AIA Podcast Episode 3

Podcast Transcript

Bill: Thank you so much for joining us on at the AIA healthcare forum. Happy to spend a little more time with you and do a deep dive on what’s happening at Keck medicine of USC. One of the things that I’m curious about are the projects that you have going on right now and and how those might be affecting or changing the way that you deliver medicine and the way that treatments are handled. Can you talk a little bit about the projects and then maybe about…

Shawn: absolutely. Yep. Phil and I’m I love to talk about it because I think we’re doing so much in this space. And so I’m happy to share this and get your expert opinions, but part of what we are doing at ke medical center, which is our main mothership, if you will, our high end tertiary quinary hub.

Shawn: Where we are the regional transfer center for really highly complex cases. Short of building a new tower, which many of the experts in the panel will be able to tell you is really getting costly. we’ve embarked on an extensive renovation. Three floors of our hospital are gonna be gutted and built out. Obviously again not necessarily ideal, probably best to start, but if you can’t afford to do that and you have to start somewhere we are starting with that. What we plan to do is really move out of the hospital services that we think could be done better at a lower acuity side of care.

Bill: Okay.

Shawn: Either in an outpatient setting and then and then really think. How to design what’s going into that renovation with the most flexibility. Again, we are heavy up on ICUs. We are looking at having big, flexible ORs hybrid rooms and cath labs to support one of our signature service lines, cardiovascular.

Shawn: Cardiac care. Okay. So that’s what we’re doing in the inpatient space. I think we’re very focused on that. Okay. As well as just making sure that we can double down in being the transfer center that other hospitals look to when they need a bailout for their sickest patients. So how do we just make that kind of flawless?

Bill: Sure.

Shawn: And technology is certainly part of that bill and just making sure that we can facilitate a patient transfer when needed

Bill: Sean, are you doing universal rooms where they’re all the same size that can accommodate the. the ICU type of patient.

Shawn: Absolutely. I think that’s the plan. Yes. We’ve been very much focused on what goes into those technical or suites.

Bill: Okay.

Shawn: Part of that I think is just again, thinking about the future and the need for having surgical assist, whether that’s through VI visualization or increased imaging capabilities. You’re talking about just having to have more space to implement that technology that we see in the future.

Bill: That’s exactly what I was gonna say. That all those things sound like they’re gonna take up some space. And so therefore, in order for the ORs to be capable of still providing support years and years out, you’re probably making. Them a little bit bigger than you would normally do.

Shawn: That’s right. They’re bigger and they’re more expensive, but the hope is that they’ll be able to accommodate whatever technology is coming, our way bill. And some of it is being developed and we won’t even know what it is by the time the SOS are gonna be up and running. Absolutely.

Bill: You talked about the inpatient center side. How about the outpatient center side? Do you have some things going on there as well?

Shawn: Oh yes, absolutely. And one of our most exciting projects is going to be what will be for us one of our largest outpatient facilities to date, it’s a hundred thousand square foot building right in the heart of Pasadena, which will become really a focal point for us for outpatient and ancillary procedures, which we talked a little bit, bill, I think as the future unfolds payers, driving a lot of that to having service lines like orthopedics, for example knees your routine service lines are gonna much more be accommodated in that kind of an environment. So what we’re trying to contemplate that and then think about all of the imaging the ambulatory surgery center, what that should look like in the future in that kind of a space.

Bill: Those things that you just mentioned, right? Knees and hips, weren’t even contemplated to be outpatient, five, 10 years ago. And now look at us, right? So

Shawn: now look at us 23 hour stays. That’s what we’re thinking about, how to get, young and healthy patients that need that in and out. And certainly never entering the four walls of the hospital.

Bill: That’s very cool. Is Pasadena a new service area for you or just expanding?

Shawn: No, we’re expanding. It’s just a really core strategic market for us and we service a lot of patients from. Pasadena here at ke at the mothership. And so really again, in the vein of bringing that care closer to where patients live we just think of Pasadena as front and center for us.

Bill: Great. Great. I’m gonna shift gears a little bit and talk about the last two to three years of the pandemic. Obviously very impactful. In a number of ways for the healthcare services industry, what have you seen come out of that? How is that molding, maybe some of the future thoughts that you have As as the chief strategy officer.

Shawn: Great bill. It’s nice to say that we’re coming out of it, isn’t it. But

Bill: Sure is Shawn, it sure is.

Shawn: And I was really proud of how my organization pivoted nimbly during the pandemic. And I think it, what it highlighted for us is, again, this need to build in flexibility as, and as the future. Will show us the fact that we had to stand up vaccine clinics in a week.

Bill: Sure.

