Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Todd Suntrapak, CEO of Valley Children's Hospital

Transcript

Todd Suntrapak, CEO of Valley Children's Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:05
  - This is the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, created
• 0:07
  by the team of Becker's Healthcare,
• 0:08
  a multimedia company devoted to the people
• 0:10
  who power us healthcare.
• 0:11
  Four new 15 minute episodes are released daily containing
• 0:14
  industry news analysis and thought leadership.
• 0:16
  From powerful healthcare decision makers Support our show
• 0:19
  by leaving it a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast
• 0:22
  or other platforms you use.
• 0:24
  It's a chance to tell us what you like about the show
• 0:26
  and act on your feedback.
• 0:27
  Thanks for listening. Now here's the episode.
• 0:30
  - This is Chris Oser with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:33
  I'm Phil today to be joined by Todd ak, president
• 0:35
  and CEO of Valley Children's Healthcare in California.
• 0:39
  Todd, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:41
  - It's my pleasure, Chris. Thank you for having me.
• 0:44
  - Absolutely. Would you please introduce yourself
• 0:46
  and tell our audience a little bit about your background?
• 0:49
  - Sure, it's my pleasure. I'm Todd Pac.
• 0:52
  I serve as the president
• 0:54
  and CEO of Valley Children's Healthcare, uh,
• 0:58
  which is a health system
• 1:00
  or a network that serves, uh, close to 2 million kids
• 1:06
  in about a 45,000 square mile service area.
• 1:09
  On our main campus, we have a 358 bed quaternary
• 1:15
  pediatric, uh, acute care facilities, uh,
• 1:19
  and scattered, uh, throughout that service area are a number
• 1:23
  of outpatient locations ranging from primary care
• 1:28
  to pediatric subspecialty care, so that no matter
• 1:31
  where any family is, they, they're able to get
• 1:36
  to Valley Children's for help within 30 minutes
• 1:39
  or 30 miles across that 45,000 square mile service area.
• 1:44
  And we also either own
• 1:46
  or operate, uh, with Partners Pediatrics
• 1:50
  and seven other acute care facilities
• 1:53
  in that same geography.
• 1:55
  - Thank you for that. Todd, uh,
• 1:57
  valley Children's recently partnered with Wigmore Women's
• 2:00
  and Children's Hospital in Armenia, capital of Yon.
• 2:03
  Could you explain how did that relationship develop
• 2:06
  between your systems and could please describe the
• 2:08
  connection between Valley Children's
• 2:09
  and the Armenian people?
• 2:11
  I know it's a mouthful, but it's,
• 2:13
  we're absolutely looking forward to hearing it.
• 2:15
  - It's really my pleasure, Chris.
• 2:18
  I think it was serendipitous in a way.
• 2:21
  Uh, a longtime mentor and friend of mine, uh, Dr.
• 2:27
  V Rouge, Alta Barian, who served many years
• 2:31
  as the physician in chief here in the central part
• 2:35
  of California for Kaiser Permanente, came to see me one day
• 2:40
  and asked me if we would help
• 2:44
  on a project that he had been engaged on, which was,
• 2:48
  um, in Armenia.
• 2:51
  And, uh, that project turned out to be a women's
• 2:55
  and children's facility, uh, in Yvan Armenia,
• 3:01
  Wigmore Women's and Children's Hospital.
• 3:05
  And specifically, he wanted to know if we could help
• 3:10
  with, uh, the education of young physicians
• 3:14
  and clinicians here in the us, uh,
• 3:18
  at our main campus facility to begin with,
• 3:22
  and specifically if those physicians could observe how we
• 3:27
  provided care in our er.
• 3:30
  And we of course, said yes.
• 3:34
  And I think it's important to note, uh, for those
• 3:38
  that may not be familiar, um, during
• 3:43
  the unfortunate
• 3:45
  and tragic times, uh, of the Armenian genocide,
• 3:50
  uh, the Armenian diaspora, uh,
• 3:53
  really found a second home, if you will, many,
• 3:58
  many Armenians
• 3:59
  and people of Armenian descent here in the central part
• 4:02
  of the state of California.
• 4:04
  And so for us, uh, the close relationship
• 4:09
  with those of Armenian descent has been, um,
• 4:13
  fundamental part of our over 70 year history now.
• 4:19
  And, uh, in fact, that same community,
• 4:24
  uh, is one of the most generous in terms of, uh,
• 4:29
  philanthropic support to the mission of Valley Children's
• 4:32
  and to helping kids of any of the groups that we are blessed
• 4:37
  to be supported by.
