May 21, 2025 • 24 mins
The intersection of healthcare management and patient care takes center stage as we welcome Jason Raidbard, Executive Administrator from UChicago's Department of Ophthalmology. Drawing from 22 years of healthcare experience, Jason shares how his journey transformed from pure operations—managing clinics and coordinating staff—to strategic leadership making decisions that shape entire departments.
What drives someone to dedicate their career to healthcare administration? For Jason, it began with a deeply personal experience as a child undergoing speech therapy for being tongue-tied. This formative experience revealed both human vulnerability and the profound impact of compassionate care, though his path to healthcare took an unexpected detour through city management studies before a chance encounter with a physician changed everything. The combination of building something meaningful while helping patients transition from sickness to health created the perfect career alignment.
Our conversation explores artificial intelligence's evolving role in medicine, where Jason offers a refreshingly balanced perspective. Rather than replacing physicians, current AI applications serve as supportive tools, particularly in radiology and pathology. These technologies provide valuable second opinions while allowing clinicians to maintain more personal connections with patients instead of staring at computer screens during appointments. We also discuss how preventative medicine, staff wellness, and patient accessibility might evolve over the next decade.
For physicians running private practices in today's challenging landscape of private equity acquisitions, Jason shares crucial advice about assessing financial viability, defining long-term goals, and consulting trusted experts before making life-changing practice decisions. Whether you're a healthcare professional, administrator, or simply curious about the business of medicine, this episode offers valuable insights into leadership, technological innovation, and the enduring importance of the human touch in healthcare.
For more on Jason, visit the website: ophthalmology.uchicago.edu
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the your Company Podcast.
I'm your host, andrea Wright,founder and CEO of the Wright
Consult Digital Marketing Agency, and also the creator of the
Patient Buzz program.
The goal of this podcast is tohighlight healthcare
professionals, their journey andhow they're making the world a
better place.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to another episode of the your Company
Health podcast.
My name is Andre Wright andtoday we have Jason Reitbart, an
executive administrator fromUChicago.
Hey, jason, good day and howare you?
Good morning, how are you?
I'm great.
I'm great, I'm great To getthings started.
So tell us about yourbackground and your journey in
healthcare.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Sure, I often when people ask me this question, I
have to now remember, calculatethe number of when I started
versus today's date.
Right, and I did this recentlyat a conference last week that I
spoke at.
But I've been in healthcare for22 years, up until three years
ago before I worked here at theUniversity of Chicago.
I work as the executiveadministrator in the Department
(01:14):
of Ophthalmology.
I was in healthcare operationspure operations for 19 years.
So I was either a practicemanager or operations director,
and I was.
Folks can go on my LinkedInpage if they're interested.
I don't want to bore peoplewith the details, but I worked
for mainly in physician officespaces.
Some of them were privatelyowned, some of them were public
(01:37):
safety net hospital systems thatowned ambulatory clinics.
Some of it was a non-for-profithospital, could be
multi-hospital clinics.
Some of it was a non-for-profithospital, could be
multi-hospital, could be onesolo independent hospital owning
medical groups.
So that's where I wasoperations director or practice
manager, and I did that for 19years.
So my roots come fromoperations, which, as you know,
operations touches everythingfrom HR to finance to strategy,
(01:59):
to you name it.
Sometimes you are the staffpsychologist, if you will, as
one of my staff members jokedabout with me many years ago.
But the last three years inthis role it's a bit more of an
executive role where there'smore decision making of the
strategy X, y and Z.
(02:25):
I'm one of the people with mychair, who's a wonderful
individual and a great executive, to work for Dr Sino Harry
Prasad.
We work collaboratively todecide.
Okay, you know we get input anddata and other things, but we
collaborate like okay, do wewant to hire this number of
subspecialists?
Do we want to consider pitchingopening a clinic in this
neighborhood or this market?
Right, it's more than that, butit can even be okay, what
(02:46):
capital equipment do we want topurchase and focus on, because
certain things are coming intolife?
Right?
So it's more of a strategicconversation rather than prior
roles where I might becompleting a budget but I was
focusing more on.
You know I do budgets today,right, but in the past it was
all right.
I have staff schedules.
(03:06):
I need to make sure I havecoverage.
Okay, we're registeringpatients in the clinic.
Are we capturing all thenecessary data?
Are we capturing all theco-pays?
Right?
Whereas now I'm looking more atthe reports and working with
the management team to see, okay, do we see any trends.
How can I consult and help sooften my nurse manager I work
with operations director wejoked about this when we all
(03:27):
first met each other a few yearsago is that they look at me and
I look at them.
We work collaboratively.
But my nurse manager often sayyou know, it's like having you,
is like having an internalconsultant with all your
experience.
But one thing that I make surethat I do in this role is I'm
not out of touch.
I visit the clinic, I talk tothe physicians, make sure we
(03:48):
take care of what they need.
So that operator in me hasnever gone away.
But I just don't get involvedin the weeds.
But I love it.
I enjoy it.
This is wonderful institutionalwork for it, no of course, of
course.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And Jason, where did this all start?
So, you know, by talking todifferent healthcare.
You know, managers, operators,there's always some passion
there.
You know there's always someaha moment when you get into a
specific field.
So talk to us about that moment.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So for me I think it was a little unconventional.
I think now folks generallythey'll have their aha moment
maybe in college or maybethey'll in grad school when they
go for their master's programand then many of them go into a
fellowship program followingtheir master's and there's a lot
of dual programs now an MBA,mha for those not sure you know
master's of businessadministration and then a
master's in healthcareadministration.
