Latest / Voices of the Albemarle / Ep. 11: Sentara's Teresa Watson on the Future of Rural Healthcare

Transcript

Ep. 11: Sentara's Teresa Watson on the Future of Rural Healthcare · Voices of the Albemarle

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Voices of the Albemarle.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Izzy Kelly Goss, with my lovely co-host, our publisher, David Prizer.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's back.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's back.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are joined by Sintera Albemarle Medical Center president, Teresa Watson.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Teresa, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: My pleasure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We are so glad you're here.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: To start off, I was hoping we're just gonna jump right in, but I was hoping you could explain a little bit about your personal background and kind of what led you to become a healthcare executive, president of the hospital.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if you'd asked uh my friends back in high school, would she ever be a hospital president?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: They would say, absolutely not.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I knew in the third grade, and it's when you know they start having you explore your careers and your interests, that I'd be in healthcare.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, people always think it's nursing.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I started out as a medical assistant a hundred years ago and in operations, and it allowed me a front um lens, a front view of what it really means to take care of patients from the beginning to the end.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I was very fortunate to have some incredible mentors who wanted me to broaden not only my leadership roles, but my educational journey.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I can't say enough about mentorship, especially in females in operations.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so as I grew professionally, so did my responsibilities.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then it gave me an opportunity to see health care from the care aspect, but how can we remove barriers and create more efficiencies?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: But as I have experienced with my own family, um, what it means to truly have compassion in healthcare, um, because I think we miss that so often.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so patient experience is a real focus of mine.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of where it's led me.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, uh probably that and the inability to say no.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So every time, you know, hey Teresa, we want you to do this, okay, okay.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and every time I have learned a little more about things I didn't know I needed to know.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I was fortunate enough 15 years ago to uh build and move a hospital.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And little did I know then that that opportunity was going to lead me to a second hospital uh move.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh I love operations, and sometimes I have a hard time sitting in my office doing, you know, uh strategy work, strategic work, but um, it is about how do we make it easier for the patients to receive care and the providers and the teammates to feel supported.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of why I'm here doing what I'm doing.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think everybody's glad to have you here and kind of just amazing.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Calling back to what you were saying, um, your second time moving to hospital, you have ushered in a lot of changes between the brand new hospital.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's been a lot of firsts for Sentera in general that have been at Centera Albemarle.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously the hospital has had and is going to, I'm sure, continue to have a really large impact on the area.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I am really curious to know, like throughout that process of of building and moving into a whole new hospital, you know, what's been one of the biggest changes that you think is going to continue to have an impact on this area?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um it is a beautiful building.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's very modern and has a focus on technology.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's been transformative for this area, especially at a time where rural medicine isn't getting the funding that uh it should.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Just because you live in a community doesn't mean you don't deserve the same quality of health care that you would receive in a more urban area.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us, the impact's going to be how do we deliver care now?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we're not there.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's a process.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're using smarter technology, faster diagnostics, and real-time decision tools that helps teams act quickly and accurately.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: And for our community, that should mean better access, uh, better patient experience, and better patient outcomes for not just now, but in the future.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And speaking of rural healthcare, like you said, like there's a lot of places where rural healthcare is it's inaccessible.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's hospitals in the area that are are closing completely or are losing funding.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like this is this was a big leap.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what made Sintera decide that they wanted to take such a huge leap and create a whole new space?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they really took a gamble on, I feel like what's considered a pretty small rural area in the grand scheme of of other places in North Carolina.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, it's one of those things that Sintera's commitment has long been to serve the community.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and whether that's in Virginia or North Carolina, there was a need here.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: And about 14, 15 years ago, um, we were fortunate enough to be able to establish a hospital that was in an existing building.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, unfortunately, that building was uh now 60 plus years old.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I can tell you uh relating to that age, that things wear out um over time, and it became um more efficient uh to go ahead and build a new facility.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that was pre-COVID, post-COVID, um, everything got more expensive and labor got a lot more challenging.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm fortunate, and we're fortunate that we got the hospital we did when we did, um, because I do think there are some cutbacks that are occurring in health care.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Not to say that we wouldn't still have a beautiful new building, but we got, uh, even though we were$50 million over budget when I came here, we didn't take any shortcuts on things that needed to be there, but just some of the niceties when you walk onto the campus to make sure people felt like they were in a healing environment filled with light, and there's just a different energy uh when you come onto the campus.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of technology, you know, um, if you're gonna recruit physicians, and I think there's been in my career I've seen a change where there was enough physicians, never enough nurses, but it was um hard to recruit because it now is so competitive.