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Speaker 1: Welcome to Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa, your host, and I'm very happy to be joined today by James Burrows. He's senior vice president of government and community relations and chief equity inclusion officer of Children's Minnesota. James, thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Chris. Glad to be here.

Speaker 1: Awesome. So, James, for those in our audience who maybe are not too familiar with Children's Minnesota and yourself and your role, can you please tell us a bit about your background?

Speaker 2: Sure. Well, let's start with Children's Minnesota. We are the, largest exclusively pediatric healthcare system in Minnesota and one of the largest in The United States, exclusively doing pediatric care for, for kiddos. We consider ourselves the kid experts because we want to focus primarily on kids and their families and making sure that we have healthy families for our children. My background is my role is, threefold.

One is government relations, which is we focus on our federal and state and local policies that affect health care for kids and families. Kids and families. I lead that effort also to community relations. We make sure we have community partners to make us a central partner in kids and families health care. We have to do that not only within our walls, but into the community as well.

I'm also the chief equity inclusion officer, which includes all things of making us a very diverse staff, but also to one that provides quality, cultural, inclusive, and also belonging environments for our families as well. So that's it in a nutshell.

Speaker 1: Thank you for summing that up for us, James. Clearly, that covers a ton of ground. So you're obviously going to find yourself very busy each every day. There's no doubt. Where we're gonna start with this podcast, though, is just give us a little insight on how things have gone for Children's Minnesota last year and then look forward into this year as well.

So let's start with this. So what would you say is the most important initiative you led in the last year? Specifically, if you could take us through how it evolved and the results that followed.

Speaker 2: Alright. I said the thing we met, most last year was a, transition of CEOs. So, we had a CEO, doctor Mark Golick, who had been with us in the CEO role about seven years, a little bit more than seven years, and he transitioned and retired, and our chief medical officer, Doctor. Emily Chapman, took over. Why that's the most significant is because, Doctor.

Chapman had been our chief medical officer for many years and been with the hospital system twenty two years, but but we wanted to make sure that our continuity of leadership at our ELT level, kept us focused on our strategic plan, which it did. So we ended the last five months of the year with Emily in place, and she did amazing doctor Chapman in place did amazing job in leading us, to a good fiscal year that, as we closed the books, ended with about a balanced budget, for the year. And also to, something that we wanted to make sure we did as well, the continuity of, showing how we show up in the, environment for our families and our community. That stayed the same as well. I can't think of any, let's say, particular project per se, but I said that changing in leadership, making sure we kept the continuity of our ELT team, and made sure that we stayed relevant for our patients, families, and communities was the major thing that we had going on in 2025.

Speaker 1: I'll say doctor Chaput was kind enough to join us on the podcast a few months ago, and she's a wonderful guest as well. And so, yeah, I'm glad that you're able to join us today, James, and let us know what's happening, in addition to the transition, I should say, everything else that's going on. Let me ask you this. So, when you said doctor Chapman, of course, has been with Children's Minnesota a long, long time. So that probably eased the transition.

So once she first sits in on a meeting as CEO, not that we want all the, you know, the the fine details. But what exactly happens in a meeting like that? What are you hoping to get across to her as she takes over as when she took over rather as CEO?

Speaker 2: Sure. Good question. One of the things that I asked Emily, and we go by first name. So Emily and and and I, one of the things I asked her was, what's your voice, for equity and inclusion and belonging here at Children's? Meaning we have a strategy, we have a plan, but also too, it's important to hear the leader's voice around that.

So as we talked about it, she wanted to make sure that we continue to do equitable care, which is part of the domains of quality for, care for our patients and families, and making sure that everybody sees that through our actions. So what does that mean? Making sure that our providers and our nurses have strategies by which to, create an inclusive environment. And when they wanna try different experiments for whether it be different languages or different, aspects of community and culture, different economic, or generational differences between families, they can feel comfortable trying those experiments, learning from those, and then also to implementing that going forward. So she wanted to make sure we kept that equitable care environment.

She also, wanted to make sure as, CEO that, we continue to show up when it needs to in community. So that means if certain communities have undergone a tremendous, challenge in 2025 related to, immigration status and or, how they're able to navigate, to and from our hospital, Wanted to make sure that she wanna make sure that we kept that, as the forefront of what we're doing for our our families. And, also, too, when they run into challenges around that, that we're accommodating as it relates to that, as well. And thirdly, making sure that as we roll, and I'm sure she talked about this, our Eclipse project, which is our rollout of our electronic medical records, epic, going forward, that we integrate this work. And when I say this work, inclusion, community relations, government relations into that system.

So it's not a separate and apart thing to do, but it's part of what we do as a system and also as electronic medical records as well. So those are the main things that, she's asked. And then lastly, nobody wants to retire, but one of the things I put off top of my list is what does succession planning or systems change look like for this work? Meaning, at some point in time, I always joke that the role of my, chief equity inclusion officer will, hopefully at some point in the next ten to fifteen years, disappear, and that folks will just have integrated that into the work that we do as a health care system. So those are some of the things we talked about in our initial meeting.

