
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when people are trying to change and have
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flexibility in how they develop
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deliver care and workflows.
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Talk about the challenges of that kind of
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legislation, if you don't mind. You and you
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don't have to if you if you don't
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want to.
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No. I I I I'd be happy to,
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and I think that we could probably spend
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the next twenty minutes talking about this because
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it's a really complicated issue.
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The
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the stated goals of our,
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of
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elected officials
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in California
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are to
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improve access and
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outcomes and safety.
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I think that those are all goals that
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every single person working in health care agrees
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with.
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The challenge with the nursing ratios is it
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does not factor in
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the
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nuanced differences
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of the delivery of care in a psychiatric
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setting, which is very much reliant on a
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multidisciplinary
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team.
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And that, you know, very simplistically
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is the biggest
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dichotomy between
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psychiatry
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and the way in which our staff composition
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looks
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versus medical surgical settings.
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And in a psychiatric
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setting,
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what the impact for us is going to
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be in,
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you know, complying with new nursing ratios, number
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one, most notably, this was not published until,
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December 23. Right? Just a few days before
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Christmas with an implementation date of January 31,
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giving us roughly five and a half to
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six weeks
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to implement this.
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Now because we have not been subject
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historically to
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these,
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type of stringent
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nursing ratios,
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that requires
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a very rapid
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accelerated
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ramp up period,
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or process
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to get in compliance.
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The challenge with that being is the hiring,
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the recruiting, the onboarding, the orientation, the training
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process
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takes longer than just the implementation
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window we've been given.
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So the immediate impact
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and in one of the articles that Becker's
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had published, it referenced, Peggy Minnick's
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commentary with the,
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CDPH call that we had two weeks ago
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or or last week,
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are spot on where it calls into question
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the,
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viability of this. And
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the the the ramification
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for
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emergency rooms
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and other health care providers that are not
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necessarily in the psychiatric space, at least in
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the short term.
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Thank you. And and talk about as you
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head into 2026
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and and were there,
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what are you most focused on and excited
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about this year, John?
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Well,
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most focused right now
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on
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the staffing ratios,
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just because
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of the immediacy
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of that. But zooming out a little bit,
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I'm still very excited about
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the behavioral health care industry in general.
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I think,
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there is the possibility of a positive byproduct
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of these staffing ratios because it's drawing attention
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to the fact that we need greater access.
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We need more resources.
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More people in our state and across the
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country
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need more quality behavioral health care services.
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And I think that just in conversations we've
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had this week and and last week,
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there is a groundswell and a large coalition
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of people who agree with me. And I
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think that that's been evidenced by the leadership
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team at the LA County Department of Mental
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Health
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and the state assembly. And,
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from local clinics all the way up to
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the governor's office, there's a recognition that behavioral
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health needs to be a priority in the
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state of California.
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I'm excited about
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the team and what we do here at
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Charter Oak. In 2025, we alone serve 7,500
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patients.
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And
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what's interesting about us, because there's a lot
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of new providers in the space, which is
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great,
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what's different about Charter Oak is our history
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dates back to the nineteen forties.
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The building that I'm sitting in right now,
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has operated as
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some form or fashion of behavioral health care
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provider,
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for many, many decades.
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And that's exciting. And the role that we
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play here you know, I had mentioned we
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served almost 8,000 patients in
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2025
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alone.
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The reality of behavioral health is that when
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our patients are,
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afflicted with these challenges,
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with the symptomology
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of psychiatric disorders, is it affects
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many of their loved ones around them. It's
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friends, it's family, it's mothers, it's
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partners, it's,
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coworkers.
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And treating 8,000 patients a year has a
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magnifying effect in the sense that we're providing
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a positive impact,
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orders of magnitude larger than that. And I'm
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excited to continue to try and expand our
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ability to do so
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and to make a difference in our community.
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John, you're having an incredible leadership career.
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Like, I wanna do two things. I I
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wanna be able to ask you for your
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advice that you would give to emerging leaders.
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You're having just this remarkable career. I'm so
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impressed with what you're doing. It's literally fantastic.
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And I want you to use that opportunity
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to talk about leadership
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to also lean in if you'd like to
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any comments you wanna make about sort of
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Kurt Cignetti's leadership at Indiana University because I
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I I know you're a fan. So any
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thoughts, advice you'd give to emerging leaders in
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any editorial or comments you wanna make about
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Indiana football?
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Any thoughts?
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I think every leader
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I cannot stress the importance enough of being
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dynamic.
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I think that rigidity of thought is extremely
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dangerous.
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You hear the adage of being lifelong learners.
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Well, if you want to be a leader,
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that is a requirement, not a nice to
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have.
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I think that individual leaders, organizations
12:14
need to constantly learn and adapt
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in our fast paced and ever changing environment.
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I had mentioned, you know, rigidity of thought
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is dangerous
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because when you are closed off
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to oppositional thought or different ways of thinking
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or different ways of working,
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then your organization
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or you yourself
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run the fear of becoming stagnant.
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I think the second thing and and sort
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of, you know, the segue into
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what I find most remarkable about what Kurt
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Cignetti has done at Indiana and sort of
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bringing that into the context of leadership in
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general
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is the importance of, you know, toughness and
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grit.
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I think that he
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has had a very interesting
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path to Indiana University from
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Alabama to IUPUI to James Madison to
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now operating,
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you know,
13:10
a a football program that is on the
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cusp of playing in a national championship game.
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Right? We have been the historical
13:17
losing its program
13:19
in the history of college football, and what
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he has done is nothing short of,
13:26
a miracle quite honestly. But that doesn't happen
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by accident. Right? I think that Kurt Cignetti
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is extremely
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organized. I think that he has ability to
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get the best out of the people around
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him, and it starts at the top. It
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starts at the way in which he conducts
13:42
himself, the way he goes about his own
13:44
business, and the way that he has been
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able to you know, especially in the port
13:48
the NIL and era of portal transfers,
13:52
each year,
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he is exhibiting the dynamic qualities that I
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talked about previously.
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Right? We're in the process right now of
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doing an entire roster deconstruction and construction,
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and he's balancing
14:06
preparing to play Oregon, you know, in twenty
14:08
four hours.
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I think that that is
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incredible, the way he's able to balance competing
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demands
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on his time, the way he's able to
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delegate and get the most out of both
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his staff and his players.
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And I really admire him, and I think
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he's a wonderful leader.
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Really fantastic. John, I'm so impressed with your
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leadership career. I'm a Illinois fan, so it's
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so hard for me to cheer for Indiana
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even though it's it's a fellow big ten
14:37
school.
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But it's so hard to see when we've
14:39
just been so friendly okay. Indiana's been so
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friendly okay in football
14:44
to see Indiana take a big leap
14:47
above us. I think there's this concept of
14:49
misery loving company.
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And now that Indiana
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is thriving,
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they may be, like, they may be thought
14:55
of, like, the Wolverines are thought of in
14:56
Illinois territory, but we'll see. In any event,
14:59
congratulations
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on your career.
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Congratulations on Indiana. I I am so impressed
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with Kurt Cigneti and what he's done. It's
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it's impossible not to, but but I'm more
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impressed with what you're doing at Charter Oak
15:09
in in Aurora Health Care. It's just fantastic
15:11
what you guys are all doing. I I
15:13
I really appreciate it, Scott, and it's my
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pleasure.
15:17
And I really appreciate all that you guys
15:18
do at Becker's
15:19
and all of the support that your publication
15:22
has given and advocacy towards behavioral health care
15:25
in the past and in covering these key
15:27
issues. And I hope that we can do
15:29
this again. Looking forward to it. Thank you
15:31
so much for joining us.