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't have the technology and an efficient space, then you're not gonna be able to attract the type of talent that you want to come to your community.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that is an important investment for us because we want to be here as an integrated healthcare system from the beginning to the end, which is why we just don't have doctor's offices or we don't just have therapy offices.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: We have uh everything from uh birthing to um now we're adding internal medicine providers, cardiologists.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: We're looking to grow our specialties so we can have the full complement right here in our backyard.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't get uh a buy for being a smaller hospital.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um we have the same quality standards as does Norfolk or, you know, any of our urban uh facilities.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the only advantage we have is that we know our families, friends, and neighbors' names when they come.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um not to say that um the other facilities don't give excellent care, but it's that care with the uh the human touch, I think is what makes us so special.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: So for Centera, it really is about continuing the mission to improve health wherever we are.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it happens to be my career has always been in rural uh America.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm from right outside of Charlotte, was with a large healthcare system, but again, it was in a rural piece of uh atrium advocate, now I think they're called.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it is a personal desire for me to make the most difference for the people I live in the community with.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, we're gonna continue to make that investment.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Now we've got to do it effectively and efficiently.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um I had a finance offers officer one time tell me no margin, no mission, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and our mission is to improve healthcare every day.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna continue working on that.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And the only way to do that is open up access.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's an area that I know we've had uh issues in the past, but um, a beautiful new facility is gonna make it easier.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing, and I'll give you a perfect example, is uh in recruiting two of our new female general surgeons, it was contingent on having uh a Da Vinci robot.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's technology that not every community, number one, needs or number two can afford, because it's about a$2 million robot.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and while fortunately the physicians we had were able to perform surgery without the robot, any of the new physicians that were coming out that we were trying to recruit, that was how they were trained.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're not able to bring that same level of technology, then they're gonna pass you over for an institution that finds that value uh in having um smarter technologies.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so um both surgeons, one particularly said, call me back uh if you get approval for your robot.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I did.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: And she signed the next day.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: So um it is one of those things that you can't just look at um health care in a siloed mentality.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta look at if I make an investment here, what's gonna be the downstream impact?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it takes time.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's one that I certainly am committed to.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my team is committed to, but Senteras also has that commitment.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tracy, you meant you mentioned um recruiting.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh I I first of all I have to hand it to to Sentera for not cutting the corners because obviously you have many state of the art uh facilities in the new in the new hospital.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh recruiting wise, you are up against hospitals that maybe are in metro markets.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned the Da Vinci Robot the Da Vinci robot, uh you're competing.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have one of these and things like that?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um talk about when when somebody wants to relocate or get a job somewhere, quality of life comes into it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you're competing against some areas that have different quality of life.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Could you talk a little bit about that?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: What do you talk to uh these these high-level people when they're looking around uh to where they want to place themselves?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of things do you talk about?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: What do you stress about the area?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: What what what is selling them on the area if they want to come here?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question, David.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um we are, and we are less than 45 minutes to an hour or two, a very urban area.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Greenville's not so far away, and Raleigh's not so far away.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And first off, you've got to tailor your recruitment initiatives.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: If you have somebody who wants to practice in New York, uh New York City, for example, uh trying to recruit them to uh community.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even think we are considered rural because you know, we've got a lot of amazing things here in Elizabeth City.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um so more of a community hospital, you're either on that kind of a track or you're not.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so right now what we're currently doing is focusing on um residency programs that are preparing physicians to be community-minded.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that's very important.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about just the amenities you have in your backyard, but it's your commitment to the people that you serve.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's gotta be intrinsically motivating for you, or you're not gonna be fulfilled when you come here.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for me, because I come from outside the area, um, I love the beach and and Kelly knows this.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if anybody knows it, um, all my friends and family do, right?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna move closer.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it's about a 50-minute drive to uh the Outer Banks.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have to live with the tourist, but I can live on the water here.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can be part of small town America, know the people when I go.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that's good and sometimes not.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Depends on if I have makeup on and I'm in the grocery store, right?