Ep. 1 | Ronald Dean, President & CEO, SGMC Health

Transcript

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- All right, welcome to another episode of "What Brings You In Today." I'm Erika Bennett.

- And I'm Taylor Fisher.

- And today we are here with SGMC Health President and CEO, Mr. Ronnie Dean. And Mr. Dean, what brings you in today?

- You know, I'm here to talk about the great people of SGMC Health today.

- That's right.

- We've got a great organization and I appreciate the opportunity to share with everyone about the great things that are going on.

- Well you've been here for four years now. But for those that don't know you, give us a little bit of your background and kind of what landed you here in our organization.

- You know, I was invited to come and it's really an honor for me to be invited not only into this organization, but to this great community and to be a part of South Georgia now, having lived my life prior to that in Alabama, spent a very long time at a regional referral center, 32 consecutive years. Spent a short period of time at a smaller rural hospital in Alabama and then I was invited to join this team and that's what brought me and my wife here four years ago. It doesn't seem like four years, Erika. It really seems like it's went by a lot faster than that. But so much has transpired since I've been here. When I think back of where we were and where we are as a team and as an organization, a system of healthcare, we've gotten a lot done and it's what the people of South Georgia have asked us to do. And I just really feel, you know, honored and it's a pleasure to be a part of it.

- Perfect, so just so people can get a little bit of understanding of your background, because most people are like, well how do you become a Health System CEO or president or leader? I mean, you don't just wake up one day and be like, I'm gonna be the hospital CEO. What led you to healthcare and then where you are today?

- Well, I, you know, healthcare was sort of a, you know, I walked into it out of high school, went to a community college just like Wiregrass Technical College is, I went to a community college, Wallace Community College in Dothan, Alabama. Aspiring to be a respiratory therapist, not really understanding what that meant at the time. It just was an option that I chose coming out of high school. Had the opportunity to go to a four year university, but decided to stay close to home, recognizing that hey, there's something that might be here for me. Which led to a great job with a great organization. And from there, I think what really happened, and is probably others thought more of me and my ability than I did because it really never was a plan to be, you know, a CEO. It just wasn't on my mind. And it really wasn't until I left and became a CEO at another organization in Alabama. What was interesting to me and of interest to me is that I had an opportunity to make a lasting impact in the lives of others. Whether it was my patients that I was treating or whether it was the physicians I was working for and working with, or whether it was the nurses I was working alongside, that led to someone identifying that, hey, he has abilities to do things beyond caring for patients. So leadership roles appeared and imagine over a 32 year career in that one organization what all transpired. Again, I feel fortunate that others thought that much of me because it did lead me to South Georgia and SGMC Health. So my track, you know, track to CEO is different than others. But I think what maybe is common is when you're in a leadership position, you gotta number one, be trusted. Number two, people choose the leader they follow and being worthy, it has to be about certain values. And then I think you've gotta love people, all people, because we're all built differently. We look differently, we speak differently and my job really is to never let my team down. I wanna be what everybody wants me to be, recognizing I'll miss sometimes because there's no way to meet certain expectations and that includes the community we serve. We've got a great community of South Georgians and people that come from Florida for these services and that's what drives me. So my way of becoming was that, but the reason I exist is about others.

- Yeah, and it's interesting for those that don't have an inside look at healthcare. And I think that's part of the purpose of this podcast is to help people understand, you know, what a health system is, what all it delivers. But you really have your internal audience. So you have all your employees, your 3000 that make up your workforce, then you have nearly another thousand that are providers, physicians, and then you have your patients and then you have their family members and community. So certainly a multifaceted, large organization that requires very dynamic leadership and strategic thinking. What would you say were the biggest opportunities or challenges that you saw when you came here and kind of how you've approached those?

