← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger and today I'm thrilled to speak with Kyle Glass, the Regional Chief financial officer at UChicago Medicine Advent Health. Enjoys the podcast today to share insights into his background healthcare trends. He's keeping an eye and a bit more Kyle, thank you so much for joining me. Could you get us started out by introducing yourself and sharing a bit about Your background and UChicago Medicine Advent Health?
- [00:23]
B
Yeah. So as you said, Kyle Glass are the had the privilege of being the regional Chief Financial Officer for our UChicago Medicine Admin Health facilities here in the greater Chicagoland area. I've been with Advent Health for 15 years in various finance roles. Started my career in audit, was an auditor for a number of years, then grew up on the healthcare finance side to move to the hospital operations Director of finance up through CFO of one of our markets in Florida and then about a year and a half ago moved Chicago to join the group here. And so I've new to Chicago, not new to the Midwest, grew up in Minnesota, so I'm familiar with the cold and challenges of the north country. But also it's been most of my healthcare career in Florida prior to my Chicago time. So been a CFO here with the group, like I said for 18 months. New partnership with UCM and so we really enjoyed my first year and a half here in this market.
- [01:18]
A
Perfect. Yeah. I'm no stranger to the cold as well being in the Midwest, but moving forward into the meat of the podcast a bit, can you talk about what trends you're currently watching in your role today?
- [01:29]
B
Yeah, so I think probably any CFO or healthcare executive you ask right now by has the first answer be the same. We're also tracking the one big beautiful bill, what the impacts will be. Right. So I think we're all very curious about how that lands and settles across various states. Illinois being an expansion state with a high number of Medicaid patients and clients and significant amount of Medicaid funding that we draw in partnership with the federal government. So really watching closely how the impacts that start to ripple out through the healthcare environment, what that means for our provider, tax payments in Illinois and extra reimbursement draw particularly at some of our facilities. So we have one hospital to safety net facility which draws significant Medicaid funding and really keeps that viable in that community and that sort of helped make sure that people have access to care in places otherwise might not. And as you start to see that funding source go away, what does that mean to the patients there in that market? And how do you redesign your care to actually meet that demand with the folks that need it the most there in those communities, as well as looking at what happens with the aca, the exchange plans across the market as the support for those changes, some of the tax benefits change for how consumers access those. What does that mean for those folks? Access to care both within our facilities as well as what they have access to when they leave our hospitals or leave our outpatient centers just within the communities themselves with private physicians and practice networks. What does that mean for the patient where they can find care? How do we make sure that what we're doing starts to meet that need differently in those markets? And there will be definitely impacts across the financial model and healthcare period. Medicaid's a plan that covers a lot of lives across across the country. You see anywhere from in Illinois estimates of 3 to 350,000 folks that might have access changes. And how do you adjust and think about what that does to your financial model and the way you deliver care when that's been supplementing the reimbursement for those individuals that no longer might have access to that? So I think it's one of the things that's top of mind for anybody in healthcare right now. So it's hard to get away from that. When you ask what's what we're thinking about today?
- [03:41]
A
Absolutely. And now looking into the future a bit. Can you talk about what you're most focused on and excited about in your role today?
- [03:49]
B
Yeah. So the continued growth and movement towards delivering care more efficiently I think is exciting in the industry. AI is the most common thing that gets thrown around with that. And how do you leverage your resources better as you think about shortages in caregivers in the future? On the nurses we're producing on an annual basis, number of physicians we're growing across the US and other places. How do you actually get more efficient, how you deliver care? And I think we're making great strides on a continual basis in that space. The number of virtual care options we have for patients across the system, the number of tools that are available to help providers, I mean, providers with nursing and in the physician space operate at top of license to make their jobs more efficient and help them do their jobs in ways that reduce burnout, but also allow us to continue to have higher levels of access to care for our patients with more limited resources. That we're producing on an annual basis, I think is exciting to see in health care. Also should help us on the cost side too, we're well aware that that's an expensive space that the country spends a lot of dollars on. So how do you automate what you can to help make the cost more efficient for your consumer to reach more people? I think it's an exciting trend also, I think excited about the opportunities as you grow in the outpatient space. So having more and more options for patients closer to home. And how do you meet the consumers where they are? One of the things we're very excited about is our focus around outpatient care in the community. And so not everybody needs to come into a hospital or wants to come into a hospital for basic levels of care and the ability to get that close to home where it's convenient for you to avoid patients deferring or waiting for care, I think is something the industry is starting to recognize more and more. And you're seeing more of those solutions being delivered directly to consumers either in their home, right around the corner from their home in a convenient way that's focused on them. The industry feels like it's definitely shifting towards a consumer focus and patient at the center of care. I think that's the right approach for, for really how you deliver whole person true health care when you put the patient first and what their needs are first.
