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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Cody Walker, President of Baptist Health Medical Center North Little Rock
00:15:24
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- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:33]
B
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by a brilliant leader. We're joined today by Cody Walker, president of Baptist Health Medical center in Little Rock. Cody, so thrilled to get a chance to visit with you today. Can you take a moment and tell us a little bit about Baptist Health and also about yourself and your career?
- [00:56]
C
You bet, Scott. Thanks so much for having me. I am the president of Baptist Health Medical center here in North Little Rock. Been here for the last three years, been with Baptist Health for the last six. Baptist Health is a 12 hospital system here exclusively in Arkansas. We've been here over 100 years and my primary role is to oversee a 225 bed tertiary care facility. It's pretty busy these days, chronically full to the brim. But I also have some system responsibilities that might be a little interesting as well. I oversee with some executive leaders, case management, lab, respiratory, and our contact center from our ambulatory front, in addition to our command center that coordinates all of the acute and behavioral health transfers from around the state and involves our bed placement logistics for our entire health system. Baptist Health's a $2 billion system with hundreds of points of access and we really strive to be a leader in innovation while making sure that patients get the best care possible close to home.
- [02:04]
B
Thank you. You've had a remarkable career. You won the administrator of the Year award several years ago. You also grew up as a nurse originally, I think Talk a little bit about as you look at this year. I'd love to talk about career in a moment in leadership because a great leadership career. Talk a bit about as you head into 2026, what are you most focused on? What's most top of mind as you look at this year and get going for this year?
- [02:35]
C
You bet. You know, we're watching a lot on the federal and state legislative front, to be honest. It's just, it's really, it's really volatile. Right? It's, you know, between the pretty premium tax credits expiration and the anticipated disenrollment through Medicaid, you Know, Arkansas had an experience with that in 2018 where we lost, you know, 25% of their enrollees through some work requirements. We kind of see that coming down the pipe. You know, the recent rule health information funds and the state distributions. What our state is looking to do under the leadership of the governor, you know, there's just so much going on. 340B rebate program, pause and site neutral payments reform. You know, we're watching all those things, right? All the while trying to manage what's right in front of us within our facilities. And you know, the consumer trends are really what I think is driving my everyday focus. You know, we have to manage our hospital, we have to do it efficiently. You know, that's the efficiency sometimes with our providers is our only currency with them. We have to manage a very efficient operation to earn their trust and caring for their patients. But OpenAI just released a report which I thought was fascinating. You've probably already seen it, but 40 million Americans are using ChatGPT for health related questions today and 600,000 of the messages coming in a week are from individuals in rural and underserved communities. I mean if we have to be maniacal about improving our access through tech enabled solutions, and you've spoken on that as Scott and you know how long it takes to get an appointment with a provider and our operational resilience sometimes and access to our services haven't always kept up with the incredibly advanced treatments and care we deliver. So you know, we've historically worked off of back and neck and math to manage our facilities. You know, and until recently, you know, we've rested on our laurels is that consumers are going to come to our hospitals or our healthcare system because of what we offer. And you know, we've got to flip that script really hard here because we're honest with ourselves. We're way behind the curve in terms of other sectors leading in the tech solution world. If there's any reservation about whether consumers are looking for advancements in technology as it relates to healthcare, stories like the one I just mentioned show that they're already there looking for it. So we're doing that at Babys Health today. We're focused on that right now and will continue to hit the gas in the days ahead.
- [05:19]
B
What is sort of, it seems like so many of the access problems are due to not not just tech and scheduling, but also due to just shortages of physicians and labor. What does that look like today in your area in Little Rock? Little Rock's a great city. What do shortages look like, is it challenging? Brutal, not so bad. What does it look like in terms of shortages and being able to staff everything you need to staff in the right specialties and everything else?
- [05:47]
C
Yeah, it's still significantly short in terms of providers to demand, you know, and it's difficult to recruit to a state like Arkansas as well, you know, where cost of living is good. But we're playing on a national scale as far as comp and those expectations. So that presents its own challenges when folks can go to other states and make what they expect. But we're reimbursed at a different level in Arkansas. In fact, we're 50 out of 50 in both government and commercial pay. So we're on a different reimbursement scale in both those buckets. But yet physicians are expecting a compensation that is commensurate with other competing states. That aside, the residency slots for the number of physicians that really are projected and needed in a market like ours are woefully short to meet that demand. And you've spoken on that in the past, and I couldn't agree with you more on maybe the lack of speed inside of our GME programs to train up enough physicians to get us in a place that's going to satisfy that demand. Right. So we've taken a step towards that. A big step, frankly. In bow to self, we've partnered with the University of Arkansas for medical science at UAMS and opened a GME residency training program here in North Little Rock about five years ago and have scaled those residency slots to 117 residents here on our campus, where there were.05 years ago, with the hopes to continue to do that more in our rural markets. It's been a very big success for us, but it's only really scratched the surface, as you can imagine, for what's needed in our market and in our state and particularly in our rural markets, where it's even more dire to recruit and train folks for the future.