- Well, you know, we need to be honest and I, you know, it's another trait I think one should embody, if you're gonna lead, let's be real and be honest about the situation, and the situation wasn't that good. The truth of the matter is, leaders before me in our board leadership, our community did an outstanding job of positioning the health system in so many positive ways, but there were so many things that were not going well and the reputation of the health system was in question and we weren't maybe focused on the things that we needed to focus on at the time because we were distracted by other things that were going on. And when you put all that together, I just think the view of who we are and why we exist and where we were going as an organization was a little cloudy. It was very clear to me by the board of trustees that hired me what they desired. And they desired these things. They desired me to come help. Let's clear this thing up. Let's get back to what we were, let's be who we are for the people we exist for and get past some of these things that held us back. So I think the greatest challenge was just, is rebuilding trust. Trust in what we're able to do for you. If you need us, trust that we will always be here and we'll be reliable about the things we do for you when you need us. And trust that you can always count on us when you call on us. And that we only exist for that reason. The place exists, the system of hospitals and services exists for one reason and one reason only is to take care of the people of this region, period. It doesn't exist for any other reason. And if we'll stay there and build on that, then we'll be who we're supposed to be and we won't be distracted and the view won't be cloudy. So everything we do is about that. We wanna be what it is that's expected us to be and what we should be.

- Definitely. I know, I remember the first time I met you was before I came to work here. So I've only been at SGMC Health for about three months now, but at my previous job I was invited to Hash Browns and Healthcare 'cause I worked in communications and I remember I sat there and you gave your presentation and I was just kind of, when I left, I was struck by just how honest and transparent that it was. And I was like, wow, being as someone who's lived in this area for most of my life, I never really felt that sort of honesty and transparency. But I was just struck by just how, you know, amazing it was that you could sit there and tell us, hey, we're doing a lot to fix this reputation and these are the steps we're taking. And when I left I felt like I could trust SGMC Health. I felt like I could trust Mr. Dean and that, you know, the healthcare in our region was in good hands. So I just wanna applaud you for that.

- Well, that's a very high compliment and I'm giving this to you personally right now at this time, thank you. I mean, that means a lot to me, I'm driven by that. And I would say our people are, we have 3,100 team members and a myriad of services that they deliver and they really appreciate that kind of feedback. And I do, for me personally, you know, have I always been this way would be a question. And the answer is, I've made the mistake of not saying what it is and trying to say kinda what it is. Well, let's just talk about it, it is what it is. And when you talk about that openly, you free yourself from, you know, all this imagination that's running around. We shouldn't have to imagine what our current situation was and we're not imagining what it is now. We know what it is. We are a regional healthcare delivery system of four hospitals and many, many other services. And we exist for these reasons and we're gonna be great at it. And we know we've got a long way to go. We've done a lot of great things. We've helped get past a lot of the distractions as we'll call it. We have built a lot of trust, but let's say we still need to do more. People evaluate us every day, not on what we say, but what we do-

- And how we make them 'em feel.

- And that is something that I've learned over the years and I just believe in it wholly. And I want our people to live that. I want 'em to feel great about what we're doing great, but let's be serious about what we're not doing great. We gotta get better. So I do appreciate that, that means a lot that you would say that.

- Of course, of course. I just wanted to say that since I came to work here, I was like, I don't think he remembers me being here 'cause that was a long time ago, but it really did strike me, so I just wanted to mention it.

- Well, thank you. And I would tell you again, it's really, you know, it is a privilege to lead. It doesn't matter what leadership position you're in. I mean, as a matter of fact, we all are leaders in some way in our lives. Whether it is Little League Sunday School, the family unit, we lead, well, leading is no more and no less than being in a position to be influential in another person's life. Because if you're leading, somebody is trusting you enough to follow. So those things matter when it comes to us leading SGMC Health into the future.

