← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott King with the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Mark Salazo, Chief operating Officer of Northwell Health. Mark, how are you? It's a pleasure to have you. And I understand you have some. Some big news to share with us.
- [00:14]
B
Thank you, Scott. Yes, I do. After 30 years here at Northwell, I've decided to transition and retire at the end of the year. It is big news. I've been here since basically the beginning and the start of this health system. I've overseen all the growth. It is bittersweet. The sweet part is that transitioning to an internal candidate, Kevin Byner, who I've worked with for 20 years. So I'm very confident that between him and our new CEO, John DeAngelo, the organization will continue to thrive and grow in the future.
- [00:52]
A
You know, Mark, thanks for sharing this wonderful news with, with Beckers, and congratulations on an excellent career. Just want to know when. When you look back on, you know, the past 30 years with Northwell, what. What jumps out at you? What comes to mind?
- [01:07]
B
Well, you know, 30 years ago, Northwell was a very, very different place. It was then North Shore University Hospital, just joined one other hospital, forming the North Shore Health System back in the mid-90s. And it was really a place that had great aspirations, but no structure, it had no physiology of a health system, had an idea. And our job was to figure out how to put this thing together and how to continue to grow into the vision that the fledgling organization had. And so it's been a terrific ride. Very, very. In the early days, very strange. My. My current boss, Mike Dowling, who came down about one month before me, had called me up, asked me to come down, interview with him. He and I worked together for about 13 years before, and he wanted somebody that he worked with that he could trust, who shared vision, had some experience in health care. And I came down and as I said, a different place. Asked for Mike. He wasn't around. They didn't know where he was. They found him. We had a conversation toward the place, went back home. Michael called me that evening, said to me, basically, hey, Mark, I know you have a great job in Albany. Housing will cost three times as much, can offer you much more money, can't give you a contract, but I really think we can make a difference down here. After a long conversation with my wife and a bottle of wine, made the decision, took the leap and jumped into it. And the rest is basically history when I look back.
- [02:59]
A
That's a wonderful way to put it. A Wonderful story. Also, looking back, not just with Northwell, but your career in health care as a whole, how do you think you evolved as a leader over time?
- [03:11]
B
You know, I look back, and in the early days, I thought it was all about putting the pieces together, hitting developing budgets, hitting budgets, looking for strategic opportunities. And what I've come to learn over time, it's 90% people and 10% of that. What you have to do is really develop the people around you, find the best, make certain they continue to develop and shine, and develop a culture for the whole organization to make certain that everybody feels valued. Culture trumps everything. It truly does. And the people that you find that nurture that and excel make your life incredibly easier. So it's to me how I've developed and how I've matured and is I focused less and less about the widget pieces and much more about the development pieces, the human resource capital that we have.
- [04:14]
A
I know you're a big part of that culture change at Northwell that you were talking about, but what would you point to for your biggest, biggest accomplishments at that health system?
- [04:25]
B
So, you know, you could tick off a number of things that you're proud of, but truly, what I am proud of is really developing two things. First, as I said, the culture. And that is, it's a small word with huge implications. And it takes an enormous amount of time and dedicated, committed effort by senior leadership to walk the walk, talk the talk. It means getting out of your office. It means having small meetings with team members all the time. It means having breakfast with people, lunches, dinners. It means making certain that everyone feels valued throughout the organization. And when, as you grow and get large, which we are very large now, the effort multiplies. And so it has to be a conscious effort to constantly nurture the culture, because the culture will get you through rough times. The other important thing that I think I'm very proud of is the degree of systemness that we created here. This isn't a collection of entities. It's not a collection of hospitals and ambulatory facilities across the Northeast. It's a integrated, true physiological entity in which we all work together and you can't distinguish one piece from the other. If you pull a thread, it has implications throughout the system. And to me, that is a real strength in these times where you have to be nimble and you have to utilize the strength of being pretty large to get things done. And so, to me, those are the two biggest things, as I look back, that I'm proud of, because they'll carry you through anything.
- [06:23]
A
How have you seen the COO position change over time in health systems?
- [06:28]
B
Yeah, it has definitely changed. When I became coo, it was about really managing a budget. You develop the budgets for the entities and then you drove that throughout the year. It has become much more strategic, much more pivotal with the corner office in looking forward 5 to 10 years of where you want the business to be. It's not year to year, it's not quarter to quarter or month to month. It's now looking out five years. What are we putting in place that will make this organization thrive 5, 10, 15 years from now? Much more strategic.
- [07:12]
A
What are the biggest challenges you see for COOs in healthcare in the years ahead?
- [07:17]
B
Well, you know, I don't see challenges. I see opportunities. Because if I look back over the decades that I've been here, all the COOs in healthcare have faced enormous challenges. You know, you can go back to 2001, bioterrorism, 9, 11. You've seen amazing amount of mergers and acquisitions. We've dealt with consumerism, government regulation, aging population, technology, cybersecurity, pandemic, shortages of staff. We've had no shortage of challenges over the decades that I've been coo. And I am sure our in the current environment, we are going to face more challenges. They're going to see more challenges ahead. I see opportunity in the challenges. When people start worrying about the big beautiful bill or how are we going to face the next, the next pandemic, or, you know, to me, that is an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. How can we be stronger? How can we be ready five to ten years from now? How can we come out of these things stronger, more agile, ability to serve our patients better, think more strategically, act more locally, take care of the people that we need to take care of in the community. To me, those are all opportunities. And it's a wonderful, wonderful business to be in. It's an honor to be able to make a difference in people's lives. And so this isn't like a job that you go to Wall street and you have one thing on your mind about, you know, earnings this. You care about the people in your community that need you. And how can you make a difference every day?
- [09:08]
A
Do you have any advice for leaders in healthcare aside from embracing those opportunities you just spoke of?
- [09:16]
B
Yeah, and I'll go back to, once again, the two things that I think have made us successful and that I'm most proud of is concentrate on your people. Take the time with every team member. It's Just not the handful of doctors that drive your business. It's just not the C suite, it's the housekeeper, it's the nurse, it's the therapist. Every one of the team members throughout this organization, we're 104,000 strong now. Make us who we are. And that's why I say you can't supervise 104,000 team members. What you can do is create an environment, a culture of excellence, of caring, of dedication, of passion. And then, you know what I would do is concentrate on sending the message of what's important to the organization, what's important to our patients, what's important to the community and embrace that. Take the time to develop that, take the time to get out there. Because as a coo, new coo, you'll find the number of tasks, the number of things that you have to be involved with almost overwhelming. If you don't purposely cut out some time to deal with those more substantive long term issues, you're never going to reach the heights you can as a leader. So my advice is to purposely make the time to connect with all of your team members and walk the walk, talk the talk.
- [10:57]
A
I think that's some wonderful advice. And lastly, I just want to ask you, do you have any post retirement plans?
- [11:03]
B
So you don't go from 200 miles an hour to zero? So not at this time, but entertaining a couple of things. Do want to keep active, do want to keep my finger in something because I know in 30 days my wife would be kicking me out, telling me to go find something. So no hard plans yet, but always keep the doors open.
- [11:28]
A
Wonderful. And Mark, thank you so much for again sharing the news and doing this. It was great to speak with you and we wish you the best of luck.
- [11:34]
B
Scott, a pleasure. Really enjoyed it. Thank you.
- [11:37]
A
Thanks so much.