Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris
Sosa, your host. And I'm thrilled today to
be joined by doctor Angelie Gallien. She's president
of medical staff of Rady Children's Health of
Orange County and chief physician wellness officer. Angelie,
thank you for joining us today. Hey, Chris.
So happy to be here and happy new
year. What a great way to kick off
the start of 2026.
You can say that again. Angelie, for those
in our audience who may not be familiar
with yourself and or your organization,
can you please tell a bit of this
a bit about both, please?
Perfect.
So
we recently merged with the entire Rady Children's
Health System, but today I'm gonna focus on
Rady Children's Health of Orange County.
We are a greater than 350
bed tertiary quaternary care pediatric
freestanding children's hospital in Orange County, California.
Part of our system is Children's Hospital Admission,
which is a hospital within a hospital system.
Specifically, in terms of my role for the
medical staff, I'm really proud to be the
president of over 1,300
physicians and APPs.
One of the unique things about my role
is that a few years ago, our hospital
really recognized
the importance
of having clinician led physician wellness initiatives.
We love the work of people like the
American Medical Association
who talk about how that can be a
real asset to any organization
to not only recruit, but also retain high
level physicians.
So I am the inaugural chief physician wellness
officer,
really looking at system level change,
thinking about IT infrastructure,
physician led programs,
and how do we make it not only
a great place to get care, but a
great place for physicians to work.
So, Angelie, you said you're,
of course, the
inaugural
chief physician wellness officer.
How did this position
evolve exactly when it comes to your organization?
It's it seems like a long time coming
as it probably the case with other organizations
as well. But how does that relate to
your position?
I love that question, Chris, because it really
allows us a chance to highlight multiple things
about a healthy health care system.
So first, it really happens with partnership with
both the physicians, the employees, and your leadership.
What's going on in the system? What are
evolving trends in health care? And what are
upcoming challenges that we might face? I think
the physician workforce challenge is something that a
lot of health care systems are definitely keeping
an eye on.
But like most things, it developed organically.
We started with a physician wellness committee, started
looking at initiatives,
and then saw that there was an increased
rate of physician burnout.
I really wanna give huge kudos here to
our then CEO, Kim Cripe, who is now
our co CEO with Patrick Frias,
in terms of not only being a great
mentor, but an advocate for what's to come.
She has been a CEO for three decades
in health care, sometimes when there weren't even
women in the boardroom.
To that end, she's really good at looking
forward at what might happen and thinking about
how do we prepare for that future.
She's been a friend, a mentor,
and, again, an advocate for this role. So
when working with her leadership team, our chief
transformation officer, Paul Vandola,
they decided that this would be a really
good role.
And let's be honest, it was a trial.
Let's try it. Let's see how it goes
with someone who's enthusiastic.
But I have to confess to you, Chris,
it is still a challenge for me to
think about work life integration.
I am not the model of physician wellness,
And so this was a great chance to
learn, but also to have empathy for what's
happening in the workforce.
Yeah. And certainly like anyone in your position,
it's not even though the buck the proverbial
buck will stop with you in terms of
the initiatives that are undertaken
by your role in in your or your
office, let's say.
There are the people you're leaning on. Right?
So
it's it's
they're decisions that are not made lightly,
to to put it simply.
So, Angelie,
looking back at 2025,
so what would you say is the most
important initiative that you led?
Specifically, what it takes to launch it and
what were have been the results so far?
Chris, if it's okay,
I'm gonna choose a couple things, but I
also wanna share something that was really amazing
to be a part of.
So in terms of leading a couple initiatives,
one of the things that we did was
think about how are you actually helping physicians
and leaders
think about becoming leaders for wellness centered leadership?
How do you think about leading by example?
It's not something we're typically taught in health
care is to take care of yourself. Really,
this idea of putting on your own oxygen
mask before you're able to care for others.
So our medical group decided to actually think
about
funding
a research study in which we brought in
nationally renowned leaders
to do wellness center leadership for our physicians.
The results were so great in terms of
decreasing burnout and improving resiliency and feeling valued
that we actually, last year, launched the first
cohort with physicians and our executive management team
members.
Having an opportunity where your physicians are working
side by side with your executive leadership
to think about not only self reflection, how
do you become a wellness centered leader, but
then how do you translate that to your
community
was transformational for us.
We saw double digit reduction in burnout for
our physicians
and our executive leaders.
The other thing that was great was that
we practice alignment all the time. At Children's
Hospital, we're very mission driven.
But what was great about this was we
were using the same language to think about
our own burnout resilience and have that insight
together.
