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events page. See you in Chicago.
This is Chris Sosa with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined by Peter Baker,
senior vice president and administrator of Loma Linda
University Children's Hospital. Peter, thank you for joining
us today.
Thank you, Chris. Pleasure to be here.
Excellent. Could you please introduce yourself for
our listeners who do not know who you
are and tell us a bit about your
background? Yeah. I'd be happy to. Well, yeah,
I serve as the administrator and and and
and chief executive for the children's hospital here
at Loma Linda. We're about a 365
bed children's hospital located in Southern California,
serving about
a 5th of the land mass
of California.
And,
a little bit about myself,
I am am an attorney, by background,
and thought I wanted to go to into
law. But, you know, as I,
developed my own
pathway,
realized, you know, I really had a a
a a desire to get into business,
and actually found a lot of enjoyment and
satisfaction
in in building relationships and collaborations and really
finding ways to kind of engage communities.
And from that, I actually ventured into into
health care from that out of a random
interaction, with a health care executive.
And,
I've been on that path, for the last,
15, 20 years,
serving in various roles, mostly in business development.
Actually, it's where I I as I mentioned,
I I have a joy in in finding
ways to collaborate
and and build new services for for various
communities,
and and and collaborating with physicians and did
that for
a large portion of my career and then
got into running hospitals, ran a, a,
adult hospital,
at Loma Linda University Medical Center Marietta,
for about 6, 7 years. And then,
during that period, I got married,
and my wife is a pediatric
oncology nurse.
And, I was working at Loma Linda Children's.
And when the role came up, they said,
hey, Peter. You've got some family that's here,
and I think you do a great job
serving and end up being a great collaboration.
So I've been fortunate to to leave the
Children's Hospital here for the last 3 years,
and grateful for the opportunity to serve.
Peter, thank you so much for elaborating on
that. I am interested a little more in
this random interaction you have with a health
care
provider or person in the industry. Could you
describe a little bit more about that? Yeah.
I I, at the time, I was at
a wedding, and,
there was a CEO for,
Adventist Health, who I ended up meeting and
and talking with. And and
Adventist Health is a is kind of a
sister organization of Loma Linda.
And they introduced me to to to hospital
administration and,
thought I might be a good candidate,
to be part of their organization. Not something
that I thought about, and had a great
conversation about, you know, all the things that
go into health care, and really realized, you
know, that was that aligned with with who
I am as a as an individual and,
ended up being a better career path. And
they reached out a couple weeks later and
kinda got me plugged in, and the rest
is kinda history from there.
Wonderful. It sounds like you're very happy that
you landed at Loma Linda for sure. And
so in that context, what do you think
are your priorities for
not only yourself, but Loma Linda University Children's
in general?
Yeah. That's a great question,
Chris.
You know, for me, a big priority is
just access to pediatric services.
You know, there's some changes going on in
our industry,
particularly as it relates to pediatrics and OB,
services and maternity services at at,
in in health care.
In particular, our region, there's a lot of
community hospitals that are closing their pediatric services
and OB services. I heard of another one
just this week that is in our region
that's closing their
OB services. So for me,
you know, there's a there's a huge focus
on
giving the capacity
for pediatrics,
for have making sure we have enough OB
OB and pediatric beds to meet the demand
in our region,
as as more community hospitals,
focus more on on adult care services.
So that's one of the key priorities,
and really improving throughput and
responsiveness to community hospitals so that, you know,
they can, the the patients they need to
come to our hospital, we we are getting
them here very quickly. The second priority for
me,
is really kind of expanding new service lines.
Behavioral health and mental health,
is really a focus as well. More and
more
children,
especially through the COVID and the and the
pandemic,
recognize challenges as it relates to mental health.
They're really
exponentially
increased,
need for
inpatient and outpatient services
for these kids.
And especially in our market, you know, we
just see that as the fastest growing
inpatient need in our region. And it's really
sad. You know?
It's really sad to see that. Unfortunately, more
and more kids are being affected
by this.
But so we feel a huge desire to
expand it. We're building a new, what we
call a crisis stabilization
unit,
which is really to support
kids who come to our emergency and really
just need short term, you know, medications
or or just a quick
treatment versus an inpatient stay.