(04:43):
A lot of times people get bothat the same time.
Then they go for a fellowship.
When I first started and we'retalking the 2K era that existed,
but it wasn't as seen as it istoday.
I think fellowships are verycompetitive today.
I think there was probably lesspeople pursuing than openings,
(05:05):
even at one point, whether we'retalking about the 90s or even
the 2K era.
I ended up when I was in college.
I thought I wanted to be a citymanager and I've always had a
desire to help people.
And I will tell you the firsttime I vividly remember wanting
to help people and this is apersonal story when I was born I
(05:26):
was tongue-tied, meaning mytongue did not extend normally
as it does and there wassomething that needed to be
clipped for me to be able to doit.
Well, the doctor at the timesaid he'll grow out of it.
So my parents said, okay, itnever happened.
So when I was six or sevenyears old, I had to go through
speech therapy because I had alisp.
I didn't really want to talk, Iwasn't very engaging because I
(05:48):
was embarrassed by it, and wehad the surgery to fix it.
When I was six or seven and Iwent through Mrs Swanson was her
name I did two years of speechtherapy with her and that was
the time that I the first time Irealized how vulnerable people
could be Based on something thatbothered them, and for me it
(06:14):
was.
I had a lisp.
I had, you know, stutteringbecause I was just afraid to
talk, because I couldn't talkthe way everyone else did.
And, being in that environmentbecause we did group therapy,
there was and this was a speechtherapist at our school.
It wasn't a special place, itwasn't a special center and
lovely individual, and I thinkshe was quite a bit older at
that time.
I'm sure she's since passed on,but I just remember I
(06:35):
encouraged the kids as I gotbetter and felt more confident,
and I think it's just thatdesire to help people, desire to
help people.
Now I thought in college thatdesire was going to be being a
city manager and making sure acity was, you know, economically
thriving and that garbage waspicked up and things were taken
care of and every you know.
Your talent would be nice.
And even though I went throughan internship and even a
(06:58):
master's degree towards it, Inever fell in love with it.
I still loved working withpeople, but the technical pieces
of it just didn't make my heartsing.
So I met a doctor by chance onaccident when I was in grad
school and he offered me aposition to run his clinic,
which at first was really justme and him, and then eventually,
(07:21):
within a few months, medicalassistant because he had been
retired.
And then he came out ofretirement.
He's like I want, want to startover again.
He was in his upper 60s at thetime, so it was totally like
okay, I'm kind of bored withthis, so we're gonna put this
off to the side, I'm gonna trythis health care thing and I
loved it.
It was different every day, itwas crazy sometimes, and just
what I enjoyed the most about itwas two things the building up
(07:45):
of the business part, seeing itgrow much like a plant, like I'm
a gardener now Like the last 10years I do home gardening,
right.
Seeing a plant or a flower gofrom a seed to a flowering plant
of any kind or a tree, seeingthat part and being a
contributor, that was fun for me.
That was like better than avideo game, right.
It was just like you were ableto see something grow.
(08:06):
You started from nothing andnow you have something right,
and that kind of spoke to myentrepreneurial spirit.
But the other part of it is Iwould see people come in sick
and leave healthy, and so thetwo of those kind of married
together is what made me fall inlove with healthcare.
And if that answers yourquestion, that's how it all kind
(08:31):
of started.
It wasn't like at seven, when Iwas going through the speech
therapy, I knew it was going tobe healthcare.
I just knew I wanted to helppeople.
It just translated into thatyears later.
You know, life has a way oftaking you.
I had someone very much smarterthan me tell me this it's much
like water it's going to gowherever it's going to go,
life's going to take you.
You know, you can have an idea,but sometimes and I didn't know
at 24, 25 years old.
(08:52):
Life was going to take me therebut it did, and I look back on
it now, all the years that I'veworked and and hopefully I've
left things in better shape asI've worked a different way and
worked with different peoplethan the way I things in better
shape as I've worked withdifferent people than the way I
encountered them from day one,and I think I have.
But it has been a wonderful wayto give back.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, yeah, and that's awesome A bit similar to
my story because, you know, withdigital marketing, I like to
help doctors grow and I like tohelp people Also, people, you
know I help doctors, help theirpatients, which is really a big
thing for me.
You know so great story and Ican see why you're passionate
(09:34):
about what you're doing.
See why you're passionate aboutwhat you're doing.
But, jason, in the interest oftime, the buzzword nowadays is
AI right?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Artificial intelligence how do you see AI
impacting your space?
So we you know a lot ofinstitutions use it, like
clinically speaking, will use AIas a supplement.
So I know there's a lot offolks that get scared of it
because they're afraid that AIis going to be the doctor or
nurse or the APP that's going todiagnose me.
Right, where I've seen it andit's incredible.
(10:09):
What it's done is that you canhave a number of radiology
studies and the AI system that ahealth system can subscribe to
and have can review all thosedifferent studies and provide
support to the radiologistreviewing the study as an
(10:29):
example.
Right, the radiologist willalways review and come to their
own conclusions, but to be ableto get another set of eyes AI,
if you will, no pun intended tobe able to look at it and
provide some feedback, I don'tthink there's many clinicians
that would say this is bad.
I wouldn't say that AI acrossthe board.
(10:51):
We've all used chat, gpt andother apps like that and
sometimes you get varyingdegrees of success or fail.
But the ones that are part ofhealth systems they use it as
part of their EMR and part ofthat usually are very robust.
