This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by a
terrific leader.
We're joined by Sean Wally,
and Sean has had this tremendous career.
He he currently serves as the president and
chief executive officer of the Saint Mary's Healthcare
System for Children. He's been at Saint Mary's
for about ten years.
He also, early in his career, spent a
lot of time in sort of the philanthropic
world, the fundraising world, and so forth. We're
gonna talk to Sean today about Saint Mary's,
about his career, trends he's watching, and a
lot more. Sean, thank you for joining us.
Can you take a moment to introduce yourself
and tell us about Saint Mary's?
Got it. Thank you so much. And, really,
thank you so much for having me on
your outstanding program.
So I'm Sean Lally, as you said. I'm
the president and CEO here at Saint Mary's
Healthcare System for Children. Saint Mary's is a
very special place within the health the health
care landscape in New York. We were founded
in 1870.
It's what we believe was New York's first
pediatric hospital with a mission to improve the
health and quality of life for children, young
adults, and families with medical complexity.
And while our modalities of care have evolved
significantly over a hundred and fifty five years,
our DNA has remained the same. This is
the place where children and families who need
help the most come to get it. And
we execute that mission in a number of
different ways. So we're unique in that we
have a continuum of care, which begins in
a beautiful facility, the only freestanding
facility in New York dedicated to long term
pediatric medical medically complex care,
which has a 124
beds.
And we execute on that mission through a
certified home health care agency that serves about
1,500 children across the region. In addition to
care coordination services,
medical day care,
and a variety of dynamic and innovative outpatient
rehab programs,
and really anything we can think of and
execute on that's gonna improve the health and
quality of life for these special kids and
their families.
Simply amazing. And and and talk to us
about your career journey
into health care and then into leadership and
then pediatrics specifically. Can you tell us a
bit about sort of your journey and and
how you ended up where you're at? And
congratulations on on what you're doing. It's remarkable.
Yeah. No. I really appreciate that, Scott. So,
my career has taken a number of interesting
turns.
I graduated
college,
with a degree in philosophy and very little
concept of what to do with myself.
And I was fortunate to go to work
for Memorial Sloan Kettering
and enter a leadership training program there,
which began with patient relations and eventually grew
to a career in philanthropy.
And along the way, I became an attorney
and got admitted to the New York State
Bar, but I was really fascinated by the
intersection of the public and private sectors
and how people take energy, vision,
and resources to really affect change, in a
significant societal way.
And along the journey, I had children, and
my children were born prematurely,
which really forced a lot of soul searching
for me.
And, eventually, I got recruited to come work
at Saint Mary's.
And it's ironic because I grew up in
Queens, not too far from the facility, but
I've never heard of this place. And the
minute I walked through the door, I was
so overwhelmed
by how unique
the environment here was and how committed the
staff were and how warm and welcoming
every single unit and every single application of
care was here.
And it was over a decade ago, and
every day has been the best day of
my career that I've been here. So I
feel incredibly fortunate
to now be at the helm,
serving as president and CEO.
That's an amazing journey and I and I
love that. I think most people would would
love to be in that spot where they
just love where they work, they love what
they do.
Take two minutes on advice you would give
to, emerging leaders,
emerging career people,
on finding that right spot, on on on
finding the right position, the right situation
where one could thrive and help an organization
thrive.
So it's a really great question.
I would advise people in a couple of
different ways.
One, it really is about finding the right
people to work with, and I've been so
fortunate at every step in my career to
have great mentors and great partners.
And when I came to Saint Mary's, that
leveled up between the board here, the my
predecessor CEO, and the senior management team, and
really the entire staff,
which leads to my next point, which is
commit early to being a lifelong learner
and be humble to accept education and knowledge
from wherever it's gonna come, be it book
learning or every single person you encounter.
And the environment at Saint Mary's is so
open to that
where, you know, I found from the day
I walked in the door, people were just
so giving when it came to information and
knowledge
that I was able to grow just every
day I came to work. And that's part
of the reason I keep coming back is
because I learned from my colleagues every single
day I come here.
So it's an amazing
story. Talk about pediatric state.
What are some of the trends you're watching
currently? What's top of mind in in what
you're seeing in pediatrics?
Yeah. So the number one issue we're thinking
about now is the existential crisis posed by
potential cuts in Medicaid.
And in the medically complex space,
so much reimbursement is driven through Medicaid and
managed Medicaid
that the seismic changes that are happening on
the federal level and the trickle down effects
they'll have at the state level
really
require deep reflection in terms of what will
impose to this population and the way we
provide care.
