So this is Alan Condon with the Beckers
Podcast, and I'm thrilled to be joined today
by Mark Davis, a young professor at the
Foresight Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He's also the former chief operating officer of
the Miami Cancer Institute
of Baptist Health South Florida.
Mark, it's pleasure to have you on the
podcast with us today.
For folks who might not be as acquainted
with you or your background, do you mind
taking a beat to give us a little
bit more insight into your role and, at
the
and, obviously, of course, previous role at the
Miami Cancer Institute?
Sure, Alan. It's really great to speak with
you and to be on the podcast.
I'll start just by saying how much I've
enjoyed Becker's both, as a speaker
and as a participant,
and appreciate the
the really in-depth information, and and very pleased
to be here today.
So, yeah, to my background, I'm actually an
emergency physician by background. And as you mentioned,
I my most previous,
role as an executive was the chief operating
officer, what's now the largest cancer program in
Florida,
where we had the opportunity to do an
operational turnaround of a really a terrific program,
leading to 92% patient satisfaction with a very
significant,
margin
turnaround.
I'm sure we'll discuss some of the details
of these trends and how that can be
accomplished today.
And then was at Brigham Women's Hospital,
as an emergency physician, built a global health
program,
was actually at NASA for a few years
before that, and ultimately vice president at
Brigham and, Harvard faculty for a number of
years.
So I've been very fortunate
to have various perspectives
to to look at our health care world,
today, including
advising a number of different health systems and,
investors and,
companies looking to really
accomplish what I think is our true north,
which is, you know, how do we have
the absolute best patient experience and best patient
outcomes. So again, happy to be with you.
Yeah. Absolutely. And thanks so much for the
the breakdown. Maybe this will influence your role,
your background.
Mark, so let's dive right in. You know,
no secret to you, to any of our
listeners,
many different challenges, different trends going on in
health care today.
We're coming up towards the end of 2024,
a lot of folks looking ahead to next
year. What are the 2 or 3 key
trends that you're following in health care space
today and why?
Well, you know, I I'd like to take
a step back on this because I think
it helps frame our very specific and disciplined
approaches to things. I was just at the
Becker's ASC conference, which was excellent as usual.
And I think it's worthwhile for us to
talk about,
you know, the biggest trend and the biggest
change is the continual
advancement of expectations. And I've seen this whether
it was in the global programs around the
world or domestically,
that that we all rise to really the
level of what expectations
are. And I think that
the level of patient's expectations and societal
expectations in terms of performance are very high.
There's a very,
inherent
sense from all of us dedicated to health
care that we want to really achieve,
do the best for our patients. And what
we're seeing is
more pressure on
the really strategic
and operational
delivery side of things,
that we we have this trend that that
we're gonna need to
really adopt some of the practices in other
kinds of industries to see the level of
success that that is possible,
within health care.
Of course, we all see the new administration
coming in, you know, what's gonna happen with
the stress,
the reimbursements,
something all of us are watching carefully.
And I think that there's an increased recognition
of the importance of culture,
in in be being successful. I wrote a
piece about, which I entitled flipping the org
chart. The idea that our frontline folks often
have the best insights as to what we
need to do, but what that means
is working through a a very disciplined process
of defining our goals, our objectives. What are
the metrics of success, and how do we
follow those? So,
there there
the the the trends are,
I think, show both opportunity and threat, and
it's important that we we're very,
open eyed about how to address them.
Yeah. It's such an interesting point that you
make. And I guess but is it isn't
it too far to say that
the rise in consumerism
is kind of playing into this, I guess,
increased
expectations on the part of patients
slash consumers?
As we're in this era now, as more
and more patients are continuing to, quote unquote,
shop for the best care out there, I'm
curious. Is this kind of something that you
see playing into this trend and kind of
how you might see it evolving in the
coming years?
Yeah. Without question, I think it's a great
point. And
and I and there's a a lot of
very good things about that. Right? Because informed
patients are are,
you know, extraordinarily
useful,
in terms of their determining their health care
and in terms of helping us
deliver the best possible
experience and product. And, you know, part of
this also is to be sure
that we
present information in ways that patients can really
understand as they take their lessons from being
educated consumers.
And we often see those of us who
have practiced over the years or administrators
that people come with various levels of,
information, and some of that information has varying
qualities. And
I did a study early in my career
looking at risk tolerance of patients, and what
became very clear
is that the language that we use is
very different
than the language that patients,
really can relate to. I think that's a
lesson that we all understand to a certain
extent.
