CEOs You Should Know-Hygea Healthcare

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.Hi. I'm John Dinkle, former president
publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal andnow founder and CEO of Dinkle Business Development.
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should knowand I'm here today with Robbie Sempler,
CEO of Hijia Healthcare. Welcome Robbie, and thanks for being here now.
Thank you John. Happy to behere and excited to talk. Yeah,

(00:24):
me as well. I thought we'dget started by just getting a no
organization a little bit. So forthose who may not be somilar, can
you tell us about Hygia Healthcare Sure. We are an addiction treatment provider.
Currently have three locations, one thatis currently up and running and then two
that are coming online in the nextmonths and three months. I kind of

(00:47):
started down this path, what wasit five or six years ago now,
my wife and I and son atthe time moved back up here from Florida,
you know, with the goal ofbuilding a treatment addiction treatment ecosystem for
Marylanders in Maryland. So yeah,fantastic, congratulations on your growth plans.

(01:08):
So to talk to us about yourmission, Sure, I mean, the
mission is real simple, it's providinghelp all levels of care, whether it's
impatient, residential, detox, outpatient, aftercare, for anyone and everyone in
Maryland that is willing and needs help, that suffers from addiction and or alcoholism.

(01:30):
You know, I wanted to buildan ecosystem that you know, whoever
called and needed help, we hadservices to provide irrespective of you know,
socioeconomic class, pay or mix anythinglike that. Gotcha. And and when
you look at each individual facility andthe couple coming online, how is it

(01:51):
staffed? I mean, are therelike clinicians there at therapists like kind of
maybe walk through the process a littlebit. Yeah, So two of them
are detox mainly facilities. So that'syou know, more of a medical staff
where we have a doctor, nurses, you know, our ends to all
the ends, the clinical staff,case managers texts, but it's more focused

(02:17):
on the medical side, where theresidential facility still have nursing staff staff to
you know, address things as theycome up. But it's more heavy on
the clinical side. So a bunchof licensed clinicians case managers texts, uh,
you know, and so on.Got it? Great? Great,
appreciate you to explaining that. Sohave you have you seen an increase in

(02:44):
substance abuse cases due to the economicconditions right now, in particular, like
you know, inflation and the economyis kind of topsyterby right now. Have
you have you noticed any difference inin in caseload or anything like that.
Honestly no. COVID definitely, youknow, had some some trends and changes.

(03:06):
I mean, to me, thethe problem it's hard to even get
worse than than what it's been overthe last couple of years. Yeah,
but we would see, you know, once COVID hit, alcoholism just you
know, rose tremendously. Yeah.And you know, before it was opioids
and you know, heroin or percocetsor painkillers, where alcohol was like the

(03:29):
predominant. Saw so many clients thatyou know, they had a job and
would come home from work probably everyday, have a drink or two,
go to sleep, wake up,and then you know, the pandemic hit.
Their at home all day and beforethey know it, they're drinking all
day and night and yeah, youknow, hooked on alcohol. Yeah.

(03:49):
Yeah, it's yeah, it's it'struly sad and actually kind of leads me
to another question around just the youngpeople and the gen zs and the malon
neils. You know, you broughtup COVID and the pandemic which really had
an impact on them, and andyou know the job market right now,
and you I've been you know,reading a lot about kind of the mental

(04:11):
health of young folks and it's justreally tough for them right now. Are
you Are you seeing you know morecases there or or no? Or what's
what's look like? Yeah, Imean terrifying. Uh, this is you
know, the last you know,decade. You know, personally, I
blame social media. I think thatyou're right. I've read a lot about

(04:38):
that too. Yeah, yeah,I mean the the kids that are growing
up, Like I have a nineyear old boy and a four year old
girl, and like I think aboutthe world they're growing into, and it's
a lot more complicated than when wewere growing up. And and social media.
You know, there are positives,a lot of access to information,
but I think the negatives outweigh themat that age, you know, yeah,

(05:02):
a young age. Yeah, Iagree, it's the socialization of that.
I think I'm gonna reading an articletouch for young men, Like I
think it was like thirty or thirtyfive percent said that they couldn't name like
that they had a best friend orright, you know, which is like,
yeah, really sad, which kindof leads unfortunately to be not sad

