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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to Advancing Health in the final Leadership Dialogue podcast, hosted by Tina Fries decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health and the outgoing 2025 board chair of the American Hospital Association. She introduces her successor, Dr. Mark Boom, President and CEO of Houston Methodist, who will chair the AHA board in 2026. Give a listen as these two prominent healthcare leaders discuss the state of the field and the landscape ahead.
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B
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'm Tina Friesdecker, President CEO of corewell Health and the board Chair of the American hospital association for 2025. It is really hard to believe that this is my last time hosting a Leadership Dialogue as chair. I have learned so much from talking to our guests this year, and I hope that you have found our conversations insightful today. I am so delighted to introduce Dr. Mark Boom, who will not only serve as your host for the Leadership Dialect Series next year, but who will be serving as the chair of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees beginning in January. And I'm so excited to pass the baton off to you. Mark serves as President CEO of Houston Methodist. Houston Methodist is comprised of a leading academic medical center and seven community hospitals serving the greater Houston area in Texas. But I wanted to start out with the fact that he was the very first guest on the Leadership Dialogue series back when it was launched in 2020. And it only seems fitting that as we begin the passing of the baton, that you join us again as a guest so that our listeners can get to know a little bit about you as we look ahead to next year. So welcome, Mark. We're so glad that you're here.
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C
It's wonderful to be here. Thank you.
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B
Mark, this year has certainly had many challenges. Tell us some of the challenges and successes that you've seen at Houston Methodist in 2025. One of the things I love about you and what you've done is you really focus on notable innovations and progress, and I think that can come together and showcase what we need to do across the health care field as part of the association. So tell us about those.
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C
It's been an exciting year, but, you know, a bumpy year. Right? We all know that. And so, you know, there's almost this dichotomy at times. You know, I'm a physician, as you heard, primary care physician. I went into the management side right at the beginning of my career. Still practice a tiny bit today, really, because I'm passionate about the people we serve. We call it at Houston Methodist. Six simple words. It's unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation. I'LL talk about. And in a second. The philosophy is always, if you focus on the fundamentals, the awards will follow. I mean, it's not. And it's not about the awards, but it's about what they mean. Right. So I've been very proud of our team. The dashboard we use the most is through Vizient. And all seven of our hospitals were in their top group. The main hospital, academic hospital, number three out of 118 hospitals. We had another one that was number two in its group. We had another couple that are number one, two and four in their group. And so really proud of. It's just the consistent outcomes and you don't get there without making it a great place to work. And I firmly believe you build the culture, you get the right people in place, you engage them with the beautiful work that we're all doing and bring passion and purpose, what they do, and great things happen. And so Forbes put put us as the number three large employer in the country, which, you know, I was pinching myself. It was really neat. Our employee engagement's 97%. And that's what kind of leads to those. When Forbes did an innovation, Companies were number 35. Of all companies, it was actually the highest health system. And in the top 50, it was us and Mayo and Mass General, Brigham. So really proud of that, we opened our seventh hospital, our seventh network hospital. So we have the flagship. We have seven network hospitals. We have an ltac, of course, huge physician organization, academic enterprise and things. We built it as a hospital of the future and literally from the ground up, rethinking how we do things and using it as our proving ground. We've been very, very aggressive in innovation in very good ways, because I think we are at a really pivotal point. And the philosophy we have is all the innovation we've put in. Number one, obsessively focus on what our patients and communities need. But number two and really close is how do you connect the people who work in healthcare more tightly to the patients? How do you get rid of the things that nobody really needs to do that you don't need a human being to do? And let's get human beings doing the things that human beings need to be doing. And so that's been a big part of our philosophy. We have cameras in every single room across. Our entire system is wired and with cameras, we do virtual icu, we do virtual nursing, we do telemonitoring, we do telepharmacy, we do telepsych, we do telestroke. All of our Telemetry, we do sitters, we do virtual hospitalists now and on and on. And even piloting very new models of nursing there. One of the ones this year that we started, which it's kind of like one of those you kick yourself like, we should have done this sooner because we have all that infrastructure, our rapid response and code teams now start virtually. If you're that nurse and you're there and you're, oh, I need help and somebody needs a rapid response or, you know, God forbid, it's a code. Literally at the press of a button, you have expertise there with you. And of course, then everybody's coming and converging like you would do in those situations. But we all know in these big facilities, that's five, 10 minutes sometimes, or two, three, four minutes, whatever that is, it's instant. And we're seeing, you know, real time impact of that and many, many things. And we're very dedicated to the innovation side of things.
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B
That's phenomenal and it is where the field is going. So I really appreciate how you've, how you've focused on all the different elements. Quality, experience, team member engagement, and then the innovation and always doing it. So it is better, more extraordinary, better for the people that we're serving. So well done. What do you think? We've done well as a field, what's worked and what hasn't?
