Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/662005
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 10 10 That is a real tangible example of why it does help. I order tests, I consult with the radiologists, the tests come back to me, all of those things. So I get a chance to hear from patients in a different voice. And then the other part, very selfishly, even in the midst of some crazy stressful day, when you are dealing with this or that, when you go over there, only one thing matters, and it's the patient that I am sitting with in the room. Q | Having now been at the helm of Houston Methodist for many years, what are some of the most challenging moments and some that you are most proud of ? A | I think one of the absolute most challenging was Tropical Storm Allison. At the time, I was CEO of what was called Methodist Diagnostic Hospital, which is our West Pavilion building right across the street, and had already recommended to my bosses here at the time that we merge it into main Houston Methodist, because it made no sense to have a hospital catty- corner across the street. We were blessedly almost unaffected by the storm, as was most of that side of Fannin. So our Scurlock and Smith Towers had rela- tively minor issues, and Diagnostic had minor issues. But the devastation that happened in the medical center was just jaw-dropping. And I'm not just talking Houston Methodist, I'm talking the med center as a whole. To see something that was so alive and vibrant one day, and to see the force of nature and what that can do. That was quite an experience. In many ways, it was one of the darkest hours in this institution's history, and in many ways, it was one of the brightest, because people just pulled together and did what they had to do. People put the institution before them- selves, and they put their patients before themselves, and it really helped launch some of what we have done culturally within the institution. It was one of the catalysts for our I CARE values and deepening our emphasis on our faith basis of care. So it was a tough, tough time. But like many disasters or difficult times, they either fracture something or pull it tighter. And in our case, it really pulled us together. So that was a heck of a moment. Q | When you look at the growth here, and how Houston Methodist has really extended out into the community, was that a natural byproduct of success and growth around excellence in care and quality? Or is that the new model? A | I think the answer is somewhat all of the above. We have, obviously, a very rich history. We will be 100 years old in 2019, so we are really preparing for how we are going to celebrate. And we talk about our vision for the second century, which is unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation. Those six sim- ple words really say it all from an academic institution that's focused on patients and driving patient care. But in 1951, we were one 300-bed hospital, and wouldn't have been that big but for Mrs. Ella Fondren, who put her foot down in the board room supporting the then- administrator who wanted to expand. And they were right. We started expanding with Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital. Then we decided to build a health center in Sugar Land. The idea was, here we are in the midst of HMOs, the gatekeeper model, and the hospitals are going to be passé, you don't need hospi- tal beds…and so they built this 20-bed health center down in Sugar Land, and it wasn't the right model. And of course, a couple of years later, that model nationally imploded. And we re-trenched and really started focus- ing, and built a hospital in Willowbrook. We learned over the next decade, and as health care evolved, and as Obamacare evolved, it became very clear that standalone, isolated, academic med- ical centers—whether medical school-related or not—sitting there sort of waiting for a patient volume to come to them, was a pretty risky thing to do. So in 2010, we built the West Houston facility, and it was a very different approach. But before that really, we massively expanded our hospitals in Sugar Land and Willowbrook, and have continued to expand. Sugar Land will be a 350-bed hospital in about a month. That's a huge community hospital, and it's not done. It will keep growing. And in 2010, we built a 193-bed hospital in West Houston, and darn if that thing didn't just hit the ground like you wouldn't believe. Along the way we built another office building, now five years into it, we have pulled the trigger on a $177 million, 100-bed expansion. In a five-year-old hospital, that's unheard of. So now we are building a 193-bed hospital in The Woodlands, and then along the way, for a variety of reasons, we picked up St. John down in Clear Lake and St. Catherine on the west side of town. Here we are today with 20,000 employees, and in the late last decade, we had under 10,000. So it has really been a remarkable growth trajectory. We are very blessed that there was a lot of good decision- making over time, and I think it has positioned us very well. Q | What is your perspective of the environment in the Texas Medical Center today? A | I think it's a collection, unparalleled anywhere, of wonderful institutions. I think there is a lot of potential in the collaboration that happens here. From a clinical perspective, my personal belief is when we compete, patients win. And that's what it's all about—better care for patients. And let me be clear. When we are talking about that for Houston Methodist, yes, we are paying attention to what is happening with our competi- tors locally, but that is not our primary focus. We are focused on Johns Hopkins, and the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic. Houston needs and deserves a leading academic medical center that is at the top of the top of the top of the U.S. News & World Report honor roll list. Houston Methodist is the only insti- tution in a position to do that. We are consistently ranked as the number one hospital in Texas. From a patient standpoint, our competition focus is elsewhere. But when we all compete, patients win. So I think that competition is good. From an academic standpoint, collaboration is the name of the game. Every institution, I think, has to build its own robust academic enterprise, and every- body has their own areas of focus. And we turn those people loose and say, 'Collaborate with whomever you want.' They collaborate with every institution in the med center—including UH and Rice, as well as the more traditional medical institutions. We have some- thing happening with everybody. We also collaborate with institutions around the country and around the world, notably Weill Cornell Medicine and Texas A&M. What I see the Texas Medical Center focused on is how to build that collaborative environment and foster those collaborations. The part that I get most excited about is the building of the ecosystem, which is how I would describe it. So when, collectively, we can bring JLABS to the table, or we can bring other pharmaceu- tical or device companies, the venture capital to do this, that, to me, is how the TMC is helping build that. And we will all benefit collectively from that. Then there are some parts of it that are more architectural, geographic. We are not, at the present time, in your TMC3 activities, and really the reason is our model is translational research. Our model is embedding researchers right in with our clinical infrastructure. And we put in hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a research institute five years ago, we built with capacity, so it's still not yet full. What I hope is that longer-term we will need more space. Short-term, we don't. We are very excited about participating in collaborations that make a difference for patients. Q | Any closing thoughts? A | At the end of the day, it's not about me. The institution is so far bigger than any one of us, even a Dr. Michael DeBakey, God bless him. He put us on a great course, and what was built is so much bigger than him now and will go on for decades and centuries, really. And that's what we talk about, our vision for the second century. But right now we have 20,000 wonder- ful employees. We have 4,000 outstanding physicians, and I am absolutely confident they come to work every day saying, 'How do we make it better for patients?' Right now we have 20,000 wonderful employees. We have 4,000 out- standing physicians, and I am absolutely confident they come to work every day saying, 'How do we make it better for patients?'