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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Dr. Paul Casey, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Rush University System for Health
00:15:10
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- [00:00]
Scott Becker
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by a physician who has had a remarkable career. We're joined today by Dr. Paul Casey. Paul's the senior Vice president and Chief Medical Officer at the Rush University System for Health. For people that don't know that much about the Rush System for Health, Rush has done this incredible job of being one of the best academic medical centers in the world to go with being an incredible safety net and contributor to the greater Westside community. It really handles an amazing, amazing mission. Dr. Casey, can you take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about the Rush system?
- [00:45]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, absolutely. Happy to, Scott, and thank you again for having me on today. I really appreciate the opportunity. So a little bit about the Rush system. We're located on the west side of Chicago, is our flagship medical center. We're a three hospital system with a number of locations throughout the Chicagoland area and really spanning west. And you know, our. Our mission is to truly transform healthcare and lift the communities we serve as well, which are predominantly our near west side and Southwest side communities. So we take a tremendous amount of pride in that work as well. And about myself, well, back to the beginning, I was born in Ireland, but I moved over a long time ago. So I lost my brogue a long time ago. I trained in emergency medicine and internal medicine and joined Rush 15 years ago and currently have the pleasure of serving as the system Chief Medical officer. And in that capacity, you know what's really kept me engaged at Rush is there's always new challenges, new things to take on. So I, for several years was in informatics as one of our associate Chief Medical Informatics officers. I ran our university medical group for a couple years. And then in addition to the usual chief medical office work, currently I'm overseeing the our enterprise lab and pharmacy, as well as our digital transformation work at Rush.
- [02:07]
Scott Becker
So one of the things I will tell you is, as far as I could tell, Dr. Casey, who's had a remarkable career, is the first participant we've had on the podcast. And I think we've had 7,000 guests over the last seven years who attended the American School of the Hague. And so, Dr. Casey, I guess my question is you've got this fascinating worldview, you know, both Boston College, Loyola and UMass and a lot more. What are the most interesting trends you're watching today? There is so much change going on and so much concern. How do you view that with sort of the broader prism you've got of having Spent time at the American University of Hot Hag and I'd love to hear how that happened or your family was there. And then also being an emergency physician now being a leader, how do you look at all this change or threats and how do you think about it and you know, how does it leave you feeling?
- [03:06]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, absolutely. And thanks, Scott. I appreciate the deep research. I'm impressed. Actually, just to touch on, I did spend a couple of years in the Netherlands, actually my last couple years of high school in the Netherlands. And it really did help, you know, kind of, I think shaped my perspective on many things, my time, my time in Europe overall. And you know, I think really in terms of your question around, you know, what are we currently watching, what are the things that are concerning. It does, you know, the recent pandemic even puts things in perspective. Right. Every challenge is truly surmountable and while day to day it may not always feel that way, I'm really always confident and optimistic that, you know, we are going to navigate these waters and get through. I think, you know, the main pieces that we're really focused on now are some of the, you know, every health system thing in the country and even throughout the world faces margin pressures. And you know, that's really exacerbated when there's shifting policy landscape. It's exacerbated by some of the cost structure challenges, the labor and supply challenges. And then also you layer on top of that, you know, just health care economics overall and the payer dynamics. I think all of these things are going to continue to stress the margins. And when policies can change overnight, you know, that only leads to a little bit more anxiety over, you know, what, what, how you plot that future, how you plan for five, 10 years and to make sure, you know, that we're still here in 100 years as well as a health system. So I would say that's one of the main things, you know, that I think keeps us all busy. I'm also as part of the digital transformation work, I'm very interested in the continued evolution of our digital transformation and some of the non traditional entrants into health care in the digital startups and how as an academic health center, we can really be at the leading edge, not just from a leadership perspective, but from a research perspective on things like AI and implementation of AI and all sorts of different transformation that we can bring on that front as well.
