Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Growing Rural Care Through Physician Leadership and Team-Based Innovation with Dr. Leanne Yanni

Transcript

Growing Rural Care Through Physician Leadership and Team-Based Innovation with Dr. Leanne Yanni · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
• 0:21
  - pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
• 0:26
  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
• 0:30
  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
• 0:32
  - around growth, financial sustainability,
• 0:35
  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
• 0:41
  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:50
  - This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:53
  - podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:55
  - doctor Liane Yanni, president and chief executive officer
• 0:58
  - of the Illinois Physician Enterprise for Hospital Sisters
• 1:00
  - Health System. Doctor Yanni, it's a pleasure to
• 1:02
  - have you on the podcast today. Hi, Laura.
• 1:04
  - Thank you so much for having me. I'm
• 1:05
  - excited to have a conversation.
• 1:08
  - Absolutely. This is gonna be a lot of
• 1:09
  - fun, and I'm excited to learn more about
• 1:11
  - what you're doing at Hospital Sisters Health System
• 1:13
  - as well as how you're thinking about the
• 1:15
  - future growth and more. But before we dive
• 1:17
  - in, can you tell us just a little
• 1:19
  - bit more about yourself and your background?
• 1:21
  - Yeah. Absolutely. So I'm president and CEO of
• 1:24
  - the Illinois physician enterprise for Hospital Sisters Health
• 1:27
  - System.
• 1:28
  - I've been in my role about a year
• 1:30
  - and a half and I have had an
• 1:32
  - interesting journey into leadership.
• 1:34
  - I started as an internist. I worked in
• 1:36
  - Richmond, Virginia for many years for academic,
• 1:40
  - academic health care at Virginia Commonwealth University. And
• 1:43
  - then I transitioned to a faith based faith
• 1:45
  - organization,
• 1:47
  - Bon Secours,
• 1:48
  - now Bon Secours Mercy Health and worked there
• 1:50
  - for a number of years, building up actually
• 1:53
  - palliative medicine programs.
• 1:55
  - I then,
• 1:56
  - stepped into a chief medical officer role at
• 1:58
  - a hospital in Richmond,
• 2:00
  - which I value that experience tremendously. And during
• 2:03
  - the same time,
• 2:04
  - I received my master's of health care management
• 2:07
  - through the T. H. Chan School of Public
• 2:09
  - Health, in Boston.
• 2:10
  - And that really propelled me to,
• 2:13
  - a leadership level that,
• 2:14
  - I
• 2:15
  - wanted to achieve in terms of,
• 2:18
  - overseeing an ambulatory group. That is really was
• 2:20
  - always my goal.
• 2:22
  - And here I am in Illinois, which has
• 2:24
  - been my first venture out of Richmond after
• 2:26
  - twenty five years.
• 2:27
  - So, I'm thrilled to be in Illinois. I've
• 2:29
  - loved it. And,
• 2:31
  - working for a hospital, Sisters Health System has
• 2:33
  - been,
• 2:34
  - a great pleasure, the last year and a
• 2:36
  - half.
• 2:37
  - I love it. That's amazing to hear, and
• 2:38
  - what an incredible career journey,
• 2:40
  - in order to get where you are. I
• 2:42
  - think especially, as you mentioned, building up the
• 2:44
  - palliative care medicine. My ears perked up because
• 2:46
  - my mom's in palliative care actually just retiring.
• 2:48
  - So I know it's such an important service
• 2:50
  - and and so helpful when you're thinking about
• 2:52
  - everything else that goes into the care journey,
• 2:55
  - for for patients and communities. So that's really
• 2:58
  - incredible.
• 2:59
  - So now given where you at today at
• 3:01
  - House of Sisters Health System, can you give
• 3:03
  - us a little state of the union of
• 3:04
  - the Illinois Physician Enterprise? What's going well this
• 3:07
  - year, and what are you focused on for
• 3:08
  - the rest of 2026?
• 3:10
  - Yeah. Absolutely. Well, there's a lot to pack
• 3:12
  - in in that little answer. So first, I
• 3:14
  - just wanna orient you, Laura, to Hospital Sisters.