Speaker 1: That's a lot, Jace, but I would expect nothing less for someone taking over as a CEO. Glad you mentioned really all those issues that you touched on, including, the fact that you hope that that's such a wonderful aspiration that, you know, you don't want your role to exist anymore because this just becomes part of the fabric. I love that about, the direction that you're headed. So you touched on a few things that will follow-up here. So when you look ahead, there are priorities that you have at Children's Minnesota.

There are headwinds that you have to face, as a team as as you move forward. So what do some of those look like as you head into the rest of 2026?

Speaker 2: Well, to be candid, some of those headwinds, are some of the, federal changes, that we saw in 2025 that are also changing in 2026. So that could be through executive order, through policy changes, through changes in Medicaid as well. And some of those changes will impact, our delivery of care, to who we deliver the care to and how we deliver the service as well. Some of those changes also impacted how we look at equity, inclusion, and diversity. I'll be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that some of our children's systems in other places in other states have made, a lot of changes, significant changes in their delivery and or absence of equity, inclusion, or diversity work going forward because of changes in federal law or federal policy.

We have not. We're still committed to providing equitable care through our equity inclusion office, through our employee resource groups, through our strategies about spending resources in community as well. So one of the things that continues to be a headwind are those changes, and as they change, we modify how we, talk about or how we, I'd say how we, record our progress or outcomes, but we're still gonna do the work. Some of the tailwinds I'm excited about are the realization in our system is that a lot of folks are providers and nurses especially have built into their nursing councils, have built into their, provider, projects or strategies equity, into their work. So one of the tailwinds is that sometimes it doesn't even have to be a call to my office or a call to my team.

They're building in strategies that serve patients and families better, that they haven't been serving necessarily as well as they wanted to in the past. So that's one of the tailwinds that resulted from a lot of discussion about equity inclusion work in 2025 with some of those headwinds. Folks have said, hey. You know what? I can do this work on my own, and I could get coaching and advice from your team, but they can make this part of the work that I do as well.

So I think those are the significant, 2026 headwinds and tailwinds that we're experiencing as we sit here on this January 16. Now that may change in February and March, but right now, I think those are the ones.

Speaker 1: It certainly can. And you kinda read my mind there, James, because I did wanna ask you about how, these practices are integrated with, your staff. So I'm glad you covered that as well. I do wanna follow-up and ask you simply so you mentioned how committed your organization is to all these efforts that you've laid out for us. So what has been the reaction, the atmosphere as far as your community since you have reinforced that that you're committed to these, these ethics and these efforts?

Speaker 2: Mhmm. The the external community or the internal community?

Speaker 1: Or Well, both. I I was referring to the external community, but how we how great.

Speaker 2: Sure. So ex externally, folks have received it very well. They, were looking at other companies and organizations who, I'd say take a step back from the work, and not received that not receiving that favorably. They were pleasantly surprised that we weren't backing away from the work. We have also what's called a Community, Advisory Council as part of my department that I run called the Collective for Community Health, which focuses on getting advice and counsel from community organizations, a diverse variety of those.

But also, too, we give resources, invest back in community, to about a quarter of $1,000,000 right now into strategies for equitable care for our patients and families that are underserved. So they, sit at a table with us every quarter, give us strategy advice, and also too, we invest in those communities. They also have been excited about how equity inclusion continues to be a at the forefront of what we do and a part of our strategic plan. And also, just as important, that we invest in strategies that we can partner with at Children's in Community to provide great solutions. Some of those evolve around behavioral health.

Some of those revolve around vaccine education and also vaccine access. Some of those have evolved around, you you know, mental health care, around gun violence and things in community as well. So we're excited that that continues. And then internally, as I said before, one of the things that excites us is the nursing councils, the, provider, groups, and then also too some of our staff who are non clinician facing, are excited about doing this work. Our, employee resource groups, which we have eight of, and we're going to add more to that, which are groups that share particular affinity, who get together and do different projects throughout the year in community and also internally to bring awareness to not only their identity, but also to how their identity can shape and mold and help us provide better care and services for families, in community.

They're excited and have been excited a long time about how this work helps them want to, one, stay at Children's and be a part of our great, community. And then also too how they can share the knowledge and experience when they go back out into their home communities about what we do and how we do it as well. So those are some of the things that have provided some some some guiding lights for us, some guideposts in community and externally and also internally as well.

Speaker 1: No doubt that helps build the foundation of your culture there in Children's Minnesota. James, that's fantastic. Looking ahead pardon. So this question doesn't it can come off as a bit of a bummer. It doesn't, necessarily have to be that way, but I'll let's put it this way.

So what would you say is the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year? That could absolutely be something you're very much looking forward to. And, you know, there's just some challenges, you know, that'll come along with it. So, you know, what would you say is the hardest thing you have to do?