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: But it is an opportunity for folks to give back.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And believe it or not, and I'm gonna go back to the surgeon, one of the surgeons, you know, she graduated from Wake Forest, but uh she came and did a locums tour with us.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and she said, you know, I love it here.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: I love how friendly the people are and how uh much there's a need, and I can make a difference.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And she does.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's important to a lot of folks.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, David, back to your question.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing that we're doing, uh, we're working uh with our Virginia medical school to start a residency program in in Northeast North Carolina for family medicine.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's something new for me.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: I've never done that before.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: I've always come from a system that has had a residency program, but it's kind of grow your own.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, East Carolina has done a fabulous job, but they want to keep their surgeons and their doctors, right?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I can understand that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we are uh looking at putting that program.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna take us a few years, but if you don't get started, you're never gonna make it on that journey.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we're in the process of identifying what needs to happen for a residency program.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm just curious, um, actually, in an interview that I recently did with Dr.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Faber, who is he's the the GI with Sintera now, he had his own private practice here in Elizabeth City for 30 years.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: He is from New York City, actually.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: What he told me is that when he was just coming out of medical school, when he was really getting into his full career, that that was actually the aspiration of a lot of of doctors at that time.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think he said it was like the 80s, maybe, where they wanted to have their own private practices.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he was able to come down here and establish that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And and he said that that was what doctors of all specialties at that time wanted to do.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was their their aspiration.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: So now that that's changed so much, what do you feel like has been the hardest in terms of recruiting, like what specialties do you guys really have a hard time competing with urban areas?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a great question because it's the same in in all of our community hospitals.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and which is why, and I'll get to your question, Izzy, because I think it's a very valuable one.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's why it's important to have an integrated network.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: So if we don't have that specialty in your backyard, we have a process in place to be able to get the patients the needed service in an integrated healthcare system that that they're they need.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but uh more specifically, I think um for us, you spend, or at least, and I was in healthcare in the 80s, um, you spend the first part of your life trying to get away from where you came from, right?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: And the second part trying to get back to it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: So um what I witnessed is many physicians thought, I want to go out and I want to be elbow deep into trauma, whatever that looks like.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then they think that's hard work and it's harder, and it gets harder, right?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're seeing the pendulum swing a little more with the philosophy.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Physicians want to be physicians, but they don't want that to be their sole identity.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: They want to be the mother, the father.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: They want to have time with their kids.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so we're struggling with a balance.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: So the days of I want to recruit a physician to work five days a week, you know, from sunup to sundown and be available on call, that's just not the mindset.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: They want to have the career and the fulfillment there, but they also don't want to sacrifice because many of the doctors that are physicians now, their parents were physicians, right?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they know the sacrifice and they just don't want to miss out on that part of life.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: So for us, we got to think differently about what we offer.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'll give you another example.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: We have a couple of physicians in our OBGYN group.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: They work a week on and a week off.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: And there's two of them, and they share, if you will.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now, that was a new concept for Setera because quite frankly, in you know, in Hampton Roads, you don't have to have, you got enough providers who want to live there that they'll say, okay, well, I'll I'll do the traditional track.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when you're in a more rural area, you've got to think about healthcare differently.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: What's going to give them the quality of life, and then have them be energized about their community and about their job, but it's going to fulfill them when they go home.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that's worked out beautifully for us.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, that practice has really flourished, adding a fourth physician.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: We've added um midwifery, which again, not midwifery, is not uh a service that all OBGYNs open their doors to.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: But for here, it's meeting the patient's needs.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we listen to our patients, and if they want the midwives um to care for them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we've added that on.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it really is um it's you've not every uh size fits all, right?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you kind of talked about like the OBGYN office.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um you have you have some very tenured doctors, what just throughout and nurses throughout the entirety of Centera.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, Dr.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Faber has been in this area and kind of worked with the hospital for for throughout his career with the private practice.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um Dr.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Bowling, who he's been there for a very long time, at least as long as I can remember, because I grew up in the area.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so I kind of want to go back to the new hospital with the move to the new location.