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C
Healthcare. And we always need to remind ourselves this because it's a noble field. It's a sacred calling. We are so privileged to be in healthcare. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. Our hospitals, our health systems, they are pillars of their community. Many times there are the largest, if not one of the largest employers in Greater Houston. For example, three of the top five largest employers of people who live here. ExxonMobil is based here, but there are people all over the world. But the people in Houston, three of the five are health systems in Greater Houston. 8.1 million people now across greater Houston. And so we impact our communities so positively in so very many ways and of course, take responsibility for the health of those communities. So that's something we should all be proud of. We always have to hold our heads up high. We always have to remind people of that as well. It is key that we continue as health systems to thrive. I have a philosophy, and I alluded to it earlier. I talked about the unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation. Well, we've used that for well over a decade, probably a dozen years now, but about seven, eight years in, I kind of had this aha moment that said, you know, I've been paying attention to five words, but not the and. And actually the and is a really, really critical word. And so we capitalized in that statement and we use that as sort of a. And I use that big time as a philosophy. You need to go into solving problems, into working with other people thinking like. And not thinking like or right? So it's not, well, we can do this, but then this is going to suffer. It's no. Our job is to figure the art and science of management and leadership and clinical care and everything else is to say, how do we get it all? Patients don't want us to say, ah, we'll make it safe, but you know what? We won't be that innovative or you know, your service will be lousy, but we'll make it safe. You know what? If they want all of it, they deserve. All of it is what they, what they deserve. So we need to demand that of our, of ourselves. It's also a philosophy that says we make the best decisions and problems get solved with that attitude. And when we listen, when we work with other people, when we hear from people who are not like us, they don't look like us, they didn't grow up like us, they don't think like us. And you bring different people to the table and you actually figure it out, right? You come to compromise, you come to consensus, you move things forward, and that's where the best decisions happen. And that's a challenged. On one hand, we intuitively understand that the word and is used fourth most in the English language, the word or is 31st. It's the same similar directionality in every language. But on the other hand, it's not really human nature sometimes and right. We have a process whereby it's often, let's think about us, let's not think about others, or let's think about our position, let's not hear the other position. And so one of the things we don't do as well, and I think we need to focus on as a profession, as a field, and then we need to demand that of all the pieces of the system that we work with is that we work together to find solutions. The last thing I'll say is I also have a saying that I'm well known for, which is don't let the lines cross. And that's like, you know, on a very literal basis, okay, if you've got a revenue curve and expense curve, they need to be parallel or better or you got an issue and your issue may be 15 years out, 20 years out if it's just a tiny bit, and maybe three days out if it's really bad. Right. But it's more of a philosophy which says tackle issues soon, not late, don't let them get out of hand. And so we want to, as a hospital profession, be part of the societal solution to some of the problems we have in health care by finding those early moves that we can make to not let some things get out of hand that we see out there. And I think that's how we need to focus.
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B
So I can already tell that next year you're going to bring so many philosophies and we're all going to be spouting them out.
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C
I remember a few of you, yours, a few things here. Let's see if you want to go far, go, you go, go together. If you, if, you know, if you want to go fast, go alone. And I love that saying and do the hard things. And you really have helped us do that.
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B
Yeah, no, I think it's fantastic. So I look forward to hearing more of your philosophy statements. You mentioned that you are psyched and you're humble to be the AHA chair next year. What are some of your priorities as you think about 2026? What do you think we should be focused on as healthcare leaders?
- [09:57]
C
Well, some of it, you know, I've already touched on is that philosophy. Because when we tackle it with those philosophies and we work and we listen to everybody, right. We are a very broad based association. There are hospitals of every characteristic across the country. They're all critically important. Sometimes things are good for this group, not good for that group. But we need to find those solutions that move all of us forward and most importantly, really stabilize the system and move a system in the United States forward. But of course, you know, we all, we all recently heard the news that Rick Pollack has chosen to retire. 43 years at the AHA. I mean, talk about dedicating one's life to a noble profession. I mean, everything I was talking about, that sacred calling. He has enabled so much development across our profession. Ten years as president. Talk about somebody with impact. I mean, he's been dedicated, tireless. He's so smart, he's grounded, he's a great listener. And you know, one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King is that a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus. And he understands that, that he brings people together. And I mean, I watch him oftentimes synopsize what we did and synthesize what we did. It's like, wow, how did he do that? And so he's incredible. And so we want to celebrate him. Right. He deserves it. He's too humble to want to be celebrated. But. Sorry, Rick, I know you're listening now. We're going to celebrate you this year as well. But of course, the goal then is to make sure we recruit somebody of his caliber. And thank you to you and Bill Gaston for chairing the search committee of which I'm a member and a number of other people are. We're going to make that process, obviously, very inclusive. We're going to listen, we're going to engage, we're going to work with people across our profession, across hospitals, and hire somebody of Rick's caliber, which is no easy task, obviously, but I'm sure we can do it. You know, I'll use a couple sports analogy. If you're running right, this is like run through the tape. So you know that none of this means that 2026 is some sort of, you know, let's pause here. Not at all. Right. We are running through the tape. Use another analogy. It's going to be a really smooth baton pass. If you look at the story I like to tell here is about the men's and women's 4 by 400 relay teams in the U.S. i mean, they've been absolutely dominant since 1972 when you had both men and women. The men have won 10 out of 13 of those with a gold and the women have won nine out of 13. All the rest of the women's were silvers and the men had a couple where they didn't place. And if you look at when they don't place, it's a baton pass. And so, you know, when you look at all those other times they practice and practice and practice that baton pass and they make sure it's a smooth baton pass. That is far and away the number one priority. But again, make no mistake, that is making sure that we don't lose a step through this process.