They're narrowly focused oncertain conditions and I think,
when you're talking aboutradiology or pathology and some
of these things, I think you'regoing to see it over time,
(11:12):
expand to provide more support,because I think you know, know,
one of the things that helps isthat right now we don't have
enough in the united states,enough physicians, and while
there has been a a opening upand an increase in the number of
pas and nurse practitionersapp's, they're still not enough.
So when you have that to have atool to be able to help you,
(11:38):
it's not going to fix the issueat the root cause.
I, personally speaking, I thinkthe only way you're going to
fix that is really by Congressdeciding to add more resident
slots, which haven't beenupdated in probably 30 or 40
years.
So we have more residentscoming through programs to be
able to provide medical care,through programs to be able to
(12:00):
provide medical care right, andprobably increasing funding for
those that want to be PAs andNPs, exposing that to kids at an
early age that this issomething that you would want to
do and making it easier forthem to access it, you know, so
they're not drowning in debt andthings like that.
Like that's a wholeconversation in and of itself,
but for the here and the now.
You have the technology.
If it helps ease some of theresponse times, because
(12:21):
sometimes people are criticallyill and if you can get that
response time down, that canliterally be the difference
between life and death If ithelps, then it's a good tool.
Right, I'm not a clinician bytrade, but I've heard positive
reviews anecdotally fromclinicians.
But I do know there's manyhealth systems good health
systems that use it in thiscapacity.
But it's support.
(12:42):
It's not necessarily peoplethink that, okay, ai is being
doctored now.
No, that's not.
To my knowledge, that is notoccurring anywhere in the United
States.
Anywhere there's not a computerin an exam room while you're in
there taking your bloodpressure telling you what's
wrong with you.
Will that day ever come?
(13:03):
I don't know.
Yeah, I may be dead and gone bythat point, but whether it
comes or not today, no, that isnot the case yeah, and I tell
people all the time, ai is nothere to replace people.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just a supplement,
just so what you're saying.
It enhances processes, you know.
So the people who will survivein the future are the people who
know how to utilize AI.
So if you know how to use this,then your organization is going
to scale in the right way.
So it's not a bad thing.
Obviously, it's going toreplace some errors like, maybe,
(13:37):
designing and stuff of thatnature.
You know some errors that youknow.
This.
Tools like chat, gpt can, can,you know, can be useful.
But but overall I think it'sit's, it's a help, it's a good
thing.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
What?
What I would tell you, kind ofto close the loop on my thoughts
on it, is that one thing that Ioften tell people is that most
of the time, you hear what youhear about anything.
Change is hard for humans ingeneral.
Right, it doesn't matter whoyou are, where you live, what
you look like.
Change is just, it's different.
We're all used to routine andcertain things and, yes, there's
(14:12):
a select number of people thatthrive on change.
They like the right, butmajority of people if we're just
talking about the majority ofthe world they like to know that
things are in a certain order,right.
And when you disrupt that order, how many times do you go to
the store and your favoriteproduct is no longer there?
Or they change the packagingand you can't find it.
(14:33):
Or you go to a restaurant andthey no longer have that item on
the menu and you get oh, theycan't leave well enough alone,
and stuff like that, butultimately it's because people
don't like change.
And a lot of times, honestly,that favorite meal was my
favorite meal and I'm stillupset that it's not there, right
?
So we have to acknowledge thoseare true feelings, right?
But I think for AI in thiscontext and conversation.
(14:55):
It's important to understandthat that, yes, it's new.
New can be scary, new can bealso good too.
It's no different than when Iwas, you know, growing up as a
kid, or even with my own child,getting them to try different
foods from different parts ofthe world.
Try it.
Try it at least once or twice.
If you don't like it, then okay, we can move on to something
(15:16):
else, right?
Right, you can't just eat pizzaand chicken fingers forever, is
kind of what I say.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, there you go.
And a very important thing withAI, nothing can replace the
human touch.
Yes, correct, nothing canreplace that, you know, and so
we'll.
You know we'll always be hereto you know, to advance
processes, to move, to getthings going.
Jason, look into, as we weretalking about AI, the next 10
(15:43):
years, what are you seeing?
Talk to us about some of thedevelopment in healthcare the
next, say, the next five to 10years.
I know we spoke about AI, butwhat you could go any direction
you want from a policy or from a, you know, just natural
advancement.
What are you seeing?
So I think there'll be anatural, from a, you know, just
natural advancement.
What are you seeing?
So?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I think there'll be a natural hopefully a natural
evolution in preventative care.
I think you know I started in2003.
By 2008, 2010, 2012, mostsystems physician offices,
health systems were moving frompaper charts to electronic
charts.
Okay, and then we've seen anevolution of those electronic
(16:20):
charts, which were very and theystill.
They're not perfect, but theywere very cumbersome, right.
So you went from a place of in2005, my doctor scribbling on a
sheet of paper their soap noteto now you have systems that can
listen, the AI system while thedoctor and you are talking.
Now the poor physician doesn'thave to sit and type and stare
(16:41):
away from you because theconstruction of the room and
where the computer is locatedand you can have a more personal
conversation than you did whenemrs first started.
Right, that's something Ididn't think was going to happen
this quickly.
I went to a conference mgma,nashville in 22 or 23, I think,
23.
And they were talking about itthen and it's in use today,
(17:06):
right?
So part of it is almost unfairto ask me, like, what's going to
happen in 10 years, because intwo, three years time we went
from like this testing phase ofthis type software to now it's
in use and not in pilot, likeit's full on.
Microsoft and other companiesare selling this.
I think you're going to see,hopefully, more investment in
seeing how genetics can impact,not just we think this person's
(17:30):
going to have X, y or Zcondition because of this, but
even have something of how do weprevent it.