And so we're building that out as well
as we're building a new 49 bed
inpatient
behavioral health unit as well. So
those are some of the things we're doing
as well as just expanding our peds, services
to
accommodate, you know, some of the closures and
other things that's going on in our in
our region.
Peter, as you and your team ponder all
those priorities that you just laid out, how
how do you see the next 18 months
or so playing out in terms of meeting
the needs of the community and your own
organization?
Yeah. I know. That's a good that's a
that's a great question.
You know, one of the things we are
really focused on the 8 next 18 months
is is really access to to care in
the outpatient setting.
And so we're also gonna be growing that.
I'm I'm focusing on building a new specialty
care medical office building, about a 5 story
building where we're kind of consolidating all of
our specialty services is in in one place,
as well as finding ways to kinda reach
out all these different communities with pediatric
services.
Pediatric urgent cares,
outpatient clinics
is really gonna be something we're hoping to
open up more services in the next 18
months or so. So that's that's one.
I think we're also trying to find more
creative ways to work with our payers.
You know, in California,
payer dynamics
continue to change.
It's going from a fee for service
world to more of an HMO
world. And so,
finding ways to to align incentives and and
and support
that capitated model is is a key focus
of ours as well.
And then maybe the last thing is just
really a strong focus on advocacy.
You know, kind of the sad part of
pediatric,
is is just the lack of
physicians that are going into
pediatric subspecialists.
You know, across the nation,
only about 50%
of pediatric subspecialty
slots are being filled.
Unfortunately,
you know, physicians are choosing other
areas to go into,
for their training than pediatrics
and pediatric subspecialty services.
You know, a big aspect of that is
is reimbursement for physicians. And so really working
with, you know, our our states and federal
government on how do we make,
you
know, care, whether you're a pediatrician
or an adult practicing physician, equal.
And unfortunately, we're starting to see the the
fruits of,
unfortunately, lower reimbursement for
for, pediatricians,
playing out as just we just have less
providers.
And so we're hoping to see if we
can advocate stronger for that, tell the story
of, you know, the the huge need we
have in pediatrics
and why,
are we need to invest in that. So
that's that's a big focus of mine,
and our and our teams as well.
Peter, thank you for expounding on all that.
I'm glad you mentioned some of the challenges
that you're facing in pediatrics right now with
respect to the subspecialists and not being enough
of them. Is there anything else in the
industry that's making you nervous right now?
Yeah. I,
I think just broadly
advocating for
pediatric
services and and care. In in California in
particular,
you know, we've historically had challenges,
with pediatric reimbursement.
It's been stagnated for the last
12 or 13 years.
You know, a lot of what we do
in pediatrics, unfortunately with the high inflation,
you know, continue to advocate for that. And
and unfortunately that stagnation,
as I mentioned, has caused a lot of
hospitals to close their OB and,
and pediatric services. And so, you know, just
really advocacy
around not only just the physician but the
the hospital wide
services,
for for for increased reimbursement that keeps up
with inflation is is a huge, huge focus
of ours and and and ensuring that will
allow
us to just continue to broaden
services throughout the region,
in pediatrics. So that's a big one.
And I think
I touched on it. Obviously, we're opening behavioral
health, but behavioral health for kids
is another area where we see a lot
of hospitals,
health care providers,
cutting services. You know,
unfortunately, the pandemic has really challenged hospitals.
And, you know, oftentimes,
you know, as we've mentioned, behavioral health is
one of those where you look at, you
know, what's essential and sometimes that isn't as
essential as some of the
other services you're providing. And
just making sure we have a strong
sustainable model,
for behavioral health because there's there's more and
more kids who are,
recognizing
their need for
for for treatment therapy,
and there's just not enough providers to go
around.
You know, when you try to get if
a child needs a psychiatrist, you try to
they come to our emergency department, you know,
oftentimes trying to to get them appointment,
you know, can be a 2 month or
longer
challenge. And that's just not acceptable.
You know, we got a child who's in
in a bit of an emergency. And so,
you know, ensuring we have,
you know, psychiatrists, therapists, psychologists
that and and individuals who wanna go into
that and and the ability to,
is really a critical
need we have, and and and advocating for
that is is a priority for for me.
