Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Quality, Access, and Strategic Partnerships at Naples Comprehensive Health with Paul Hiltz

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Driving Quality, Access, and Strategic Partnerships at Naples Comprehensive Health with Paul Hiltz · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
• 0:04
  leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues
• 0:06
  facing the industry.
• 0:08
  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  and unexpected ways.
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  This April, more than 3,500
• 0:14
  health care executives will return to Chicago
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  for Becker's sixteenth annual meeting.
• 0:19
  795
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  elite speakers will offer new lessons, new case
• 0:23
  studies, and predictions about what comes next.
• 0:26
  Join us April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right.
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  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Paul Hiltz, president and CEO of Naples Comprehensive
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  Health. Paul, it's a pleasure to have you
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  on the podcast today. Good morning, Laura. Thanks
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  for having me. Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward
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  to our conversation. I think there's a lot
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  of, amazing things happening in health care today
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  and, you know, really looking forward to spotlighting
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  some of the things you're doing at Naples
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  Comprehensive Health. But could you first and foremost
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself,
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  your background, and the organization?
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  Be glad to. I've been, here in Naples
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  as CEO for six years now, believe it
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  or not. Before that, I served as CEO
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  in the Bon Secours Mercy System
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  for fifteen years, throughout Ohio.
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  And happy to be here in Southwest Florida
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  where it's a very, active health care community.
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  Absolutely. No. It's I know where, better to
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  be in many times. So,
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  that's great. I I'm curious. Could you tell
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  us a little bit more about,
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  Naples Comprehensive Health? What do you do and
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  and what, services do you provide?
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  Well, Naples commune comprehensive health is a very
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  interesting organization, one that is rapidly growing. We've
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  essentially doubled in
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  rapidly
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  growing. We've essentially doubled in size over the
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  last five years from about 600,000,000
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  net revenue to just over 1,000,000,000.
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  We're a
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  locally governed
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  independent nonprofit health system. So there's not many
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  of those left in America. There's a lot
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  of large,
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  health care systems,
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  integrated delivery networks,
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  but we pride ourselves in being independent and
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  locally governed by a very
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  strong and effective board of trustees and a
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  and a really great management team here. And
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  we provide a comprehensive
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  array of services for Southwest Florida, including
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  a very robust
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  labor and delivery service,
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  a very busy cardiovascular
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  service line.
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  And just in July, we opened a premier
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  freestanding orthopedic
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  hospital in conjunction with the Hospital for Special
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  Surgery out of New York.
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  Well, that's fascinating. I mean, huge and impressive
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  growth as you said and then being able
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  to partner with,
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  you know, others,
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  to bring additional care into the community, I
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  know, is so critical.
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  I'm curious. What are some of the big
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  trends that you're watching currently? What's top of
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  mind for you?
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  Top of mind for us, and it comes
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  from our board, we really wanna double down
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  on quality.
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  We were just named the top 50
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  hospital in America based on our quality metrics.
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  We're benchmarking ourselves against some of the best
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  health systems in America.
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  So quality is is our primary focus,
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  and now we're coupling that this year with
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  access. So we really have focused in on
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  making it easier for patients
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  to access their doctors, to access outpatient care,
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  and to make sure that they they need
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  inpatient care, we can accommodate
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  just about everything they need except we don't
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  do transplants here. But other than that, we're
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  very much a full service integrated health system.
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  I love it. I I think it's, definitely
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  critical to have that type of, comprehensive care
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  within the community. And when you're looking at
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  access, looking at quality,
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  how do you make sure that you're staying
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  on top of, you know, accountabilities for those
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  things? What do you measure? And,
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  how do you, you know,
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  I guess, make sure that all are embracing
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  this culture of doing things the right way
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  every single time?
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  Well, we have a real focus on customer
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  service, customer satisfaction. We've really increased the access,
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  using
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  a call center that we've developed that we
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  do about 20,000 calls a week now, if
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  you can believe that. We have a a
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  a pretty robust digital front door with where
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  people can do self scheduling
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  using Epic.
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  And we have,
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  a a lot of outreach
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  here in Naples because there are quite a
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  few concierge doctors here, and we try to
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  make it easy for those doctors and their
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  patients
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  to access
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  timely and high quality care.
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  Got it. That's helpful to understand, you know,
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  and really makes a big difference when you
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  can have that easy in in customer service
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  mindset,
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  in order to connect. Now what are you
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  most focused on and excited about right now?
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  What's been something, you know, you've been proud
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  of from the last six to eighteen months
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  or so?
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  Well, as I said, the orthopedic hospital opening
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  was a big deal. Our partnerships that we
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  have going on right now with Northwestern
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  Medicine out of Chicago,
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  with Nicholas,
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  Children's out of Miami.