- [06:01]
A
Got it, Got it. And now that we've looked into the future, looking back into the past six to 18 months, can you talk about an initiative project or something that you or your organization has accomplished that you're most proud of?
- [06:15]
B
So really the success of the partnership at University of Chicago is the first thing I would go to. We're about two and a half years into that partnership structure and really the combination of the best of academic level care delivered in the community setting closer to where our patients are. One thing that's worked really well between our two organizations, Advent Health and University of Chicago, has been that focus on how do I bring that high level care closer to where the community can access it, make it convenient for patients that they may not want to make the trip an hour downtown to have access to some of this and the forward thinking around how do we take that and expand that network as well, how do I make sure more and more patients can access that type of care and the ability to move them from one stage to the next. The strategic thinking around if I'm a patient that comes in for a basic level of care at one of my outpatient centers and I need to get access to a more advanced level of care at an inpatient facility, and then turns out I might need this high level procedure or transplant that can only be done in a few medical centers across the country. Having access to navigate that patient from their initial imaging study to their first visit with a more comprehensive provider in a community setting, directly to an academic center that has the ability to do any level of care that's needed. The thinking around the network and how do we make that easy for the patient to access and navigate through that care? I think it's been really exciting over the last 18, 24 months. In particular, as part of the partnership, the focus on the development of the physician network that also is integrated across the system. When you need a referral that goes directly from primary care into your cardiologist into your open heart surgeon, that all happens within the network seamlessly for the patient and really speeds up access to care in a lot of those situations when you want to get to the next stage quickly with some of those disease states. I think it's been really exciting over the last 24 months in particular and thrilled to have a partner like UChicago to do that with.
- [08:29]
A
That's amazing to hear. And now in the short conversation, I could tell that you're very passionate about what you do. And with that, can you share some advice for evolving leaders maybe looking to have the same impact and success in their careers as you have?
- [08:44]
B
Yeah, I think one of the things that's important for a leader to continue to focus on is that curious approach and that learning approach in the way you do your job. A lot of times I think people are stepping into a career and are waiting to be grown by the person they work for. Understand that's important for each leader to have that intrinsic motivation to grow themselves as well. And the continual approach to I'm going to step into my job every day trying to solve problems, to make what I do better, make the team around me better. I think is the right mindset to bring to work every day. The other thing I would say it's important is to, is to hire a good team around you. No one does it by themselves. Hire people that are smarter than you, that help drive things forward and that show up every day just like you do, to solve problems too, to advance the mission of the organization forward. You know, one of the things we talk about within Advent Health is being a steward of the business. That really means how do I make things better for the next people that come behind me? How do I make things better for the community around me? That's part of our focus on delivering on that whole person care, I think drives your work forward and I think showing up every day, understanding what your mission and your why behind what you're doing helps drive a different type of focus in your work. If you are connected to what you're doing, the results prove out on the back end that are just magnified differently in the end. The other thing I'll say is, I've heard someone say once that you are the solution you're looking for. And so oftentimes I think folks get in the mindset of waiting for someone else to come along and solve the problem, when really that's you are the solution to solve the problems. So are you bringing the right people around the table to solve the issues that are in front of you versus waiting for a solution to come to you? The continual focus on process improvement, continual focus on team development, on evaluating what you're doing and thinking about the next iteration of that. Don't be afraid to put something into play. Now that's a good start. While you're still working on version 2.0 and version 3.0, because healthcare is a continually evolving space and your solutions want to continue to evolve, but you got to start somewhere while you're thinking about what the next version is, the next version is. But being mindful of, you have to always be thinking about that next version. And that continual drive to, to make improvement is a key part of, I think, what drives success both with an individual as well as with the organization.
- [11:25]
A
Absolutely. That's excellent advice. Well, Kyle, I've enjoyed our time today, but before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know?
- [11:33]
B
No, I really appreciate the time, I really appreciate what you guys do to push information out and make sure that across the industry we stay connected. I think especially moving forward and looking at some of the changes in the political landscape and across our reimbursement platform, the more leaders across healthcare in general, the organization you work for, the background you have, can share best practices and information and stay aligned in the work. The better off our community is and the better off our patient is, which is awfully why we do what we do. And so I really appreciate what Beckers does to sort of keep folks connected to that information and just share the experiences of various individuals across the healthcare spectrum.
- [12:15]
A
Well, Kyle, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing your insights on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.
- [12:21]
B
Thank you, Chanel.