← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Monica N. Wharton, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
00:15:42
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- [00:02]
A
The most important healthcare decisions don't happen in isolation. They happen when leaders come together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings together more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives this April in Chicago. With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, Common Spirit and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning for policy shifts brief breaking through value based care barriers and building clinical teams that translate new ideas into real world care. Join top decision makers in the room April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit BeckersHospitalReview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right.
- [00:46]
B
This is Laura Deardle with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Monica Wharton, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Methodist labonar Healthcare. Monica, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:58]
C
Thank you Laura, and looking forward to participating today.
- [01:03]
B
Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because I know it's such a transformational time in healthcare today and we'll be talking a little bit about some of the cool things you've been up to over the last year or so and then what you are thinking about for the future. But before we dive in, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and Methodist Lobonar Absolutely, yeah.
- [01:21]
C
So I I have the privilege of serving as our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer here at Methodist Levonor Healthcare. I've been part of our organization for nine years and it's hard to believe so much time has passed. What gets me up every morning is every day. I'm inspired by the commitment and dedication of our associates who come to serve our patients and our communities. Just to give you a little background about our organization, we've been around for 108 years here in Memphis, Tennessee and we are deeply rooted in this community. We have an extraordinary team, as I mentioned earlier, of 12,000 associates and we call our employees our associates and 2,000 providers who support six hospitals including the region's premier pediatric hospital, our Le Bonner Children's Hospital, as well as ambulatory surgery sites, outpatient facilities, home health, hospice residents, and a broad range of physician and specialty practices. One thing I'm really always excited about highlighting about our organization is just the breadth of clinical expertise within our system. We've been recognized for our advanced work in transplant, heart and vascular care, neurology, cancer treatment, and then of course our comprehensive pediatric specialties. Notably, our Le Bono Children's Hospital serves as the only pediatric trauma center in the entire region which is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. But what truly distinguishes us, I think among our competitors and those across the community is just the combination of high end clinical trial capability we have. But it's with a mission driven purpose to improve every single life we touch. And that's the lives of both our associates and our patients, as well as the larger Memphis community. That includes the life saving work we do within our facilities, but also our programs, our partnerships and the outreach efforts that extend far beyond. In our community, Memphis is home, our patients are our neighbors and our calling is to meet their needs with compassion, excellence and a commitment to equity.
- [03:48]
B
That's such a great reminder and so helpful to understand all of the different ways that you're working within the organization to make an impact on the health of the community and wellness of the people that you serve. Now I'm curious, when you think back over the last year or so, what was the most important initiative you led? What did you do and what were the results?
- [04:06]
C
Yes, Laura, I'm happy to share with you. While there were a number of initiatives last year during 2025, I would say one of the most significant pieces of work I helped lead last year was what we call our Path Forward Initiative PATH, and that's phth, stands for Planning, Alignment, Transformation and High Performance. This is an initiative that's really foundational and, and shaping how we think about the future of our organization. As you know, health care is changing rapidly and for us continuing to serve the Mid south effectively, we needed a strategic, system wide approach to how we strengthen our financial position, optimize our operations and really build long term sustainability. I'm sure that's something on everyone's mind given all the challenges currently in health care. So our Path Forward journey really involves taking a hard look at where efficiencies could be gained across our systems, where duplication processes existed, and then where those opportunities exist for optimization. For us, it wasn't just about cutting cost. It was about becoming stronger, more agile and more aligned as a healthcare system. One major piece of our path forward was really our decision to transition our revenue cycle management outside of our organization. As you know, outsourcing is really never anything you do lightly. We hold ourselves accountable to examine whether the partnerships we examine are going to be beneficial for everyone, including our associates first, our organization and most importantly, our patients. We took a hard look at our revenue cycle and this was after going live on Epic in 2024, where we now had greater transparency into our overall operations. And from that we made a decision to go with Ensemble. I'm proud to say, although still new in the partnership, we're already starting to see some excellent examples of what it looks like when you outsource a decision as thoughtfully and strategically as we did within our organization. One, we're already starting to see some significant improvement in our revenue cycle performance. We're seeing better data visibility and actionable metrics through our ehr. The staff who transitioned to Ensembl have already given tremendous feedback about the training, the structure and support they've received. We've experienced some of our highest cash collection days since 2018, and our accounts receivable continues to decrease, which is a clear signal of a faster, healthier cash flow. This, for our organization has been tremendous. It's also allowed us to see improvements across our entire organization. And this, quite frankly, is allowing us to reinvest in access and recruitment and our technology and our priority clinical programs. For us, it wasn't just about a financial lift. It was really about long term financial sustainability and operational transformation for our organization, both of which we believe, well, positions us for the future. This is just one of the many initiatives that I'm proud of, but our path forward is certainly something that builds on the strength of our organization.