- Yeah, and so thinking about, you talked about imagining, not imagining what we're not, but now we're in this position to imagine what we're gonna be for the future. And I think that's one of the most notable changes I think you've brought to our team is being real strategic, forward thinking, envisioning what this community needs, what they want, and then how we can best set ourselves up to execute those things. Which is really inspiring to me because I know I have something to, I get to be part of something big for our community and so do all of our employees. And I think that they get really excited seeing all the things we've accomplished in just four short years, but knowing that we've got huge things on the horizon. So one of those we just renamed to SGMC Health, so moving to a health system to really encompass all of our clinics, all of our service lines, all of our locations, serving more and serving better. What are your thoughts on the, what did you share for our SGMC Health future?

- Well, you know, you said a couple of things that resonate with me, Erika, and you know, it's a big business operation also. It exists to take care of people, but it has to be operated effectively as a business. So we have to be business-minded, although we are here to serve people. And in that space, strategy matters. But strategy starts with mission and vision and you know, why do we exist? We've said that already, now to exist and to accomplish your mission, what do we envision the system becoming in the future to continue that, and maybe do more. So having a strategic mindset is about planning stepwise, how to put in motion our people, our programs, our services, deploy capital and then secure relationships that are about these things we want to do and need to do and are expected to do for the people we serve. So the strategic mindset starts with let's evaluate where we are in the space. It is a very interesting industry. The way we exist and all the parties that we relate to to deliver healthcare requires a lot of planning. So imagining what it is where we are in that cog of, you know, this machine industry is step one. And then, you know, what does the market, what does the community desire out of us? When you start just going there, then you can back into, okay, well maybe then we need to become this. It sets forth a cascade of questions and then answers and then critical decisions that our board of directors have made that says we are a destination for certain services that can't be provided elsewhere and we should be excellent at 'em. And excellence is not happenstance, it's intentional. So being intentional about what's required to deliver on this destination service, whatever it is, is part of the strategy. We simply need to be who we're supposed to be. We don't want to be who we're not supposed to be, but it all needs to connect to an intent to be somewhere we're not somewhere in the future, whether it is a new physician coming with a new specialty, a new program, new services, it all connects together for the benefit of the whole. I think that's what strategy is about, but never leaving the mission.

- Right, because it does all, so our new mission is to improve the lives of all we serve. So very overarching when we think about increasing access to care, you think about bringing in specialists, I'm thinking Dr. David Hardy, vascular surgeon, Dr. Kimberly Mackey, neurosurgeon. And it's not just to bring them here to say we have them here, but it really is about that patient experience. For people not to have to leave our area for specialized services that we can perform. And the added security of family not having to travel elsewhere. The financial burden that that causes when you have to leave the area. But making sure we have the right physicians, very high skilled experts here in the fields, and then putting them together to really create these service lines that are really just taking off, if you think heart and vascular that we have and trauma and the service line aspect. We've seen a lot of growth over the past couple of years.

- Well, you know, again, all of that is intentional and that's why I use the word intentional, excellence is intentional, it's not happenstance. So if we're gonna be about heart and vascular, let's be intentional about it and let's be excellent. Well, to do that you have to do a lot of things. First of all, you've gotta have an excellent medical staff around heart and vascular, which we have, was here prior to me arriving, and we've assembled more. We have some of the finest, most qualified, best trained physicians. And they were here before I got here. And we've added more to it. And we're adding more around this idea of we're gonna be intentionally excellent at heart and vascular surgery and there are things we're gonna do like cardiothoracic surgery, like electrophysiology, cardiology, like, you know, valve replacement, transaortic valve, all those things that others may not be doing now or may not be able to do. And why would someone travel if we are excellent at it here? And that's the strategy. We really are a lot of things to a lot of people because people have different needs from us, but it's deciding what we should be exceptionally good at and focusing on it. You mentioned trauma. What is trauma? Well, many people want to think about trauma as an automobile accident on I75. And it's a very traumatic event and people die and they're hurt severely. And then others might want to think about hunting accidents or gunshot wounds or something that's traumatic. Okay, that's trauma. But trauma's also, you know, someone working and falling off a 40 foot ladder, that's pretty traumatic. Well, being organized around trauma, we've always been organized around trauma, but becoming a level three designated trauma center in the state of Georgia's trauma system was about not just taking care of trauma, but being highly organized around trauma. It's a standard that we wanna meet. And so with that, that's an example of being intentional about being excellent at trauma. It's not something we had to do, it's something we choose to do because when you have a traumatic event wherever you are, you want to know that we're the very best. And right now I can tell you we're as good of a level three as anyone else and maybe even operating at a higher level because of the clinical leadership and the people we've assembled and what they've accomplished in this program. That's the strategy.