And that might be a littlelonger than 10 years.
But I'm hoping thatpreventative medicine and
preventative care is more thanjust explaining to people what a
well-balanced diet is and whatyou know vitamins you should
have, and just not just checkingyour blood levels regularly.
(17:50):
That it will be how early canwe get to kids.
Some of this is a little bit ofpie in the sky.
I'd love to see enough fundingto support people having access
to whole foods that they can'tafford.
As simple as that.
I don't know if that's going tohappen, but I would like to see
some of those preventativeprograms.
(18:11):
I think that would be for me,the next evolution if we're
talking about preventative care,right, right right.
Whether it gets public policybacking and funding is another.
You know that's a whole otherpodcast, yes, yes, but I think
that's one thing.
I think you'll see AI used in alot of other areas.
I remember a couple of yearsago I was at a Becker's revenue
(18:32):
cycle three or four years agoand they were even talking about
how they were going to use AIto more efficiently staff
clinics and OR rooms with staffthan a person like me could.
Also for the purposes ofscheduling appointments so that
there's no human error andmissing slots.
And you know, I remember yearsago and it still happens today
(18:53):
you could have slots every 30minutes or every 15 minutes and
someone misbooks it and now allof a sudden there's 10 minute
gaps.
That's lost patientaccessibility and revenue, right
.
So I think you're going to seethat evolve and become more
normal part of health care.
Um, beyond that, I I do thinkthat a lot of the emr systems
(19:13):
I'm hoping they evolve to wherethey're more not just patient
centric, but I hope they're morephysician centric, because I
think the biggest fault of EMRswhen they first came it was
going to be this great way tomake physician's life and nurse
practitioners and PA's life andstaff life easier and I hope
there's a concerted effort tocontinue to talk about wellness
(19:38):
of our staff and frontline staff.
We talked a lot about it duringCOVID but then, when COVID got
better and everyone you know wegot, we came, you know, out of
that wave.
You know 22 and 23,.
We kind of stopped talkingabout it.
But healthcare is still very,very difficult and not just
laborious in nature, but it'sstressful, you know.
(19:58):
It's not like you're working ata hotel or a resort and
everyone's on vacation and,generally speaking, most people
are happy they're there, they'reat a beach holiday or they're
in a mountain resort orsomething like that.
Most people come in health carethey're miserable and unhappy
because they're sick, andnaturally so.
And when you're taking that in,I hope there's still continued
efforts that evolve over thenext 10 years to make sure that
(20:20):
we have enough mental healthcare accessibility, yeah, for
everyone.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That would be great, and I hope so too, but again,
these are more of you're askingme, like there's technical
things, and then there's mypie-in-the-sky wish list.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I know, I know it's a lot surrounding this and I know
you've got to jump shortly, buttalk to me about this, right?
Let's talk about practicemanagement.
A doctor is listening.
They have a private practiceand they're looking some ways to
grow.
At this point, as we are seeingin the market, there are a lot
(20:57):
of private equity firms.
They're buying up all theselocal practices.
If you could give some adviceto a local doctor, what are some
ways they can positionthemselves and survive in this
environment?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So I think the most important thing is they've got
to look at their own internalprocesses and their own business
and hopefully they either havesomeone on their team whether
it's an external consultant ortheir practice manager or
whatever the case may be orthemselves, where they can
(21:30):
assess the financial viabilityof that practice.
So what is the health of thatpractice?
Are you hemorrhaging patients?
Are you hemorrhaging money?
Are you able to keep up andrecapitalize so you're able to
put enough money away at the endof the year so that you can
replace outdated equipment?
Are you able to keep up withmalpractice costs?
That's usually the one majormajor concern of a lot of
(21:52):
private physicians.
Are you able to negotiate fairrates from the payers?
Because there are some statesin the United States where you
have a whole host of physicianclinics throughout private
hospital owned, but then youalso have a number of payers.
Some states there's onedominant payer and it's like
(22:12):
take it or leave it, right, sothat that can change things too.
As far as what you're going toget reimbursed, if they feel
that they're viable, I thinkthey just have to understand is
and this is not something I cangive them advice on what do they
want to be when they grow up?
What do you want it to be?
Do you want to be amultidisciplinary practice?
Do you want to make it a singlespecialty, big practice?
(22:35):
Do you want to make it big tothe point that you can sell it
one day?
Do you want to make it bigbecause you believe in the
private practice and theimportance of it, which I think
is?
Even though I work for a healthsystem, I still think it's very
important to have privatephysicians, privately owned
right, whatever it is, even ifyou're thinking about selling to
private equity or health system.
(22:55):
if you're at that stage, youhave to understand what is the
culture, beyond the finances, ofwhat you're going to enter.
Or you're nearing retirement,you're going to sunset your
practice and then you're justgoing to be done with it, right?
You have to answer thosequestions.
There's a laundry list ofquestions.
We could go on for quite a bit,but you have to ask yourself
(23:16):
which direction do I want to go?
And you have to ask yourselfwhy am I going that direction?
Some people may be like I justwant to cash out, I'm done, I'm
exhausted.
I want to do something elsewith my life.
Some people, just like I, wantto build a business and see it
grow, and these are the thingsthat I want to do.
You have to surround yourselfwith good experts, people you
can trust, whether it's anattorney, a CPA, whether it's
(23:38):
like I said.
There's consultants around.
They're not always from the bigfirms.
There are small to mediumconsultants you can find on
LinkedIn.
You can find through their ownphysician networks.
I'm sure there's similarphysicians they work with.
You can also ask fellowcolleagues in your industry how
did selling to set a healthsystem or private equity.
