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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Building Bold, Rural-First Healthcare at Scale with Albert Wright Jr.
00:15:40
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Chris Sosa and I'm very happy to be joined today by Albert Wright Jr. Who of course is the President and CEO of West Virginia University Health. I'm so glad you're able to join us today. Today's conversation is going to be a little bit about what has shaped you as a leader and what you've learned along the way. Does that sound good?
- [00:18]
B
That sounds wonderful, Chris. I appreciate the opportunity.
- [00:21]
A
Excellent, Albert. So my first question for you is simply what do you consider to be your most memorable day or period from your career?
- [00:28]
B
You know, I've been here at WVU Medicine for I'll be 11 years now, next month in August of 2025. And you know, so a little over a decade. And you know, the decade here has been far and away the most memorable part memorable part of my career. We've kind of done two things and we're working on a third. You know, we have significantly increased the size, scope and capability of our academic medical center here in Morgantown. So it is a, a true tertiary quaternary destination with significant graduate medical education programs and clinical capabilities. You know, we simultaneously, Chris, you know, number two is we build out a network of interconnected hospitals that, you know, we were a five hospital system when I joined in 2014 and we're, we now have 25 distinct hospital campuses that really cover the entire state of West Virginia and spilling over into some border counties in adjacent states. And you know, everything's connected on our interoperable electronic medical record. So, you know, that decade of building that out has been spectacular. You know, that third thing we're doing is, you know, we formed our provider sponsored health plan, Peak Health a couple years ago, three or four years ago now. And that's an exciting venture because that allows us to really create, you know, incentives to keep people as healthy as possible in the lowest cost setting, which, you know, feels good as a healthcare provider. So that decade's been the most memorable of my career. Particular days there are too many to count. You know, the day we opened our brand new children's hospital building, you know, the first day when we had a massive vaccine clinic when COVID vaccine first came out. So the ribbon cuttings and the groundbreakings are always a lot of fun.
- [02:34]
A
Albert, I love that you mentioned just all the compliments that you've been able to achieve at West Virginia University Health. I would ask you though, what is it that allows the staff, not only yourself and your C suite staff, but what allows the staff to Be able to create such forward momentum.
- [02:58]
B
You know, you've got to have a strong leadership team that is laser focused on your mission and what you're trying to accomplish and ours. You know, we, we really have a twofold mission. One is to improve the health trajectory of the state of West Virginia. And two is to carry out the teaching mission of West Virginia University. And when, as a, as a large nonprofit, when you have great leaders that are focused on those missions and you allow them the autonomy to do their jobs, you can create special things. And I think we've shown that here.
- [03:34]
A
Speaking of your senior leadership team. So I am in no way suggesting that your time is going to be running short at WVU Health, but I am curious, given you've been on the job for, as you said, a little more over a decade now.
- [03:48]
B
Yeah.
- [03:49]
A
What would you tell your successor? What's most important in terms of carry on? Again, I'll use the word momentum of the mission of your health system.
- [03:56]
B
Yeah. So, you know, hopefully I got a little Runway left and I'm not going to have to tell that to my successor anytime soon. But I would say this to my successor or our leadership team, which we do all the time, is, you know, you need to be bold in your vision, but you always have to remember that as senior leaders, your job is to support the people that work for you. Right. And so culture, I know it's cliche, but culture is the most important thing we have. And one of the things I'm proud of is we've really tried to focus on creating a great work environment that allows our caregivers to do their job. And that means, you know, mental and emotional support for them, giving them the tools they need to do their job, making sure we're competitive in our pay. And, and you know, I will tell you what, I send out a really cool, you know, well done newsletter. I'm a little biased, but a well done newsletter called the Right Stuff twice a week, which is a play on my last name. And, you know, and when employees respond, you know, those responses come back to me directly and I interact with every employee that sends something back. And, you know, whether it's glorious and nice or whether it's constructive feedback, I respond to them and, you know, and I make sure our leadership team does as well. So I would, I would say to all of our senior leaders, and someday my successor is to never forget, you know, why you're here. That's to support your great employees and associates and make sure you're always keeping that positive culture.
