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This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be joined by Aaron

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Hajjart, chief operating officer at Community Medical Center

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and RWJBarnabas

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Health Facility. Aaron, it's a pleasure to have

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you on the podcast today. Yeah. Thanks for

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having me. Now I'm excited for our conversation

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because I know we've connected in the past

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and, you know, it's always really interesting to

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hear how what you're doing and how you're

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thinking about things, as well as where we're

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headed in the future. But before we dive

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in, I'm wondering, can you tell us a

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little bit more about Community Medical Center and

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what makes it unique?

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Sure. So, Community Medical Center is a 592,

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bed acute care hospital. We're in Toms River,

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New Jersey.

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We, started our journey into,

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teaching,

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about,

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3, 4 years ago. So we've

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morphed into,

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a very large robust teaching hospital.

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We're part of a large system, RWABarnabas

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Health, which is has 17 hospitals across,

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some adult children's and behavioral health platforms and

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is the largest,

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academic health care sent system in the state

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of New Jersey and affiliated with with our

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friends at Rutgers University, which has been a

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great partnership. And here in in Toms River,

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we've been able to really leverage that relationship

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with Rutgers over the last few years and

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are, you know, very excited to bring, teaching,

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medicine out to,

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Ocean County.

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Well, it's great to hear. You know? And,

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certainly, it seems like it would bring a

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lot of advantages, but what does it take

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to really transform into that type of,

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teaching facility where you're not just providing care

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for the community, which is so important, but

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also training,

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new clinicians

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and really taking on that more of a

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academic role?

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Well, for sure, it takes a lot of

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planning. So,

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you know, I've been

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in health care in academic health care my

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entire career. So, you know, moving into a

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role where it's new, to the hospital has

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been a interesting experience. But I can tell

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you,

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you know, with our partners at Rutgers, we

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did a lot of planning to make sure

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that we've covered our bases and have identified

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the right programs.

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And I think a lot of that is

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both around community needs. So,

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you know, our our programs in internal medicine

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and general surgery really,

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besides being the basis of GME, we're really

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focused at, you know, 2 areas where we

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had community needs. And we've been very fortunate

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to recruit and retain some of the internal

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medicine graduates, which our first graduating

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class was this past summer, and we're able

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to keep some people here.

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And and then, you know, as we've started

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to,

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you know, get into,

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you know, the the kind of final phase

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of our GME growth, we've identified

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some other programs.

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1, pulmonology critical care where we had a

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lot of community needs to

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bring new physicians into,

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our our community, and we're able to,

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you know, get that program up running. We'll

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take our 1st class,

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in in July and are excited because one

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of our graduates is from our program, and

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the other one is a

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IIM graduate who is from the local area.

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So I think we have 2

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outstanding,

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young physicians who hopefully in 3 years will

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be able to

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set up shop in in the Ocean County

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and treat our community. And that's really been

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the focus of of our program develop and

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is making sure that we are able to

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recruit retain those

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those graduates and, you know, use those dollars

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we in time we invested in them to,

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help

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bolster the physician community in Ocean County.

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Oh, that's great to hear. And, you know,

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definitely a lot to be excited about. Now

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I'm wondering, you know, beyond, some of this

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continued growth and evolution of the, teaching hospital

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g and e and more, what are some

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of your other big organizational goals for 2025?

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Yeah. So, yeah, we've really been focused in

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the last year and and will in 2025

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as well on improving our access, both from

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an emergency room standpoint, but also ambulatory care

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centers.

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Our system is really focused on ambulatory densification,

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which I think will help put the providers

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where the patients need them. And and, so

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we just opened up our, ambulatory care center

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just down the road,

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which includes our, ambulatory surgery center, our a

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large primary care practice, an orthopedic practice, some

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other,

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colocated,

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physician practices, which we're very excited about. And

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so that's something we're really focusing on in

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in 2025, but also,

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you know, bolstering our service lines. We're a

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service line led, health care system. And so

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we've really been partnering with our system leadership

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around our core service lines to,

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you know, provide them the local support and

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leadership that they need to,

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implement their vision around service line coordination. And

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then, also, you know, we as, you know,

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the

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evolving

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tertiary

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center,

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you know, we really need to focus better

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coordination amongst ourselves and our, tertiary and quaternary

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centers where we, you know, they may have

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things that we don't do, you know, particularly

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around cardiac surgery and some few other things.