- [07:54]
B
Thank you. And when you look at sort of the. I mean, it's fascinating what you talk about. 50th of 50 in commercial pay, 50 to 50 in government pay, but yet the state's a growth state currently, and they've got some big, big employers that must just present great challenges because you've got great needs in the state and the reimbursement seems really challenging. Just give me a little bit of that juxtaposition because the state's growing, it's got healthy employers, and anything we've done about that reimbursement, those reimbursement levels and rates.
- [08:27]
C
Yeah, it's a good point. You know, we in certain pockets have some, some really rapid growth. And you're right, the employer market here in Arkansas is pretty strong considering the size of the state. So it's a real struggle. And we work closely with our legislature and have been over the last few years in our hospital association to really help to bridge that gap. Because we treat patients across state lines from Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, that have much different pay structures than we do. And oftentimes there's stark disparity there in how we're able to overcome some of the inflation pressures that we've seen over the past few years, whether it's staff salaries or supply expense. We don't get a 50 out of 50 break when it comes to implants. We don't get a 50 out of 50 break on locum tenons or travel nursing. And so I think for us, you know, it's, it's having to do that creatively in other realms. Right. So we've been maniacal about capacity optimization because we really can't afford not to because we're, we, we have to be, you know, what we would consider the world's best in predictability and efficiency and reliability. I think for us, while we continue to work locally with our, our state legislation on payer reform, we have to kind of, you know, within that circle of influence, Stephen Covey analogy, focus on the things we can in the meantime to make sure that our operations are hyper efficient to really overcome some of those, those disparities.
- [10:18]
B
Thank you. Can you talk a little bit, Cody? You've got this incredibly inspirational leadership career. You're an incredibly straight shooter as well, and a pleasure to visit with. Can you talk a little bit about what advice you would give to emerging leaders and people trying to develop impactful careers?
- [10:34]
C
You bet. You know, we're all a byproduct of our upbringings. And I think for me, I've been very fortunate to have people that have spoken positivity in my life and you know, from sports as well. I know you're a sports fan, Scott, and, and I've had some good coaches and mentors along the way. But some things that I continue to cling on to, or maybe some phrases that mean a lot to me is one from my dad who said you become like the people you hang around. And that may be a little Arkansan in the way it's phrased, but it means a lot to me to know that it could go one way or another. You're influenced by those you surround yourself with and you want to be around people who are pushing you to, to be better, who are inspiring you to do great things and to speak positivity into your life, you know, because they always could go the opposite direction. And I think for me along my career I've tried to do that both with the teams I've built and the teams I've belongs to to ensure that that is causing me to be. To be better. Another one that is is that I would advise evolving leaders is don't let perfect get in the way of progress. Oftentimes I see that leaders spend inordinate amounts of energy trying to get something absolutely perfect before we try something. And there's a lot of value in being able to pilot and to try something even if you don't have it all figured out. As long as patients care and safety and quality is accounted for, we need to get out and give things a go. Maybe the final principles that I'd share are pretty simple, but just something I try to live life by and instill in others is listening first. We are so quick to speak these days. And there's a passage out of James, it talks about let every person be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger. And I think that's something I try to instill in my everyday whether it's physicians or frontline staff listening to them. You can get a ton of knowledge by being slow to speak. And then be data driven. You know, when data is available, don't be subjective. Be as much of an expert as you possibly can by leveraging that data and being resourceful to go find it. You know, that's kind of the principle of this lifelong learning concept. But. And the last thing is just to build trust, focus on showing up, focus on showing empathy and focus on serving others. And I think that helps to build that trust. So those are some of the things I think that that are that I'd share with evolving leaders today. Scott, I think we need more of it.
- [13:16]
B
No, Cody, I love all of that. From data driven to perfections, the enemy, the good, to who you surround yourself with to, you know, to constant learning and a lot more. I love all of that and I think it's right on. And you, you live that. I, I love it. I. I'll ask you one other question. The Razorbacks. Arkansas Razorbacks. As long as you mention sports, I'm a sports fan and I am. How are the Razorbacks? Football, basketball, what does, what does Razorback Nation look like? I know you're not yourself an Arkansas Razorback, but you are an Arkansan. Tell us what, what, what does that look like?
- [13:49]
C
Yeah, I, I was afraid you might ask that. I, I, I've been a part of, you know, pretty much significant heartbreak over the years. You know, I like to say that we as Razorbacks have the opposite saying that we have a unique ability to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. It's usually the opposite for us. We can play three and three quarters of a game with anybody in the country, but it usually comes down to the finish. But, you know, every building phase in football, you know, Coach Cal is doing great things on the court and basketball and I think we've got a goat and a Coach Van Horn in baseball and, you know, two out of the three, I'd put us up against anybody. But, you know, we've got a lot of work to do on, on the football field these days. So we got a new coach and Ryan Silverfield, and we'll see how it goes. But I'm a loyalist to the, to the Razorbacks, but sometimes that doesn't always pay out to, you know, a satisfying outcome year over year. But.
- [14:55]
B
I know the feeling. I'm a, you know, and I love your comment dos about listening more than talking. Just fantastic. And I love that. But I'm a Chicago sports fan and so I share your misery and the challenge and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We see it here often. Cody, it is a great pleasure to visit with you. What a pleasure for me. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker's Health Care podcast. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.