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: That was a big change.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: So many people had spent their entire careers in that hospital.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm kind of wondering what that transition has been like, especially now that you guys are adding new doctors on, you're adding new practices, new equipment.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: What has that transition been like for you and for employees that you're interacting with, um, especially in terms of how you were all collaborating?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it was a huge emotional shift, as you said, for some folks, that's their entire career.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and for others, they were born there in that hospital.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And to leave it was like leaving a piece of them.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so now what it has caused is a totally different energy, and not in a bad way.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in a great way that the things that you'd been doing for, you know, 20 years the same way, and it becomes second nature, you've got to rethink that now.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: You're in a new environment with new technology, uh different resources.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do you take that and make it um a high-quality experience for the patient?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm seeing folks collaborate in ways, and part of that was getting them structured because going back to my previous experience, bricks and mortar do not make the patient's experience.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: It enhances it, but it's still the people, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so um I thought in my previous uh move that a new building, uh, the teammates are gonna be happy, patients are gonna be happy, my experience scores are gonna be great.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: And what I found out it wasn't.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so this time I took a step back and say, how do we make sure the team feels part of the new building before we even move into it?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: So there were many opportunities where we brought the physicians in, um, the teammates in, and said, What do you think?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: What are we missing here?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: And what's the patients going to think?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why it was so well received at our opening, is because people felt like they left their fingerprints on various parts of the hospital that they were able to give um feedback.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Back on.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: And for physicians, you know, they didn't walk into the OR and say, well, who designed it this way?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, now I'm going to tell you, I'm not designing an OR, so you did.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's really one of those opportunities where we gave people the opportunity to collaborate before we moved.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's key, to make sure it was a smooth transition.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why we were able to move our patients within three hours, so well coordinated.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: But we gave it back to the team members and said, this is your move.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: How are we going to do this and do it safely and efficiently?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it is giving folks a chance to be part of the bigger picture.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know a time in my career that we haven't been, but sometimes it's worse than others.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, technologies such as virtual nursing, you know, doesn't replace the human touch in the in-person experience.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: But when you need an extra uh set of eyes to uh double check a medication before you give it, that's a safer environment.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't have to have the nurse running around spending time looking for someone, right?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: She can call up uh the central nursing on the virtual nursing and have that resource, which allows our nursing, our clinical team, not just nursing, to spend more time in the high touch areas than task-oriented health care.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's highly regulated, as you know.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a matter of making sure we keep our patients safe, but the virtual technology makes the work easier and uses the energy differently than having to waste steps or time, which is very fulfilling for nurses.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: A little intimidating the older you are to have virtual nursing, but you it becomes uh second nature.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: When we opened, we opened with um most of our nursing units with it.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, we didn't have it in ICU, for example, and it's being installed actually this week, uh, because they want it now.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: They was like, oh, we can't live without it on the other units.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: So now it's a technology that how quickly can we get it?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we're constantly looking, um, you know, as um technology evolves, AI generated, if you've gone to some of your practices and they are caring out loud, which is a a way to say, you know, I'm listening to your heart, your lungs, and it sounds clear, or you know, they're saying things, you understand it better.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: But AI is picking up things to make sure it gets into the documentation for a more real time.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes you can get your results from your x-ray in lab before you get out of the parking lot if the doctor is reading it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it's how do you harness that technology?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: You can't put your head in the sand when it comes to staying ahead of that curve.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think there's just been a renewed sense of pride.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Now that's not going to discount all the incredible care that was given in our old building, but it's a a new venture, new technology, a new team.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so if you've been there, we honor your experience.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: If you're new, we welcome what journey you've been on to fold into um our lovely hospital.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to ask a question, and I'm taking a turn for something.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm going to presume that you did a lot of preparation.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: And don't worry, I'm going to ask you a question about which you are ultimately qualified to answer.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's about you.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh me.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um you mentioned in third grade.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted third grade.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: You knew you wanted to be in healthcare.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I knew I wanted to pull Carolyn Brave Balls braids, you know, in third grade.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I can remember.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's I think that's a not to widen the gender divide, but I think that's a boy versus girl thing.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, okay, okay.