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So, you know, we are working really closely

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with them on being more tightly aligned and

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making the patient experience

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from one site to another,

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better and and quicker. And then and then

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finally,

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you know, just as our health system is

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focusing on improving our patient experience, you know,

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we're doing that here well as well.

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We had, a lot of improvement in 2024,

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but, are doubling down on some nursing and

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and other,

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care coordination

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opportunities that we've seen, and and, we hope

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to see a pretty successful 2025.

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That's great to hear. And definitely, you know,

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exciting to have so much growth. I know,

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in in particular for some organization, it's been

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a challenging few years and seeing, you know,

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some of the contractions. So to have that

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ability to add service lines, to continue to

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grow, and and, realize more of this, vision

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of being that, revolving tertiary center is just

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really cool to see. Now from your perspective,

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I I know a lot to be excited

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about, but I can imagine also some headwinds

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you have your eye on as well.

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What are you kind of thinking about or

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planning around for the next year?

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Yeah. Yeah. We have headwinds. Right? We we

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all have them, and I think, some of

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them are the same. And and we have

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some of the same that, you know, we

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hear kind of,

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profession wide across health care, which is really

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around recruitment and retention of of nursing and

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technical staff. And I think it really comes

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down to the fact that, you know, when

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many of us were getting into health care,

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health care was a destination profession that we

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all kind of aspire to.

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And that that kind of lasted through COVID,

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and I think there was a little bit

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of a rejuvenation of that, you know, during

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2020 and 2021.

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But really as we've gotten out of and

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further away from from those years, it's, you

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know, really been a challenge.

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We all know we lost a lot of

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people

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to early retirement,

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during COVID, and we've not really been able

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to replace that workforce. We have an aging

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population,

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across the country, but here in Ocean County,

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we definitely have an aging population, particularly

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in our physician and nursing staff. And so

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while,

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you know, we we know this is a

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challenge,

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you know, we've been taking some steps to

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mitigate that, really partnering with some of our,

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nursing schools and and technical programs

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to

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to improve the training experience here at the

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hospital

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to keep those students engaged, to retain them

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upon graduation.

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But also looking at other ways, alternative, you

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know, pathways

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to,

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to education so that we get, you know,

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some people who may be in nonclinical

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or more entry level roles here in the

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hospital

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interested and engaged into

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other training programs and and technical fields. And

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so we have some of that stuff that,

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you know, we're really looking at hard. And

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then,

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know, capital investment has been on everybody's mind.

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Right? We

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even though we're all at capacity, you know,

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there's so many financial pressures that we're all

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under that even if we're, you know, making

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money, it's not, you know, at the same

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rate that we were making 5, 6, 10

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years ago. And so how do we

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reinvest,

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you know, that money into

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ways to continue to deliver first class care?

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You know, many of our facilities are aging

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or, you know, our hospital

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is, you know, we have buildings that are,

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you know, a few decades old. And so,

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you know, we're really looking at how do

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we hit that head on the next, you

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know, year to 2 years.

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And then finally,

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we may not be different. I feel that

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we're different. Everybody says they're different, but, you

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know, we definitely have a changing patient population

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in our region even though we had historically

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been kind of a super senior population with

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a lot of patients over the age of

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80.

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We actually are seeing, you know, the age

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gap

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increase. We're seeing a lot of obviously older

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patients, but we're also seeing some very young

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patients. And so not as much, you know,

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the middle age, you know, twenties, thirties, but

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a lot of, you know,

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increased childbirths, increased teenagers in our market. So,

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you know, really thinking of how do we,

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continue to shift what we're doing here to

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meet the needs of those, you know, kind

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of diversion patient population. So it's been a

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little bit of a challenge, you know, to

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to rethink who we are, but it also

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gives us opportunity to be creative.

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That's fascinating to hear. You know? And and

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really truly,

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that opportunity to

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see what's happening,

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within the marketplace, see what, you know, the

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population changes, and then trying to think ahead

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or plan ahead for that, seems like it

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would be a fun challenge to have.

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When you are are thinking through those type

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of conversations and future planning, I know it's

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always hard because you never know exactly

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what's gonna be thrown at you. But,

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you know, how do you,

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really

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kind of bring those conversations and ideas to

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life today,

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while also, you know, not

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skimping on, I guess, what's needed for the

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patient population right now? Yeah. That's a great

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question. I it's it's

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for sure, we've been fortunate. You know, I've

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only been here at community for a year

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now, but, you know, we were fortunate in

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the fact that the hospital leadership,

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you know, made concerted efforts 2, 3, and

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4 years ago to really build

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programs and recruit physicians and clinical support staff

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that enabled us to meet needs today that

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we, you know, anticipated, you know, years ago.