- And in things where it matters, timeliness, you know, so trauma, heart, stroke, those are certainly things that you can't necessarily choose that you wanna go somewhere that's a long ways away. So it's important that we have that here and we're really good at it.

- But let's go to women's services, just having a child. We talk about, you know, those things that bring you into the health system when you're feeling bad. But we have this other beautiful event where we're bringing life into this world. It's not easy, you know, the delivering mom, it's a very difficult, it can be a very-

- I think people take for granted births. Everyone just expects everything to go absolutely smooth. And the reality is that there is a lot of opportunity if you don't have the right kind of professionals in line, right, positions, physicians together to make it happen. So that is important to think about the quality of care you have.

- Well, it is just another, you know, angle or view on the healthcare delivery system. You know, women in our region want to, first of all, they identify with a physician or a provider that's gonna help them through the birthing experience. And when the time comes and they need our, one of our facilities, well it needs to be appropriately equipped. And then there needs to be an organized approach for it to be a safe delivery. And then should the child need a little extra care or the mom need a little extra care, that's the other elements that are often hidden from the birthing experience. And then you go further, the experience itself is beyond just coming and having the child. It's about how you feel during or how we make you feel because it's a very precious time in the life of a family and we all desire it to be memorable in a positive way. So being intentional in that space is about the new women's tower. We will build a very, well-equipped modern tower that will not only add to that experience, but enable us to do even more for mother and baby. Neonatal intensive care unit services already exist. We're a level two B. Becoming more is probably in our future, but having the facility space and having it equipped for us to do that. So as mama and baby doesn't have to travel to another location for that higher level of care is about being more for the delivering moms and their families.

- Yes, as a woman who hasn't had children yet, but me and my husband are talking about it, I'm really excited about this new tower and new addition to our services and what all that's gonna bring.

- It's exciting to us because I've heard women in our community ask for more, better and different, we have great physicians in our community, great providers that deliver great obstetrics and gynecological care and I couldn't be more proud of them. And we'll be adding more as time goes on and we'll be adding specialty care to support them in their care of the mothers, pediatrics. We have great pediatric care here, the pediatricians in town and those that come to our hospital are excellent. But having facilities that enable them, the physicians and the team to do even more, be even better, whether it's more timely, more effective, or more capable is what this tower's all about. Yes, it's a big new modern building and it's expensive. And why are you doing that? Well, that's the answer. Women desire it, they deserve it, and we're able to do it. So why not be intentional about being remarkable in that space.

- And speaking of facilities, so the new women's tower, which will also lend us a new emergency department. So just can you give us a little update on what the new campus design planning kind of looks like when we can expect to start seeing some movement on that? For anyone that's local and coming around to our area, what are we gonna see?