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you also mentioned operations, and you mentioned that you've moved.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is the second hospital that you've been in a bowel to move.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so something about operations in healthcare really jazzes you.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about you?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that I think see, I feel somewhat the same way in what I do.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sometimes I wonder, what is it about that?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about that?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about you that marries so well with that?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's something, that's a skill set, a talent, if you will, skill set that some people don't have.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they, if they ask them to move a hospital, they might, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what is it about you, what is it about that that really married it marries so well?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I mentioned that I was a medical assistant early on.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: That was my dabbling in healthcare, right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then I found out I was better at pushing a pencil than I was a needle.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I came along about the same time we were still pipetting by mouth that the AIDS virus was coming up.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: I said, okay, thank you.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Next, I'm I'm moving on.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, something I might have a little longer longevity.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so for me, I think that I get really jazzed on making the puzzle fit, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Getting the pieces to fit.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you're talking about.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: You see an issue, and a lot of times you hear people say, Oh, Alec, we've been doing the same thing for the hundred years and it's broken.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, history is going to repeat itself unless you do something differently.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: That that excites you when you hear that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: It does for me.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so um when we first said, you know, I built my first home right next to the hospital because I thought, whoever moves a hospital, right?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then we moved a hospital.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember thinking to myself, I I don't, that's why my you know high school buddies would say, she couldn't even clean her room, much less built move a hospital.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't clean the hospital, but I have some darn good people that do.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: It excites me to problem solve.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that um for the state of North Carolina, at least, you have to have a C O N and you've got to get approval.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: And there aren't that many new hospitals being approved.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so to do something like this uh twice in a career, uh, when I did it the first time, it wasn't until I saw it.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh the chief nurse and I went uh to Texas, which happens to not be a C O N state, and watched a move take place.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew within four hours we can do this.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And uh she and I came back and developed a plan because we had not built um a new a replacement hospital um before in the system where I was in.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: They were all new hospitals.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so you had to uh pre-um have an existing hospital be operational right up until the very second that it closes its door and the other uh the new hospital opens its door.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: So all of that, and it took us it well, it the move process took about three years in planning, but then it became a weekly meeting in that last year with lots of detail.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, Centera is building another new hospital in Halifax, and they've been able to learn a lot about what we've done uh to ready for a successful move for them as well.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but there's a lot of points in between you got to think about how to safely move patients.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd like to tell you it was all the hospital, but we have some incredible community partner um community partners, our sheriff's department, our EMS.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: EMS became our right hand.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: They lined up uh trucks to come in from, and it's logistics, right?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta love logistics if you're gonna pull something like this off.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that doesn't intimidate me.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it makes me work harder to figure out, okay, if this, then what happens?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: You got to think about what could happen.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Could we have a uh a tornado, a hurricane come through while we're trying to move the patients?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: And you got to pull these resources together.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the EMS folks, um, not just in Elizabeth City or Pasqua Tank, but in our region, really stepped up.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it was making, letting them be part of something that's bigger than just their microcosm of uh trunks to move it from one location to another.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we really uh were very fortunate that we had um a collaboration from the communities that we served uh to be part of it.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, getting back to me, that uh excites me.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: And what excites me now because it's like the day after Christmas, right?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: You um open up this new hospital and it's okay, what's next?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for us, it's it's a world of possibilities.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: What service lines do we need to bring?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: What areas do we need to be serving?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what are what's the community telling us that the needs are?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: We just can't go fast enough.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm hardwired fast.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: So uh my folks will tell you that I I run them crazy about can you just let this sink in?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're on to the next idea.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that's just because I have a true commitment to the community, and uh they do too.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it just takes someone uh bringing them along in what's the art of the possible, not what's the art of easy.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because if that were the case, we'd just fold up our arms and say, we've moved the hospital.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's as much as we need to do.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's not uh we're not near finished.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, kind of just a little bit of a throwback to what you said.