There's a lot of data. Those connections you
make at work are some of the most
protective in terms of resilience, burnout.
So when we're facing tough decisions, both financially,
life or death, having those relationships cemented, those
conversations outside the classroom
was absolutely critical and so, so meaningful.
We are now gonna do another cohort we
just kicked off, so super exciting.
The other thing I'm really proud of is
that last year we launched the women physicians
impact network group. There's a large body of
data that show that a lot of women
physicians,
increasingly now in the workforce
are feeling undervalued,
higher rates of burnout, and are leaving the
profession.
We see them as a key asset. And
so one of the things we did was
found a way to bring women physicians together.
Think about how do you improve their leadership,
build their connection, build that community for them
both inside the hospital and out.
We've seen great results.
And every year, we not only participate in
physician engagement, but also the AMA organizational biopsy
where you get to choose the questions.
One of the things that's exciting is, yes,
you get the national benchmarks,
but also we get to see, hey. If
we did an initiative, are we able to
follow that over time?
Both those two things, wellness centered leadership and
the women physicians impact network group have now
showed us sustained change year over year,
and we are really excited about it.
But, Chris, what I really wanted to share
with you today
was that this year, as I mentioned,
as of 01/01/2025,
we did have the formal merger of equals
for Rady Children's Health of San Diego and
Rady Children's Health of Orange County.
It is really unique to be in a
health care system that is doing that model,
a true merger of equals.
Our co CEOs, Kimberly Chavalas Kreipe and Patrick
Frias, have done an absolutely tremendous job.
Many of us learn in business school that
culture will dictate how mergers and acquisitions go,
And to be a part of their tremendous
body of work to make sure the culture,
the atmosphere,
and really this idea that we are better
together
was not just a concept, but something they
are practicing every day. It has been really
amazing.
That's so special, Angelie, that this culture has
been able to
be integrated so at least so far, so
so seamlessly. I know it's only been a
short time, but, it sounds like things are
heading in the right direction there.
I do have a somewhat personal question for
you, though, Angelique. So you mentioned burnout and
how it's been decreased.
From your own perspective,
when you're feeling like and I've asked this
question of other CEOs and and other executives,
so I'm curious as how it relates to
you. When you're having just a tough day
or feeling burned out yourself,
how do you get out of it?
I love that question. I also really appreciate
how personal it is because it's not something
that we typically talk about.
I think it's different for every person.
I like to joke that I'm I'm Indian,
but I don't do yoga.
I do love exercise, but as a busy
mom, physician, and leader,
it's not always something that I can slip
in for thirty minutes at lunch and then,
you know, go read my next issue of
Becker's.
And so one of the things I think
about is what fills your bucket
and making sure that we are
understanding
that the things that fill your bucket can
be different at different times.
So for me, a lot of it is
the connection.
This idea of having the work best friend,
the people that you count on at work,
having someone to share that with is really
critical.
One of the things that we did was
to make sure that we have places for
physicians to connect. Physician dining rooms, physician lounges.
And, really, when you have a difficult situation,
a difficult interaction,
or you just feel like you're not able
to do enough for a family. Being able
to connect with other physicians, people who are
your friends and your colleagues, really powerful.
But there's definitely times. Watching Netflix,
seeing what's on Disney plus, It's all great.
The other thing I think is a more
long term arc about thinking about
how you make time for yourself and prioritizing
it.
In medical school and for many of us,
we were taught keep going, work harder, work
longer hours. And what we're seeing is a
real generational shift
and that people are prioritizing
themselves, their wellness, their health,
in fact, so they can be better at
delivering care.
One of my other roles is as a
board certified sleep medicine doctor, and so I
really prioritize my sleep.
And one of the things that you find
is even from top performing athletes to leaders
to what we do every day. Sleep makes
a huge difference.
So making sure to prioritize sleep, time with
my family, but really also time with my
friends and colleagues who are my work family,
for me is everything.
That's very interesting that you mentioned sleep. I
think you're the first executive who I've asked
that question or some version of it. I
mean, certainly,
related to your expertise, it makes sense. And
I wouldn't say that other executives do not
prioritize sleep, but, you know, it I think
it's good for your peers to hear certainly
that's like, you know what? Sometimes just
taking a nap or getting more sleep in
is is a huge deal.
Angelie, thank you so much for sharing that.
So
now we're gonna look ahead a little bit.
So
answer this question in whatever way you you
find fitting for for Ratey Children's.
So what do you think are the biggest
priorities and headwinds you're focused on for 2026?
That's a big question,
and I think that we're all thinking about
it on both the micro and macro level.