• 3:17
  - So we're a two state health system, 13
• 3:20
  - hospitals, and,
• 3:21
  - Illinois
• 3:22
  - has the physician enterprise.
• 3:24
  - And that's where we have an ambulatory group
• 3:26
  - made up of, HSHS medical group and,
• 3:30
  - pericardiovascular.
• 3:31
  - And in those two, parts of our ambulatory
• 3:34
  - entity, we have about 320
• 3:36
  - physicians and APPs we work with. And we
• 3:39
  - work at 60 core locations and we have
• 3:41
  - 60 outreach locations. So we're everything from urban
• 3:44
  - to rural.
• 3:45
  - We have,
• 3:46
  - a lot of rural communities that we serve
• 3:48
  - and so certainly impacted by, some of the
• 3:51
  - changes in healthcare that are impacting our rural
• 3:54
  - communities.
• 3:56
  - So what am I focused on? Well, when
• 3:57
  - first when I came in, it was just
• 3:59
  - orienting myself to a new state. That isn't
• 4:01
  - something I had done before. So I spent
• 4:03
  - a lot of time on the road. So
• 4:05
  - driving,
• 4:06
  - from, Springfield, which is where I where my
• 4:09
  - base is right now,
• 4:10
  - to Decatur, to Shelbyville, to Effingham,
• 4:13
  - down to the O'Fallon area, including Breeze and
• 4:16
  - Highland,
• 4:17
  - the Shiloh and Fairview Heights areas,
• 4:20
  - of that region and all the way down
• 4:22
  - to Carbondale
• 4:23
  - and then back up to Springfield. And so
• 4:24
  - I've got my little circular route, and hopefully,
• 4:27
  - I didn't forget Effingham in there, because that's
• 4:29
  - one of our sites. And so we, certainly
• 4:32
  - are spread across Central And Southern Illinois. And,
• 4:35
  - again, I was on the road meeting everyone,
• 4:38
  - just such a great group of clinicians, from
• 4:40
  - physicians to APPs
• 4:42
  - to frontline
• 4:43
  - registrars,
• 4:44
  - MAs, nurses. We really have,
• 4:46
  - incredible staff that serve all of these communities.
• 4:50
  - So my first few few months, really, ninety
• 4:52
  - to one hundred and eighty days, were focused
• 4:54
  - on communication and culture, really learning, about the
• 4:57
  - culture here, and what we're doing well and
• 5:00
  - where we have opportunity.
• 5:01
  - We really focused in on standardizing our communication
• 5:04
  - approach so that everyone knew what was going
• 5:06
  - on and started a weekly newsletter just to
• 5:08
  - get people up to speed.
• 5:10
  - The second thing I was really focused on
• 5:12
  - was leadership development. So,
• 5:14
  - again, terrific clinicians and APPs,
• 5:17
  - but getting them to the table to engage
• 5:19
  - in leadership was critical to our future success.
• 5:22
  - And so we established a set of executive
• 5:24
  - medical director positions,
• 5:26
  - got those filled. And really what I noticed
• 5:28
  - about this organization is the incredible work our
• 5:31
  - advanced practice providers do. And in fact, in
• 5:34
  - our, in our complement of a three twenty,
• 5:37
  - physicians in APPs, APPs, about half are APPs.
• 5:40
  - So we need those those voices at the
• 5:42
  - table to,
• 5:44
  - inform us as an organization about how best
• 5:46
  - they can serve and and practice at top
• 5:48
  - of license.
• 5:50
  - And I I needed some leaders there. And
• 5:51
  - so we actually established a advanced practice provider
• 5:54
  - council,
• 5:55
  - and established some leadership positions, for our advanced
• 5:58
  - practice providers. And we now have three excellent
• 6:01
  - APP leads in those roles,
• 6:03
  - working alongside in a triad model with our
• 6:06
  - executive medical directors as well as our operational
• 6:08
  - directors,
• 6:10
  - really to help us in carrying out our
• 6:12
  - strategy.