• 4:38
  In fact, there's only one group if we, um,
• 4:42
  think about it in that way,
• 4:45
  that has surpassed the generosity in terms
• 4:48
  of financial support, uh, of the Armenian community
• 4:52
  to Valley Children's,
• 4:53
  and that that group is the founding guilds
• 4:57
  of Valley Children's as an organization
• 5:00
  that have been functioning for over 70 years.
• 5:02
  So you can see hopefully that this, um, relationship
• 5:08
  between Valley Children's
• 5:10
  and the community of individuals
• 5:14
  of Armenian descent is one that is
• 5:19
  closely entwined
• 5:21
  and certainly has been part of the formative progression
• 5:26
  and evolution of Valley Children's.
• 5:28
  And so to be able to give back to the Children's Hospital,
• 5:33
  the new Children's Hospital in the country of Armenia,
• 5:36
  has really been a no brainer for us.
• 5:40
  - And Todd, have you had a chance to, uh, visit Armenia?
• 5:42
  Have any of your staff been had a chance
• 5:44
  to visit, uh, the hospital there?
• 5:47
  - Uh, I have not had the opportunity yet.
• 5:50
  I will be, uh, at the invitation of the CEO, uh,
• 5:55
  of Wigmore and of my friend, uh, Dr.
• 5:58
  V Rouge, Alta Barian.
• 6:00
  I will be visiting, uh, Armenia, uh,
• 6:04
  in the next fall.
• 6:07
  I'm pretty excited about that.
• 6:08
  Um, we have had some of our staff, um, our, uh,
• 6:14
  p the president of our fundraising foundation.
• 6:18
  Uh, Robert Royan, uh, is of Armenian descent.
• 6:22
  That's a pretty famous, uh,
• 6:24
  last name in the Armenian community.
• 6:27
  As you may know. Uh, he has been to Armenia many times,
• 6:30
  and actually within the last six months has visited
• 6:34
  Wigmore, uh, himself.
• 6:37
  And we've also previously, uh, through, uh,
• 6:41
  different relationships, uh, sponsored our physicians
• 6:46
  to go to Armenia
• 6:48
  and provide care in Armenia for, uh, patients
• 6:52
  that have various congenital health conditions
• 6:57
  that will only accelerate, uh,
• 7:00
  through our partnership with Wigmore,
• 7:04
  - Looking specifically at that partnership.
• 7:06
  Todd, what are the main goals that you have
• 7:08
  for this relationship?
• 7:12
  - I think the first
• 7:13
  and foremost, we want to, uh,
• 7:18
  share our knowledge
• 7:22
  with our colleagues in Armenia, uh, so that
• 7:26
  the children of Armenia, which is a developing country, so
• 7:31
  that the children in Armenia, um, have
• 7:36
  the opportunity to receive the same quality of care
• 7:39
  that we would provide at Valley
• 7:41
  Children's here in the United States.
• 7:44
  I think that, uh, that is the overriding desire
• 7:48
  to be a part of children's lives,
• 7:52
  not just here in the Valley,
• 7:53
  but also, uh, in the country of Armenia.
• 7:56
  As I've described, the relationship between
• 8:00
  Valley Children's
• 8:01
  and the Armenian community here is of critical importance
• 8:07
  to us is very, very close.
• 8:10
  And, uh, we really feel privileged
• 8:13
  and honored to be able to now export our knowledge, uh,
• 8:17
  to Armenia and our care, uh, with our partner,
• 8:20
  and also to welcome, uh, the various clinicians
• 8:24
  and physicians here to Valley Children's to see
• 8:29
  how we provide care,
• 8:30
  and in particular, how we address quality improvement,
• 8:35
  uh, and ensure that the standard of care, uh,
• 8:39
  for kids is at the highest level.
• 8:42
  And we've already done some great work
• 8:44
  together in that regard.
• 8:46
  Um, and,
• 8:47
  and I'm very excited about what the future will hold,
• 8:50
  but this is really all about patient care, Chris,
• 8:55
  and specifically how do we improve the lives of kids
• 9:00
  no different from our focus in here, uh, in California with
• 9:04
  how do we improve the, the lives of kids that live here.
• 9:08
  So in that way, that is the overriding objective
• 9:13
  of the relationship.
• 9:17
  - So when team members from Wigmore come
• 9:20
  to Valley Children's and they're involved in your hospital
• 9:24
  and everything that goes on there,
• 9:26
  can you take us a little bit through what they're seeing
• 9:29
  and how they are going to take
• 9:30
  that knowledge back to Armenia?