Children's hospitals have historically been really thoughtful about
their financial outlook because we have such a
high number of government payers.
We are all thinking about how people are
going to be able to afford health care
and how we're gonna make sure that we
continue to provide high level health care with
just an evolving financial landscape.
I think we're in a really lucky position
to have had the broader Rady Children's merger
in terms of not only our ability to
think about
clinical care, but also how we think about
making sure we're able to provide care to
an even larger number of kids and families
during these evolving times.
When I think on a more micro level,
we, of course, wanna maintain excellence in clinical
care all the time. One of the greatest
things I love about being part of the
Rady Children's Health System
is this sense of energy. When you walk
onto our campus,
I don't wanna say it feels just like
Disneyland, but it really feels like things are
possible.
We have had such great leaders who have
really been thoughtful about not only our financial
future, but our clinical excellence and made that
a priority.
The doctors, the nurses, we're all excited. We're
excited about how to grow, how to do
things better,
what new fields of medicine we can think
about. With our medical innovation institute, we also
have an MI four internship
where every year
highly competitive candidates come and we bring about
a 100 young students, high schools, college,
about to go to med school. A whole
bunch of kids come. We learn innovation, how
it applies to clinical care, and they're embedded
right with us in the exam rooms, in
the OR.
That perpetuates this sense of energy. People are
excited. We're excited to see what we can
do next, and I really wanna, again, give
credit to Kim Cripe, Patrick Frias
for helping us keep that energy.
For a lot of hospitals, mergers can be
a time of a lot of uncertainty
like trepidation.
Our leaders have done such a good job
of identifying that our greatest strength is really
our people, the patients we care for, and
how we think about the culture of the
entire community.
So I will say again, on the macro
level, it's about making sure we can continue
to provide excellent care to our entire community.
But on the micro level, it's about how
do we keep that energy,
keep people excited
because it is something that is really
unparalleled
when you visit different health care systems.
That is wonderful to hear. And and hopefully,
there are other health systems that hear this
and and are able to learn from that
as well.
Angelie, next question I have for you. It's
it's
a bit of a bummer, let's say, but,
no, maybe not. It doesn't have to be.
But I'll just put this out there. So
what do you think is the hardest thing
you're going to have to do this year?
Interestingly, I think that 2025
highlighted
that we have to be prepared for uncertainty.
The uncertainty can come at the state level.
The uncertainty can come at the federal level.
But as we all learned in 2020,
uncertainty can also come from things that are
geographically
gonna be really significant.
And so
we are in a culture in which
our generations are really used to instant access.
You can have immediate change and that is
a
wonderful thing, but health care doesn't necessarily
evolve at the same pace.
So when we're thinking about what's challenging for
2026,
how do you maintain that excellence in clinical
care, again, keep up that energy,
when you have to be prepared for uncertainty
and that the system may not necessarily
be able to evolve as quickly as we're
used to with advances in the EHR
or even different regulatory
avenues.
Thank you for not showing that for us,
Angelia. I know there's a lot that can
be contained in that answer.
So, yeah, I appreciate you being able to
to be succinct, but, you know, certainly clear
with our audience.
Lastly, let let's take this in a a
different direction then. So where do you see
the best opportunities for organizational growth when it
comes to rated children's health?
Really excited about is our clinical innovation.
One of the things in terms of having
a culture that allows you to feel like
anything is possible
is that it helps you attract and retain
some really great talent.
It is a really different feeling when you
come on to the Rady Children's campuses.
And when you think about that,
innovation
is not typically just one person having an
idea. It's when you're sitting together having those
ideas. Hey. My patient needs this.
Oh, there's this change that's coming down the
pike. How are we solving for it together?
That idea of collaboration and innovation
when you have a culture
that's rapidly changing is a real opportunity.
So when we now have our colleagues from
San Diego, Mission, Orange all coming together,
all of those opportunities for connection, innovation, that
spark are really amplified
exponentially.
This year, our co CEOs hosted the stronger
together summit where they bought a thousand leaders
from all over the organization together.
We sat in tables,
and we thought about new ideas and things
that were gonna happen. But the energy, the
connections, all of that, that's where our greatest
strength is. I am convinced that some of
the greatest clinical innovations of the next generation
are gonna come from right here in Southern
California.
Angelie, thank you so much for being so
generous with your time, your insights, and everything
else you've been able to share with us
today, both professionally and personally.
We're gonna see you soon at our conference
in April, so we can't wait for that.
And beyond that, I always look forward to
the next time our paths are going across.
Thanks so much, Chris. It was a real
great way to start 2026.
Have a great day.