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This is Alan Congdon with the Becker's podcast,
and I am thrilled to be joined today
by doctor Swanny Jeff, who is the CEO
at Park Duvall Community Health Center in Louisville,
Kentucky.
Doctor Jess,
25 plus experience, I believe, in health care
and public health. A real pleasure to have
you on the podcast with us today. Before
we dive into some questions, I'd love to
turn the floor over to you to hear
a little bit more about your role and
your background.
Yes. Well, thank you. Thanks for having me
first. It is definitely a pleasure to be
on.
So I have the pleasure of running 3
health departments in my past being health commissioner.
I started
running health departments. I've been a leader back
in 2008, 2009 in Bullitt County,
Kentucky, and then I moved to Simney County,
Florida, which is in Sanford and then Brookline,
Massachusetts,
actually, where I was living when the COVID
outbreak happened. My background is actually in epidemiology,
public health,
and biosystems
engineering, so quite diverse background.
I've been in Louisville
off and on since 1995, so this is
my 3rd stint in coming back to work
in Louisville.
And
Community Health Center is the oldest
federal qualified health center actually in the state
of Kentucky.
It opened in 1968,
so it's it's one of the oldest also
in the nation.
Fantastic. Yeah. Thank you so much for the
brief intro there. Really, really fascinating background. Like
you said, it ran 3 health departments in
Kentucky,
Florida, Massachusetts.
Now, of course, the leader at Park Duval
Community Health Center. I believe you said the
oldest federally qualified health center in the state
of Kentucky.
Doctor Jet, would love to follow, what are
2 or 3 trends
that you're really following in the health care
space today and why?
Well,
the the first trend I'm following is the
emergence of AI.
And and I know that's at the top
of everybody's list,
but,
you know, one of the concerns I like
the technology and how people can use it
to
actually do dictation
for a physician standpoint.
The other aspect is people started using it
in the billing,
but I'm I'm curious into how the manipulation
might happen in terms of PII
and protection of the information and potential breaches.
You know, that's probably my biggest concern.
And then, you know, how much would we
be able to use AI to replace people?
Because we're moving to a fast standing society
now
where we're using robotics
and
technology to replace people,
but also
would that be
any issues
in terms of
if technology goes down
now that we've replaced it with people, where
does that leave us?
And then the other interesting trends that I'm
following
has a lot to do with reimbursements.
And
not only from Medicaid, Medicare, but private insurance,
but also
where are we going in terms of ward
340 b?
I mean, I know a lot of hospitals
and pharmacies,
there's been a lot of pushback from that
from the 340 b, but that's at the
top of my list to keep a watch
for IR.
Yeah. It's certainly interesting. 2 interesting trends, you
know, that a lot of leaders are focused
on at the moment in terms of, like
you said, reimbursement,
3.40 b in particular for hospitals and pharmacy.
But wanted to to go back to the
first point you'd mentioned in terms of that
emergence of AI.
You you talked about some of the benefits
there and the potential in terms of dictating
positions, billing.
But maybe do you feel like there's not
enough people talking about some of those concerns
about a AI like you've mentioned in terms
of patient privacy and, potentially really impacting the
workforce?
No. A lot of people are fascinated
about what
the potential is and what it can do.
And sometimes when you
you move into spaces too fast, you actually
find out later on
all the benefits you thought you were gonna
get us now. See, say for instance,
in 2,009,
I introduced a tobacco
a smoking ban on tobacco.
In that smoking ban in 2,009,
I included ecigarettes.
And people questioned why I include that, but
the scientific research
wasn't out. But I
assumed
that
the data would catch up in terms of
what was in
of being placed into ecigarettes
and how it's gonna impact people.
Now fast forward,
you know, 15, 16 years later, we're starting
to see
the scientific evidence is starting to come out
about the harmful chemicals that can be put
into e cigarettes.
So I think, you know, it's the shiny
new toy. It's like buying a brand new
Corvette.
But when you buy that brand new Corvette,
once you get to drive it, you might
end up finding out that there's glitches down
the road. And if you wait too long
to diagnose the issues that could occur and
don't put in the safety measures,
it would be too late.
Yeah. Really, really interesting point. Fantastic remarks there.
Just to in that 2009
smoking ban you had mentioned, was that in
the state of Florida? Or
It actually was in the state of Kentucky.
State of Kentucky. And it was in Bullitt
County. So in 2010, the the Board of
Health
we did pass it. We ended up being
sued by the the county commissioners, and the
case went all the way to the Kentucky
Supreme Court. And we actually lost by one
vote,
But the entire town was smoke free anyway.