The details
really bear
a significant amount of effort to be sure
that we have the most, well informed patients,
as possible.
Absolutely. And then to go back to a
point you mentioned
in the introduction,
correct me if I'm wrong here, I believe
you had mentioned the really driving a 92
or so percent increase in patient satisfaction.
I believe at the Miami Cancer Institute from
when you took over as COO.
I'd love for you to first of all,
am I correct in that figure, 92%? And
also, I'd love to kind of get a
little bit more insight into,
what were the strategies, the key learnings and
successes from that?
Well, it's interesting that that is so we
achieved up to 92%
and that BAPS cell system has a that
that that's how South Florida, a great focus
on patient satisfaction. And a lot of great
work happened certainly,
before I was there over the last several
years.
I left about, 6 months ago.
And I think a lot of this is
determining, number 1, that we're really going to
focus on it, that it's a priority,
and that we established a process
of, again, bringing in frontline people. The people
that are, you know, receiving patients
in, you know, at the front desk are
security officers. What, you know, what kinda what's
been the experience? I, as the COO, the
on the first day,
walked through the building as a patient or
as a, you know, as a patient might,
and looked in sort of with a lean
based kind of,
eye, is every step along the patient journey
really necessary,
for example?
You know, where are the delays? How are
people how are we all treating each other?
And then we we did introduce certain, I
think, kinda novel programs. One was called 10,
5, Assist.
At 10 feet,
you acknowledge,
you know, everyone that's in front of you.
At 5 feet, you say hello.
And then if you look when you see
anyone anytime who seems confused or or or
doesn't know where to go, that you actually
walk them to their destination.
And so I think it gets back to
the whole idea of culture,
that our patients are why we are there,
the whole,
sense of just culture,
and to embrace
when
anybody on our team says that there's a
problem and not be punitive, but be appreciative.
There's just a lot of low hanging fruit
that we can learn with that sort of
approach
and address with that approach.
A 100%. And I I can't think I
know you were at our Vectors ASC conference
not too long ago. Culture the word culture
came up time and time again amongst, leaders
during various of our panels during that event.
Also, at our CEO and CFO conference with,
hospitals and health systems. It seems like there's
now more than ever arguably
a a larger, greater emphasis on culture,
maybe
tying directly to the workforce shortage that we're
seeing across health care.
Arguably, a more important time than than ever
for health systems, hospitals, independent practices
to really implement this great culture from the
top down. Were would I be right right
right in assuming that?
Absolutely correct. And it it's really a combination
of things that
you can have,
you know, the best culture, but without really
disciplined
processes that I mentioned before, it can be
very difficult to achieve. And you certainly can
have very well thought out processes. You can
have your strategies, your goals. You can list
out tactics, which, by the way, are often
confused with,
goals. But really,
tactical approach after you understand your goals, you
could have metrics. But if you don't have
a culture
that includes
rewards
and really appreciates
the the great, capacity of everyone on the
team, aren't gonna be successful. So I I
think what we're seeing
is
that with that the pressure on health care,
you really do have to have both. We
think very carefully about
what our mission is, how we're going to
achieve it. And and oftentimes,
our health systems
need some help. It's not necessarily
a part of the long term history as
it is in other industries about how to
inject that discipline.
I really enjoy
working with health systems, with that, and that
cultural piece must really come right along.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So it's such a key,
Dre, an important topic really across the health
care
space.
Mark, is there anything else?
Last question before I let you go.
What do you think about the future of
health care? Is it what what particularly excites
you?
You know, I'm actually super excited about the
future in health care. There are a lot
of challenges, and,
you know, there's reimbursement challenges.
But, you know, I think we need to
take a step back and and recognize
and articulate that change is inevitable in all
parts of life.
Being curious
to try to understand what's involved, you know,
looking at it objectively
and
thinking about what what do we really where
are the opportunities for us? I mean, how
do you have the kind of improvements in
patient satisfaction
that you can achieve or the financial
sort of turnaround? You know, what sort of
tools do we need to bring in?
I'm very confident that we will get through
this. You know, the population is aging.
People are living longer. We're gonna have more
patients. And
we have always found a way, and I'm
quite confident that we will in the future
as well.
I love it. I love the optimism and
certainly a great point to round out our
discussion today. Mark, a pleasure. Fascinating conversation. Thank
you so much for joining us on the
Becker's Healthcare podcast.
Thank you very much. Take care, Alan.