How did that work out for you?
(23:59):
Are you happy?
And don't just get one, getmultiple, you've got to add that
all together and then see is itthe right fit for you?
Which direction?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yep, all right.
Well said, you know there's alot of consideration around.
You know growing a practice,and you lay that out excellently
, I know you.
You know we're up on the time.
Jason, thank you so much forstopping by, appreciate your
take, and we should definitely,you know, get together again.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Happy to get together again.
Good luck, andre.
Thank you so much for your time.
All right, thank you so much.
Bye now.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
All right, bye.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
I hope you found thisinformation useful.
Please share this episode onsocial media and also visit our
website at andreerightcom slashpodcast for more, and also leave
us a review on Apple orwherever you get your podcasts.
(24:55):
Until next time, see you then.
Welcome to the your Company Podcast.
I'm your host, andrea Wright,founder and CEO of the Wright
Consult Digital Marketing Agency, and also the creator of the
Patient Buzz program.
The goal of this podcast is tohighlight healthcare
professionals, their journey andhow they're making the world a
better place.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to another episode of the your Company
Health podcast.
My name is Andre Wright andtoday we have Jason Reitbart, an
executive administrator fromUChicago.
Hey, jason, good day and howare you?
Good morning, how are you?
I'm great.
I'm great, I'm great To getthings started.
So tell us about yourbackground and your journey in
healthcare.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Sure, I often when people ask me this question, I
have to now remember, calculatethe number of when I started
versus today's date.
Right, and I did this recentlyat a conference last week that I
spoke at.
But I've been in healthcare for22 years, up until three years
ago before I worked here at theUniversity of Chicago.
I work as the executiveadministrator in the Department
(01:14):
of Ophthalmology.
I was in healthcare operationspure operations for 19 years.
So I was either a practicemanager or operations director,
and I was.
Folks can go on my LinkedInpage if they're interested.
I don't want to bore peoplewith the details, but I worked
for mainly in physician officespaces.
Some of them were privatelyowned, some of them were public
(01:37):
safety net hospital systems thatowned ambulatory clinics.
Some of it was a non-for-profithospital, could be
multi-hospital clinics.
Some of it was a non-for-profithospital, could be
multi-hospital, could be onesolo independent hospital owning
medical groups.
So that's where I wasoperations director or practice
manager, and I did that for 19years.
So my roots come fromoperations, which, as you know,
operations touches everythingfrom HR to finance to strategy,
(01:59):
to you name it.
Sometimes you are the staffpsychologist, if you will, as
one of my staff members jokedabout with me many years ago.
But the last three years inthis role it's a bit more of an
executive role where there'smore decision making of the
strategy X, y and Z.
(02:25):
I'm one of the people with mychair, who's a wonderful
individual and a great executive, to work for Dr Sino Harry
Prasad.
We work collaboratively todecide.
Okay, you know we get input anddata and other things, but we
collaborate like okay, do wewant to hire this number of
subspecialists?
Do we want to consider pitchingopening a clinic in this
neighborhood or this market?
Right, it's more than that, butit can even be okay, what
(02:46):
capital equipment do we want topurchase and focus on, because
certain things are coming intolife?
Right?
So it's more of a strategicconversation rather than prior
roles where I might becompleting a budget but I was
focusing more on.
You know I do budgets today,right, but in the past it was
all right.
I have staff schedules.
(03:06):
I need to make sure I havecoverage.
Okay, we're registeringpatients in the clinic.
Are we capturing all thenecessary data?
Are we capturing all theco-pays?
Right?
Whereas now I'm looking more atthe reports and working with
the management team to see, okay, do we see any trends.
How can I consult and help sooften my nurse manager I work
with operations director wejoked about this when we all
(03:27):
first met each other a few yearsago is that they look at me and
I look at them.
We work collaboratively.
But my nurse manager often sayyou know, it's like having you,
is like having an internalconsultant with all your
experience.
But one thing that I make surethat I do in this role is I'm
not out of touch.
I visit the clinic, I talk tothe physicians, make sure we
(03:48):
take care of what they need.
So that operator in me hasnever gone away.
But I just don't get involvedin the weeds.
But I love it.
I enjoy it.
This is wonderful institutionalwork for it, no of course, of
course.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And Jason, where did this all start?
So, you know, by talking todifferent healthcare.
You know, managers, operators,there's always some passion
there.
You know there's always someaha moment when you get into a
specific field.
So talk to us about that moment.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So for me I think it was a little unconventional.
I think now folks generallythey'll have their aha moment
maybe in college or maybethey'll in grad school when they
go for their master's programand then many of them go into a
fellowship program followingtheir master's and there's a lot
of dual programs now an MBA,mha for those not sure you know
master's of businessadministration and then a
master's in healthcareadministration.
(04:43):
A lot of times people get bothat the same time.
Then they go for a fellowship.
When I first started and we'retalking the 2K era that existed,
but it wasn't as seen as it istoday.
I think fellowships are verycompetitive today.
I think there was probably lesspeople pursuing than openings,
(05:05):
even at one point, whether we'retalking about the 90s or even
the 2K era.
I ended up when I was in college.
I thought I wanted to be a citymanager and I've always had a
desire to help people.
And I will tell you the firsttime I vividly remember wanting
to help people and this is apersonal story when I was born I
(05:26):
was tongue-tied, meaning mytongue did not extend normally
as it does and there wassomething that needed to be
clipped for me to be able to doit.
Well, the doctor at the timesaid he'll grow out of it.
So my parents said, okay, itnever happened.