- Yeah, you know, thanks for asking me to speak about it. So this strategic planning that has been ongoing since I arrived and the board asked us to undertake it, we have undertaken it. The board has made some very bold decisions about where we wanna be and to be there, we have to replace, replenish or add facilities to accommodate these programs we're talking about. Well, women's and infants is an emphasis. We've talked about heart and vascular. You mentioned Dr. Mackey, neurosciences, trauma, there's oncology, cancer and now there's women's and infants. So what the new tower will provide is a, it's a multi-story structure that will face Woodrow Wilson. It'll not only be a new tower for women's and infant services, but on the first floor, the majority of the first floor will be a new emergency and trauma center that will double the size of our current emergency room. Our emergency room is way too small and those that come here know that because sometimes we're bottlenecked and we cannot throughput our patients efficiently enough. And the reason being is it's too small and it's not organized around the volume of patients that we're seeing. It's great that people want to come here. It's not great when we let 'em down, when we can't get to 'em quick enough and we can't be efficient enough. The team works tirelessly on this space. They're very interested in never letting someone down because it is an emergent or an urgent situation in their mind. The trauma emergency room part of this building enables us to reorganize how we deliver that care. It's very exciting and it enables us to serve more as the community grows, and we're a fast growing region of South Georgia, we need to be able to accommodate more. So we're looking forward in how Lowndes County and the surrounding counties are growing. So the upper floors will be the women's and infants, part of the first floor will be a dedicated entrance for women and women's services, which will include the birthing experience. And then on the other side will be the dedicated trauma or emergency center. And it'll have its own entrance. It will have built into it specialty care spaces for those unique patients that need a unique setting, outside of the other emergency patients. So it's a very large undertaking. So in this construction we get the new tower with those services, but we also get a new front entrance to SGMC Health Main. Right now our entrance faces Pendleton, but when complete, the entrance to the health system, inpatient, outpatient services-

- Emergency, women, yeah.

- And virtually every services will all be facing Woodrow Wilson. To do that, the library building that we own and have owned and used for some services or storage will be taken down. And then, you know, as we expand the footprint of this tower, the Mathis Auditorium will also come down. So all of that space will turn into surface parking, the new tower. And then we will have an easy access point through some real beautiful green space into the new entrance to all of these services. It will transform the look of our campus. But again, get back to why, we have four priorities. We wanna be unimpeachable in our credentials, meaning one of our credentials is being safe, wanna be the safest. We wanna be unsurpassed in the experience we create for the people who come here. We wanna be unmatched in our efficiency and we wanna be accessible. We wanna be unequal in accessibility. So making it easy to get into the campus, right now, if you walk into the dasher, you may have to walk a very, very long haul to get to another service. We need to start pulling those services closer to doors because most folks that come, they need to be closer to the service. So there's a lot of planning around making it easy access and that's the purpose of reorienting the front door toward Woodrow Wilson.

- We just have a few more minutes, but I would like to touch on, you know, we don't exist in a silo. We know that as a health system, that there's other partners within our community that are very important and integral to the growth and success of the area. And I know you serve on many of those boards, other members on our team do as well. What would you say about community partnership, the importance of that, and then also just, I know our employees give back in a lot of different ways. So maybe if you could speak a little bit to what you've seen in that realm.

- Well, let me start there because, you know, our people are our most treasured asset and they are of this community and they wanna come here to serve this purpose, but remember their families live here also. So they're really building something that they're proud of as being a part of the team. But they know they're giving back to those people that they care about the most. So there's a very interesting dynamic going on here. And the more that we gather up here and all of these, the more we feel this purposeful nature of why we exist. They're really great at serving here, but they're really remarkable at serving elsewhere. They serve in so many ways and we account for that the best we can and we try to recognize 'em and we don't do as good a job as I want us to. But they do give back and they give to each other. We have what's called a care share program that's about us employees, team members putting monies aside for when another team member has a difficult time. And during Christmas, unfortunately, we were subject to not have a great time because we're facing other issues in our life that may put a financial drain on the household. And just this past season, I know of a hundred or so of our own employees that were helped by fellow employees have an even better Christmas for them and their family. So it's a very precious thing. And I could talk for another 30 minutes about that because it just speaks so much about who our people are. Community partners. I couldn't be more proud of city, county, state agencies in town, our educators, about Austin State University, Wiregrass Technical, very proud in so many ways of how we relate to one another for this common purpose. And the fact of the matter is it's impossible to accomplish what we've talked about today without those partners. And there are so many others beyond that.

- Moody Air Force Base.

- If I start-

- I know who we could go on all day.

