Meeting the Moment: Schneider Electric’s Commitment to the Pulse of U.S. Healthcare

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Episode: Meeting the Moment: Schneider Electric’s Commitment to the Pulse of U.S. Healthcare

Release Date: August 20, 2025
Host: Lucas Voss
Guests: Brahim Santos (US Segment Leader for Healthcare, Schneider Electric), Drew Byrd (VP, Enterprise Sales, Schneider Electric)

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on Schneider Electric’s evolving partnership with the U.S. healthcare sector. The discussion dives into the rapid surge in energy demand, the need for resilient and reliable hospital operations, and Schneider Electric’s strategic investments in innovation and support to improve patient outcomes. Brahim Santos and Drew Byrd explain how Schneider’s tailored approach addresses the unique needs of healthcare organizations, emphasizing continuous engagement and a “patient first” philosophy extending beyond initial project completion.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Schneider Electric’s Role in Healthcare (00:41)

• Drew Byrd introduces Schneider as a global leader in energy management, automation, and digital solutions, with a mission to help customers achieve critical objectives related to infrastructure, resiliency, and sustainability.
  • Quote: “We serve a variety of end markets with solutions focused around electrical infrastructure and digital technology solutions, automation, resiliency and sustainability with really the end goal of providing our customers support around their most critical business objectives.” (00:41)

2. National Energy Trends and Healthcare’s Growth (01:12)

• U.S. electricity consumption is at an all-time high and will continue to climb, driven in part by healthcare's infrastructure needs—more beds, aging populations, and the electrification of hospital systems.
• Drew Byrd highlights Schneider’s response:
  • $700M+ investment in US operations by 2027.
  • 22 US-based manufacturing sites for faster delivery and support.
  • Recognition: Gartner’s #1 global supply chain organization for three consecutive years.
  • Quote: “Schneider Electric recently announced our planned investment of over 700 million in U.S. operations through 2027... Our commitments to US manufacturing empowering the US economy are really stronger than ever.” (01:50)
  • Quote: “For the third consecutive year, Schneider Electric ranked as Gartner's number one global supply chain organization.” (02:51)

3. Healthcare-Specific Tailored Partnerships (04:02)

• Schneider employs a dedicated healthcare segment in the US, offering access to a broad portfolio and industry-focused experts.
  • 21,000 employees drive digital transformation.
  • Over 1,200 service reps ensure “always-on” healthcare facilities.
  • Engagement spans from design and ideation to first patient and ongoing operations.
  • Quote: “Our healthcare team is led by core account leaders aligned to customers... One really important area for healthcare is services.” (04:40)
• Brahim Santos’s background from the healthcare “owner side” enhances Schneider’s empathetic approach.

4. Understanding Customers & Customizing Solutions (06:39)

• Brahim Santos underscores that each healthcare organization’s needs are unique; Schneider’s first step is listening.
  • Many clients only know about Schneider’s traditional products, not the full digital offering.
  • Key message: “Don’t let the tail wag the dog”—begin with client needs, not products.
  • Quote: “Often it's just the tip of the iceberg of them understanding what Schneider has to offer for them... We try to figure out who they are and how we can best help them.” (07:28)

5. The “First Patient” Philosophy and Day Two Support (09:09)

• First Patient is not the finish line, but a checkpoint:
  • Major projects focus on the moment a facility treats its first patient, but support and improvement continue from day two onward.
  • Unscheduled downtime is unacceptable—focus is on reliability.
  • Two healthcare R&D innovation hubs ensure continuous engineering improvements.
  • On-site validation labs allow clients to test and validate equipment before broad deployment.
  • Quote: “We have to make sure we don't see first patient as a finish line, but it's really a checkpoint… Now it's all about patient care.” (09:17)
  • Quote: “With a lot of our digital deployments, we will actually create on-site validation labs so that our clients can actually test and validate what equipment is going to be deployed.” (10:23)

6. Continuous Improvement & Innovation (11:04)

• Both guests reiterate that as energy consumption and digital innovation accelerate, solution partners must also evolve.
• Continuous support and consistent innovation are essential for healthcare resilience.
  • Quote (Lucas Voss): “Partners need to progress, just like Schneider Electric is progressing to be able to support health systems the best way possible.” (11:20)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Healthcare is mission critical and how we engage with our customers really starts from design and ideation stage on through to project completion into first patient and beyond...”
  – Drew Byrd (05:28)

• “Unscheduled downtime... is unacceptable. Right? Especially on scheduled downtime.”
  – Brahim Santos (08:08)

• “We no longer allow the tail to wag the dog. Right? We try to figure out who they are and how we can best help them.”
  – Brahim Santos (07:48)

• “We have to make sure we don't see first patient as a finish line, but it's really a checkpoint...”
  – Brahim Santos (09:17)