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So, really, what we're doing today is focusing

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on what do we need to, do to

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enable us to be successful in additional 2

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or 3 years. And so right now, we're

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recruiting,

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providers in areas where we may not have

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the immediate need, but we know based on

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changing demographics that we're gonna have that need

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in the very near future. So it's it

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it does create challenges because people think, well,

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you know, that's not the need

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we we have right now. We have, you

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know, this thing. Well, this thing is gonna

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be very look very different in 5 years.

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And so,

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it it's, it's really about,

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sticking to the plan and maintaining focus on,

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you know, success in 2 3 5 years,

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not in 2 3 months.

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I love that. That's, you know, really, really

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great perspective.

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And, you know, speaking of that type of

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thinking and leadership,

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how are you evolving as a leader, especially

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to meet the needs of what,

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you know, community medical center will have over

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the next few years?

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Yeah. You know, first of all, I'm getting

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more gray hair, but I don't think that's

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because of a leadership role. It's because I'm

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getting older. But I think most importantly, you

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know, I think we have to all recognize,

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and I've really recognized that the different workforce

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generations are you know, they they interact interact

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differently. They have different expectations.

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You know, we were all thinking about millennials

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5, 6 years ago in the workforce. Well,

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those millennials are now

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middle and senior managers and they think and

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act differently than than I do,

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you know, with who are being a few

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years older.

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And then, you know, the most interesting experience

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I've had is with gen z,

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You know, as they're entering the workforce,

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and having, you know, new grads, new college

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grads who are part of that, you know,

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that generation,

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they they definitely,

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think about different things. They have different expectations.

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They care a lot less about money and

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career advancement than I think we did,

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you know, other generations did. And so it's

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made me really have to rethink how to

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connect with them as coworkers

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and how to collaborate.

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But it's been a really interesting experience because

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I think many things that

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that I,

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you know, felt were important,

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you know, having a lot of independence,

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having my voice heard, and those things are

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really super important to them. The difference is

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in my generation. We were a little more

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willing to to wait, right, until we got

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further up there, the totem pole or ladder

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to to have the expectation that people were

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listening to us. But I think today's,

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you know, Gen z generation is definitely looking

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for those that independence and that voice,

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you know, now when they they get into

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the workforce. And so, you know, you gotta

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incorporate that, which has made me, you know,

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I think a better listener. At least my

365
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wife may not say that, but I think

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I I've tried really hard to to become

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a better listener and and spend more time

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coaching and mentoring than, you know, doing the

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more traditional

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direction and, you know, directing people and telling

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them what to do. And,

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I think that's been,

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really fulfilling. It's also made me more patient,

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which,

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you know, everybody I think can probably use

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more patience and having a generation that,

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you know,

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is gonna expect you to be more patient

379
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with them and supportive.

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You know, they really think about things around

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personal time and their mental health and well-being,

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as so much more and key to what

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they're expecting from you as a boss or

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as a leader.

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So it's been a really interesting experience.

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I'm really excited to have a 14 year

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old daughter, and I'm really excited to see

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her grow up because,

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you know, I think this the this, you

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know, generation z is definitely

391
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they may come out of this

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better ahead, you know,

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enjoying retirement a lot more than my generation,

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because, you know, their their entire life is

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focused around,

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how they wanna live, not necessarily

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how we as, you know, culture want them

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to. So it's been a really interesting experience.

399
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And it's fascinating to hear, you know, and

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certainly, just a great perspective on leading the

401
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different generations and understanding how to connect with

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00:14:23,350 --> 00:14:25,034
them at their level and then,

403
00:14:25,434 --> 00:14:27,434
really truly building that culture that makes a

404
00:14:27,434 --> 00:14:27,934
difference,

405
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and gets the best out of whoever,

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00:14:31,115 --> 00:14:32,894
you're working with in coaching and mentoring.

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00:14:33,355 --> 00:14:34,794
Aaron, thank you so much for joining us

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00:14:34,794 --> 00:14:36,475
on the podcast today. This has been a

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really fun and, interesting conversation, and I look

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00:14:38,954 --> 00:14:40,971
forward to connecting with you again soon. Yeah.

411
00:14:40,971 --> 00:14:41,471
Thanks,

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Laura.