Shawn: And how do you have that environment that can pivot in that way? I think another major ramification of the pandemic that we saw was just the rapid adoption of telemedicine. During that time, we went from some single digits percentage of our ambulatory visits being, deliver via tele to something like now between 30 and 40% overall.

Shawn: And that happened virtually overnight. And so I think what we’re really working, as a byproduct of that, we think that will be sustained. But what the challenge is now is to make sure that the patient experience in a tele type of consult, mirrors, what patients would expect and the level of service and care and quality that they would get when they come to tech.

Shawn: So I think that’s the challenge we face now is making sure that patient experience is seamless regardless of whether it’s delivered virtually or in person. So lots of work to do.

Bill: How interesting to think about that, right? Because the patient experiences you come in and. Not necessarily all satisfiers, maybe some Hertzberg satisfiers.

Bill: I know that’s exactly where I was going, Sean, exactly where I was going. So you have some patient experiences that they don’t have to deal with that are necessarily dissatisfiers, but you also have that personal kind of hand in glove care that you’re not able necessarily to provide.

Bill: Across the telemedicine platform, but I’m sure you’re finding ways to be able to…

Shawn: we’re working on it. We have room for improvement, but that’s the goal. Absolutely. And I think in large part Bill, I think patients are satisfied with those transaction quick visits in and out where they don’t wanna tangle with our academic medical center in east LA and parking and all of kind of aggravation that, being able to deliver that through tele has actually given us a service opportunity.

Bill: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Just interesting back to your back to the renovation on the existing floors. Can you talk a little bit about how that’s different from what was there before. I’m really curious, it’s obviously being renovated and updated but some of the delivery may be different as well.

Shawn: Yes. So I, and I think really, again, this has been an interesting experience for me. If I focus in, on our cardiovascular service line hearing from those surgical experts who are anticipating how the field is changing with more implantable device. Everywhere from your just routine, heart failure, kind of maintenance to pre-transplant and what that will look like working with their vascular colleagues.

Shawn: How does the cath lab environment for procedural caths need to change? So guess to answer your question, bill, I would say it’s more. there, it’s more of a focus on a comprehensive design team. Okay. And a, getting the feedback of a team of clinicians who are working more in a service line model than on a particular single service.

Shawn: So I think it, it seems to be much more comprehensive and collaborative amongst my clinical colleagues. And then what we’re trying to do is just deliver. That environment that can provide for that, and also anticipate what will be coming in terms of future technology

Bill: and it sounds like a great collaboration amongst the providers and the hospital in terms of what they see coming in the future and being able to plan design and construct what’s gonna be best for them to deliver the care that they’re doing.

Shawn: Absolutely.

Bill: Great. Fantastic. A couple of other things just talk about I’m curious there’s a lot of things going on with sustainability and I wonder what is kick medicine doing in terms of sustainability and looking towards the future of lowering carbon footprint.

Shawn: Great question, Bill. And I think sustainability is something that is very near and dear to the university. USCS president’s heart when she came in, she said sustainability is at the core of everything that I think about and problems that we need to solve as an academic medical center and, bringing the best and brightest together.

Shawn: So with that charge KEC medicine is really trying to design how we think about our future and our goals for being a more sustainable organization. And I think healthcare organizations in general have a large responsibility to address some of those concerns. The large MOB I mentioned that we’re developing in Pasadena. This will be one of the first LEED platinum projects that we will embark on as a health system. And we’re highly committed to that. With all sorts of green. Looking at how this could be completely sustainable.

Bill: That’s fantastic, Sean.

Shawn: And then I think you’ve mentioned the pandemic and how that ties in. We’re doing a lot of work as well. To finalize and how we’re thinking about the hybrid remote workforce, ah with an eye to, climate neutrality and reducing emissions for our workforce.

Shawn: And obviously I think that’s another kind of silver lining in the pandemic is how we’ve transitioned to much more of our workforce working remote and hopefully having a positive impact with reduced emissions through, less commuting, et cetera. We’re working on that. We’re just trying to figure out how we’ve joined green health in 2022.

Bill: Great.

Shawn: And so we collaborate with other partners who share these similar goals to developing a more sustainable healthcare enterprise.

Bill: Fantastic. That’s great. That’s great. Obviously very important to the university and also to the greater community as well.

Bill: So I think last question, but it’s gonna be in, in 16 different parts, cuz I’m really curious. I want to learn a little bit more and have our listeners learn a little bit more about what a chief strategy officer does. I’ll probably pepper you with two or three questions, but how far out is your horizon that you’re looking at in terms of the things that you’re thinking about today?