• “With that, in addition to figuring out what's needed in the industry from an engineering standpoint, we have continuing engineering where we make sure that we hone in and we keep those offerings crisp and relevant...”
  – Brahim Santos (09:58)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:41 — Introduction to Schneider Electric’s focus and offerings
• 01:12 — Impact of rising US electricity demand; Schneider’s investment in domestic operations
• 04:02 — Dedicated US healthcare segment and tailored support strategies
• 06:39 — Customer conversations: Customizing solutions beyond standard offerings
• 09:09 — The “First Patient” concept and ongoing, real-time operational support
• 11:04 — Importance of innovation and continuous improvement

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Summary & Takeaways

Schneider Electric recognizes healthcare as a highly specialized, mission-critical sector facing accelerating demands in energy and resilience. The company is responding with major investments in US manufacturing, a robust supply chain, dedicated healthcare teams, and ongoing support that prioritizes patient care and operational continuity. They advocate a long-term, partnership-based approach, underpinned by constant listening, innovation, and day-two operational support—helping healthcare organizations not just meet, but exceed, the operational challenges of today and tomorrow.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi everyone, this is Lucas Voss with Becker's Healthcare. It's so great to have you. Thanks for tuning into the Beckers Healthcare podcast series. Very excited to have two guests from Schneider Electric. Join me for today's conversation. Brahim Santos, Schneider's US Segment leader for healthcare, and Drew Byrd, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Schneider. We'll touch on a lot of topics today. We'll have a lot to discuss, but we're certainly focusing on how they partner with healthcare organizations to strengthen operations strategy and most importantly, enhance patient care. Brahim and Drew, welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you.

[B]

Thanks.

[C]

Great to be here.

[A]

So great to have you. Could you just give us a brief introduction over who Schneider Electric is?

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. Schneider Electric is a global energy management technology and automation company. We serve a variety of end markets with solutions focused around electrical infrastructure and digital technology solutions, automation, resiliency and sustainability with really the end goal of providing our customers support around their most critical business objectives related to digitization and infrastructure.

[A]

I want to start off sort of laying the baseline here a little bit. I was doing some research for the podcast and I found that the U.S. energy Information Administration recently released data showing U.S. annual electricity consumption will increase in 2025 and certainly 2026, surpassing the all time high reached in 2024. And Drew, I'd love your viewpoint of this. Right. A lot of that is commercial electricity, which health care falls into. What are you seeing in the health care market today that's sort of changing the way Schneider Electric does business, that you do business. Give us the perspective there.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Lucas. I see it's, it's likely no surprise to anyone that we're in a period of hyper growth here in the US A lot of this is fueled by AI, of course, continued data center construction, resurgence in American manufacturing. But also health care is playing a key role in this as well with increasing infrastructure requirements. Look, populations are aging, we're seeing new beds and we're seeing growing electrification needs. So to support this increasing demand, Schneider Electric recently announced our planned investment of over 700 million in U.S. operations through 2027. To support this. We have 22 manufacturing sites domestically in the U.S. already. And this enable us to have faster to market capabilities to support our healthcare customers in this period of hypergrowth. And our commitments to US manufacturing empowering the US economy are really stronger than ever. And lastly, I'd like to share that for the third consecutive year, Schneider Electric ranked as Gartner's number one global supply chain organization. And really I see that as evidence of of our strong commitment to journey our journey, supporting our healthcare customers to enable them to thrive and succeed and meet their organizational outcomes in this period of hyper growth.

[A]

You mentioned one important word which is support. And I want to touch on that here a little bit with you, Drew. But I do want to pull our listeners to a blog on your website which I thought was very, very fascinating. The rise of the all Electric hospital Built for care, powered by innovation. You should read that. It's fantastic. It's a great read. Gives great cont over why this is so important, why Schneider Electric's work is so important, if you can. But again, it comes down to the fact that, Drew, you've made this a priority, a top priority. Health care is a top priority. You mentioned the investments, right? What are some of the steps that you're taking? Not just to be that, hey, we'll get your electric grid ready to go, we'll get everything where it needs to be. But truly be a partner. Then coming back to what I said, right? The support be a partner to the health care community supporting them.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. And for us, it's a unique type of customer and I think each customer has to have a really tailored approach just for them. And healthcare has been a global focus for Schneider Electric for a long time and very purposeful to us in the US market. But now more than ever, we're really doubling down our planned investment in US operation, including investment into our healthcare segment, creating dedicated teams focused on the industry and really representing the full portfolio of Schneider solutions and products for how those can help healthcare customers achieve their journey providing better patient care. Just across the US we have 21,000 employees aligned to digital transformation and really organized to support our customers. Our healthcare team is led by core account leaders aligned to customers with access to all of the dedicated subject matter expertise across Schneider Electric really to simplify on the customer's behalf. One really important area for healthcare is services. So these healthcare representatives for Schneider are providing access to over 1200 service representatives to ensure that our healthcare customers are always on. Healthcare is mission critical and how we engage with our customers really starts from design and ideation stage on through to project completion into first patient and beyond for operations and services. We really take a lot of importance in ensuring that our customer team is experts not only in Schneider Electric electrification, digitization and all the solutions we provide, but being an expert in the industry, as evidenced by bringing Brahim to our team who will introduce here momentarily as our segment leader who actually came from the owner side and has Deep experience in the healthcare industry, building and operating hospitals.