- [05:23]
Scott Becker
Thank you. And talk about one of the things that the CEO Dr. Lateef talks about is one of the most passionate, great leaders that we have in the country. He talks a lot about this life expectancy gap between the near west side and let's say the Gold coast in Chicago, which is just a metaphor for every single community in the country where there's this huge age gaps between rich and poor, between different socioeconomic groups, the average life resources could differ by 20, 30 years. What do you see there and what can we do to make an impact on some of those issues? And where's your thoughts on that?
- [06:00]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, I think that is really something that both has brought me and kept me at rush is our commitment to that issue. It's our, as I mentioned at the beginning, what won't change in spite of all the pressures we face is our dedication to improving the health of the communities we serve and the diverse communities we serve nearby the medical center as well. You know, sadly, Scott, while the life expectancy gap has really been long discussed, the recent data shows it's only gotten wider. Right. So in spite of a lot of great people doing incredible work, we have not really made a great dent into that gap. So, you know, we look at it, the opportunities are certainly one of the main drivers remains chronic disease, access to care and social determinants of health and the ability to be able to get to care as well. So we really think, you know, we are absolutely dedicated to continuing to expand our partnerships on the west side. That's something we've been really successful on, is finding community partners to engage. We're setting up a new health complex in West Garfield park called Cincopa Village that shared with many other partners, but is really part of that mission to truly create that access that doesn't exist today in some of these communities we serve. And you know, we're also looking, Scott, I mentioned the digital piece. We're also looking at, you know, how we can bridge that digital divide as well, because that's one thing. Certainly healthcare is headed that way and the digital divide is absolutely a real thing. And these communities are going to be left with behind without intentional effort. So we've put forth a lot of effort. We've actually partnered with a company named Nuna to try to do some work around blood pressure control, hypertension control in our Westside communities. And we're seeing a really great impact by engaging folks in that care and making it easy for them to be able to get engaged in that care as well.
- [08:07]
Scott Becker
That's fantastic. And Dr. Casey, take a moment on. You've already touched on a little bit of that, but what are you most focused on and excited about as we Move to the second half of this year and it's 2026.
- [08:20]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, I think there's a lot to be excited about. I remain really excited about our overall quality performance. We're doing a lot of terrific work around growing and expanding our lab and pharmacy capabilities. But one that I'm particularly focused and really engaged and excited on is some of this work we're doing to really bring care, you know, in a, in a way, in a more kind of digital forward and more accessible way than ever before. Because I think what we've established is, you know, quality is really our product as I see it. And we've, we have the, for great fortune to be, you know, at the top of the quality, you know, providing the best quality, I think in the country, amongst the best quality in the country. So now we need to take that and make sure that it's more accessible. And I think some of our digital work that we've done around digital consumerism is really, we're starting to see those inroads. We've, we've stood up a virtual urgent care, virtual primary care. We've, we've got virtual specialty care capabilities. And then actually as Becker's recently picked up, we're soon launching a Rush Connect plus offering which is more kind of a subscription based always on for folks looking for more concierge like care navigation as well. So those are things, you know, I think that that's the way the landscape is heading. There's a lot of, you know, this is the way that some of those non traditional, non traditional healthcare providers like Amazon are expanding those offerings as well. So I, I think we need to remain competitive in that space and not seed that, you know, part of the, part of the market and really bring the quality that we've already proven that we can provide into that space as well. So really excited and engaged on that piece.
- [10:04]
Scott Becker
Thank you. And as I've already noted, a huge fan of what Russia is doing. This ability to bridge, it's like Tampa General Hospital. This ability to bridge being extremely.
- [10:18]
Dr. Paul Casey
One.
- [10:18]
Scott Becker
Of the elite institutions in the country with being a great safety net is an incredibly challenging thing to bridge. And Rush does it incredibly well. Certainly I think of it the most so in our, in our greater Chicago area of bridging those two efforts. Talk for a second about Chicago too. But I think Rush is just so out there and trying to solve that mission and be incredibly great at what they do. I think it's an incredible balance. What advice would you give to emerging leaders? I mean, you've had this tremendous leadership career, from emergency doctor to leader, senior vice president, one of the great systems in the country. What advice do you give to emerging leaders?