- [05:32]
A
As a fan of wordplay, I can certainly salute you on your choice of newsletter names. But more importantly, I'm glad that it's resonated with your staff and, you know, allowed you to interact with them and in ways that other leaders might not be able to do.
- [05:44]
B
So it's a good little mix of. Of important information that we share with them in that right stuff newsletter. It's a good little mix of just things that were a very rural health care system. So we're spread out geographically and, you know, people at Potomac Valley Hospital don't need to know that the people at Braxton county are having a bake sale, but it makes them feel like they're in the tent, you know, and then it tells a little bit about me personal and helps that, that right stuff, Chris, helps to make a large organization, I think, feel a little bit smaller.
- [06:16]
A
That certainly makes sense to me. Yeah, I'm glad it's worked out that way. Albert, My next question is. It's similar to the first question that we covered, but I am curious as to what accomplishment you're most proud of and why. I mean, it can be an opening. It could be some sort of job network you've created, you know, anything at all.
- [06:34]
B
Yeah, I mean, lots, lots of things we could talk about. I'm going to go macro, though, and I think I'll say I read a lot of different things and people are sometimes negative on rural health care. And rural health care is hard and this is happening and this is going to close down. And I'm proud of the fact that West Virginia is the only entirely Appalachian state in the country. We're a 35,000 employee, greater than $7 billion, you know, net revenue organization, and we've been successful in rural health care. So I'm proud of the fact that we've, we've demonstrated that, you know, in past success does not guarantee future success, but we've committed to a model that, you know, you can provide great health care and successful health care in rural parts of the country. And, and, and you know, patients and people that live in rural states in rural parts of the country deserve great health care too. So I'm proud has, you know, put their. Stayed focused and put our heads down and said we're going to be a great rural healthcare provider. And I, and I'm excited that there are other organizations out there doing it well and we'll, and hopefully they'll be able to continue it just the way.
- [07:54]
A
We are pivoting only slightly here. Albert, I am curious because there's so many issues that can be covered in a forum like this, right? I mean, healthcare's. Yeah, yeah, we can talk for hours and hours about all the issues affecting the industry. We don't have a kind of time, but, you know, perhaps another time. But in just this day and time, I am curious as to what issue or aspect of healthcare you think deserves a brighter spotlight and who should be shining that spotlight on it.
- [08:22]
B
Well, you know, I could put that back on you and Chris and saying, do you want the whole list or just the top 10? But you know, the big one for us that I think a lot about and that I think we've not made enough progress on in health care is the alignment between the payers of health care, the insurance companies and the providers of health care. We continue to create too much administrative burden on making sure patients get safe and timely care, in making sure that we're able to get things prior authorized and avoid denials and those types of things. And that's one of the reasons we've really tried to build out, you know, peak health or provider sponsored health, but not to replace our relationships with insurance companies because we've not changed, we've not lessened any of our relationships or ended any of our, you know, relationship with commercial providers or Medicare Advantage plans. But I really believe in time we need to, you know, we need to lower the cost of healthcare and we need to decrease the friction between payers and providers. And there's gotta be ways to, we can standardize and automate things that allow us as caregivers to have, you know, have greater ability to, to care for our, our patients and greater ability for insurers to easily make sure that the care we're providing is appropriate. But I just don't feel like we've made the strides in aligning payment and provision to make it A, easier, B to help us to be focused on improving the health of the patient and C, to be incentivized for us all to keep them in the lowest cost setting. And I think that's a great opportunity for our country. And whether that's insurers, whether that's healthcare providers, whether that's regulators or legislators, we've got to figure that out in time.
- [10:24]
A
Albert, as someone who's speaking from the provider perspective, do you feel like from the payer side that that is becoming more, is that conversation evolving? Is it something that they seem more open to? What's your sense of that?
