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Welcome, everyone to another
Becker's Healthcare podcast.

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I'm Ryan Moham with Becker's Healthcare.
I'm thrilled to have with me today Dr.

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David Duffy,

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vice President of Women's and Children's
Service line at O S F Healthcare,

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Dr. Duffy, it's so nice to talk
with you today. How are you?

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I'm doing great. Thanks
for having me this morning.

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Yes. I'm very excited to
talk to you. And to begin,

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would you mind introducing yourself and
telling us a bit about your background?

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Sure. Well, I am a, uh,
pediatrician by training. I, uh,

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uh, graduated from Voy
University and did residency, uh,

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training in pediatrics at
MSU E w Sparrow Hospital.

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I've had a lot of diverse
experience, uh, in the past, um,

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from, uh, working, uh,
across the continuum of care.

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So I started in a private
practice, um, and, uh, helped, uh,

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develop a physician organization and a,

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a physician hospital organization
back in the mid nineties. And, uh,

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um, had leadership positions in both
of Lowe's and then full administrative

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responsibility for the quality safety
credentialing impaired contracting

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for, uh, that particular
organization. And then really,

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um,

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was invited to build the
pediatric hospitalist program
at Helen Debos Children's

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Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Uh, uh, part of, uh,

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what is now Corwell had various
leadership roles in the hospital and

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in, uh, uh, the Spectrum
Health Medical Group, um,

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as a division chief, and had, uh,
little stint as, uh, IT directors.

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We went live on CPO O and,
uh, was the chair and, uh,

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medical director of quality,

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safety and clinical innovation for the
medical group. I was offered, uh, uh,

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then an opportunity to serve
as a CMO for a, uh, uh,

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Metro Health Hospital in Grand Rapids,
now part of, um, Michigan Medical West.

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Um, and then ventured out west,
uh, uh, for a few years as, uh,

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a VP and, uh, medical director of a
large multi-specialty group in, uh,

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uh, Oregon. And, uh, to be
closer to family and, and, uh,

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grandchildren. We moved
back to the Midwest, uh,

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and looked for an organization that was
really mission driven and had strong,

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uh, collaborative culture
and investing in durable, um,

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kind of solutions to
better serve communities,

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families and patients in improving health.
And so I ended up at OSF Health Care.

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Um, it's really fit, uh, the bill, uh,
it's been around for about 150 years and,

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uh, has been a study in calm presence,
uh, led by a group of sisters.

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Uh, it is a organization that's
made up of 15 hospitals, almost,

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uh,

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1800 clinicians and 24,000
mission partners serving parts

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of, um, the North central Illinois,
uh, region and in one, uh,

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spot in Escanaba. And so for
the past three and a half years,

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in the past two years, I've actually, uh,

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I've been with O S F in the last two
years in a current position as a VPN in

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of the women and children's service line.

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Perfect. Perfect.

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I'm so glad that she was able to find
a company that she fit really well in.

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And with all your years of
experience and what you're doing now,

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what issues are you spending most of
your time on today, would you say?

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Well, y you know, uh,

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this winter we've really been dealing
a lot with the pediatric surge.

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So, um, Illinois, uh, like unlike, uh,

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other states across the country have
been dealing with respiratory season,

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that's been brutal, um, uh, actually,
and so the Children's Hospital, osf,

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children's Hospital of Illinois, uh,
has, um, put together a task force to,

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to be able to address these issues. Uh,
we're seeing a little lull right now,

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and that, uh, at least we're, um,
uh, breathing. But, um, even our, uh,

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small hospital in Escanaba,
uh, Michigan had, uh, uh,

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the state okay, some, uh, uh,

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emergency beds for pediatric patients
to care for those kids, uh, there.

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And so, um,

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what that has done for us
in the service line area

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is to ensure that those, uh,
outline hospitals and, uh,

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clinics, eds, uh, across the,

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the region feel comfortable with, uh,

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caring for kids who are holding in their
eds are perhaps caring for kids that

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they would otherwise feel uncomfortable
doing in respiratory things. So we've,

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uh, really worked hard
at, uh, just in time, uh,

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education and skills
refreshers necessary for, uh,

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those kids to receive appropriate
care until they're able to come to the

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children's hospital. And so that's,
that's been, uh, part of, uh,

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what we've been doing on the children's
side of the, the service line for,

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for this year. You know, um, I think, uh,

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obstetrics has just elevated to
one of the hardest to recruit,

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uh, specialties in the US when you start
talking to a lot of recruitment firms.

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Uh, Illinois is struggling with closures
of, uh, some birthing areas and,

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uh, and we're not immune to
those types of changes, right?

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So we're looking at how
we best provide obstetric

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services across, uh, the ministry and, uh,

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to the larger geographic
areas that we, we serve.

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How do we provide that prenatal
care? How do we best, uh,

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utilize our birthing centers
to make sure patients are,

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are well cared for and are are safe,
and how do we coordinate that in a,

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in a particular way? So we're doing a
little reinventing of ourselves from a,

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an obstetric, uh, and mfm, uh,
perspective as well. And so,

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uh, a lot of work in, in that
particular area. And then of course,

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women's health is, is more
than just the birthing, uh,

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<laugh> portion of it.

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There's a whole vast array of
other screenings in services that,

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uh, you know, you need
as, uh, a woman in, uh,

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the various seasons of life.
And so we're looking to, uh,

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coordinate those a little better
from a ministry wide perspective.

