← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
This is Madeline with the Beckers Healthcare podcast and I am thrilled to be joined today by Robert Sabina, CEO of HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center. Robert, thanks so much for joining me.
- [00:12]
B
It's my pleasure to be here.
- [00:14]
A
So Robert, before we kick things off, do you mind sharing with our listeners just a little bit about your background in healthcare and more on your organization?
- [00:22]
B
Absolutely. So I've been in healthcare for about 20 years now. My graduate degree is in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration from University of Minnesota. I've been working in the Houston market for the entirety of that period of time. Postgraduate, I worked for several of the health systems in and around Houston, starting in the Texas Medical center with St. Luke's Episcopal Health System and then moved over to another system and joined HCA about 10 years ago. Now I remember the day, it was August 24, 2017 and I remember that date because it was two days before Hurricane Harvey. So my first week was seeing the power of HCA responding to a catastrophic weather event and it was a really powerful start for me. So I've been in a couple different areas, mostly the operations field within healthcare as I moved up and currently occupy the role of Chief Executive Officer at our medical center facility, HCA Houston Healthcare Medical center, located right here on the north side of Herman Park. A beautiful view out my window today on a sunny Monday afternoon and blessed to be have the opportunity to to work here.
- [01:34]
A
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing and honestly, surprisingly here in Chicago it is also a sunny day, so I'm very happy to have some good weather. So again, thanks for, for kicking us off with sharing a little bit on that background there. First question I have for you here. So April was National Volunteer Month. We with this in mind, could you share how HCA Houston Healthcare Medical center approaches its volunteer program and what role do student volunteers play in this day to day life at your facility?
- [02:03]
B
Yeah, thanks for the question. I'll start at a higher level in saying, you know, our approach to volunteerism here at HCA Medical center is a pretty simple one. You know, we want it to be meaningful for the volunteers but also really connected to what the needs are of the facility. And so volunteer is really integrated into the part of the day to day experience for our patients, visitors and our clinical care teams. Anywhere from greeting patients as they come in the front entrance, welcoming them to our facility, walking them throughout the facility, help them way finding, supporting in areas like surgery, reception, the emergency department, and assisting with various administrative tasks that are needed across the facility. For students in particular though, that's A really valuable kind of intersection between, you know, value to the student volunteer as well as value to the organization. Value to the organization is the same when it comes to supporting our administrative and clinical departments, but value to the individual as they get this exposure to healthcare for the maybe the first time, or maybe seeing it in the acute setting for the first time, which can be a much more complex interplay of departments and roles and personnel than many of the other settings of healthcare. And so for them to try out and say, is this something that I'm passionate about, get exposure to it firsthand, see it with their own eyes, and then maybe generate an interest in healthcare as a profession. And we partner with several training programs throughout the Houston market and throughout the country really to pipeline these volunteers then into clinical roles and then up through advanced clinical roles, if that's their desire. So it really is a great opportunity for them to, to get exposure on the front end and support our mission and clinical enterprise along the way.
- [03:48]
A
That's so cool to hear. And you know, volunteering obviously is just so important in the first place, but also getting exposure to an industry that, you know, one of our main challenges has been workforce recruiting, retaining. So maybe on like a broader level, could you share the value of exposing these young people to these types of environments and kind of working on that recruitment, retaining any examples you can share, maybe how this might hopefully shape their perspective on a healthcare career?
- [04:16]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And actually, I use a personal example from one of our executives. This really can be a powerful, life altering experience for folks. We have a senior executive at the hospital today that 25 years ago started as a volunteer in an emergency department, one of our sister facilities within the Gulf coast division of hca, and started there as a volunteer, moved on into a peace CT role because his interest in healthcare was sparked by seeing it firsthand. Right? Being able to kind of put your eyes on it, making healthcare feel real. What does it actually look like in person versus, you know, what do I imagine healthcare to be? And that passion was ignited in him and he moved in to a PCT role, patient care, tech support role, then went on to nursing school, supported by HCA, moved into leadership over the course of his next 15 years of his career, and eventually into executive leadership at multiple campuses. And so a real success story of building a career that was sparked by that initial exposure to volunteerism in one of our emergency departments throughout the facility. Healthcare is a complex field and it can feel intimidating. You see it on some of these TV shows. It's made to look exciting it's not always that, but it's always interesting and it can be intimidating for these young folks, but to expose them to that early, to show them what healthcare looks like actually at the bedside and in these organizations really broadens their perspective and allows them to think about not just one role, but healthcare is a combination of many, many different roles. And maybe there's something that appeals to them, whether it's a doctor or a nurse or radiology tech or a transporter. Right. I mean, where's your passion and how do you connect that if healthcare and altruism and supporting human life and the care of human life is something that you're passionate about?