• 9:33
  - I, I'd be happy to. I think it's a wide range of, uh,
• 9:38
  experiences that they are
• 9:41
  having when they are shadowing, if you will, or observing.
• 9:45
  Uh, our clinicians, the initial rotation was
• 9:50
  of the pediatric doctors from Armenia
• 9:54
  and Wigmore observing in our er, which is one
• 9:59
  of the busiest ERs, uh, in the country.
• 10:02
  And it's not just for pediatrics,
• 10:05
  although all we do in that ER is pediatrics.
• 10:08
  So it was a very intense experience for them
• 10:13
  to see the amount of care that was
• 10:15
  provided, as well as the variability of conditions
• 10:19
  that were coming in, which, uh,
• 10:22
  pediatric subspecialists were working in consultation
• 10:27
  with the peds ER physicians.
• 10:30
  They also were able to see a number of, uh,
• 10:35
  pediatric trauma activations as we are a trauma center here,
• 10:41
  and they got to observe, uh, those trauma cases firsthand
• 10:46
  and how we provided, uh, care.
• 10:50
  And importantly then
• 10:52
  how we critique the care that we provide.
• 10:55
  How do we learn from, um, both
• 10:59
  the team members that are involved?
• 11:02
  Do we need to change processes?
• 11:04
  How do we go about having those discussions?
• 11:07
  And then how do we follow up?
• 11:09
  What systems might we change and how do we do that?
• 11:12
  And I'll give you this one small example
• 11:14
  that every single member of that team mentioned
• 11:17
  to me independently, including the CEO of, um,
• 11:22
  Wigmore in all of our patient care
• 11:26
  environments, uh, in the inpatient operations here
• 11:30
  in including the er,
• 11:34
  our quality scorecard is posted publicly
• 11:39
  and it says what we're doing well,
• 11:42
  and it says where we are not hitting our own internally
• 11:47
  set goals, which are always in excess of
• 11:51
  what the regulatory goal would be.
• 11:53
  So it is very, very transparent, uh, not just for our team,
• 11:58
  but for family members, uh, of patients that come.
• 12:02
  Anybody can see this, it's public.
• 12:04
  That was something that every one of our guests
• 12:07
  and colleagues from Wigmore pointed out as
• 12:12
  incredibly powerful, and they were going to go home
• 12:16
  and immediately implement the same at their organization.
• 12:21
  And the reason Chris, I think that is so important is
• 12:25
  that goes to a culture of safety.
• 12:27
  It goes to a cultural mindset
• 12:29
  of continued process improvement.
• 12:33
  And I think more than anything else, it recognizes
• 12:37
  that children are the future
• 12:39
  and our best has always, always
• 12:44
  needs to be improving.
• 12:47
  And we have got to ensure
• 12:50
  that we think about every child that is coming to us
• 12:54
  for care, uh, as being a bright spot in our future
• 12:59
  and protecting that future.
• 13:00
  So it, it reinforces the commitment to always doing better,
• 13:06
  always improving,
• 13:07
  and every member of the team knowing where we're excelling
• 13:12
  and where we're fa falling short.
• 13:14
  And, and that
• 13:17
  underlying message becomes very motivational
• 13:20
  and as I said, becomes a part of the culture.
• 13:22
  So, um, I have not seen their, um,
• 13:26
  they're gonna send me, um, um, photos
• 13:29
  of their own posters that they put up.
• 13:33
  Uh, I have not seen those yet,
• 13:34
  but I'm really looking forward to it.
• 13:36
  So those are, those are the things
• 13:38
  that they are experiencing when they join us is
• 13:42
  the direct patient care experiences
• 13:44
  and everything that that entails,
• 13:46
  but then also they're seeing how we do process improvement,
• 13:50
  how we communicate to each other, how we are committed
• 13:53
  to always being better, that we've got to do better, uh,
• 13:56
  because this is a future that we are entrusted with.
• 14:01
  And I think those things really, uh, resonated
• 14:05
  with our colleagues at at wigs more.
• 14:08
  And, and so they see all things
• 14:10
  great and small when they're here.
• 14:13
  - Thank you for that, Todd. That all seems like a very
• 14:15
  heartwarming and worthwhile
• 14:17
  endeavor that you guys have going.
• 14:19
  I mean, if you don't mind projecting just a little bit,
• 14:22
  I know this relationship has been going on for a while,
• 14:25
  but as you see it moving forward, you know, five,
• 14:28
  10 years from now, what do you hope
• 14:30
  that this partnership will be and bring?
• 14:33
  - That's a great question, Chris.