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: I highly doubt if you asked any of my friends in high school if they thought that I could hack it being one of only two reporters for the newspaper in the entire Pasco Tate County, they would have been like, also, no, she can't even keep her room clean.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: But in the third grade, what I wanted to do was work at the Daily Advance.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got here, you know, everything was different.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot smaller.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: The technology was different from when I remember my dad working, and, you know, just the environment was really different.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we go into things with an expectation and we get there, and it's just not quite what we think.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and one of the things with the new hospital was that it had less beds than the old hospital.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was a cause for concern for some people in the community.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: But what you told me back in July, shortly before the move, was that you weren't concerned about it because you felt like there were so many medical advancements, and you guys had been working so hard on all of these, bringing in these new technologies and these new physicians that you feel like the average stay in a hospital is shorter.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: You guys were going to have a better, safer, and quicker turnaround time.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I just feel like I'm curious as to what kind of advancements are really to thank for this or contributing.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: And how how's your staff liking these changes?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you would know I was a used car salesman.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing against used car salesman if I told you they all loved it because you know, change is hard for some folks, right?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you got to meet people where they are.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it it is about what's it in it for me, right?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: How is it going to save me more steps?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: How is it going to let me give more time to my patients than, you know, run down somebody to, you know, bring me a chart, for example.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think that's a very valuable question because I'm constantly hearing that in the community.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you were built for 180 some beds at the old hospital and you've moved to 90.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: We have another 20 beds that um we are evaluating.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when healthcare regulated space is literally$1,000 a square foot, um, you got to be very judicious on how you spend that$1,000 a square foot.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so um for us, um we were not staffing 180 beds.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: We were staffing our average daily census was running less than 90 beds.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so at the time, the state has uh a portion of control over how many beds they're going to give you or allow you to replace or build.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: And um the census, you know, you're not seeing as many births um in general across the United States, but uh we were not seeing as many births um in uh Pasquatank in the surrounding counties.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um technology has changed.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I mentioned the Da Vinci robot, you know, it's less invasive.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: I remember when my brother was born, and he's about 10 years younger than I am, uh, in the 70s, right?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: My mother stayed in the hospital for five days to have a baby.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think that they just needed, she needed a break for me, which is why she was able to stay a little longer.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: But um, you know, now, you know, you think back at a knee replacement was three or four days in the hospital.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: Many folks, if there's no comorbidities, are being discharged on the same day that they have a knee replaced.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: So uh anesthesia procedures are safer and more efficient now.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: The technologies, the robots that we use.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: We have an orthopedic robot, and then we have one more for general and women's uh surgeries, um, are less invasive.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so people are able to recover outside of the bricks and mortar.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: And we find for people's mental health, many of them uh need to be back in their own environment.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: For me, if you bring me into the hospital, the first thing I want to do is get back home to my dog, right?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: Who's gonna take care of my dog while I'm here?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'll call Kelly and she'll come and take care of him.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: But it is one of those things that uh people have anxieties about being in health care.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I'd like to tell you it's the complete safest place to be, but things happen in hospitals as well.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: So um that you want to get people back where they're most familiar.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: I've lived here two and a half years, and I still wake up sometimes and think I'm in the house that, you know, that I had been in for 25 years and when I need to go to the bathroom.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: So try being on a medication that makes you not really be at your best in a strange environment.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, fall risks are much more of a concern.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that, you know, with um uh virtual care from um uh virtual technology from physicians being able to be linked in, you know, we don't always have every specialty.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and to be able to link them in, it helps people uh not lay in a hospital bed for so long.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so I really think that's um what's delivering more efficient care.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I did say that uh one of the things that we've seen in many hospitals, um, especially with post-COVID, I want to go back to that because that was a challenging part of my career.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: I became a hospital president on the front end of COVID, and um I hope to never experience anything like those three years of COVID.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it taught me a lot of things.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I really think that the long haul from the illness and the injuries from COVID that we saw um has made folks sicker um or more susceptible to conditions that we didn't, they didn't maybe have prior to COVID.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that when the state gave us the number of beds to build out, um, that obviously was not a factor.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: But we're seeing that if you had COVID, uh it did such damage to the uh respiratory and the cardiovascular system that folks are sicker now.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that goes back to do you have enough patient access in primary care?