Mhmm. Yeah. At least all the restaurants did.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I wanted to go
exciting things in the in the pipeline. You
talk about obviously, there's a lot of concern
around AI, but a lot of excitement as
well, like you'd mentioned. But is there anything
you're particularly excited about when you think about
the future of health care, whether it's on
the technology side, the hospital side? Anything that
you're really excited about when you think about
the future?
One of the things I I am excited
about, and I hope this continues to come
to the forefront,
is
most of the CEOs are starting to understand
community benefit
and social determinants of health.
You know, for centuries, for decades, I would
say, because I've been in the field
30 years.
Usually,
social determinants of health over the last 20
may be the health department or the community
health center focused
on
policies
and the overall community
because they understood that that impacts health.
Now you're seeing more CEOs
becoming aware that I can't just focus on
membership and the patient coming in the door
because, actually,
where a patient lives
impacts their health. So if you don't focus
in on the education
and the school system, or if you don't
focus on the busing, or if you don't
focus on
food insecurity,
you don't focus on if they have good
running water.
Those things impact the patient coming in the
door, and understanding
where they live
is gives you ideal on when they might
die, how can we walk them back to
improve the life
so that we don't have a lot of
people
in the ER. Now as far as preventive
care,
but we don't want ER school unless, of
course, it's it's COVID and it's something we
have to deal with.
Mhmm. Yeah. Like you said, you've been an
expert and really in this field in terms
of social determinants of health for such a
long time. You know, you talked about how
important education is, housing, transport, food insecurities.
What do you think it was that really
helped hammer this point home for CEOs? Like
you said, more hospital, more health system CEOs,
really taking a more harder look at social
in terms of health. Is there anything you
can pinpoint that was, the turning factor here?
Well, I think some of it had to
do with the economic benefit
as well. And,
you know, hospitals can't work on a island
by themselves. It's part of the overall public
health system.
And so if if you really wanna focus
on improving patient care, you have to begin
to address all the issues that's impacting them.
So I think
by the mere fact of them working side
by side
with the primary care sector, with the public
health sector, with public health practitioners bring to
the forefront.
Because one of the things that, you know,
a lot of doctors get burned out over
time is they constantly see in the same
sick patient.
And, you know, there's been a lot of
talk, over the years of running a sick
care system.
And by the the issues that we are
spending more money on health care
than other countries that have the same amount
of work do we do,
those statistics have become more alarming. So just
the education of the CEOs
but also of the c suite
has actually started to penetrate down to the
lower levels, and now you start to see
certain hospital systems make the change.
Fantastic. So really, really finally penetrated. Like you
said, the c suite are really coming from
the top down, trickling down throughout these health
systems, which is finally no thanks to all
that, hard work over the years, but great
to see that that corner finally being turned.
Doctor Chet, last thing I wanted to ask
you before I let you go. When we
think about Parc Duval Community Health Center or
federally qualified health centers in general, where where
are the biggest opportunities for growth in your
eyes over the next 1 to 2 years?
So,
you know, to me, one of the biggest
areas to grow, they if they're not focused
on 3 four to be the pharmacy,
they should.
Community health centers are uniquely positioned in communities
that have issues,
surrounding food insecurity.
So, you know, I encourage everybody to
focus on how you improve
that in your area such as
right now, I'm focused on I purchased the
building,
and I'm moving toward an indoor farmer's market.
In inside this farmer's market, we'd not only
have fresh foods coming from farmers. It will
be open year round, but I'm also operating
a food pantry
and also a training kitchen
that would help people how
to cook
appropriately healthy,
but also I'm moving to the area. We're
not just doing it for the community,
but for my patients, I'm gonna prescribe to
them foods they can go eat
at the farmer's market
at a reduced cost.
So I'm gonna help reduce their cost by
20%,
but, also, I'm gonna be able to provide
free food.
And so that's the area that I'm moving
to because, you know, the the reason why
community health centers exist
is because we're taking care of people that
don't have insurance, but, also, people that do
have insurance.
But we know the food is very expensive
these days, so I can't I cannot very
well tell a person in my conscious mind
to eat healthy
that there's no healthy places for them to
go, nor do I provide the foods to
them. So I'm gonna prescribe to my patients
that have chronic diseases.
Here's the diet that would help you reduce
the amount of medication so you don't have
to use 3 40 b.
If I can get that
in at the forefront into their hands, I'm
hoping that we can have greater success. And
I'm hoping that
every FQC, every hospital sector
start to look at how to improve the
patient's long term health.
Mhmm. Yeah. Fascinating
to to hear about your initiatives and all
the great work you're doing in Kentucky.
Doctor Jazz, a real pleasure to have you
on the podcast with us today. Thank you
so much for taking the time out of
your schedule. I look forward to visiting with
you again down the line.
Thank you. I definitely appreciate it. It's been
a pleasure.