- [07:49]
B
That makes a lot of sense and, you know, is really helpful to understand that decision behind outsourcing, revenue cycle and then the outcome that you've seen as a result of your partnership with ensemble. I think it's so critical to have those partners that work well and understand your needs and then are able to help you deliver on the administrative side so you can focus on the clinical care side as well. I'm curious, when you think about 2026, what are some of the big priorities and headwinds you have on your mind?
- [08:16]
C
Well, as you know, the reality that healthcare has just been facing some increasingly intense challenges really over the past decade. Challenges that, as we know, really accelerated through the pandemic and they continue to persist today. Whether we're focusing on workforce or regulatory challenges, we know that there are a lot of challenges before us on a national scale. We're seeing continuum reductions in reimbursement and regulatory pressures, particularly around Medicare and Medicaid. We're also seeing rising Medicare Advantage denial rates, which create operational burden and financial uncertainty. Of course, as I mentioned, there are the workforce strains both in nursing and across a lot of the essential clinical and support roles that existed even before COVID but now have been more advanced. These challenges have been felt across the country, but here in Memphis, they've really hit us close to Home because we serve a population that relies heavily on government programs. Despite these headwinds, I'm incredibly optimistic about 2026. We're preparing to launch a new strategic plan and we're calling that our vision 2030. And central to that is going to be growth and access for our organization. We're really asking ourselves some big questions. For example, how do we expand access points across the mid South? How do we create more convenient, affordable entry points into our system? How do we meet patients where they are physically, financially and emotionally? How do we continue delivering high quality care at the lowest possible cost? The work we've done through our path forward has strengthened our foundation and this new strategic plan, our Vision 2030 will help us build on that foundation so that we can continue to grow, to innovate, and to truly elevate the patient experience across our entire organization.
- [10:33]
B
Wow, that's a huge goal and definitely very exciting to have that opportunity to continue to tackle some of those big challenges. I know so many health systems have. When you think about the workforce, when you think about working, you know, in changes coming around for the policy and CMS and everything else. But to have that kind of focus and drive and vision to grow and innovate is really, really cool. When you think about the next year as well, what do you think will be the hardest thing you'll have to do given all of these challenges and changes that are going to occur?
- [11:04]
C
Well, it's going to be our need to continue to focus on operationalizing some of the efficiencies we're trying to put in place, as well as managing our cost across our health system. This is significant for our organization, especially given some of the headwinds I mentioned earlier. But if you think about it, health care is really a human industry. It is the work that is built on compassion, that's built on trust and relationships. People rely on us at their most vulnerable moments and we're honored to be there for them. We also have the responsibility to make sound financial and operational decisions because the strength of our organization determines our ability to care for our patients today and 5, 10, 20 and 30 years from now. Balancing those two realities is probably one of the hardest parts of healthcare leadership. However, we know that the improvements we're putting in place are putting us on the right path as an organization. We must continue to make decisions that are going to be focused on our patient experience and keeping our patients at the center. We're also focused on supporting and protecting our associates and ensuring the financial sustainability of the organization. All of this requires tremendous discipline, it requires transparency and it requires a willingness to make difficult decisions for the sake of the long term health of the organization. It's a different time in healthcare. I think we all have to acknowledge that. But I think our commitment of putting the patient at the center will always be our North Star, to lead us in the right direction.
- [12:56]
B
That's fantastic to hear. And having that type of commitment I know can make a big difference for your patients and population. No matter what happens, you're able to do that. Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask, where do you see some of the best opportunities for growth as well?
- [13:11]
C
You know, just going back to our strategic plan, our Vision 2030. For us, those growth opportunities are about how do we expand access for our patients. So we, we have patients who want to receive care from Methodist Levanter Healthcare. We know the demand is there and our focus is going to be on removing barriers and opening additional doors. I'm just going to share a few ideas on where we are prioritizing. We want to ensure we're growing clinical programs and expanding appointment availability. We know there's tremendous opportunity to expand specialty care, particularly in areas like cardiology, neurology, pediatrics and outpatient services. We're looking at our workflow redesign, scheduling improvements, and clinical capacity modeling to ensure that our patients can get what they need and when they need it. We know this will strengthen our philosophy of Methodists. We'll see you now. This is all about access, responsiveness, and a consistent patient experience across every touch point. Whether a patient walks into one of our hospitals, visits our primary care clinic, or connects through a virtual care visit, we want them to feel that we are ready and available to serve them now. It's also important that we continue to meet patients where they are. Through community partnerships and outreach. Embracing digital tools and expanding reach, we're exploring new avenues to connect with patients. Growth for us isn't just about expanding facilities or services. It's about expanding trust. It's about connection and convenience for the people who rely on us most. And we want to make sure we're able to serve their needs.
- [15:05]
B
That's fantastic. Monica, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such an amazing conversation and I look forward to seeing you at our annual meeting in April. I know you'll be speaking on a panel and so it'll be really cool to dig a little bit deeper into some of these themes you talked about here as well as continue to connect and grow and keep this conversation going.
- [15:27]
C
All right, well, thank you Laura appreciated the time with you today. Always a pleasure.