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we already know that uh Northeast North Carolina does not have enough access.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh, you know, I think my um professional colleagues at other healthcare, very formidable healthcare institutions, are doing the best to try to recruit physicians.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we're really working on that problem, but it's finding the right dot for the community.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: If they come here and they don't stay here, that does you no good.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: People develop a relationship and then they get frustrated with you because they leave.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it really is an investment of energy, but it really also takes um a village to be able to keep them here uh once we get them.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that's where I think people integrate so well with Elizabeth City.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, the advancements um as we're continuing to focus on the best patient care, I think that they'll see the difference.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: It may look different, um, but the human touch will never be um replaced.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: So technology is going to be the big thing.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean I agree.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think we're already seeing a lot of that um in all aspects, not just in healthcare.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, the new hospital has so many state-of-the-art advancements, especially compared to the last one.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: It it opened in 1960.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what uh what more can you expect?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um But, you know, as advancements, obviously you can't predict who's going to invent the new, the new whatever in healthcare.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what what advancements do you feel like, especially in this area, we're gonna see over the next five to ten years?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: I do think you're gonna see more remote monitoring because you cannot put a price tag on safety.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the way to do that is just have um dedicated individuals who are in a bunker, if you will, right, uh being able to be dialed up, but utilizing them the most efficient way possible.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of strowing them out over 12 hospitals, you got these professionals that are in one place and you're able to call them up and get the resource you need.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I do think you're going to see more of that.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, from an operational standpoint, this goes back to what excites me, you know.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got uh, we're a destination center uh for healthcare.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: So you have everything from um primary care, uh, pediatrics, OB, uh, Virginia Oncology is in our medical office building, cardiac rehab, you've got the hospital.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: And when you go home, one of the barriers to folks staying well is do you have your medications?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's uh, oh, I got to get to the pharmacy before it closes, or you know, um, I don't have uh transportation to get to the pharmacy.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so I'm super excited that on the uh short-term horizon, because you know you got short, long-term goals, uh, we're gonna put a pharmacy right in between the medical office building and the hospital.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then that way when you're getting discharged from the hospital, your medications can be brought to your room to you so you don't have to make another trip to the pharmacy.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you're a mother with uh a sick child that's in the pediatric office, you don't have to go and wait for it to be called in or pick take a prescription in.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you'll just go stay in inside a covered walkway and pick up your prescription out the door you go.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's what is going to meet the needs of our community?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't know, you're right.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know what technology is going to change for us.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: Virtual um care locations, I think, with specialties that are hard to recruit for.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: We built a digital hub inside the medical office building.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not there yet because not everybody is as comfortable with virtual visits.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: But if that's the only way you have access to a provider of a specialty, then you start to look at that a little differently.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we have that um luxury to be able to look forward to.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I never have a shortage of surgeons, especially keeping current with the next, the latest technology, because they're always asking me for the latest robot.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yes, I'm talking about my orthopedist.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: So if you guys hear this, uh, I am talking about you because they are always coming to me with uh, and nothing's cheap when it's robotic surgery, I can promise you that.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it's um staying in touch with the advances in healthcare and with the community.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we do a community health needs assessment, the Chinna report.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it tells us where we have needs in the community that we need to focus on.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and unfortunately, behavioral health um is an area that needs uh assistance, not just in our community, but across the the country.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: And there's just not enough behavioral health.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, we're here to serve, so whatever that need is is what we'll we'll take care of.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to hear that.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's always what you want to hear from your local hospital president, right?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna one At least for me, one last question.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot about technology.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's inevitable because of what you're doing and and uh what we do is severely impacted, I think positively, uh, by technology as well.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, however, I'd like to think I'm on top of those things.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: But one technology that's always bothered me at home, because I'm gonna ask you, is is that I can no longer I like to read, but I can no longer read on a Kindle.