← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott King with Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Mark Bale, President and Chief Executive Officer at North Bay Health. Mark, it's a pleasure to have you on today. Thanks so much for joining us.
- [00:12]
B
Hey, thanks Scott. Appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk to you.
- [00:16]
A
Of course. I think we're having a great conversation about some of the kind of big opportunities and challenges in healthcare today. But before we dive in, could you please just introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
- [00:28]
B
Sure. Happy to. Yeah. As you said, my name is Mark Bale, President CEO for North Bay Health and we are a nonprofit, independent regional healthcare system. We serve three counties in the Bay Area in Northern California, and the system has been independent for the past 65 years. Something that is somewhat remarkable given the healthcare challenges over the past decade and particularly here in California. There are not many independent healthcare systems left in California, so we're proud to be one of them.
- [01:02]
A
Diving into some of the great things you've been up to at North Bay. What accomplishment are you most proud of from the last year?
- [01:09]
B
Sure, yeah, well, very proud of the work that we're doing around our. We really redefined our mission, vision and values as an organization. It was due for a refresh and as a new CEO, I felt was important for us to recenter the organization. So we completed that. And our, you know, we call it our true north, which is a play off of our name, is guided by our mission to improve our community's well being by providing convenient, accessible, high quality care that is close to home. So we think we can do that when we keep decision making at the local level, which is, you know, know, really the differentiator for us, you know, large national healthcare system model is impressive. However, you know, it can also create a great deal of complexity and oftentimes slows decision making down. So over the past year, one of our most significant wins has been expanding urgent care and primary care within the communities that we serve. Our goal is to add neighborhood clinics that are located within 15 minutes of every community we serve. That's a bold ambition. We've committed to add 10 new locations by 2030 and make a $250 million investment in that ambulatory network. And just in the last 12 months, we've opened four new locations and we have four more in development and construction. So by bringing these services closer to home, you know, we're preventing unnecessary hospital visits, helping manage chronic conditions more effectively, and, you know, really reducing barriers to care, all while strengthening our role as the trusted healthcare partner of choice in our region.
- [02:49]
A
That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing all that background information. And kind of goes into my next question. You touched on it a little bit. But what. What were those biggest organizational goals you set for 2025? You know, obviously we're more than halfway through now, but, you know, what were those big goals and how are you doing with them?
- [03:08]
B
Sure. Yeah. Well, most importantly, we wanted to ensure that we, you know, sustain financial, you know, and operational strength and stability. And so it's a challenging environment. It's been a challenging environment all year, and obviously it's going to continue that way in the next few years. So we wanted to make sure that we maintained, you know, that financial stability, adding unique lives into the system. So, really looking at the number of patients that we serve and are the strategies that we're implementing, are they having success? Are we seeing new patients that had not been in the North Bay healthcare system before, choosing to have their care provided here? And we've seen that. We've seen a really good increase in the number of patients that we're serving. So that's obviously a big part of that as well. We certainly focus on our workforce development, our teams. Those are they really, you know, everyone providing care at the bedside level or the exam level, it's probably where we spend most of our time is making sure they understand what our strategies are and what our tactics are that we're working on and what barriers they have to do that. And really focusing on retention. I'm really proud that our turnover rate is right now the lowest it's been in about a decade here, and it's hovering around 16%, which is well below national averages. So we're really happy about that. It signals that our employees are aligned with the vision, and I think that they're happy sort of being on this journey with us. So that's also a big focus of ours and of course, patient experience. If we attract new patients but they're not having a great experience, that's not going to translate in the long term. So we certainly are tracking that. We're seeing really good increase in our patient experience. It's certainly, you know, still has some opportunities in some areas, but almost across the board. Whether we're looking at our hospitals, we're looking at those urgent cares, we're seeing a lot of good traction in the patient experience.
- [05:14]
A
What are the big headwinds or challenges you anticipate for your system in the next year or two, and how are you prepping for those challenges?
- [05:23]
B
Yeah, I think that there's no question we're going to see some challenges in terms of the financial headwinds. Those are going to be here for some time. We, we simply do not have enough of the, you know, sort of the environment around us, the ecosystem, whether it's our medical or state programs or at the federal level. You know, we're going to see a lot of challenges in the next coming years and so we're going to have to find our way through that. And part of that means being very diligent about, you know, performing a really high level and very efficient level. We're going to have to continue to ensure that we work with our payers and try to figure out, you know, whether or not, you know, we can develop some new strategies and value based initiatives that can generate maybe some other revenue streams. We're also going to have to think about getting into more value based care so we, we can really shift from so much dependency on the fee for service. Because again, when you go back and you look at the fact that we're seeing again federal reimbursement, especially through Medicare, Medicaid, continuing to fall short of covering the full cost of care, we're going to have to think differently than we have been probably ever before. So we're doubling down on margin discipline, data driven decision making, performance improvement, while at the same time we have to still invest in services that improve access and health outcomes and keep us on our, on our mission.
- [06:57]
A
Here my final question for you. How are you evolving as a leader?
- [07:03]
B
Definitely always evolving as a leader. There's no question about that. I think that's, if I were to give advice to new leaders, it's that you have to sort of be centered around what your mission is as an organization and be willing to, you know, go on a journey and you have to be relentless, relentlessly focused on, you know, purpose. So asking yourself is what I'm doing bring us closer to the vision that we, we have as an organization? Am I adding value to the organization? Does it build trust with patients and staff? Does it elevate the quality of care and keeping that mission at the center? You know, because we all, we all face challenges and there's always going to be a time when the barriers are too grand or the financial headwinds are too great or the priorities dictate that we have to pull back. But you still have to have at the core, you know, that, that mission of the organization and also that inner sort of compass that you have that's guiding you as well. And that's the you know the values that you have because when you're faced with uncertainty you're not sure which path to take or the storm is affecting visibility of where you're going. That inner compass has the ability to help you find your way. And so I would just and I'm always doing that as a leader and I would encourage that of other leaders and most of my great mentors throughout my journey have helped me sort of frame what are my true values as a leader and as someone that is part of this journey with this organization and how can I help it move along.
- [08:49]
A
Some great words of wisdom there and thanks so much for sharing that and thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Mark. I think it was a great conversation. Look forward to working with you again soon.
- [08:57]
B
I do too. Scott. Thank you very much and appreciate all that Beckert's is doing for our industry. So thank you very much.