• 6:12
  - So that sort of goes into the next
• 6:14
  - part of what we focused on this first
• 6:16
  - year, which was a strategic plan. So, our
• 6:19
  - organization has done a lot of good work
• 6:20
  - over the hundred and fifty years it's been
• 6:22
  - in existence.
• 6:24
  - Our ambulatory group has only really been here
• 6:26
  - since 2008. So, it's a relatively young ambulatory
• 6:30
  - group and we're still evolving.
• 6:32
  - So we really needed a strategic plan to
• 6:35
  - align with our HSHS overall strategic plan to
• 6:38
  - drive us into the future. And so we
• 6:40
  - really spent a lot of time together with
• 6:42
  - those new leaders, with all of our physicians
• 6:44
  - and APP input, as well as frontline colleagues,
• 6:47
  - in developing our first ever strategic plan. And
• 6:50
  - so, our role now is to carry that
• 6:52
  - out and do great execution on the strategic
• 6:55
  - initiatives,
• 6:56
  - from 2026 into 2027.
• 6:59
  - And I'll say the last thing that we
• 7:00
  - really worked on, was recruitment. So, when I
• 7:03
  - came in the door, Hospital Sisters made it
• 7:05
  - clear that we were ready to grow and
• 7:07
  - that we have done. So we have a
• 7:09
  - physician workforce plan we're executing on, to recruit
• 7:13
  - and align with over 150
• 7:15
  - physicians,
• 7:16
  - in the next three years. And so really
• 7:17
  - positioning our organization for success moving forward, filling
• 7:21
  - gaps where we have them in our communities
• 7:23
  - for primary and specialty care. And we're really
• 7:26
  - pleased that we've hired over 60 in our
• 7:28
  - first year here. So recruitment's been a huge
• 7:30
  - part of my role, a huge part of
• 7:32
  - our leadership, role in our frontline clinicians as
• 7:35
  - well. And we have, really,
• 7:37
  - recruited top talent to Illinois and to the
• 7:40
  - organization. So I'm very proud of that.
• 7:42
  - That's awesome to hear. I think so much
• 7:44
  - going on and, really incredible to have an
• 7:46
  - understanding of just the the,
• 7:49
  - vast community that you're serving so many different,
• 7:52
  - cities and towns and areas. And I can
• 7:55
  - imagine each has their own unique culture and
• 7:58
  - approach there too. So that that's, so fun
• 8:00
  - to hear. And to your workforce point, I
• 8:02
  - I think to talk about recruitment,
• 8:05
  - and retention, I think that's the best top
• 8:07
  - of mind for so many clinical leaders today.
• 8:08
  - So what have you seen work well, especially
• 8:11
  - in more rural settings, and,
• 8:13
  - what are you looking at trying in the
• 8:15
  - next year or so?
• 8:17
  - Yeah. Great question. So, you know, one of
• 8:19
  - the even though we've been really successful with
• 8:21
  - recruitment, we also have a lot of headwinds,
• 8:23
  - like you mentioned, in recruitment.
• 8:25
  - And we have challenging specialties that are that
• 8:28
  - are just, on our top of list that
• 8:30
  - we are trying to fill. And that includes,
• 8:32
  - you know, cardiology,
• 8:34
  - especially general cardiology,
• 8:37
  - gastroenterology
• 8:37
  - and orthopedics, as well as urology.
• 8:40
  - So anyone listening, that wants to come to
• 8:42
  - Illinois, you know, come contact me and, we'll
• 8:45
  - we'll have a conversation.
• 8:47
  - But, you know, in all seriousness, we,
• 8:50
  - face the same headwinds a lot of other
• 8:52
  - communities face, but maybe even a little bit
• 8:54
  - greater in the in the Midwest and in
• 8:56
  - the in the rural communities we serve.
• 8:58
  - I, you know, I have to mention that
• 9:01
  - the immigration challenges have, created additional headwinds for
• 9:04
  - us. And,
• 9:06
  - I've personally seen some of the impact and
• 9:08
  - the barriers set before
• 9:10
  - before some of these excellent physicians who were
• 9:12
  - really unable to work through that process right
• 9:14
  - now and that sets us back in serving
• 9:17
  - the community. So that's been a big, big
• 9:18
  - challenge.
