Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Elizabeth Saylor, Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Heart Vein Vascular

Transcript

Elizabeth Saylor, Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Heart Vein Vascular · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  The most important health care decisions don't happen
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  in isolation.
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  They happen when leaders come together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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  3,500
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  hospital and health system executives this April in
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  Chicago.
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  With 800 speakers from Ascension,
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  Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit and more, the conversations get
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  real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
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  for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
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  barriers, and building clinical teams that translate Welcome
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  to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here at Becker's,
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  and I'm thrilled to interview Elizabeth Sailor, the
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  chief executive officer of Phoenix Heart, Vein, and
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  Vascular on the podcast today.
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  Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me.
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  I'm so grateful to share your insights, with
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  our podcast audience.
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  Thank you for having me. Glad to be
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  here.
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  Great. So, yeah, before I kinda dive into
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  all my questions,
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  could you take a
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  bit here to introduce yourself and tell us
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  a little bit about your organization?
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  Yes. So as mentioned, I am Elizabeth Sailor.
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  I'm the chief executive officer here at Phoenix
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  Heart Vein and Vascular.
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  We are a private physician group. We've been
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  serving the Phoenix area for about forty five
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  years.
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  Over that time, they've been really focused on
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  building long term relationships
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  with our patients
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  as well as the local hospitals.
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  We're very, very proud. We've been voted number
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  one in the greater Phoenix area for many,
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  many years.
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  We have three main locations,
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  Glendale,
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  Avondale,
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  and Scottsdale, and then we have four satellite
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  offices.
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  Our three main locations
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  are,
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  they all have in house
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  testing, so we're very proud of that.
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  One thing that sets us apart is that,
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  again, we provide comprehensive
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  cardiology,
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  entirely in house
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  from vein care to office based labs to
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  our own ambulatory surgical center
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  called Phase.
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  We do invest in state of the art
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  technologies,
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  and we are really focused.
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  Even though that we invest in that, we
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  really do try to keep our,
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  costs and care efficient and effective.
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  And then at the end of the day,
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  we're really about, you know, delivering really high
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  quality treatment
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  so patients feel supported and cared for.
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  Patients is the most important thing for our
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  our group.
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  Perfect. Well, I'm so excited to kinda share
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  your perspective on on how you're navigating
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  the industry today.
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  We're speaking just a little bit after the
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  New Year.
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  But before we look ahead, I'd love to
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  kind of look back and learn about maybe
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  the most important initiative
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  or program you've led in the last year,
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  what it took to make that happen, and
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  maybe what were some of the results.
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  Sure.
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  In 2025,
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  one of the
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  important initiatives that we had
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  was
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  patient access.
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  We do have other competitors in the area,
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  but
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  not on the West Side.
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  So earlier in 2025,
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  we added two new locations. We added a
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  Buckeye location.
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  If you're not familiar with the Phoenix area,
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  that area is growing like crazy,
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  and the access to cardiology just was not
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  there.
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  And then we expanded into our Avondale location
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  where we put
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  testing and those types of things within in
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  that location,
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  which helps us reach more patients and reduce
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  their wait times. So that was big for
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  us.
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  From there, we really turned our attention to
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  how can we really improve our service lines
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  while keeping care affordable.
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  And then we started investing in better phone
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  systems,
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  so patients can reach a real time person
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  rather than always an automated menu. So we
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  were really trying to focus on that patient
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  centric care
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  and then customer good customer service.
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  It was important to us and those in
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  the past had been a lot of complaints
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  from our
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  our patients.
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  And
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  I would say it was about
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  October, November time frame.
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  We started having patients in the, the wait
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  areas
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  actually telling our physicians and our front staff
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  how much we've improved. So we
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  it's exciting for us. We we had it
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  straight from the patients telling us that they
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  can tell that we've worked really hard on
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  those things. So
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  it's great.
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  Perfect. Yeah. It sounds like, you know, opening
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  those locations
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  helps with access, but even just a phone
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  system. Right? I say just, but
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  it's another tool, right, to help patients get
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  the care that they they need and that
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  they want.
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  When you kind of turn in the other
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  direction and look ahead, what are some of
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  the bigger priorities
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  or headwinds that you're focused on tackling in
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  2026?
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  One of our main priorities
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  is expanding our ambulatory surgical center
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  called Phase.
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  The goal here is we really wanna reduce
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  that wait time so we can get patients
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  in sooner so they can get the procedures
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  that they need. Again, we partner with local
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  hospitals.
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  But to keep their cost low, we really
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  wanna get them into our
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  our ambulatory surgical center.
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  One thing by growing that side too, it
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  it keeps our practice,
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  again, cost effective.
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  It's good care coordination.
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  And then we're still wanting to give them
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  that high
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  quality treatment
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  without delays.
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  Perfect. I think that's,
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  something a lot of our listeners will be
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  able to relate to, something that they're focused
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  on in the coming year.
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  Do you anticipate
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  maybe
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  one
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  hard thing or one bigger challenge that you're
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  gonna have to undertake
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  in the coming year?
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  I wouldn't say it's the hardest thing that
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  we're gonna face, but I would say it's
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  going to be a challenge.
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  It's going to be really keeping those costs
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  low and still keeping high level of care.
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  As we all know, costs tend to keep
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  going up.
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  At the same time, there's so many constant
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  change within health care.
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  So it feels like there's always something new
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  daily, whether it's regulations, reimbursement,
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  technology.
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  So really trying to adapt to those changes
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  as quickly as we can. So keeping
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  staff on their toes.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely. When you talk about kind of adapting
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  to those changes and and technology and innovation
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  and
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  where do you kind of see some of
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  the best opportunities
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  for organizational
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  growth?
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  I think the demand for cardiovascular
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  care is going to continue to grow.
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  So
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  we really wanna get those patients in sooner
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  and move them through a really smooth
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  care treatment, whether that means partnering with other
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  organizations
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  and things such as metabolic care
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  or
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  working with their PCPs,
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  podiatry, those types of things.
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  I think that's gonna be one area
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  of growth.
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  Another one, again, as I've mentioned earlier, will
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  be our ambulatory surgical center. I think that's
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  a key
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  to our in house services so we can
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  continue to grow.
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  One of the things that
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  we will be able to look towards this
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  year
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  is can we do ablations
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  in house? So that will be
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  that would be an exciting new growth opportunity.
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  And then we're gonna continue to invest in
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  things such as technology and, you know, those
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  smaller improvements that can still make big impact
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  on how we operate.
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  So not only for the staff, but for
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  the patients.
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  Absolutely.
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  Yeah. And I I feel like so so
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  much of what you hit on with, you
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  know, metabolic care and ablation,
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  those are all kind of keywords that I've
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  seen come up, you know, in Becca's coverage
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  over the past six months. So,
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  I'm excited to see, you know, how Phoenix
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  Heart Vein and Vascular
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  navigate,
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  those opportunities, and I I hope we can
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  connect again to see how things are going.
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  Absolutely.
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  Well, great. Thank you so much for joining
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  me on the podcast today. I think it's
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  been a great conversation
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  giving a little insight to our listeners on
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  what's happening in Phoenix and and cardiology.
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  I just wanna thank you again for your
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  time and your insight.
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  Thank you. I appreciate you.
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  Perfect. Well, I invite our listeners to tune
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  in to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by
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  visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
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  Hope you all have a wonderful rest of
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  your day.