• 14:35
  And I think that there is so much that has already occurred
• 14:39
  for Valley Children's from, uh, this relationship.
• 14:43
  Uh, notably, uh, our team is absolutely thrilled
• 14:49
  to be in a position to share with colleagues
• 14:54
  how we do things here.
• 14:55
  Uh, I can tell you that I saw a lot of smiling faces,
• 15:01
  uh, between colleagues as our guests were here.
• 15:06
  They are very ex our team is very, very excited
• 15:08
  to have the opportunity to travel to Armenia
• 15:12
  and do direct patient care with our colleagues in Armenia
• 15:17
  for certain conditions.
• 15:19
  And we are, uh, working now at
• 15:22
  determining which patient populations should we work on, uh,
• 15:28
  together, uh, when we send that medical mission, uh,
• 15:32
  to Armenia, if you will.
• 15:34
  Maybe that's the wrong terminology,
• 15:36
  but when we send, um, members of our team to Armenia
• 15:40
  to work, uh, shoulder to shoulder, side by side
• 15:43
  with our colleagues at Wigs more, I think that there's a,
• 15:48
  a great sense of pride, uh,
• 15:50
  within the Valley Children's team, uh, to know
• 15:54
  that they're helping colleagues a half a world away,
• 16:00
  uh, that may not, uh, have had the opportunity
• 16:05
  to receive the training that our team has,
• 16:08
  whether it's at Valley Children's or academically.
• 16:12
  I think it's also, uh, for our team,
• 16:16
  very illuminating that not every organization may have
• 16:21
  the same tools that we have,
• 16:23
  although I have seen some of the, uh, investments
• 16:27
  that have been made at Wigmore
• 16:29
  and they have the same gear that we do.
• 16:32
  So that is, uh, a fantastic thing to see.
• 16:36
  And our team is really, really, I think, uplifted
• 16:40
  by the notion that, uh, we are going to be able to
• 16:45
  help the only children's hospital for an entire country,
• 16:50
  uh, take care of kids the way that we would,
• 16:53
  but maybe even better, right?
• 16:55
  Because we, we of course learn from our colleagues
• 16:59
  in our Armenia at wigs more as well.
• 17:01
  To your, the part of your question about
• 17:03
  where do I see this going in, in four to five years, uh,
• 17:07
  we believe that we will be in a position
• 17:10
  to offer an international rotation in our, uh,
• 17:14
  pediatric residency program, uh, with Wigmore.
• 17:17
  We have already had initial conversations about that.
• 17:21
  Uh, this is something that's very attractive
• 17:24
  to young people thinking about, uh, advancing
• 17:28
  their career in medicine
• 17:30
  and having an international experience is important
• 17:34
  to a number of those, uh,
• 17:37
  young people advancing their medical careers,
• 17:40
  especially in pediatrics.
• 17:42
  So that is, uh, something that we are very excited about
• 17:46
  and think will be bring tremendous value both
• 17:49
  to Valley Children's as well as to the team at, uh, Wigmore.
• 17:54
  I think ultimately we foresee a future
• 17:57
  where Valley Children's and Wigmore Women's
• 18:01
  and Children's Hospital are sister hospitals,
• 18:04
  a half a world away with a lot of, uh, integration between,
• 18:09
  uh, clinical education, um, technology utilization,
• 18:13
  pharmaceutical utilization, uh, residency training.
• 18:17
  I think training the future physicians
• 18:21
  that may practice here in the United States, uh,
• 18:24
  in the central part of California, equally
• 18:27
  with ERA Van Armenia is really, really important.
• 18:31
  And, uh, that is something that will enhance the future
• 18:34
  of both organizations, uh, in a way that's really difficult
• 18:39
  to quantify,
• 18:41
  but one that both organizations are very excited about.
• 18:46
  - Todd, thank you so much today
• 18:48
  for sharing this inspiring story of this partnership.
• 18:50
  We obviously wish a continued success,
• 18:52
  and thank you again for joining us today.
• 18:55
  - My pleasure. Chris, always thank you for having me.
• 18:59
  - It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
• 19:01
  to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks
• 19:04
  to help our audience better do this in a more simplified,
• 19:07
  personalized, and meaningful way.
• 19:09
  Becker's Healthcare has launched my bhc,
• 19:12
  it's your trusted Becker's healthcare experience
• 19:14
  and more with content, connections, events
• 19:16
  and learning opportunities.
• 19:18
  Join the community free
• 19:19
  of charge@www.my dot becker's hospital review.com
• 19:24
  and we'll see you there.