And and hopefully, that results in less hospitalizations
in the end. You know? I think our
hope
is building out that outpatient means we get
we get less,
who end up coming to our ED because
there's nowhere else to turn.
So that's a that's another concerning area we
focus on.
On the other side of that coin, Peter,
what right now is making you excited that
to just to come to work every day
saying, yeah, we get to challenge
ourselves in meeting this goal, and we're going
to do it.
I, you know, I love working for a
children's hospital. You know, I think, for me,
you know,
it's a joy to come.
You know, it's for me, working in a
children's hospital,
the passion,
of the
of the clinicians,
the physicians, the nurses, the the clinical
the the clinical leaders here all just have
just a a a much higher level of
engagement and energy,
I find, than some of the other
opportunities I've had to work. And that just
brings joy to me when you're all focused
around really,
lifting up children, giving them the best environment
to get well,
and and seeing them progress. And so I
love coming in work to work. I love
working with the people I get to work
with. You know, I'm excited about the future.
Despite some of the challenges we've got, we
are growing significantly here at Loma Linda. You
know, we're bringing a lot more services to
this region, this community.
So I'm I I get really excited about
our expansion projects and our ability to
serve more, in our region.
And maybe the third thing I'm I I'm
incredibly,
impressed and excited about is new,
therapies that are being offered as particularly gene
therapies,
you know, illnesses.
One of which that affects our community significantly
is sickle cell and these,
you know,
poor children, you know, have this blood disorder
that unfortunately is debilitating.
And there's new gene therapies that are just
hitting the market market that essentially,
allows
the
child to have, you know, infusions
that essentially,
change their blood DNA and sickle cell to
treat it and cure it. And so that
new therapy, while quite expensive, is coming on
the market. And these
individuals and these these children and these, that
have been affected by it, are gonna how
a lot of them are gonna be cured.
So it's exciting to see that. We have
the same thing with leukemia.
Some of these gene therapies, in our in
our situation, we started offering one that's called
CAR T therapy where children with leukemia,
you know, get their blood drawn.
It goes back to a lab,
and it gets reengineered
to have the the,
blood cells go and target,
the leukemia
blood cells,
and destroy them so that the child is
is cured. And then get and then that
blood gets reinfused in them, and they're cured.
And so these gene therapies are a game
changer. You know, I dream of the day
we may have we we would be able
to close our our pediatric cancer unit, but
it's really exciting and inspiring to see this
and to see these these ailments that have
affected children,
have the potential to be going away. So
those are some of the things that really
excite me.
Certainly, everyone will welcome a day when all
the children's cancer centers could be closed, and,
hopefully, that day is closer than we think.
I mean, I'm glad you mentioned the therapies.
I was just talking to Dan Fields over
at CHOP, and he mentioned those as well.
It's just really exciting
what physicians and scientists were able to do
on that front.
Yeah. It's it's incredible. I mean, it's really
incredible. I mean, it's an exciting time,
to be able to be a part of
this. You know?
So,
yeah, it's it's it's gonna make a big
difference on in in kids.
So we're we're thrilled.
Lastly, Peter, is there anything else regarding pediatrics
that you would like to see a brighter
spotlight on?
Yeah.
I think just continuing
to advocate. You know? I think I've talked
touched on this. You know? But
really just,
keeping forefront, you know, concerns around,
you know, just reduction of of these services
in in in the communities. And I I
think I've talked a little about it, but
it it it's certainly something that keeps me
concerned
at night is, you know, making sure our
kids have access to care.
And
hopefully as we kind of go through this,
I'm I'm seeing some movement in California where,
you know, it sounds like they're looking to
to move some of their reimbursement to that
has historically been underfunded
towards
centers that have OB services and maternity services,
as well as pediatrics
to offer more funding so that we can
have access more access to care.
So I think that just continues to be
a a big focus of ours and and
advocacy. So
Peter, thank you for being so generous with
your time and insights today. We absolutely cannot
wait to share them with our audience, and
we look forward to connecting with you again
soon.
Hey. Thanks, Chris. Great to be here.