• 9:20
  - Having said that, we have still had great
• 9:22
  - success in our recruitment. And,
• 9:25
  - you know, what I would say a couple
• 9:26
  - of things we work on, we really work
• 9:28
  - hard on, helping people understand,
• 9:31
  - the great service and joy that can come
• 9:34
  - from serving rural communities. And, I think I
• 9:37
  - mentioned to you, Laura, earlier that, I've initiated
• 9:39
  - a podcast. It's not out yet, but it's
• 9:42
  - in development and editing phases. And I I
• 9:44
  - wanted to share a quote that one of
• 9:46
  - the doctors
• 9:47
  - that I interviewed,
• 9:48
  - shared with
• 9:50
  - me. And he said, I think people were
• 9:51
  - meant to live in small towns. It is
• 9:54
  - a much more natural way to live. It's
• 9:56
  - not something you would know until you do
• 9:57
  - it. But it's really it's the only way
• 9:59
  - to live. It's much more normal to see
• 10:01
  - your patients as neighbors and people that you
• 10:03
  - may see around town and just than to
• 10:05
  - see them in your box at a clinic.
• 10:07
  - What do you say? I never see them
• 10:08
  - again live amongst 4,000,000 people who don't know
• 10:10
  - each other, and this is a much kinder
• 10:12
  - and gentler and much nicer way,
• 10:15
  - to live. So it was his perspective and
• 10:17
  - there's, of course, many perspectives, but I just
• 10:19
  - loved kind of how he said that. And
• 10:21
  - I know I messed up the quote a
• 10:22
  - little bit, but, he, was really passionate about,
• 10:26
  - his choice to live in a smaller community.
• 10:29
  - And so we really try to promote that.
• 10:30
  - The quality of life in in living in
• 10:33
  - some of these smaller communities,
• 10:35
  - is very, very high. I've experienced that myself.
• 10:37
  - And then we also, of course, work on
• 10:39
  - the things that really matter to physicians and
• 10:41
  - APPs in our recruitment.
• 10:43
  - And that is a very fair
• 10:45
  - compensation plan that's,
• 10:48
  - there to support them and their quality of
• 10:50
  - life,
• 10:51
  - as well as their overall well-being. You know,
• 10:54
  - administrative burden in health care is pretty high.
• 10:56
  - We all know that. We talk about it
• 10:58
  - a lot. And our electronic health record can
• 11:01
  - be part of that burden or it can
• 11:02
  - ease our burden. And we are one of
• 11:04
  - the organizations that have invested in,
• 11:07
  - IT innovation, and we are, offering Ambient AI
• 11:10
  - to every every physician in APP that works,
• 11:13
  - in our ambulatory group and actually across our
• 11:15
  - hospitals.
• 11:16
  - I have to tell you that I recently,
• 11:19
  - got my Illinois license, which, you know, is
• 11:21
  - never an easy feat in transferring all that
• 11:23
  - information from another state. And I have the
• 11:25
  - privilege of taking care of our own sisters.
• 11:27
  - We are a faith based organization started by
• 11:29
  - the Franciscan sisters. And I, of course, wanted
• 11:32
  - to see what the physicians and APBs were
• 11:34
  - experiencing, so I I,
• 11:37
  - got myself set up on on the Ambient
• 11:39
  - AI technology that we chose to partner with.
• 11:42
  - And I will tell you, I cannot believe
• 11:45
  - the difference. And I actually think back to,
• 11:47
  - you know, my many years of practice,
• 11:51
  - when my kids were were little,
• 11:53
  - and the hours I spent on my notes
• 11:55
  - because, you know, again, very attentive to,
• 11:59
  - writing and making sure communication is effective.
• 12:02
  - And, you know, the late nights I would
• 12:04
  - get home, seven, eight, 09:00 was not uncommon.