Speaker 2: That's that's a tough one. Let's say hardest thing I have to do in this coming year, I'd say is to keep, momentum, going forward with respect to how folks believe this work is being integrated into the system of healthcare at Children's, and then also to what's their role. I think a lot of people get discouraged sometimes by what laws or policy tells you you can't do, or not supposed to do the same way as before, as opposed to looking at it as an opportunity to say, Okay, how can we be creative, innovative, and strategic about how we do it work differently? We may not call it the same thing. We may not look at it the same way, but we're gonna do it so it provides the same or not healthier quality outcomes for our patients and families.

So I think the hardest thing to do is convince people that in spite of headwinds, we can send you the motivation to do the work and then also too in spite of necessarily what may may be at times policies that seem limiting, how we can look at that as, creation of innovative strategies in order to get the work done, as well. I think the other hard thing will be the external environment has a lot of moving parts to it. The external environment has a lot of things related to things that we can't control in community that are preventing people from even coming to us from health care, so for health care. So one of the things we're gonna have to do is how do we deliver that? I mean, virtual care is always an option, and it's something that we learn how to do during the pandemic or enhance in the pandemic.

But there may be other ways in which we can convince people to come to us even though the environment or the culture or the neighborhoods they're in are not as safe as they want them to be right now. So I think that's the other thing we're working on, especially right now and 2026.

Speaker 1: Excellent. Thank you for laying all that out, James, especially, your approach, your your attitude towards saying, hey. Let's use this opportunity to be creative. I think leadership, effective leadership, especially, has that trait in common. And, obviously, you and Children's Minnesota share that.

Lastly, James, I wanna look toward the future again, and that simply is, where do you see the best opportunities for organizational growth with Children's Minnesota? And particularly, certainly, as it is related to to your job, but if if there are aspects of, say, mental health and telehealth, if there's crossover there, you know, we can do that. Tell you what, James. Let let me pause that. See, this is the the great part where we're not live, where I can say, you know what?

Because this might go on a little bit before we get to the substance of of the podcast. So, when when you consider that question related to your, role, When when Jones of Minnesota is grow growing with respect to equity inclusion, how what what do you think of that?

Speaker 2: Okay. As we grow with respect to equity inclusion, I think one of the things that I'm looking forward to is, succession planning and what the work looks like in the future. So, I'm I'm older than the average youngster, but I'm not as old as retirement yet, Chris. So I do plan to retire the next, say, seven to ten years. So one of the things that excites me about growth is how do we grow the work to plan for the next better improved two point o version of the work that I do for that next leader, and what does that look like?

Meaning, are we giving them the opportunity to learn all the aspects of our healthcare system and then how we embed equity into that? So one of the growth things I see is we have an equitable care committee as part of our, Eclipse rollout for Epic. How does that equitable care committee build into patient experience, community experience, employee experience, and make sure that we provide equitable strategies around that going forward and grow in that area. So it's not one person or one division's work, but it's the work of the entire community, and we're serving as coaches around that. Another aspect I see in growth, would be our community relations or our community partnerships.

Right now we have partnerships with about eight to 10 different groups, but obviously community is much more than eight to 10 groups. Like how do we grow that, substantially, but also, too, expanding capacity to reach more communities, to reach into our rural communities as well that we serve and are proud of as well, and to reach into our region. We are the largest in Minnesota, but we're also too our our footprint is, the Greater Midwest, so the Upper Midwest. So how do we continue to grow community? So when I talk to you about community, I'm not talking about just Minnesota.

I'm talking about Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, those kind of things as well. Nebraska, the Lower Midwest, but, we still count them too. So I think that growth would be important there as well. And then the last aspect on government relations that are under my purview, how do we make sure that policy makers consider the health needs of kids and families, not as a, a separate and apart thing from the adult system, but how does that integrate into the work of moms and families? How does that integrate into work of making sure that healthy kids lead healthier lives, being part of the healthy communities, which expands the work of what we call, and you're familiar with this, the social determinants of health.

How do we look at housing and how do we look at education? How do we look at economic development as part of the work we do, and expand partnerships around that. So when we say we're going to have healthier children, I can't say we're going to have a healthy child go back to a neighborhood that's unsafe, doesn't have proper running water, doesn't have proper housing, and then the child is gonna have great health care needs. So how do we expand and grow in that area for partnerships in order to address those needs as well? So I think those are the ways I see us growing, over the next several years.

At

Speaker 1: the risk of understanding it, James, lots of important and crucial work to be done on on behalf of Children's Minnesota. So, best of luck to you and your leadership team and really everyone at your organization in in working on everything that you have ahead. James, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. We very much appreciate it. We very much look forward to, sharing your insights with our audience.

And, obviously, we certainly look forward to seeing you at our conferences, and I look forward to next time our crowd our paths cross, I should say.

Speaker 2: Thanks, Chris. I appreciate you, and I appreciate Becker's for providing that forum, by which I can express some of the things that we're doing. And also too, I'll say this. I will be remiss if I didn't thank Becker's for allowing the interaction you get with other leaders from around the country and around the world to share that knowledge and basically come up with innovative solutions. It's been a great conference to attend over the years, and I look forward to attending many more.

Speaker 1: One of our primary goals for sure, James. Thank you for saying that. Alright. Well, that will wrap up this podcast. Thank you, everyone, and we look forward to hearing from you next time.