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  We have the HSS partnership
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  that that I mentioned.
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  And,
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  now there's a medical school that has announced
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  they're gonna build here in Southwest Florida over
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  the next several years, and we are in
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  discussions with the the medical school
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  to make sure we can be a strong
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  partner there. So
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  partnering is a key thing for us. We
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  think that partnerships can make us stronger
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  faster than trying to do everything on our
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  own.
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  And,
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  that culture of partnering and working with the
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  community and serving the community
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  is vitally important to me and and to
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  our team here.
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  That makes a ton of sense. And, you
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  know, I I think all of those partnerships
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  are fascinating. It seems like now more than
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  ever, health care is a a team sport.
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  And so, you know, when you're looking out
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  at at trying to fill some of those
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  gaps and identifying the right partners and actually
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  getting, you know,
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  these types of alignments of partnerships and and
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  deals across the finish line to make them
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  work and effective, you know, what does it
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  take from your seat as a CEO to,
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  you know, really get these done and and,
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  collaborate in a meaningful way?
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  Boy, that's a great question. We really believe
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  in in developing the culture here. So we
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  have two,
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  really exciting initiatives we've been working on. One
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  is a physician leadership academy that we just
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  graduated our third class out of. So we're
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  trying to develop physician leaders that can be
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  effective clinical and business leaders here in our
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  health system. We also have a program called
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  the
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  president's,
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  forum here where we are dealing with and
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  developing
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  our managerial,
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  mid level and and early career,
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  health care leaders to become even stronger leaders
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  because we believe that
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  health care in the future is gonna need
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  more leaders
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  than we've ever had before and people who
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  can collaborate
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  to get results. And that's what we're focused
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  on as we develop the culture here. We
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  wanna we wanna make this a place where
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  doctors and nurses can enjoy
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  practicing
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  their profession.
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  I love it. I I think that's such
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  a a great point. And, you know,
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  very fascinating that you've had the physician
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  leadership academy
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  bringing them into a a space where they're
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  learning more about the business side because I
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  know that's not a a ton of focus
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  when they're in medical school. And so have
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  you seen a good amount of energy around
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  clinicians wanting to do that and learn more
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  about that? Or, you know, what has been
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  kind of the most
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  attractive,
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  aspects
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  of that process to really,
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  bring in physicians that could have a meaningful
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  impact not only in patient care but also
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  in growing the organization?
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  What? Another great question. Yeah. We I think
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  we triggered a lot of interest in this
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  by first, we started a leadership
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  rounding program where we lead by listening to
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  our doctors. So people on my team, including
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  myself, shadow doctors quarterly
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  to learn what it's like to be a
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  practicing frontline
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  physician,
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  and then we talk about learning more about
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  leadership. So we have a very strong
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  interest in in an application process to get
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  into the physician
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  leadership training. And I will just tell you
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  that the final session of last year's leadership,
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  program for doctors was conducted at the Blue
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  Angels
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  training facility in Pensacola. So we
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  trained doctors how to, work in teams like
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  the Blue Angel pilot demonstration pilots do, and
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  that was a very
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  popular and very
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  exciting day to spend with our doctor leaders.
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  That's great to hear. And, you know, I
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  appreciate digging a little bit deeper into kind
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  of how that program came about and and,
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  you know, has grown over the last couple
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  of years. Now before we wrap up, I
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  wanted to ask,
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  what advice would you give to evolving leaders
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  today, especially given all the different dynamics in
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  health care and,
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  you know,
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  for folks who wanna continue to grow and
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  develop? What advice do you have?
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  Well, first of all, I think any young
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  person that's looking at health care as a
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  as a career, it's it's fabulous. There's never
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  been a better time to be in health
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  care.
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  We emphasize,
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  teamwork here at all levels. So I would
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  say work on
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  interpersonal skills and teamwork skills. We tend to
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  like to hire people that have have played
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  on sports teams and been active in,
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  civic groups.
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  And we believe that that
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  teamwork and and those experiences
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  help people learn how to build trust with
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  their colleagues and with with physicians. So that's
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  the advice I give young people today is
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  get involved in a leadership role in some
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  team based activity, and it will always serve
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  you for the future.
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  I love that. Paul, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today. This
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  has been such a fascinating conversation, inspiring to
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  see, how much you've grown,
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  the organization, and look forward to connecting with
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  you again soon.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, we're looking forward to,
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  having you join us as well at our
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  April.
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  I know you'll be speaking on a panel
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  and really digging into some of the concepts
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  that we talked about today. And so it'll
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  be great to continue the conversation and, you
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  know, be able to see you in person
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  there.
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  Well, see you in Chicago, and I encourage
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  people to attend. That's a great meeting, so
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  thank you.