• 12:06
  - And it makes me a little sad that
• 12:08
  - I didn't have this Ambien AI technology that
• 12:10
  - could have done so much work for me
• 12:12
  - and helped me balance,
• 12:14
  - having a career with having kids at home.
• 12:16
  - And I I just love seeing these days
• 12:18
  - where, if if our,
• 12:21
  - physicians and APPs are embracing that technology and
• 12:23
  - using it effectively,
• 12:25
  - that it truly can cut down and get
• 12:27
  - them home to spend more time with their
• 12:28
  - families. So, so important and that's critical for
• 12:31
  - retention.
• 12:33
  - I love that. I I think, you know,
• 12:35
  - so many things that you said there really
• 12:37
  - resonate strongly when you look at what you
• 12:39
  - can bring to a rural hospital or organization
• 12:43
  - and how important it is to have that
• 12:45
  - kinda tight knit community, the ability to,
• 12:47
  - you know, care so deeply about the people
• 12:49
  - within the community and see them,
• 12:52
  - as those neighbors and and family members and
• 12:54
  - friends. So,
• 12:55
  - that's amazing to hear. And I'm curious, you
• 12:58
  - know, as you look at, continuing to grow
• 13:00
  - and evolve the health system,
• 13:02
  - what are some of the best opportunities you're
• 13:04
  - looking at over the next two or three
• 13:05
  - years as well as any other headwinds besides
• 13:07
  - the workforce?
• 13:09
  - Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, the biggest,
• 13:13
  - areas that we're really focused in on, one,
• 13:15
  - is advancing our IT and data structures
• 13:17
  - to help inform us as to the direction
• 13:20
  - of the health system,
• 13:22
  - the trends and where we have the greatest
• 13:24
  - opportunity for operational and financial efficiencies as well
• 13:27
  - as maintaining the highest quality possible,
• 13:30
  - as and with patient experience.
• 13:32
  - That is really critical. So advancing our IT,
• 13:35
  - direction is
• 13:37
  - is critically important.
• 13:38
  - I think the second thing, is I really
• 13:41
  - look at the practices
• 13:43
  - across the state that we have. You know,
• 13:46
  - we, just like many other ambulatory groups, we
• 13:48
  - were,
• 13:50
  - established by a series of acquisitions really.
• 13:53
  - That is generally how some of them began
• 13:56
  - way back in the February,
• 13:57
  - as the financial pressures for independent groups became
• 14:00
  - stronger and stronger. And so
• 14:03
  - many of these practices,
• 14:04
  - you know, are functioning,
• 14:07
  - still a little bit independently. And we really
• 14:09
  - want to bring more standardization
• 14:11
  - and,
• 14:12
  - streamline efficiencies,
• 14:14
  - again, to help the physicians, APPs, and frontline
• 14:17
  - clinicians focus on what matters, which is patient
• 14:20
  - care,
• 14:21
  - quality, and experience. And getting those operational processes
• 14:24
  - more standardized is critical. I think the other
• 14:26
  - thing that I see there is is again
• 14:29
  - sort of that model of that one to
• 14:31
  - one care where it's all physician centric.
• 14:33
  - Right? And what we wanna be able to
• 14:35
  - do is have every single member of the
• 14:37
  - clinical team be practicing at the top of
• 14:39
  - license. And we need to bring in some,
• 14:43
  - innovative ways of doing more integrated team based
• 14:46
  - care. And I know there's organizations out there
• 14:48
  - doing this really, really well. I'm going to
• 14:50
  - be looking at sending some of my leaders
• 14:52
  - to those organizations and learning from them and
• 14:55
  - bringing in these team based care concepts, especially
• 14:57
  - to primary care. You know, you know, I
• 15:00
  - as we talk about the challenges in primary
• 15:02
  - care, for example, and trying to limit turnover,
• 15:04
  - we know that in basket management is a
• 15:06
  - killer for so many people. And and I
• 15:08
  - know there's hope that AI will help manage
• 15:10
  - it. It still is so nuanced
• 15:12
  - that you need humans,
• 15:14
  - in the in basket to manage these messages.