(05:26):
great habits. Right. Yeah.With So, with the legalization of cannabis
last year, has there been anyimpact on your on your business with that?
Uh So, prior to you know, opening facilities in Maryland, I
had a bunch of facilities in Californiathat cannabis had been like legal there for

(05:46):
a long time. So I didn't, like, I didn't personally experience it,
but I would see, uh whatI got into this space of I
mean I got into the space becauseI got addicted to vik it in and
went to treatment myself, but gotinto the business side of it, developing
an electronic metal record software. UhSo we would see you know data,

(06:10):
I mean all over the US therewas you know, five percent of the
clients for the international too, andyou could definitely see you know, marijuana
use rise if I if I graftedit out, you know, over the
last twenty years. For sure,Yeah, for sure, We'll switching gives
a little bit, tell tell usa little bit about your personal background.

(06:32):
Sure, well, I was bornand raised in Baltimore. I went to
McDonald's school, went to Indiana forcollege, and then moved out to LA
to pursue a career in the musicindustry. Uh, what's that, I
said, that's pretty neat, thanks, Yeah, yeah, I was.

(06:54):
I was kind of like a likea computer nerd growing up, where like
I just love technology, and youknow, it just kind of made sense
to me. So I was,you know, I was in the right
place at the right time in themusic space. It was this boom of
you know, social media before itwas social media, and yeah, music
becoming more of a marketing tool thanlike selling actual physical records. So yeah,

(07:20):
which thankfully he's back now, Iknow, right, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, So, you know,did that for my twenties and ended
up getting hooked on vicing in wentto South Florida for treatment, thought it
was going to be thirty days,and ended up staying in South Florida for

(07:43):
five or six years building a softwarecompany. Yeah, and then moved back
to Baltimore. I think it waslike six years ago. Now. Nice.
Nice, that's pretty awesome. Thanksfor sharing. That just kind of
switch up a little bit more LikeI always like talking about leadership on the
show. How would you describe youryour leadership style. I it's it's a

(08:07):
democracy. I don't like, youknow, a dictatorship. I don't believe
in that. I think it's gotto be a collaborative process. And in
this industry, yeah, there's notreally like every provider is really you know,
in the most part, doing thesame thing. Like what makes the
difference is like, well, whoare the individuals that are treating so you

(08:31):
know, it's got to be afamily, you know, mission driven,
uh, experience, you know,where it's not just you know, clocking
in and clocking out. Like Itell I tell the staff all the time,
like there's either going to be yourdream job or your worst nightmare.
Like, if you want to,you know, clock in and clock out,

(08:52):
there's a lot of facilities out there, and you know you can do
that, that's easy. But ifyou like are really in this too,
you know, do more and thisis like a calling and a mission for
you. This is going to bea dream job. Yeah. It's interesting
having kind of grown up a lotof my career in the media industry,
I kind of look at that andI think about you know, reporters and

(09:16):
you know, and and like schoolteachers. I mean, you're you're in
it for the love of the joband the craft and you know, and
helping and teaching people and all that. I would imagine you know, your
team is similar in the sense thatyou really do have to kind of love
what you're doing and really want tohelp people. And I kind of like
what you had to say about beingmission driven because I think that aligns with

(09:39):
that type of work and having purpose. And you know, if you have
a team member or team members thatyou know, believe in the mission,
our mission driven and they feel likethey have a purpose in helping these folks,
and yeah, it seems like thatwould all align in your business,
and so that makes the difference.It does. Yeah, that's cool.

(10:01):
So with the so with the generalthroughout of the pandemic over I know,
obviously we're going to probably live atthis for quite some time, if not
forever. But if you were tolook back over the past three four years,
you know, what would you sayyou learned about managing our leadership during
that time. I mean, whatwe just like went over is beyond important,

(10:24):
you know, the with the pandemic, I mean, if if you
didn't have people that were you know, dedicated to mission driven. There was
a lot of you know things inplace from you know, government or you
know whatever that could make it easynot have to go to work. You
know where my staff, you know, they still we never shut down.