So when I was six or sevenyears old, I had to go through
speech therapy because I had alisp.
I didn't really want to talk, Iwasn't very engaging because I
(05:48):
was embarrassed by it, and wehad the surgery to fix it.
When I was six or seven and Iwent through Mrs Swanson was her
name I did two years of speechtherapy with her and that was
the time that I the first time Irealized how vulnerable people
could be Based on something thatbothered them, and for me it
(06:14):
was.
I had a lisp.
I had, you know, stutteringbecause I was just afraid to
talk, because I couldn't talkthe way everyone else did.
And, being in that environmentbecause we did group therapy,
there was and this was a speechtherapist at our school.
It wasn't a special place, itwasn't a special center and
lovely individual, and I thinkshe was quite a bit older at
that time.
I'm sure she's since passed on,but I just remember I
(06:35):
encouraged the kids as I gotbetter and felt more confident,
and I think it's just thatdesire to help people, desire to
help people.
Now I thought in college thatdesire was going to be being a
city manager and making sure acity was, you know, economically
thriving and that garbage waspicked up and things were taken
care of and every you know.
Your talent would be nice.
And even though I went throughan internship and even a
(06:58):
master's degree towards it, Inever fell in love with it.
I still loved working withpeople, but the technical pieces
of it just didn't make my heartsing.
So I met a doctor by chance onaccident when I was in grad
school and he offered me aposition to run his clinic,
which at first was really justme and him, and then eventually,
(07:21):
within a few months, medicalassistant because he had been
retired.
And then he came out ofretirement.
He's like I want, want to startover again.
He was in his upper 60s at thetime, so it was totally like
okay, I'm kind of bored withthis, so we're gonna put this
off to the side, I'm gonna trythis health care thing and I
loved it.
It was different every day, itwas crazy sometimes, and just
what I enjoyed the most about itwas two things the building up
(07:45):
of the business part, seeing itgrow much like a plant, like I'm
a gardener now Like the last 10years I do home gardening,
right.
Seeing a plant or a flower gofrom a seed to a flowering plant
of any kind or a tree, seeingthat part and being a
contributor, that was fun for me.
That was like better than avideo game, right.
It was just like you were ableto see something grow.
(08:06):
You started from nothing andnow you have something right,
and that kind of spoke to myentrepreneurial spirit.
But the other part of it is Iwould see people come in sick
and leave healthy, and so thetwo of those kind of married
together is what made me fall inlove with healthcare.
And if that answers yourquestion, that's how it all kind
(08:31):
of started.
It wasn't like at seven, when Iwas going through the speech
therapy, I knew it was going tobe healthcare.
I just knew I wanted to helppeople.
It just translated into thatyears later.
You know, life has a way oftaking you.
I had someone very much smarterthan me tell me this it's much
like water it's going to gowherever it's going to go,
life's going to take you.
You know, you can have an idea,but sometimes and I didn't know
at 24, 25 years old.
(08:52):
Life was going to take me therebut it did, and I look back on
it now, all the years that I'veworked and and hopefully I've
left things in better shape asI've worked a different way and
worked with different peoplethan the way I things in better
shape as I've worked withdifferent people than the way I
encountered them from day one,and I think I have.
But it has been a wonderful wayto give back.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, yeah, and that's awesome A bit similar to
my story because, you know, withdigital marketing, I like to
help doctors grow and I like tohelp people Also, people, you
know I help doctors, help theirpatients, which is really a big
thing for me.
You know so great story and Ican see why you're passionate
(09:34):
about what you're doing.
See why you're passionate aboutwhat you're doing.
But, jason, in the interest oftime, the buzzword nowadays is
AI right?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Artificial intelligence how do you see AI
impacting your space?
So we you know a lot ofinstitutions use it, like
clinically speaking, will use AIas a supplement.
So I know there's a lot offolks that get scared of it
because they're afraid that AIis going to be the doctor or
nurse or the APP that's going todiagnose me.
Right, where I've seen it andit's incredible.
(10:09):
What it's done is that you canhave a number of radiology
studies and the AI system that ahealth system can subscribe to
and have can review all thosedifferent studies and provide
support to the radiologistreviewing the study as an
(10:29):
example.
Right, the radiologist willalways review and come to their
own conclusions, but to be ableto get another set of eyes AI,
if you will, no pun intended tobe able to look at it and
provide some feedback, I don'tthink there's many clinicians
that would say this is bad.
I wouldn't say that AI acrossthe board.
(10:51):
We've all used chat, gpt andother apps like that and
sometimes you get varyingdegrees of success or fail.
But the ones that are part ofhealth systems they use it as
part of their EMR and part ofthat usually are very robust.
They're narrowly focused oncertain conditions and I think,
when you're talking aboutradiology or pathology and some
of these things, I think you'regoing to see it over time,
(11:12):
expand to provide more support,because I think you know, know,
one of the things that helps isthat right now we don't have
enough in the united states,enough physicians, and while
there has been a a opening upand an increase in the number of
pas and nurse practitionersapp's, they're still not enough.
So when you have that to have atool to be able to help you,
(11:38):
it's not going to fix the issueat the root cause.
I, personally speaking, I thinkthe only way you're going to
fix that is really by Congressdeciding to add more resident
slots, which haven't beenupdated in probably 30 or 40
years.
So we have more residentscoming through programs to be
able to provide medical care,through programs to be able to
(12:00):
provide medical care right, andprobably increasing funding for
those that want to be PAs andNPs, exposing that to kids at an
early age that this issomething that you would want to
do and making it easier forthem to access it, you know, so
they're not drowning in debt andthings like that.