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: For some reason I just cannot do it.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what technology, you I you you seem to be on front, but what technology at home do you just fight and push away?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't want to climb onto that next next level.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's probably uh working my smart TV.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: I have to have my son come and take care of that thing for me, you know, just get it to where I can get to Netflix, you know, right?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I'm constantly uh pouring it into, and and I'm like you, David, I'm of that age.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, Izzy, the difference, you guys can't see it.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: She's got this.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: I read all my questions off of my phone.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Not me, buddy.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking a piece of paper, I gotta hold it, I might even smell it.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I love the recycle reader that's right down here.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: So if I need to go smell a book, I still can get my hands on one.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: There is nothing like reading a physical book, though, truly.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_02: There's not, especially on the beach, you know.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think that really technology is um, and you know, I'm uh probably in the last chapter of my career, that's got to be something that you embrace.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that's not my strength because that I didn't grow up with the video games.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I can tell you I typed on a manual typewriter.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it was reflecting back on this interview uh last night, I was thinking, man, the the changes we've seen, and especially David, I don't I don't know when you grew up, and I'm gonna assume that we're kind of very close.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um that we went from a wall phone that maybe was a party line on, and if you were really um in a good way, if you had a cord that would stretch to the other room, right?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: And to now where we have uh music, phone, instant information.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: I remember watching Vietnam and you could only find out what was happening on that um in the war at six o'clock.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right, right.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: You had to be there or you missed it until the next day.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can pull up my phone and know exactly what's happening across the world.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so that same level of technology uh can be overwhelming.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I just have to take a break from it.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but other times you gotta say, how can we harness it to do the most good for our patients?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um, while I may not be able to work on smart TV, the good news is we have folks dedicated to a resource around technology, AI, advancements that are thinking, what's cutting edge next?
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: And if just I can get the IT folks, if I get a new phone, that's worse than buying a new car.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: I have to hand over my phone and say, y'all make it talk, and I'll I'll use it, and I won't be afraid to use it, but I cannot make it get there.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the patience for that.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: So um probably for me, it's having enough patience to sit down and uh work through it.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: I just want it yesterday.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know how you feel.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know what a party line is, but I still don't understand how it worked.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I do I am old enough to remember that we used to have a family computer in our in our living room.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was a designated computer that we all had to use.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we did have a phone that had a cord.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: I used to have to sit in our kitchen.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, Cole, our sound engineer, some of my most distinct memories in on that phone are calling his little sister Madeline up and talking to her for like hours on the phone because we were best friends in elementary school.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, you're right, we do.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have all sorts of technological advancements, and and you know, it seems like Sintera is on the frontier of end of that.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't wait to see where you guys go next.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um, and and it's true, it's a regional hospital uh really serving the rural community.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that when I talk about being an integrated healthcare system, that's the beauty of it.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to do be a jack of all trades uh because we have that master that's focusing on different aspects.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: Whether that's nursing, technology, uh, clinical outcomes.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the great news is we get to harness that at a local level and do the most good for the people we serve.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on today.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure having you.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's all I have to ask, David.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: Are you we've enjoyed it.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have to thank you very much for joining us.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: So much information in your brain.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I'm just able to, wow.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm impressed.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll see you folks at the Potato Festival.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'll look forward to that.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I'm sure I'll see you all again sometime soon.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: And to our listeners, we hope to see you all again sometime soon.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Please stay tuned for our next episode and keep on listening to our previous eleven.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: Be well.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: Be well.