- [10:38]
B
You know, I'm, I'm an optimist by nature, so I'm going to say we're seeing some positive signs, but I, I still think we have a long way to go. And I think if, I think if the payor industry is going to be successful and they're trying to control costs, but if they're going to be, you know, successful in time, they've got to find a way that, that, you know, that they're. They're able to help control costs, but able to work with patients, work with providers. And I think we as providers have to make sure we're being as it takes two to tango. And so I'm optimistic we're going to get there, but I do think we need to catalyze and make that happen a little bit quicker than it has on its own.
- [11:21]
A
That makes sense. And certainly I think having the attitude that you have, it's probably the only way anything will get down.
- [11:27]
B
Well, one of the things and one of the neat things, Chris, about being a payer provider, the way we are with W Medicine and Peak Health, and I always remind folks in Peak Health, you know, we are an owner of Peak Health, but so are our partners at Marshall Health down in Huntington, West Virginia, and Valley Health out in Winchester, Virginia. So it's, you know, so it's a great partnership there. But one of the reasons we are doing this is as we find ways to decrease what I call the administrative burden or the friction between the payer and the provider. When we simplify that ourselves, you know, we're taking that back to our payer providers and saying, hey, we're able to do this. We want that same relationship with you, you know, payor, whether that's a local, you know, insurer, nonprofit, or a large national one. So it really, I think, helps your credibility when you say, hey, we're able to do this ourselves with our payer provider relationship. Let's do that together. And hopefully the next time I'm on the podcast, I'll have some great stories of exactly how we're able to do that.
- [12:34]
A
I certainly would look forward to that. It sounds like you've got a great foundation to get all that done. Lastly, Albert, it's less macro, but my question for you is, what is an underrated leadership trait and whom have you seen embody it? And that could be one person, a group of people. You can answer that in any way you like.
- [12:52]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. You know, I, and I, I may have shared with you and I certainly share with others before. As an organization, we put great emphasis on the ability to make A decision. I think one of the, one of the challenges a lot of organizations and individual leaders have is they continue to, you know, analyze and collect data. Analyze, collect data. And you have to, you have to have enough, you know, information to make an informed decision. But you cannot be afraid to make a decision and move things forward. Recognizing that when you make decisions without, you know, perfect information, which is never, you know, attainable is sometimes you're going to make a wrong decision and you have to walk it back. But as a leader, I try to encourage our leaders and employees to be empowered to make decisions and move things forward. And I think that's been a big part of our success at WVU Medicine. And an individual, I think that helped me see the importance of that was Dr. E. Gordon Gee, who is our president of West Virginia University. He's just about to retire, but I've watched Gordon, Dr. Gee, for years. I'm an Ohio State grad, so I watched him as the president of Ohio State. I've been blessed to work with Gordon over the last decade. And you know, Gordon is not afraid to make a decision and recognizes the importance of that. And so I think he and I have been great partners in emphasizing that, hey, at some point, you know, we have to be able to move things forward in a, in an uncertain world. You know, we'd all love to have 100% perfect information and, you know, and consensus that, oh, this can't fail. You know, you have to be able to make a decision. And that's what you're, your employees, your physicians, you know, your, your junior leaders, they want to, they want to see, you know, logic based action from an organization.
- [14:54]
A
Yeah. Well, here's hoping that message carries through, Albert. And certainly it's again that you mentioned this. Just, it's not only the leaders. It's, it becomes everyone is who's part of that organization. If they're, they see the people above them are able to make decisions and how they do it, then they can do it as well.
- [15:10]
B
We will never get upset for an employee for making a decision that they thought was best based on the information they had at that time.
- [15:20]
A
That's all you can ask. Certainly. Well, Albert, thank you so much for joining us today. Again, we could spend a lot of time at this, but, you know, I'm sure we'll get another chance and we know we're going to see you at our conference in November and I'm sure this won't be nearly the last time that we cross paths.
- [15:33]
B
Thank you, Chris. I appreciate the opportunity you have a great day.