(10:48):
We didn't have a single day thatwe were shut down. And we have
clients you know, twenty four toseven. There's no you know, off
days. It's three sixty five,twenty four seven every year. Yeah.
So I mean having that family andthat you know, close knit mission driven
vibe was you know, I don'tthink it would have made it through if

(11:11):
it wasn't for that. Yeah,yeah, agreed. Yeah, And when
it comes to the culture there,you know, being that I imagine your
years, your team, yourself orin situations with family and and their family
members that are going through this youknow kind of traumatic time. It can
you know, it's up sometimes.What how do you how do you maintain

(11:35):
and continue to kind of build yourculture and keep it positive and keep everybody
you know, engaged and positive inthe environment. I mean, I think
with anything, it's just it startsat the top and then it's got to
you know, trickle down. Andif you have one, you know,
bad Apple could spoil the bunch.So it's really for me, you know,

(11:58):
having a larger organization, it's juststaying very close and connected to all
my directors and you know, makingsure that you know, there's touch points
every you know, at least everyday, definitely every week, you know,
where how you doing, how's itgoing, you know, actually putting
eyes on them and you know,just having conversations outside of just work.

(12:22):
Yeah, you know, I thinkhelps a lot. Yeah, yeah,
I think that's really important. Imean kind of being as personal as you
can get and really getting to knowpeople and know what makes them tick and
keeps them you know know, knowingwhat what they like and dislike and say
can you know kind of relate tothat and have that kind of personal one

(12:45):
on one bond and conversation is isreally important I think for any any leader
to have with their team for sure. Yeah. I mean and in this
industry too, I mean there's apersonal in somewhere for everyone that that is
like working in it mostly everyone,So you know, I think it actually

(13:09):
like the field is like set upto have that, you know, be
the vibe better if you want easierto have, if if that's what you're
trying to do and you know,not just going after money or you know
with numbers and zeros and ones andthings like that. Right, I got
you what what So what gets excitedabout the future of hygia healthcare? Wow?

(13:35):
I mean a lot opening up morefacilities, Uh, the technological you
know, the things that are inplay that I'm building and working on.
You know, I think you know, from a like a core mission,
it's you know, helping marylanders out. But close second to that is utilizing

(13:56):
tech to to make treatment you know, good is humanly possible, as well
as stay connected with clients you know, post discharge, so not just you
know, quote unquote treating them whilethey're in their care, but having a
connection to them when they're outside ofour care because that's really where the important

(14:16):
stuff starts happening. So a lotof tech things that I'm working on.
And I've launched a company a yearis ago named Preda that I did a
h a strategic partnership with Google andfit It. So every client you know

(14:39):
will wear a fit it and wehave their data, their biometric data,
and it's running through our algorithms toyou know alarm or alert us. You
know when things aren't looking like theyshould be based off of the patterns of
you know, the individual and themachine learning and AI side, so things
like that that, you know,that's what really gets me excited. Yeah,

(15:01):
that's really exciting. Yeah, congratulationson that. That's awesome. Thanks.
What keeps you up at night?I mean the world that our kids
are growing up in? N Apersonal I mean, yeah, business wise,
it's you know, the mind doesn'tshut off a lot, so it's

(15:24):
you know, just running through differentthoughts and ideas and scenarios and playing them
out and you know, trying tofigure out the next you know, most
you know, powerful move that's goingto impact the most amount of people.
Things like that. But I don'tsleep, Bunch, so yeah, I've

(15:45):
got to share that with you.I don't either. I wish I could
sleep more, but yeah, Iwon't sleep, Budge either. Well,
just to kind of wrap things up, you know, is there anything else
you'd like our listeners should know aboutyou? And how do you get healthcare?
No? I mean just you know, whenever anyone that is struggling or
has a loved one or a friendor an enemy or an associate or anyone

(16:07):
that is struggling with uh, youknow, drugs and alcohol, like please
call us and and and let ushelp you. And yeah, you will
get the best quality of care humanlypossible. And yeah, please reach out.
Yeah, thank you. And where'swhere can we find more information about
hi Gia Healthcare. Our website's Hygiadot health and yeah, any information needed.

(16:32):
And then Preda p R e tA a dot com. Is that
the software company too? So great? Yeah awesome? Well, thank you
so much, Robbie. It wasreally really nice talking with you, getting
to learn a little bit more aboutyou and and and your your your companies.
I really appreciate it, and andcongrats on the growth strategy and look

(16:53):
forward to seeing you out there.Same here, John, I really appreciate
it has been iheartmedias CEOs. Youshould know h