Like that's a wholeconversation in and of itself,
but for the here and the now.
You have the technology.
If it helps ease some of theresponse times, because
(12:21):
sometimes people are criticallyill and if you can get that
response time down, that canliterally be the difference
between life and death If ithelps, then it's a good tool.
Right, I'm not a clinician bytrade, but I've heard positive
reviews anecdotally fromclinicians.
But I do know there's manyhealth systems good health
systems that use it in thiscapacity.
But it's support.
(12:42):
It's not necessarily peoplethink that, okay, ai is being
doctored now.
No, that's not.
To my knowledge, that is notoccurring anywhere in the United
States.
Anywhere there's not a computerin an exam room while you're in
there taking your bloodpressure telling you what's
wrong with you.
Will that day ever come?
(13:03):
I don't know.
Yeah, I may be dead and gone bythat point, but whether it
comes or not today, no, that isnot the case yeah, and I tell
people all the time, ai is nothere to replace people.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just a supplement,
just so what you're saying.
It enhances processes, you know.
So the people who will survivein the future are the people who
know how to utilize AI.
So if you know how to use this,then your organization is going
to scale in the right way.
So it's not a bad thing.
Obviously, it's going toreplace some errors like, maybe,
(13:37):
designing and stuff of thatnature.
You know some errors that youknow.
This.
Tools like chat, gpt can, can,you know, can be useful.
But but overall I think it'sit's, it's a help, it's a good
thing.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
What?
What I would tell you, kind ofto close the loop on my thoughts
on it, is that one thing that Ioften tell people is that most
of the time, you hear what youhear about anything.
Change is hard for humans ingeneral.
Right, it doesn't matter whoyou are, where you live, what
you look like.
Change is just, it's different.
We're all used to routine andcertain things and, yes, there's
(14:12):
a select number of people thatthrive on change.
They like the right, butmajority of people if we're just
talking about the majority ofthe world they like to know that
things are in a certain order,right.
And when you disrupt that order, how many times do you go to
the store and your favoriteproduct is no longer there?
Or they change the packagingand you can't find it.
(14:33):
Or you go to a restaurant andthey no longer have that item on
the menu and you get oh, theycan't leave well enough alone,
and stuff like that, butultimately it's because people
don't like change.
And a lot of times, honestly,that favorite meal was my
favorite meal and I'm stillupset that it's not there, right
?
So we have to acknowledge thoseare true feelings, right?
But I think for AI in thiscontext and conversation.
(14:55):
It's important to understandthat that, yes, it's new.
New can be scary, new can bealso good too.
It's no different than when Iwas, you know, growing up as a
kid, or even with my own child,getting them to try different
foods from different parts ofthe world.
Try it.
Try it at least once or twice.
If you don't like it, then okay, we can move on to something
(15:16):
else, right?
Right, you can't just eat pizzaand chicken fingers forever, is
kind of what I say.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, there you go.
And a very important thing withAI, nothing can replace the
human touch.
Yes, correct, nothing canreplace that, you know, and so
we'll.
You know we'll always be hereto you know, to advance
processes, to move, to getthings going.
Jason, look into, as we weretalking about AI, the next 10
(15:43):
years, what are you seeing?
Talk to us about some of thedevelopment in healthcare the
next, say, the next five to 10years.
I know we spoke about AI, butwhat you could go any direction
you want from a policy or from a, you know, just natural
advancement.
What are you seeing?
So I think there'll be anatural, from a, you know, just
natural advancement.
What are you seeing?
So?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I think there'll be a natural hopefully a natural
evolution in preventative care.
I think you know I started in2003.
By 2008, 2010, 2012, mostsystems physician offices,
health systems were moving frompaper charts to electronic
charts.
Okay, and then we've seen anevolution of those electronic
(16:20):
charts, which were very and theystill.
They're not perfect, but theywere very cumbersome, right.
So you went from a place of in2005, my doctor scribbling on a
sheet of paper their soap noteto now you have systems that can
listen, the AI system while thedoctor and you are talking.
Now the poor physician doesn'thave to sit and type and stare
(16:41):
away from you because theconstruction of the room and
where the computer is locatedand you can have a more personal
conversation than you did whenemrs first started.
Right, that's something Ididn't think was going to happen
this quickly.
I went to a conference mgma,nashville in 22 or 23, I think,
23.
And they were talking about itthen and it's in use today,
(17:06):
right?
So part of it is almost unfairto ask me, like, what's going to
happen in 10 years, because intwo, three years time we went
from like this testing phase ofthis type software to now it's
in use and not in pilot, likeit's full on.
Microsoft and other companiesare selling this.
I think you're going to see,hopefully, more investment in
seeing how genetics can impact,not just we think this person's
(17:30):
going to have X, y or Zcondition because of this, but
even have something of how do weprevent it.
And that might be a littlelonger than 10 years.
But I'm hoping thatpreventative medicine and
preventative care is more thanjust explaining to people what a
well-balanced diet is and whatyou know vitamins you should
have, and just not just checkingyour blood levels regularly.
(17:50):
That it will be how early canwe get to kids.
Some of this is a little bit ofpie in the sky.
I'd love to see enough fundingto support people having access
to whole foods that they can'tafford.
As simple as that.
I don't know if that's going tohappen, but I would like to see
some of those preventativeprograms.
(18:11):
I think that would be for me,the next evolution if we're
talking about preventative care,right, right right.
Whether it gets public policybacking and funding is another.
You know that's a whole otherpodcast, yes, yes, but I think
that's one thing.
I think you'll see AI used in alot of other areas.