- [10:58]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, you know, I really. I kind of distill it down to three things because I. I do, you know, I try to spend a lot of my time mentoring younger folks that are looking to get into leadership path. And, you know, there's. The first, I think is really, don't be afraid to raise your hand. Particularly early in your career, you really got to look, always look for new opportunities to learn and grow. And that's what's kept me really, you know, engaged and excited to this day. I look for, you know, new challenges. And I. I think back to when I first joined Rush 15 years ago. I was sitting at a meeting, and someone had asked, said, you know, the CMO is looking for someone to get engaged in a patient safety initiative. And to be honest, at that point, I, you know, I knew patient safety was important, but I didn't know an awful lot about it. And I raised my hand even as my inner monologue was saying, what are you doing? And without having raised my hand there, I wouldn't have started down this journey on safety and quality and likely wouldn't have had the opportunities that I've had today. So I think you definitely got to be, you know, willing to get. Willing to put yourself out there and throw yourself into some of that work, particularly if there's new ways to learn and grow.
- [12:04]
Scott Becker
And let me ask you a question about this, because I think this is a fascinating issue, because I couldn't agree with you more. There is this great complexity out there between raising your hand and volunteering and growing versus knowing when to focus and when to say no. Give me a sense of how you balance those two things. All of us know, as you get a certain amount of busy, you really have to prioritize what you're doing, what you're not doing. How do you balance that with the need to really grow and take on new things and new efforts?
- [12:33]
Dr. Paul Casey
Yeah, it's a great question, Scott, and another one that I commonly, commonly think about, certainly a lot. And the advice I always give folks is, you know, early in your career, I picture it like a funnel. And early in your career, you really got to be willing to step out there and learn a lot and put yourself into a lot of different areas. And that's what helps you to kind of narrow in on what you're passionate about, where you want to continue to learn and grow. And, you know, as that evolves over the first, you know, five, 10 years of your career, then you start having that, you know, seeing what are the opportunities that I just don't have the bandwidth that I need to, you know, get better at being able to say no to. And I, I think that's really how this evolves, and that's actually a skill in itself, is the ability to say, you know what? I can't take that on at this point, you know, appreciate the offer that, that is absolutely. That's a hard transition to make, but it really gives you that focus then, you know, toward where you ultimately want to end up.
- [13:29]
Scott Becker
No, I think that's right on. And I think most of us struggle with where to say no, where to say yes. But, but I do think there's such a hesitancy, some people, sometimes younger in their career, to say yes to everything. And quite frankly, you have to stretch yourself. You have to say yes to things to really figure out where you're supposed to be for the long run, where your passions, where you can contribute, you know, in all those things. So I think your advice is right on. On it. And as you get older, I, I struggle a little bit, you know, with more of a mix of things, but absolutely just that.
- [13:58]
Dr. Paul Casey
Just to add to that, Scott, I would say, you know, the other thing you got to get comfortable with is not all of those things you sign up for, not all those things you volunteer for, are going to be hits you kind of. You got to get comfortable. Everyone's going to feel failure at some point in their career on, you know, whether it's a specific initiative or part of their career. And it's not really, you know, it's not really the failure. It's more what you do from that point that really defines your leadership journey. So that's another piece that, you know, you get a lot of people that are discouraged that a path didn't quite play out, but it's where you take it from there. That's the most important piece there. There's a great quote from Thomas Edison I always, I love, which is I, I've never failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that didn't work. And I think about that often.
- [14:39]
Scott Becker
No, I absolutely love that. And I, and I can't tell you how much I agree with that. I, I love that. And it's something you have to a little bit in because you're going to make a lot of progress. You're going to hit some walls, you're going to hit some challenges, and then you got to figure out where you're going from there. Dr. Casey, I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to visit with you and to constantly be learning about the Rush system. Simply remarkable. Thank you for joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
- [15:02]
Dr. Paul Casey
Appreciate the opportunity. Thanks, Scott.