Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Nathaniel Beers, CEO of Blythedale Children’s Hospital

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Nathaniel Beers, CEO of Blythedale Children’s 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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  Welcome to Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa,
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  your host, and I'm thrilled to be joined
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  today by doctor Nathaniel Beers. He's the CEO
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  of Blytheale Children's Hospital in New York. Nathaniel,
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  thank you for joining us today. My pleasure.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Nathaniel, you just took over officially
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  as CEO of Ideal Children's about four weeks
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  ago.
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  But for those in our audience who may
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  not be too familiar with you and and
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  your journey as a health care leader, can
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  you please introduce yourself and tell us a
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  little bit about your background?
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  Sure. So by training, I'm a general and
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  developmental behavioral pediatrician,
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  and have been,
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  providing pediatric care for close to thirty years
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  now.
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  And I have really focused my pediatric
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  career
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  on the interface between health and education services
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  for kids with disabilities. And so unlike many
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  pediatricians, I haven't had sort of a straight
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  trajectory of, you know, just working in clinics.
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  I actually,
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  did my fellowship up at Boston Children's,
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  in child advocacy after doing my residency at
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  Children's National.
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  When I came back to DC,
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  I,
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  was able to,
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  join the faculty at Children's National,
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  and I saw patients there for the last
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  twenty four years.
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  But I left Children's,
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  from a work perspective,
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  and,
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  went and worked for the DC government for
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  a number of years, including,
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  as the Deputy Director for Policy and Programs
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  for the Community Health Administration for the DC
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  Department of Health.
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  And then from there went on, to work
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  for DC Public Schools,
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  where I was hired to overhaul their early
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  childhood
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  evaluation process
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  and think about how could we identify more
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  kids,
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  with special education needs since we were under
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  identifying children.
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  And then was promoted to be the head
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  of special education for DC public schools and
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  ran special education for DC public schools, helped
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  DC get out of three class action lawsuits,
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  and then,
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  decided it was time to go back to
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  healthcare.
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  And so I,
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  took another year being the chief operating officer
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  at DC public schools,
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  which is again, another strange twist,
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  where I learned about construction and all kinds
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  of things that help me now in this
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  type of job, to be more informed in
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  the conversations.
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  And then went back to healthcare and worked
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  for the,
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  health services,
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  or HSC
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  health care system,
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  which is, again, similar to Blythe Dale in
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  that it's focused on kids with disabilities in
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  DC.
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  And in 2019,
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  HSC health care system and Children's National merged.
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  And so I was back in the Children's
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  National family where I spent the last,
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  six years,
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  serving,
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  as the executive vice president of community and
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  population health,
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  and working together with the team there prior
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  to joining the team here at Blythedale.
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  As I said, it's anything but a straight
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  line that got you from Very circuitous.
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  Over the last thirty years or so.
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  What led you to Blythe Dale in particular?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think the unique thing
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  about Blythe Delta is the only,
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  children's hospital in the country and probably in
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  the world where, there is also a co
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  located special education school district,
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  on the same campus. And so for my
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  interest in working with kids with disabilities
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  and kids who've been discharged from the, you
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  know, neonatal or pediatric intensive care units,
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  and being able to partner together with the
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  school system,
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  to think about how are we supporting kids
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  when they go home,
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  is really a unique opportunity that doesn't exist
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  anywhere else in the world. And so, I
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  really couldn't pass up the opportunity to think
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  about this as an opportunity. I'm thrilled that
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  I'm here to lead the team.
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  They are glad you mentioned
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  what makes Blaiddell unique.
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  I'm curious what else excites you about taking
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  over this job.
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  Yeah. I mean, I think it is again
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  a a really unique opportunity in health care
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  right now. That is a hospital that,
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  is,
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  doing well financially,
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  and is really positioned to think about how
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  can it be,
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  at the forefront of the field. And so
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  because of, where it is financially, we're able
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  to think about what is,
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  where's the innovation to happen?
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  How do we make sure that we can
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  impact the lives of more patients and families?
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  And think about what the future of health
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  care is gonna look like and how can
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  we be prepared,
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  to be a leader in that space.
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  Gotcha. Well, that dovetails nicely into my next
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  question, which simply is,
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  what do you consider Blythe Dale Children's best
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  strengths, and how can it best go about
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  using them? Yeah. I mean, like many children's
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  hospitals, I will say its people are its
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  best strength. Right? We have lucky to have
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  an, a workforce that is
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  truly committed to the mission that we have
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  around serving,
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  patients and families of children with medical complexity.
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  And so, that passion that people bring to
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  work every day
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  makes it a lot easier,
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  to do the work, and, and to work
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  together.
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  In addition,
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  Blytheville has been fortunate to have been led
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  by a leader, for the last twenty six
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  years who really was an incredible advocate for
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  children,
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  and an incredible advocate for those children who
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  had medical complexity. And so he's been able
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  to pass a local legislation to make sure
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  that children with disabilities are being better supported
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  and that there's appropriate,
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  financial resourcing for the services that they need.
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  But also,
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  has led a team that is, really leaders,
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  in the space of making sure
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  that we are sort of stepping forward,
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  and not just continuing to do things the
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  same way we've done them for the last
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  twenty years. And so the culture of innovation,
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  the culture of a willingness to embrace change,
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  all of those,
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  I'm stepping into,
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  as opposed to having to build those pieces
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  out, so that the organization can can be
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  ready for the changes that are gonna come
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  to all health care organizations, particularly with legislative
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  and Medicaid changes that are coming, in the
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  coming years.
