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This is Rosie Talaga with the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by

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Kyle Anderson, VP of Finance and ASC at

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Ortho Rhode Island,

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to talk a little bit about the biggest

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trends in the ASC industry. Kyle, it's a

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pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

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Can you please take a moment to introduce

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yourself and your work in the industry?

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Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

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These are always fun podcasts to do, and

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I enjoy the content that, that Becker's HealthCare

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puts out. So, always happy to participate in

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one. Thank you. My name is Kyle Anderson.

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I'm vice president of Ortho Rhode Island and

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Ortho Rhode Island Surgery Center.

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Ortho Rhode Island is located in Warwick, Rhode

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Island.

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We are a surgery center of, 8 ORs,

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and 2 procedure rooms. We perform the entire

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gamut of adult orthopedic care.

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We do roughly

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10,000

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surgery or procedures

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a year in the center,

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and continue to grow and focus on

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things like

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patient experience and additional service lines and access

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and all the things that, that we're excited

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about and and, most of the industry is

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talking about these days. Great. Thank you so

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much. So for our first question,

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there is a recent statistic that

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ASC volume

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across the country is expected to increase by

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16%

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by 2032.

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With this growth, what are the most pressing

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challenges to men to maintaining a positive patient

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experience?

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Yeah. So it's it's an exciting time to

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be part of the the ASC industry. Right?

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It's, it's great for patients to be able

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to experience care in an ASC setting. It's

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great for providers to be able to provide

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care in ASC setting,

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and all of the sort of multitude of

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staff who gets to participate in in what

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is the ASC environment, I think is very

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positive,

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for health care.

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Anytime that segment of health care or any

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business experiences

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rapid growth, things need to change as as

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that, growth occurs. And,

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in the ASC environment,

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one of the things that

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most directly impacts the patient experience

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is that of staff engagement. Right? The staff

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members are really the ones who,

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are going to drive the patient experience, who

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have the greatest ability to influence the patient

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experience,

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and that's that's what leads to patients, you

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know, coming back and and being the ones

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that sort of frequent your practice and,

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and what establishes you reputationally within the community.

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And so the challenge

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in trying to maintain that,

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is having the right people in the center.

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Right? And and it's the right people who

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are involved in the care,

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and,

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making sure that they are passionate about their

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care that they're delivering.

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The Ortho Horizon Surgery Center, we are very,

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very lucky that we have phenomenal staff.

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We have very engaged staff and people who,

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understand and and are intrinsically

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motivated to provide the best patient experience,

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and that's really throughout the entire journey. Right?

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If you were going to be able to

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accommodate,

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such significant growth, it has to start before

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the patient comes to the surgery center. Right?

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The patient engagement, the patient optimization.

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And then once they arrive, are they being

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are you being efficient with their care and

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they can navigate through the surgery center and

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what will ultimately lead to not only a

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positive clinical outcome, but also a positive patient

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experience.

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Got it. So you talked about how things

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need to change when there's so much growth,

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staff engagement, maintaining that. So what are some

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strategies that have worked for your organization to

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tackle some of these challenges,

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and what's a recommendation that you have for

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health care leaders to stay ahead?

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Yeah. So so from a from a sort

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of a staff engagement standpoint, using that as

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the thing to drive experience,

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engaging the staff and the entire clinical care

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team for that that matter early and often.

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They're gonna be the ones delivering the care.

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They're the ones who have the direct,

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clinical experience,

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and can often guide the way that an

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organization moves and navigates their evolution.

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I think most of the centers, would hope

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and will continue to to grow in the

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patient volume that they see, in the type

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of specialty that they see at the center.

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And so,

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introducing the entire care team as part of

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the approach for that growth strategy,

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nursing,

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anesthesia,

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surgeon,

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administrative staff that supports the entire process.

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I think that that's really the key and

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the fundamental,

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element that will, produce success. Otherwise, you get

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to the end point where you may have

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arrived earlier than everyone else. And so, I

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I think that the outcome there is not

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quite as favorable as if if the entire

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team tracks together in order to,

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while putting the patient first, deliver care in

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a way that,

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is in line with, the goals and the

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trajectory of the organization.

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Got it. Thank you.

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And then how can leaders can ensure their

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staff are well equipped to help patients navigate

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the financial aspects of their care and how

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does this benefit the patient to provider relationship?

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Yeah. The the the financial component of health

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care is a challenging one, and and part

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of the reason it's so challenging is because

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of how confusing it is.

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You know, even those who have been in

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the industry for some time,

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if if they have to explain to a

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patient

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what their obligation is and why their obligation

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is that and why it may change over

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time,

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relative to perhaps other health care services that

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they use in between that time and the

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surgery,

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it's just hard. And so you couple that

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with,

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people who,

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you know, need surgery, in my my case,

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orthopedic surgery are already in pain. And so

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it you you introduce this financial component with

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the the medical component, it becomes confusing. So,

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I know that some centers will offer, payment

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plans or other ways for people to expedite

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access to their care, but one of the

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things that we focus on, most specifically is

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relative to communicating what that financial obligation might

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may be. Right? Because nobody likes to go

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to a doctor and then all of a

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sudden you're surprised at at what that looks

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like. Oftentimes, also because you're receiving that bill

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and you already feel better. Mhmm. And so

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it feels fair. It feels right to be

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able to say, this is what this is

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gonna look like,

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and it allows the patient to be able

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to prepare for that in their life much

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like they would prepare for their surgical journey.

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There's the financial element as well. And it

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and it feels

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like a strong foundation from which trust can

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be built. Absolutely.

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Lastly, is there anything else that you'd like

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to add or that is on the top

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of your mind recently?

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No. I would just I guess I would

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just say that, you know, here as we

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sit and we record this at the,

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at the Becker's

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conference,

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it's these types of events that are, energizing,

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you know, energizing to many people in the

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industry, and, you know, thank you to to

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Becker's Healthcare for putting this on because,

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this is where where innovation and ideas are

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born. Right? It's the collaboration

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between physicians and administrators and vendor partners,

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to be able to put everything that they

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have together,

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because it ultimately will benefit,

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the patient who's at the end of that

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journey. You know? And and we wanna all

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be there for when they need us the

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most, and these types of events help to,

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catalyze that. So I'm appreciative of everything that's

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gone into today. That's great. We appreciate you

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too. Thank you so much for speaking with

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us, and thank you for sharing your insights

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again here with me today. It's been a

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pleasure, and we look forward to connecting with

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you soon. Thanks for having me.