So we're working deeply with parents, with legislators,
with policymakers,
with the governor
to figure out how to ensure that these
kids are protected no matter what policy changes
come into effect.
The other is the emergence of technology. So,
you know, as your audience knows, pediatrics is
usually an afterthought when it comes to dynamic
innovation.
But we're finding,
particularly at the staff level, that there are
ways to accelerate growth continually using technology and
data
that are really transforming the way that we
conceive care delivery for our special population.
Good. Good. Thank you. And what kind of
technology are you most excited about? Do you
see having the most impact?
So,
it comes quickly and in different ways every
day. I think just to give you a
couple of highlights, the one that we're driving
towards is the integration of predictive analytics using
AI with early warning systems. And for a
medically complex population,
technology like that has the potential to radically
transform the way we conceive of what care
delivery looks like. So for children who are
in our facility,
it would mean avoidance of terrible outcomes
and really creating care plans that are responsive
more and more to each individual child care
journey, but also would unlock extraordinary potential for
children to be cared for in the home.
And embedded in our mission is the firm
belief that every child deserves the best care
possible for that child, and no two children
are the same. And the belief that there
are more children who could be cared for
at home using different technologies and modalities of
care. And so when you take devices like
that, when you take technology like that, when
you take innovation like that and you wet
it, the parents who are just desperate for
help,
the outcome the potential there is just extraordinary.
That that is fantastic. And you've got parents
that are very excited to get that help
and very anxious to get that help. So
I I I and it really is
a partnership between the system and the parents
and the children
to get the best care available, isn't it?
I mean, we have seen parents are our
greatest resource. They're our greatest ally.
We find that parents have such a unique
understanding of what their child needs.
We find that, as we mentioned, when we're
confronting seismic policy change, parents are our greatest
advocates
with their passion and their insight. And so,
really,
you know, we say we're patient family centered,
but it's more than that. We are hand
in hand with parents every day in their
health care journey.
I I could not agree with that more.
You know, you have this situation where sometimes
parents get in the spot where they feel
like the physician is either talking with them
or down to them, and it makes a
huge difference in how the care is delivered
and the ultimate outcome for the patient and
the child. When you get in that right
partnership relationship between the parents and the physicians,
the nurses, the leadership,
we're also much better off.
Sean, let me ask you one more question.
And and we, quite frankly, would love the
continuity of the story of of Saint Mary's
whenever you'd like to be on the podcast.
So we're we are so thankful for you
joining us today.
Tell us what you're most focused on and
excited about as we get to the end
of this year and the start of 02/1926.
Where are you most focused and excited? Then
I'll ask you, you're in Queens. Do you
ever get to go to the US Open?
Because that's in Queens, I believe, too. But
but but first, what are you most focused
on and excited about currently?
Yeah.
Oh gosh. Scott, I am excited about so
many things. I I think, I'm still relatively
new as president and CEO just three months
in,
but, really, it's engaging with staff.
I think the workforce that we have at
Saint Mary's is truly unique in health care.
We like to say it's a place where
big hearts help little patients.
And what I find with all of our
staff is the depth of compassion that they
have
combined with an innovative spirit is something that's
gonna drive us to just really, incredible heights
when it comes to evolving our care delivery
model.
And so that that's my number one thing,
I think, as we go to the rest
of the year is really just continuing to
engage with staff and figuring out how to
partner to really drive innovation and care.
We are in Queens. Unfortunately, most of us
are meds fans. I hope you edit that
out. We're we're you can see Citi Field
from one of our patient rooms.
So we don't get to the open much,
but we did have an adaptive tennis program
come in with then they're gonna come back
next year so that some of our kids
who are in wheelchairs were able to simulate
the US Open, which is really cool.
That's fantastic. And it's okay to be a
Mets fan. I'm a Chicago sports fan. I
feel your pain. I understand.
The the the Cubs' greatest falling apart ever
was in 1969
when the amazing Mets took over and took
them out. So we we have some sort
of love for the Mets as well. So
it is what it is, and we're long
suffering Chicago sports fans. So we We're united
in Missouri then, Scott. Yeah. Yeah. We we
really are. Sean, what a great pleasure to
to visit with you. Amazing the work that
Saint Mary's Hospital for Children is doing. Thank
Thank you so much for joining us, and
and and thank you, Sophie, for allowing us
to visit with Sean. Thank you very, very
much. Thank you. Yeah. And, Scott, thanks for
all you do. Keep up the great work.