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  Nathaniel, to say that there's
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  a plethora of changes coming would
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  be maybe the biggest understatement ever. So without
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  no need to
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  elaborate on
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  the avalanche or changes. I mean, I think
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  it they're they're fairly well documented in the
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  health care community.
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  But I am curious,
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  given that change and the innovation and the
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  mindset that you mentioned that Blytheville has,
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  what exactly do you think you and your
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  team will be focused on over the next
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  eighteen months, two years, whatever timeline you think,
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  best fits from for for you at this
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  moment?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think, again, like many
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  children's hospitals, but even
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  even more so here, right,
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  about eighty percent of our patients are Medicaid
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  patients because of the long term care needs
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  that they have. Right? So even families who
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  may not qualify on their own income are
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  patients qualified just given the long length of
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  stays that they have and incredible medical expenses
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  that they have.
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  So we are highly dependent on medical, on
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  Medicaid as an adequate payer. And so, certainly,
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  as we think about sort of our payer
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  mix and thinking about those components, continuing to
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  make sure that we are
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  partnering with our state and local,
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  legislators
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  and making sure that we're thinking about how
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  we are
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  navigating the changes of Medicaid is going to
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  be a big piece of this.
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  But I also think that it is an
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  opportunity for us to make sure that we're
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  thinking about where is healthcare going as well.
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  Right? And as we think about pediatric healthcare,
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  we've seen a lot of progress in the
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  adult healthcare market around micro hospitals
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  or hospital at home programs,
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  about making sure that people can be in
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  the community they're in and thinking about those
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  components,
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  about how we improve the quality of life
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  of patients
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  as they're navigating through the systems.
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  I think we have an opportunity here at
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  Blythedale that we have an incredible knowledge base
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  about how to take care of kids and
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  make sure they can go home. Over eighty
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  five percent of our kids actually go home,
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  not to another facility. And so, for those
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  kids with medical complexity, that's not always the
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  case. And so how do we take that
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  knowledge and think about where we fit into
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  a care that's being provided at home, in
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  the community? How do we think about, the
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  possibility of smaller satellite spaces?
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  All of those pieces are things that over
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  the next five to ten years, we can
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  expect to start to happen more regularly in
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  pediatrics
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  as we get there.
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  And then the last piece is really about
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  being a good partner for our referring providers.
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  Right? So our referring hospitals
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  are gonna get a ton more pressure
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  to make sure that they're discharging kids sooner.
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  And to be able to safely do that,
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  they have to have an organization like ours
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  that can take kids who are getting discharged
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  from the neonatal or pediatric intensive care units
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  and are ready to be supported
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  in a lower level of acuity, but are
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  not ready to go home. And so all
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  of those are pieces that we will have
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  to think about. How do we raise the
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  bar on what we can take and how
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  we can be a good partner in that
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  space? And how do we also think about
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  how we're building those supports in the community
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  so the patients can continue to go home
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  safely.
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  Got it. I mean, those are all worthwhile
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  goals, and they're gonna take a lot more
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  than just eighteen months. I'm sure.
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  But, you know, that that's you work out
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  a little bit at a time, of course.
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  Lastly, Nathaniel, I my question is,
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  what aspect of children's health care deserves a
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  sprite a brighter spotlight in your mind?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think that it is
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  the care that we provide at Blytheville and
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  other hospitals like ours around the country. Right?
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  They are the piece that people forget about
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  as a really critical linchpin,
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  to the success for kids with medical complexity.
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  Right? The reality is if you're a patient
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  who spends,
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  you know, three months in the neonatal intensive
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  care unit and is going home with, you
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  know, tubing and alarms and maybe a gastrointestinal
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  tube and maybe a tracheostomy
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  and maybe other equipment needs,
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  going straight from the neonatal intensive care unit
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  to home sets you up for failure. And
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  really it is about sort of making sure
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  that we can continue to stabilize kids,
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  think about how they can be ready to
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  go home,
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  how patients and families can have the time
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  to learn what they need to learn to
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  be able to safely monitor their children at
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  home.
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  Our home healthcare system in The United States
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  is so broken,
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  and has so many gaps in services
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  that for many families who are going home
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  with a child, they can experience around 25%
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  of the,
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  prescribed
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  home care hours is being uncovered.
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  And so that means someone in that household
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  has to be ready to care for that
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  child if there's not a nurse coming into
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  that space. And so our job is to
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  really prepare the family for all of those
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  realities
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  and make sure that they can be ready
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  to go home, and that that child can
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  experience life. And so,
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  in a way that like allows them to
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  really be a child,
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  and so the family to sort of embrace
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  them in that space.
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  And everyone knows where to go to the
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  emergency room, where to go if you need
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  sort of that high, you know, intense,
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  you know, cancer treatment or surgery, you know,
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  you're going to, you know, the big children's
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  hospitals around the country.
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  But the hospitals like Blytheville Children's are really
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  about making sure you can go home afterwards.
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  And so need to be part of how
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  people are thinking about how they think about
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  their care.
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  Daniel, thank you so much for sharing your
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  time, your insights, everything that's going on at
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  Lisdale. We love to hear it, and we
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  can't wait to share it with our audience.
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  And we I hope our paths cross sooner
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  rather than later. Me too. Thanks for having
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  me.