• 15:17
  - Right? Make sure that people get responses and
• 15:19
  - they get high quality care delivery,
• 15:22
  - regardless how of where the front door is,
• 15:24
  - whether it's,
• 15:25
  - through that in basket
• 15:27
  - or actually walking through our front front door.
• 15:30
  - And so we,
• 15:32
  - really wanna help do a lot more team
• 15:34
  - based modeling as to how do we manage
• 15:36
  - the administrative task and the clinical task more
• 15:38
  - as a team, again, practicing,
• 15:40
  - top of license and freeing people up to
• 15:43
  - really be face to face with patients as
• 15:45
  - much as possible.
• 15:46
  - So a lot a lot of work to
• 15:47
  - do there. That's going to be one of
• 15:48
  - our biggest focuses in the coming year.
• 15:51
  - I think the other thing,
• 15:53
  - is our population health accountability.
• 15:54
  - So if you really think about, the evolution
• 15:57
  - of population health and accountable care, we're we're
• 16:00
  - moving across the country to downside risk. Right?
• 16:03
  - And if there's, you're part of an accountable
• 16:05
  - care organization,
• 16:06
  - many ACOs are moving into that downside risk
• 16:09
  - just like us, our organization.
• 16:11
  - We also have the privilege of being selected
• 16:13
  - to be part of the Teams model, which
• 16:15
  - is a required,
• 16:17
  - CMS model for several hospitals and surgical specialties.
• 16:21
  - And, you know, we're learning a lot from
• 16:23
  - that process, a lot of,
• 16:25
  - population health strategies that can help,
• 16:27
  - supply that in other areas and, again, build
• 16:31
  - quality, build efficiency,
• 16:33
  - to improve the patient experience, for integrated care
• 16:36
  - delivery. So we're learning from those processes, from
• 16:39
  - our population health accountability.
• 16:41
  - I think the other opportunity
• 16:42
  - for us, especially
• 16:45
  - in our rural communities, is really connecting with
• 16:48
  - our community health
• 16:49
  - needs assessment and our community health impact plans.
• 16:53
  - You know, we have a lot of public
• 16:55
  - health data that is available to us to
• 16:57
  - tell us in each area what the top
• 16:59
  - morbidity and mortality,
• 17:01
  - drivers are and then nuancing and adjusting our
• 17:05
  - practices from a clinical aspect to make sure
• 17:07
  - we're prepared
• 17:09
  - to do more prevention,
• 17:10
  - in those areas based on the public health
• 17:12
  - data. And that's something I want to bring
• 17:14
  - the teams along, with a little further. I
• 17:16
  - have some public health background that's really important,
• 17:19
  - to the application
• 17:20
  - of our services in an ambulatory group.
• 17:23
  - And so, you know, we know statewide data
• 17:26
  - down to the census tract is available to
• 17:28
  - us. And using that, not just for the
• 17:30
  - comorbidities
• 17:31
  - and
• 17:32
  - such, but also for social determinants
• 17:34
  - can really help us make a a stronger
• 17:36
  - impact in our communities.
• 17:38
  - I love that. I I think, it is
• 17:40
  - such an important,
• 17:42
  - way of looking at, you know, how you're
• 17:45
  - supporting your teams,
• 17:46
  - the different specialists that you have as well
• 17:48
  - as primary care,
• 17:50
  - a huge, huge topic today, I think, for
• 17:52
  - all hospitals and health systems and communities. And
• 17:54
  - then,
• 17:55
  - looking at too, you know, what the community
• 17:57
  - needs and how those are changing over time.
• 18:00
  - It's just fascinating to see the,
• 18:04
  - the areas that, you know, are are evolving
• 18:06
  - and changing and some of the things that
• 18:08
  - continue to, you know, stay the same and
• 18:10
  - how hospitals and health care organizations
• 18:12
  - are, trying new things and being innovative to
• 18:14
  - meet some of those, challenges for social determinants,
• 18:17
  - population health, and everything along those lines.