- [06:13]
A
Yeah. The sky's the limit for these younger volunteers and getting that hands on work, I'm sure is so exciting to many of them. So thanks for sharing that awesome example. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, April was National Volunteer Month and it's a moment to recognize service. But obviously at organizations like yours, volunteers are a part of this fabric year round. So how do you think about the relationship between community service and that long term healthcare workforce pipeline even even further? Like, what do you envision in three to five years with this program?
- [06:45]
B
Yeah, obviously, you know, it's an important kind of dipping the toe in the water volunteerism really where community service and future opportunity kind of come together. Volunteer Month in particular, it's a great time to recognize contributions but, but also to reconnect as healthcare professionals who've chosen this profession maybe a decade or two decades or three decades or more ago, we have one 50 year employ who was here in 1975 when the doors opened. And so we provide opportunities to connect with the community even today for our leadership teams, our bedside colleagues with partner organizations throughout the Houston market. But for students, it really becomes the starting point of their connection to community service. For many of them, particularly our volunteering program. So they come in, they give it whatever time they can, and along the way they start asking questions about, you know, where they might fit in healthcare or in service in another way. Because healthcare really is a service oriented profession and calling and that's how interest can sometimes when we see it, you know, in every one of these classes, every one of these volunteer programs, interest turns into direction, whether that's towards nursing school or towards the medical school or towards one of our allied health programs. So it really becomes this connection to I can do something, make a living doing it, and do it with a service mentality and mindset. Creating those early experiences really helps students explore and Build confidence and begins to see themselves as a future in healthcare.
- [08:21]
A
Yeah. And I have to ask you too, I mean, again, touching on the fact that here at Becker's even we've covered a lot of workforce challenges, recruiting, retaining all the things, even the cost behind it. So what does it mean for you as a CEO to. To sit back and watch these young people, you know, light up when they're around health care workers and really start to see maybe a future passion there?
- [08:43]
B
You know, it reminds me of going back to when I started in health care and I wasn't a clinician. You know, I came into health care with an engineering background and it kind of speaks to the. What turns you on about this profession? I had an interest in being in a serving, you know, servant organization, something that gives back some altruistic bent to it. And for me, what I like to do is solve complex problems. And so I see. And that's how I got in healthcare. But when I see these students connect the dots and see how many diverse professional opportunities there are to pursue.
- [09:18]
A
Yeah.
- [09:18]
B
And they get excited about that, it really reignites the fire in me. And it's a really powerful perspective to have the young folks coming in particularly and seeing something that really, really turns them on to a profession that is a profession of giving. So the experiential aspect of that is really where there's power. And we know certainly as adults, but even younger folks, experiential learning and really getting that hands on experience where they can see the pace that the teamwork, which is obviously critical in healthcare, and then the humanity, the human side of how people communicate and support one another and make a difference in these people's lives that are coming to us in some of their toughest moments. It's a powerful thing that can't be replicated in a lot of professions. And I think that reminds us all of why we got in this industry in the first place. And it's a powerful perspective to have as part of our clinical team.
- [10:19]
A
Yeah, that is so true there. But for a student who might even be on the fence about whether medicine is the right path for them, what would you say this hospital volunteer experience offers them that maybe a textbook or classroom maybe couldn't.
- [10:34]
B
That's a great question. You know, I'm a big fan of the man in the arena quote, and I think this kind of speaks to that which is experience is the best perspective provider. So for hospitals, you know, students can experience all diverse kind of sets of what it really looks like to care for patients and it's always rewarding. It's often rewarding. It's not always exactly what you'd picture it would be. But by gaining that real world experience, you can really understand. Hey, is this something that I can see myself doing? You know, theory in classroom is important and critical to the learning process, but that hands on, putting knowledge to practice, putting experiential learning into the kind of scaffold of knowledge that these, these folks have just a critical component to connecting to the why of. Is this something that I, that I'm passionate about as a profession and I can see myself doing with my life?
- [11:27]
A
Yeah, for sure. I mean even for someone like myself, like to have that hands on experience, I feel like would be more of a like interest to me than maybe just reading about it. Right. So like that is such an important component of this. So. Well, Robert, thank you so much for sharing more about this volunteer program and the examples you provided today. Very important topic and it's been such a pleasure speaking with you. We're excited to chat with you again sometime soon.
- [11:53]
B
It's been a pleasure speaking with you as well. Thank you very much for the time.
- [11:56]
A
Thank you.