[A]

Yeah. And you mentioned this in your answer to our first question. Right. It's such a specialized industry that you really need those dedicated teams, those folks that really know what they're doing to be able to truly drive strategy forward, improve that operations piece, and then also, as we've mentioned earlier, enhance patient care. And Brahim, I want to come to you here, I want to be a little bit more specific on what this actually look like, looks like in practice, right. When you're meeting healthcare folks with, with leaders, et cetera, what are some of the conversations that you're having with them? How do they actually then lead to improvements? What does that look like for you?

[B]

Yeah, so, yeah, for sure. And I think with any conversation we have with anyone, right. They're. They're all unique, Right. So every customer in itself, although, you know, still being a healthcare client, if you will, a healthcare system, they have their own unique desires, intents and issues, if you will. Right. So I think one of the things that we really focus in on is understanding who they are first. We need to understand who they are, what their struggles may be, and again, what their ultimate goals are for that given year or for the long term. And then also there's another topic that we have to make sure, you know, as we have our introductory conversations with them, do they even know what we could do? Like, because often it's just the tip of the iceberg of them understanding what Schneider has to offer for them, or sometimes that that tip of the iceberg isn't even showing, if you will. So we take a second to just remind them, like, hey, you know, if maybe you are familiar with who Schneider is. From a major gear standpoint of our Square D offering, we do also offer digital solutions, right? Like we offer a whole digital platform of solutions to help you manage your physical infrastructure that ultimately provide better patient care. Right. And that is provided through, if you will, reliability in the sense of not having to worry about your equipment or your infrastructure going down unexpectedly. Because if there's one thing that is shared across all health systems is that they'll afford to have any downtime, it's unacceptable. Right. Especially on scheduled downtime. So just kind of briefing them on who we are again, but then kind of reversing that whole mindset of leading with product or offering, we no longer allow the tail to wag the dog. Right? We try to figure out who they are and how we can best help them.

[A]

And again, you've touched on a very, very critical piece which is that interruption piece of patient care first. Right. We need to make sure patients have what they need. And I was wondering if you could touch a little bit on a concept that I, you quite frequently talk about, which is the, the sort of the concept of patient first. First patient should really be the focus. Right. I was wondering if you could unpack that a little bit, what that looks like in practice. And especially when you look at day two services and real time responsiveness really after deployment. Right. When everything's done, how does that impact that first patient concept?

[B]

Yeah, no, for sure. Especially when it comes to major projects. Right. We have to make sure we don't see first patient as a finish line, but it's really a checkpoint, if you will, because we'll start with the design, what the needs are of that given health system. Right. And then we're going to be hyper vigilant and focused on that first patient. Right. It is actually a whole big process of having that first patient treated within that new healthcare facility. But then we're talking seconds after that. You've cut ribbons, you've let balloons go, but now it's all about patient care. And we have to figure out what we need to do to make sure that we sustain that facility from day two on so that again, there's no downtime. So really it is that kind of checkpoint. And then we have to really focus on what's needed from a maintenance and operation standpoint, again to keep those doors open, to keep that patient care going. So for instance, here at Schneider Electric we have two healthcare specifically focused R and D innovation hubs. So with that, in addition to figuring out what's needed in the industry from an engineering standpoint, we have continuing engineering where we make sure that we hone in and we keep those offerings crisp and relevant, if you will, to what is needed within our healthcare segment. And in conjunction to what we provide on our sites here at Schneider Electric, often with a lot of our digital deployments, we will actually create on site validation labs so that our clients can actually test and validate what equipment is going to be deployed within their facilities so that they can understand how they work alongside with our product and other products. So to make sure that it does work properly before it's ultimately deployed across however many patient rooms or however many sites they have on our campuses.

[A]

Yeah, I think that continuous improvement piece that you've mentioned is so important today as well. Drew kicked us off, right. Mentioning how the energy consumption piece is such a big part of this conversation because it's only going to get more and more and more. We talked about digital innovation. It's continuously progressing and so do partners. Partners need to progress, just like Schneider Electric is progressing to be able to support health systems the best way possible. Jerome Brahim, thanks so much for your time today. Thanks for the insights. What a great conversation. Thanks for being here.

[B]

Yeah, Lucas, thank you.

[C]

Thank you for having us.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. And we also want to thank our podcast sponsor, Schneider Electric. You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.

[B]

Com.