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B
You're exactly right. And we will find somebody wonderful. They will not be Rick. And, but like you said, Rick, we are going to celebrate you even if you don't want us to.
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C
Exactly.
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B
When you think about 2026, what are you most excited for and what have you been most proud of in the past year?
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C
I mean, excited to tackle some, you know, real problems. Think that hand and philosophy we need to take and, and tackle affordability. Right. That is the, the big burning question that's out there. And I honestly, I think, you know, because hospitals are sort of the locus of all these costs, we tend to get unfairly branded with the. You know, we're the problem. But if you really step out, you look at the inflationary rates and the contract rates and things we get, we're like not even getting inflationary increases. And if you look at the cost of health care overall over the last decade and you look at the rate of increase, it's not much above the rate of inflation. That's the hard work of physicians and hospitals that have made that happen. Right? So we're a locus of the cost, but we're not the real reason doesn't mean we don't have things we can and should do. Let me be clear. We all need. So we need to be focusing together and bringing in mindset about affordability, meaning we have to work with as hospitals, we need to work with pharma, we need to work with supply chain, we need to work with the payers, we need to work obviously with government, we need to work with patients and patient advocates to say, how do we think about this differently? Make sure we preserve the functionality we have and get better outcomes for society and help with healthcare affordability. So when I. I'll tie with some of what I'm most excited about two key things. One, we've already touched on digital innovation. Years ago in my career, I got quoted once in the Houston Chronicle when I was a reporter, was there kind of making a comment that, you know, the unfortunate thing is, you know, back then it was all about electronic health records, and it was which one was sort of the least onerous, right. For us. And a big part of that was they didn't connect our clinicians to the patients and they actually added costs, as has so much innovation. I think digital innovation can bend the cost curve. It has to bend the cost curve. We're looking at the next quarter century of massive growth in Medicare enrollees, particularly the oldest Medicare enrollees who need the most healthcare, with, like, almost no change in the working population. You know, if you look at the last couple hundred years, biggest impact we've had is with infectious disease, right? First recognizing germ theory and then vaccines and antibiotics and clean water. I mean, all of those have saved hundreds of millions of lives. And then of course, some other key things like imaging, anesthesia, fluid management, and things like that. I actually think we are on the cusp where digital innovation could actually have that same kind of impact. The knowledge base, it gives the knowledge on my shoulder, the Connecting people, all the different things. So that's one. And the other is just the new therapeutics that are coming. I mean, the ability to cure diseases that we never dreamed we could cure. The, you know, obviously the ability to manipulate the immune system, CAR T therapy, cellular therapies, all of these things. Our paradigm shifts. And we need to focus on cost as we look at those. If pharma comes in and says, hey, it saves society, you know, $3 million, if we can cure Alzheimer's disease, or pick your disease, right? And then they say, so we want to charge 90% of that, which is what happened with hepatitis C. It doesn't work. So we all have to work together and say we can use these new technologies, we can use these new drugs and other things like that. And it's paradigm shift. I mean, and not only that, you can improve health span and not just lifespan.
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B
I'm so looking forward to that. And I agree with you that there's so much potential coming forward that we'll be able to embrace and it will transform the health care field significantly and it will transform health for individuals. And that's what I'm most excited about too. And thank you so much for your service. I am looking forward to seeing you thrive and help our association thrive as well. And so thank you so much for spending time with us. I know that we are in great hands next year with your leadership. And to all of our listeners, it's been a privilege serving as the AHA's board chair this past year and leading this leadership dialogue with all of you. I remain very optimistic about the future and confident in our ability as a field to meet the challenges that are ahead of us and to make sure that we are always focused on the people that we are serving and helping them have either unparalleled or extraordinary outcomes as they come forward. So thank you so much for all that you do in our field. As it's holiday season, I just want to express my gratitude and I know Mark shares in this gratitude for everything that you do to take care of people in your community. Have a wonderful day.
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A
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