- We're extremely proud of Moody Air Force Base and we work together to make sure that we have a safe community. And we take care of each other and we're planning for certain things that may or may not happen, but we're working together for that. So it's just extremely important. The business and industry community, let's just go there for a minute. Small, medium, large businesses. I've interacted with a number of folks and they're cheering us on, why? They have a need for their employees to be healthy. Well, wellbeing, wellness, our interest is for our workforces in the region to have access to care when they need it timely and to help 'em get back to work, life or play. And so that's important to the employers. So we're zeroed in on that. Whatever that service is, we wanna be that for them. And then other agencies that exist to serve people couldn't be more proud of all of that. The Partnership for Health would be one, United Way, our local food bank and food services. It's just remarkable because it all works together. You know, we help people when they're in need, but we're also interested in their wellbeing when they get back home. And they sometimes are dependent on these other services. So all of these things do come together for a healthier South Georgia. We're one part of it, we're very proud of that. But I'll shout out to all these others I've it couldn't be possible without this sense of unity and this willingness for us all to do our part. We want a great place to live, work, and play, right? Well it takes all of us and so we're a part of that and couldn't be more proud of our employees and our partners for making that possible. I am part of this community, I'm a South Georgian. I come from Alabama, but make no-

- Roll Tide. I'll throw that in there.

- We could do without that today.

- I'm still a fan.

- But I'm a South Georgian and I'm extremely proud to be in South Georgia. And one of the reasons I'm proud to be here is because of the people of this region and what they want and desire for themselves, feel a great part of it right now, I have been here a few years.

- Well, before we let Mr. Dean go, I have a very important question for you.

- Yes, ma'am.

- What would you say is your favorite meal at the cafeteria?

- You know, fried chicken is just outstanding.

- Kara Hope is applauding from behind the camera.

- But let me go over here to the spice. Now, the ladies in the cafeteria. These meals and these entrees are just outstanding and we have some of the best food and folks come here on Sundays to eat in our cafeteria.

- They come here and they're not even coming for our health services, they're coming for the food.

- They love it, they love it. But I wander around over to the spice often and I can just tell you we have a great grill over there and the burgers are great.

- Fan of the curly fries, for sure.

- Absolutely, but I love that little wrap. There's a little grilled chicken wrap with a little mayonnaise mustard and can I keep going?

- No, because you're gonna make me hungry.

- We're getting hungry over here.

- And they just do such a great job over there.

- I'd say what's even better than the food, are the people serving the food 'cause they do it with such pleasure, excitement and just gratitude and really that just makes my meal better.

- Well you really took the words outta my mouth because what I wanted to tell you was our food services, the food is so good because the people are so nice. They really believe they're serving a purpose. They know that they need to fuel this team. Think about this team here and they need to eat. And if they couldn't eat, I mean, that sounds so simple. It's complex.

- They don't have time to leave.

- Our nurses, they can't break away, sometimes our techs, our doctors and our food services keep us going and they do it with that smile. And I'm telling every one of 'em, I'm so impressed their enthusiasm for taking care of somebody else is contagious. But think about it. That's why we exist and they really believe this. So I'm so hungry right now. And I'm so glad you asked that question

- He's gonna go get that wrap after we stop recording.

- But I will tell you, if you enjoy a grilled chicken wrap, you gotta come see the spice. But if you want a great fried chicken entree-

- Fried chicken Wednesday.

- And it is just outstanding. And I couldn't be more proud of that group.

- Well, unless do you have any other questions?

- I'm good, I just had to ask.

- All right, that was a good one. That was a good, I already knew the answer though 'cause I've heard him talk about it before. But I do wanna thank you Mr. Dean for coming on our episode and to everyone out there, we'll certainly have more of these. We want to give you what you wanna hear about. So please let us know of questions that you have related to the healthcare field so that we can bring those experts in. We look forward to a great lineup of guests to help give you an inside look at our health system and how we can best serve you. So thank you for tuning in. Be sure to like and subscribe and we'll see you on our next episode.