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But the two big things today really
have been looking at respiratory volumes

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and, um, looking, uh, at
how we, um, provide, uh,

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obstetric services.

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Ashley, thank you so much
for that information.

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And you kind of talked about a
little bit in terms of growth and

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what you wanna do, um, in your sector,

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but how are you thinking about
investments and growth in the next two

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to three years or so, would you say?

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Right. Well, I, I, I think really, uh,

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as we start to look at areas of
opportunity, our service line, you know,

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we really partner with, um,
osf, uh, children's Hospital,

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Illinois, of course, and, uh,

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the University of Illinois College of
Osteo or College of Medicine in Peoria.

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Uh, we also really partner with
pediatric providers and others, uh,

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to develop care guidelines to be used, uh,

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to reduce variation in care and
how we connect better and provide

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services to folks in a rural area.

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The interesting thing about our children's
portion of the service line is that

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we're relatively rural and patients
have to travel a long ways.

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So we're really working to address some
of the inequities that are caused by the

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large distances and the lack
of access to some of the

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subspecialty care for pediatrics,
as well as some of that for, uh,

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maternal feed of medicine.

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And so how do we leverage technology
to help us with those types of

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connections?

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How do we provide those services just
in time and in real time for patients

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to minimize the amount of
travel that's necessary to,

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to be supported for those
patients? Um, you know, uh,

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if we just think about, uh,
some of the developmentally,

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uh, uh, challenged or
cognitively delayed, uh, uh,

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folks or the complex,
uh, patients who, um, uh,

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have lots of, uh, medical
need, uh, and, uh,

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where they're located across, um,

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these are areas that we
have a struggle in getting

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the provider resource to be able to
give those services and that support

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to families. And so how do we partner
better with, with other systems, other,

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uh, pediatricians? How
do we create the, the,

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the resources that we can wrap
around those patients and, and, uh,

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provide them great care?

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And so we're looking at how we really put

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that, um, or, or make that kind of, uh,

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care available across the central,
uh, north central Illinois,

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uh, area and, uh, up into
Escanaba. And so, uh,

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one area of growth is to just
expand our presence and make it much

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easier for folks to access,
um, our specialty services. Uh,

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the other is to continue at our
children's hospital to develop, um,

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complex care abilities, uh, in
different disciplines that, uh,

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coordinate and, uh, help
us, uh, maintain the, the,

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the type of service
that we can provide in,

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in some of our high volume specialties.

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Wonderful. Yeah, absolutely.
And before I let you go, doctor,

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the last thing I wanted to ask you
about is what are you most excited about

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right now?

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And obviously you mentioned a lot of
good things that are happening right now

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that you're working with, uh,

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but is there anything in particular that
you're just really excited about right

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now,

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whether it's something you're working
on or something in the healthcare field?

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Yeah, I think it's really how we,
how we provide that care, right?

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So care models have to change a
little bit, you know, and, and we've,

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we've faced that real time.

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We have several outreach clinics that
we do in a variety of areas, but, uh,

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the types of services that we can
provide there are somewhat limited.

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And so how do we expand that and
how do we, how do we help with that?

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Uh, how do we address needs? You
know, I guess one of the ways to,

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to answer that is that when I
was back in private practice,

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I always felt I was doing a great job and,

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and could pat myself on the back when I
walked outta the exam room saying that

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we really addressed the needs of that
patient and family at that particular

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time. But, you know, uh,
patients don't spend, uh, uh,

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they don't live life in your office,
uh, or in the hospital. And so, um,

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how do we help with the needs as
they arise in the environments where

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kids and families are, um,
and, uh, make those services,

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uh, uh, available so that they feel
partnered, cared for and safe? And,

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uh, that means that we've gotta
think a little differently about, uh,

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some of the ways we've
delivered care, um, and, um,

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uh, with, uh,

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the advances in technology and what we
can do in different ways and how we could

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monitor patients and how we
could coordinate visits, um,

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with a variety of folks and, uh, uh,

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a virtual setting or be able
to, uh, assist in providing,

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uh, care, uh, at other facilities
when there are questions, uh,

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that maybe arise, uh, with,
uh, consultation of, uh,

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specialists or pediatric, uh, trained
folks. Those are the types of things that,

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um, you know, we, we need to continue
to explore. So I, I, I really,

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uh, am excited about that. Uh, we've
done some home monitoring for, uh,

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this RSV season. Uh, we're,
um, looking at how we, uh,

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expand that a bit more. Um,
it's been, uh, successful and,

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and well received. And, uh, I, I,

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I am hopeful, um, that as we start to,

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to make this more accessible,
that we can, um, start to, uh,

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reprove, um, things like immunization
rates that have fallen off, uh,

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during this covid time. You know, um,
this year the CDC reported almost,

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uh, twice, uh, the number of
cases of measles, uh, in the,

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in the, in the us. And so our, our,

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our vaccine hesitancy has,
uh, been, um, problem.

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And I'm hopeful and excited that as we

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address this differently
with the thought towards new

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ways to, uh, deliver care,

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that we can be more innovative in how
we've delivered things like vaccines

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or some of the routine cares,

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or address some of the social determinants
of health in ways that become more

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meaningful for patients
and improve our outcomes.

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Absolutely. Thank you so much for
those final thoughts, Dr. Duffy.

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That is all I have for you today.
This has been an amazing discussion.

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I wanna thank you again for
coming on Beck's Health Care,

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and I look forward to connecting,
connecting with you again soon.

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Thank you so much.