This is Chris Sosa with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined by Matt
Cook, president and CEO of the Children's Hospital
Association.
Matt, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for having me, Chris. I'm, excited to
be here with you.
Wonderful. For our listeners who are not familiar
with you and and or your background, could
you please introduce yourself and tell us a
bit about it?
Sure. Absolutely. So
I have,
been working in the health care industry for
about twenty five years.
A good part of my career, I started
out in management consulting
and worked for exclusively in health care and
worked for a number of hospitals
across the country, including a number of children's
hospitals.
And,
about the midpoint of my career, 1 of
my clients was the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
And they were in the process of creating
a chief strategy officer role and asked if
I would,
consider it. And I thought at the time,
wow.
I can,
step off the road and really kind of
focus on children's health with 1 client. And
I was like, how great is that?
And,
and so I was there for a number
of years and then was recruited out to
Indiana
to be the president of Riley Children's Health,
which is part of the IU Health System,
and then was recruited out to the Bay
Area where I ran the 2 children's hospitals
for UCSF, the 1 in San Francisco,
and the 1 in Oakland.
And at that time, I was also on
the board of of CHA and was a
member of the public policy committee.
And when my predecessor,
Mark,
decided
to, retire from CHA,
the board asked me to take his place,
and
I felt honored and privileged to have been
asked to take this role in,
just about,
just over a year in now.
Matt, having worked all across the country,
are there certain
threads that you've learned or picked up as
far as the children's hospital
administration is concerned or any aspects that you
think have stood out in your in your
work travels, let's say?
Yeah. That's a really good question, Chris. You
you know, 1 thing I've noticed
working,
across the country is that health care truly
is
local.
And the children's hospital,
almost always by definition,
is a safety net hospital.
And they take care of all the children
in the community,
so regardless of their ability to pay.
And often
kids travel, you know, significant distances to receive
care from a children's hospital.
And so that mission component of what they
do
is a common thread
throughout all children's hospitals.
But the role they play in the community
and the connection to the community,
can differ from sort of 1 market to
the next. And so
it's it's so, it's fascinating, and it's so
critically important when you're a hospital leader to
really understand
the community
that you're you're serving and and what their
priorities are and what their what their real
needs are.
Thank you for expounding upon that, Matt. And
speaking of priorities, what are your top priorities
today in the role that you're in right
now?
So our our priorities are to continue telling
the
the story of the good work that children's
hospitals do.
You know, I think it's easy to take
for granted
the fact that there's a children's hospital in
in the community
and not really understand
what it is they do. And so children's
hospitals take care of
of,
kids that are well,
but they, more importantly, take care of kids
that are really sick and have chronic complex
conditions.
And beyond that, they're also,
hubs for innovation and research.
There's a lot of,
breakthrough treatments that have been
pioneered at children's hospitals.
In fact, when we think of cancer care
today,
and we we think about CAR T therapy,
which is really the
the cutting edge way to to treat cancer,
I was working at the Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia when we treated the very first patient,
a young a young woman
for relapse leukemia.
And and so that's
the important role that children's hospitals play. And
so our priorities are to continue to message
that
and to message that with
the public at large as well as with,
the administration in Washington and Congress.
Given all that you've just laid out, Matt,
how do you anticipate your role is going
to change and as well as the the
role of your team? How is that all
gonna evolve in the next eighteen months or
so?
Yeah.
That's a great question, Chris. You know, I
think as you know, we have a new
administration,
entering
DC,
and,
many new members of Congress.
And what's interesting about,
the makeup of this Congress
is the amount of turnover that's occurred.
And so,
we had a fair number of retirements in
this, in this past election cycle,
and it's really not the sheer number that
turned over.
But what is important is the number of
members of Congress that turned over
who were experienced in health care policy,
that's significant. We lost a lot of,
of knowledge in this past election through retirements.
And so we're going to have to do
a lot of education,
over the next couple of years with the
new members of Congress,
as well as with the new members of
the administration.
And so we're gonna focus on topics like
the workforce.
We've we have a perennial issue
with the workforce and children's hospitals,
and that includes not just physicians
in in many specialties, but also
other types of caregivers like respiratory therapists,
like radiology
technicians,
lab technicians.
So we need to be talking about the
workforce and how we can continue to invest
in and support it.
We need to continue to talk about the
Medicaid program.
Medicaid is the single largest pair of children's
health care in this country.
It usually covers
fifty five to sixty percent of the patients
walking through the doors of a children's hospital.
And so how we how we continue to
support that program so that it is sustainable,
over the long term is incredibly important.
And then, of course, we still have the
issues with the, youth mental health crisis.
And so we're gonna continue to talk to
congress administration about those things that we can
do,
to,
continue to mitigate that crisis and to really
focus on the well-being of children.
Certainly a long list of priorities that you
have there, Matt, but, obviously, everyone is
very much important.
Switching gears slightly
here on the interview, I simply wanna ask
you it's a 2 part question. So what
makes you nervous right now? I understand it
could be a long list, and that's okay.
And,
just as importantly, though, what aspect or aspects
of health care are exciting you right now?
So that's a,
that's a good question that there's a lot
in there. So what makes me nervous? I
I don't know if it makes me nervous,
but it just it it,
you know, it spurs a lot of energy
in me, the fact that we do have
this new administration
and
a very different,
makeup in congress.
And so
I just know that we're gonna have to
do a lot of work educating
about the policies that impact children's hospitals,
how children's hospitals are different, that children are
not little adults,
that we have
unique needs from a regulatory
framework and and from a,
reimbursement framework for for kids' hospitals. And so
it it makes me a little bit nervous
that we have to do as much education
as we do.
But at the same time, that's an opportunity.
It's an opportunity to really level set
and to
really advance
our priorities.
So I kinda look at it both ways.
Like, it makes me nervous,
but it's an opportunity.
And,
and so that's that.
And then I think to the second part
of your question, which is,
you know,
what's coming down the road.
You know, we've really made some significant advances
in in children's health care on the research
and innovation side.
And I really feel like we're,
making great progress in treating,
conditions and diseases that,
you know, not that long ago were,
unfortunately,
not treatable
and really resulted in in death.
And so we've made such significant progress that
I really feel like the next few years,
we're gonna
see even more progress made.
And that just means we're going to be
able to give parents,
good news and hope,
and,
you know, invest,
investing in children is really,
the most
significant thing we can do for this country.
And so I'm just really excited about where
we stand in terms of, clinical advancements.
The hope you hit on there, Matt, is
certainly very important. I mean, obviously, it's it's
heartwarming anytime you can go to a parent
or a family and say, you know, we
have good news for you. Well, Matt, we
thank you so much for being so generous
with all of your time and your insights
today. We cannot wait to share them with
the audience in the near future, and we
look forward to connecting with you soon.
Thanks, Chris. Really appreciate it. Have a great
day.