Shawn: That’s a great question, bill. Healthcare and why I think we all enjoy being in it is just such a dynamic field that I think maybe in the past you could develop a five or a 10 year strategic plan and have those kinds of timelines and horizons. But I think those days have passed because there’s so much happening, particularly in a market like LA, where there’s, increasing consolidation, you turn around.

Shawn: And so’s buying so and or aligning with. And so that it’s just, you’re constantly on your toes in a very dynamic field. So I think what we’ve chosen to do instead of having. A comprehensive strategic plan that comprehends all our service lines is take one service like cancer, and then figure out how we wanna represent what we bring through ke and our Norris cancer service line out to the community and then attack it market by market service line by service line. That seems to be a much more fluid adaptable way to think about strategic planning as we move forward. And as it’s such a gigantic market. I know you said you live in orange county, but how we even think about the LA market and is just, with 15 million people, depending on how you define it, we have to have very different strategies for different regions, maybe people that we compete with in some markets we’re partnered with in another. So it’s what makes my job super fun and yeah, but also really challenging and changing

Bill: Sounds like just a fascinating and really A specific way to look at growth through those service lines, as opposed to putting together, the normal, what we did five or 10 years ago, three ring binder of this is what we’re gonna do over the next five years.

Bill: And of course all of those take capital to be able to do as well. Obviously there’s only so much there’s a capital envelope that you have in terms of what you can spend and how does that prioritization work for you. And it always has to, in every job I was ever in, there was never enough money to do everything that everybody wanted.

Bill: You’ve got physicians and research and academics that, that you’re having to juggle as well. It’s gotta be a tough job.

Shawn: Yeah. lots of competing capital demands, for sure. Just from keeping up the infrastructure here.

Bill: Good point. Oh, good point.

Shawn: Yeah. And then as an academic medical center, the emphasis is on keeping the latest, greatest, most state of the art technology that we’re training new disciplines. So that’s an expensive part of it. And then as you all know, just the expense of building new facility is just astronomical.

Shawn: We’re worth the bet. But as you suggest bill, I think it has to be carefully contemplated a business plan, but I think our intent to bring what is highly in demand healthcare services to the community is, it’s worthy. So far, we’ve just been super successful as we’ve developed these growth plans.

Bill: You mentioned it earlier when we were talking the billion dollar project you see them in different places. You really can’t build a bed tower without, committing a billion dollar plus to do that. And some, even some outpatient centers are that way as well.

Bill: It’s obviously a huge financial commitment and. I’m be interested to see what USC does in the future. I don’t want to give, I don’t want you to give anything away here, but

Shawn: let’s just say I have new hospital tower and be on some of my colleagues.

Bill: That’s a great way to, oh, I love it.

Bill: I love it. That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. You back to the chief strategy office or piece? I think, one of the, I think most difficult things is probably not difficult, maybe unique things is really to try to bring that academics in with the physicians and with the delivery of services and the research.

Bill: How do you balance all that? I was sitting downstairs before I came up to meet with you in the cafeteria. And so I was sitting next to some pharmacy students that were there studying there’s physicians there’s patients, families there.

Bill: That’s your day to day challenges is making sure all those things are working together, right?

Shawn: It is a challenge, but it’s something that is just so marvelous about being in an academic medical center. Healthcare is a great field, but in academic medicine we just have I feel like I’m absolutely working every day with the best and the brightest they’re training.

Shawn: New physicians are coming up with new technologies, new cures for things. And it’s exciting to be on the cutting edge. My physicians who are clinicians, scientists, they’re teachers. They offer so much. My job as strategy officer is just to put them.

.

Bill: It sounds like it. Absolutely, talking about back to what the panel was discussing was the differences between academic health facilities and community hospitals. I think you’ve done just a great job of outlining how much more happens in an academic setting like you have.

Shawn: And just to piggyback on that bill, I think there’s so much we can. To amazing providers in the community who are doing a great job caring for their patients and their community for most of the healthcare needs that patients have. I think where we come in is when something is extraordinary or super complex or that your local community hospital doesn’t. That capability. And but what we’ve really been focused on is how to make sure , the community and community providers view this as a partnership and something, as we are training the doctors of tomorrow, those are gonna be the doctors that are practicing in the community.

Shawn: So we have a unique role to play as an academic medical center, but I think we really we look to do that in partnership and Thinking about how we can partner thoughtfully with our communities.

Bill: Shawn, thank you so much for spending the time with me today and the listeners. It was just such a pleasure talking with you. I appreciate your time and thanks for giving us some insight into, in terms of what chief strategy officers do on a day to day basis. Thanks again.

Shawn: It was absolutely my pleasure bill. Thank you.