• 18:19
  - So I'm curious, you know, as we wrap
• 18:22
  - up our conversation here, I wanted to ask
• 18:24
  - you about leadership as well.
• 18:26
  - Who is the leader that you admire most
• 18:27
  - really from any industry and why?
• 18:30
  - Yeah. Well,
• 18:31
  - I live in Springfield now, and it's the
• 18:34
  - land of Lincoln.
• 18:35
  - So I'll have to just say Abraham Lincoln.
• 18:38
  - Right? And I'm from Richmond where, they did
• 18:41
  - a lot of filming for the movie Lincoln,
• 18:42
  - so it all sorta ties together.
• 18:45
  - But, you know, when I think about Abraham
• 18:47
  - Lincoln, I really think about,
• 18:50
  - the Team of Rivals, that book,
• 18:52
  - and his ability to bring people together and
• 18:55
  - align them under a shared mission.
• 18:58
  - The other thing I think about Abraham Lincoln
• 18:59
  - is I think if he was a physician,
• 19:01
  - he would have been a palliative care doctor.
• 19:03
  - And I think that because,
• 19:05
  - you know, he we as palliative care physicians,
• 19:08
  - we really look for what the goal is
• 19:10
  - in terms of in the patient's eyes. What
• 19:12
  - is their goal for care? And we try
• 19:14
  - to align all of our care around that
• 19:17
  - goal or those goals of the patient and
• 19:19
  - the family,
• 19:20
  - in order to bring that to life,
• 19:23
  - in the face of many challenges in serious
• 19:25
  - illness. So I kind of think of Abraham
• 19:27
  - Lincoln in sort of that same way.
• 19:29
  - And healthcare leaders face a lot of what
• 19:31
  - he faced is,
• 19:33
  - challenges,
• 19:34
  - factions of
• 19:36
  - individuals with different ideas, and he had to
• 19:38
  - figure out how to bring those together. And
• 19:40
  - we're often
• 19:41
  - as healthcare leaders facing that, as well as
• 19:43
  - external pressures, right? A lot of the headwinds
• 19:45
  - that we talked about,
• 19:47
  - from some of the federal legislation,
• 19:49
  - some of the challenges with social determinants,
• 19:52
  - statewide and regionally,
• 19:54
  - especially weather related changes,
• 19:56
  - and the impact on health,
• 19:59
  - and, you know, the payer strategies, which is
• 20:02
  - really impacting our realization rates,
• 20:04
  - and, you know, really making it a little
• 20:06
  - bit more difficult for us to be reimbursed
• 20:09
  - for the dollars that we, actually bill.
• 20:12
  - And we're watching that happen right in front
• 20:13
  - of us. And so he he I think
• 20:15
  - he is a great example of, a leader
• 20:18
  - that we can admire.
• 20:20
  - And, you know, my work, I feel, is
• 20:22
  - is really to listen and to bring people
• 20:25
  - together and align them around a shared mission
• 20:27
  - so that we can accomplish a lot for
• 20:29
  - our patients and our communities.
• 20:31
  - What a great leader to,
• 20:33
  - model your leadership after. Abraham Lincoln clearly had
• 20:37
  - a lot, a lot going on. I love
• 20:39
  - that, in comparison to if you were a
• 20:41
  - clinician,
• 20:42
  - such a caring individual, but also very effective
• 20:44
  - in bringing people together and, having an impact
• 20:47
  - on what's happening. So,
• 20:49
  - thank you so much for joining us on
• 20:50
  - the podcast today, doctor Yanni. This has been
• 20:52
  - a fun conversation.
• 20:54
  - I learned a lot and look forward to
• 20:55
  - seeing you in person as well at our
• 20:57
  - CTO table. I know you'll be speaking on
• 20:59
  - a panel there, and so it'd be great
• 21:01
  - to dig deeper and, learn more.
• 21:03
  - Great. Well, thank you for the opportunity, Laura.
• 21:05
  - And I I just really appreciate your podcast
• 21:07
  - and all you bring, all the information that
• 21:09
  - you bring to us. So so thank you
• 21:11
  - so much.