I remember a couple of yearsago I was at a Becker's revenue
(18:32):
cycle three or four years agoand they were even talking about
how they were going to use AIto more efficiently staff
clinics and OR rooms with staffthan a person like me could.
Also for the purposes ofscheduling appointments so that
there's no human error andmissing slots.
And you know, I remember yearsago and it still happens today
(18:53):
you could have slots every 30minutes or every 15 minutes and
someone misbooks it and now allof a sudden there's 10 minute
gaps.
That's lost patientaccessibility and revenue, right
.
So I think you're going to seethat evolve and become more
normal part of health care.
Um, beyond that, I I do thinkthat a lot of the emr systems
(19:13):
I'm hoping they evolve to wherethey're more not just patient
centric, but I hope they're morephysician centric, because I
think the biggest fault of EMRswhen they first came it was
going to be this great way tomake physician's life and nurse
practitioners and PA's life andstaff life easier and I hope
there's a concerted effort tocontinue to talk about wellness
(19:38):
of our staff and frontline staff.
We talked a lot about it duringCOVID but then, when COVID got
better and everyone you know wegot, we came, you know, out of
that wave.
You know 22 and 23,.
We kind of stopped talkingabout it.
But healthcare is still very,very difficult and not just
laborious in nature, but it'sstressful, you know.
(19:58):
It's not like you're working ata hotel or a resort and
everyone's on vacation and,generally speaking, most people
are happy they're there, they'reat a beach holiday or they're
in a mountain resort orsomething like that.
Most people come in health carethey're miserable and unhappy
because they're sick, andnaturally so.
And when you're taking that in,I hope there's still continued
efforts that evolve over thenext 10 years to make sure that
(20:20):
we have enough mental healthcare accessibility, yeah, for
everyone.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That would be great, and I hope so too, but again,
these are more of you're askingme, like there's technical
things, and then there's mypie-in-the-sky wish list.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I know, I know it's a lot surrounding this and I know
you've got to jump shortly, buttalk to me about this, right?
Let's talk about practicemanagement.
A doctor is listening.
They have a private practiceand they're looking some ways to
grow.
At this point, as we are seeingin the market, there are a lot
(20:57):
of private equity firms.
They're buying up all theselocal practices.
If you could give some adviceto a local doctor, what are some
ways they can positionthemselves and survive in this
environment?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So I think the most important thing is they've got
to look at their own internalprocesses and their own business
and hopefully they either havesomeone on their team whether
it's an external consultant ortheir practice manager or
whatever the case may be orthemselves, where they can
(21:30):
assess the financial viabilityof that practice.
So what is the health of thatpractice?
Are you hemorrhaging patients?
Are you hemorrhaging money?
Are you able to keep up andrecapitalize so you're able to
put enough money away at the endof the year so that you can
replace outdated equipment?
Are you able to keep up withmalpractice costs?
That's usually the one majormajor concern of a lot of
(21:52):
private physicians.
Are you able to negotiate fairrates from the payers?
Because there are some statesin the United States where you
have a whole host of physicianclinics throughout private
hospital owned, but then youalso have a number of payers.
Some states there's onedominant payer and it's like
(22:12):
take it or leave it, right, sothat that can change things too.
As far as what you're going toget reimbursed, if they feel
that they're viable, I thinkthey just have to understand is
and this is not something I cangive them advice on what do they
want to be when they grow up?
What do you want it to be?
Do you want to be amultidisciplinary practice?
Do you want to make it a singlespecialty, big practice?
(22:35):
Do you want to make it big tothe point that you can sell it
one day?
Do you want to make it bigbecause you believe in the
private practice and theimportance of it, which I think
is?
Even though I work for a healthsystem, I still think it's very
important to have privatephysicians, privately owned
right, whatever it is, even ifyou're thinking about selling to
private equity or health system.
(22:55):
if you're at that stage, youhave to understand what is the
culture, beyond the finances, ofwhat you're going to enter.
Or you're nearing retirement,you're going to sunset your
practice and then you're justgoing to be done with it, right?
You have to answer thosequestions.
There's a laundry list ofquestions.
We could go on for quite a bit,but you have to ask yourself
(23:16):
which direction do I want to go?
And you have to ask yourselfwhy am I going that direction?
Some people may be like I justwant to cash out, I'm done, I'm
exhausted.
I want to do something elsewith my life.
Some people, just like I, wantto build a business and see it
grow, and these are the thingsthat I want to do.
You have to surround yourselfwith good experts, people you
can trust, whether it's anattorney, a CPA, whether it's
(23:38):
like I said.
There's consultants around.
They're not always from the bigfirms.
There are small to mediumconsultants you can find on
LinkedIn.
You can find through their ownphysician networks.
I'm sure there's similarphysicians they work with.
You can also ask fellowcolleagues in your industry how
did selling to set a healthsystem or private equity.
How did that work out for you?
(23:59):
Are you happy?
And don't just get one, getmultiple, you've got to add that
all together and then see is itthe right fit for you?
Which direction?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yep, all right.
Well said, you know there's alot of consideration around.
You know growing a practice,and you lay that out excellently
, I know you.
You know we're up on the time.
Jason, thank you so much forstopping by, appreciate your
take, and we should definitely,you know, get together again.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Happy to get together again.
Good luck, andre.
Thank you so much for your time.
All right, thank you so much.
Bye now.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
All right, bye.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
I hope you found thisinformation useful.
Please share this episode onsocial media and also visit our
website at andreerightcom slashpodcast for more, and also leave
us a review on Apple orwherever you get your podcasts.
(24:55):
Until next time, see you then.
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