This is Laura Dirdle with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor Michael White, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at ValueWise Health. Doctor White, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Thank you very much. I'm excited to be here. Now, you know, I'm looking forward to our conversation because I know the coming year is gonna be a big one for ValueWise Health. A lot of growth and innovation, set yourself up for, you know, great success in in the last year. And so from your perspective, could you tell me a little bit about ValleyWise Health, share with our listeners of what makes it special and then an accomplishment you're most proud of from the last year? Absolutely. And, again, thank you for the opportunity to participate today. ValleyWise Health is the public safety net health system, which is located in Maricopa County and Phoenix, Arizona. So Phoenix, Arizona is the 5th largest, you know, metropolitan city in the US. And we've seen continued growth in Maricopa County. We're the fastest growing county in the United States. So as this continues to you know evolve we're seeing increasing you know pressure and demand on health care services as our population continues to grow here in the Southwest United States. Valley wise is Valley wise Health is unique, and we have been providing health care, you know, in Maricopa County or in Arizona for over a 150 years. We're organized as a special health care district of the state, around us, that operates here within Phoenix. We have one acute care hospital, which also serves as the home for the Arizona burn center, which is the 2nd largest burn center here in the United States. We are an American College of Surgeons level 1 trauma center, and then is supported by a network of, federally qualified health centers that is located throughout the county. Additionally, we are the largest behavioral health provider, within the area and have 3 behavioral health facilities that are dedicated to serving our, our seriously manially ill patients, certainly undergoing the court ordered evaluation and treatment process. Over the last year, we've continued to grow, and focus really on how do we elevate ourselves, to the next level. And probably my most proud accomplishment for our team and for our organization this year is achieving a leapfrog grade of a around patient safety, and quality. Our team has been focused on improving everything that we do and everything that touches our patients, our families, and our teams within the organization to make sure that we are providing high quality, safe care. And it's been wonderful to be recognized, you know, externally, you know, through the Leap Frog grade to demonstrate our commitment for for that and really celebrate all of the work that the team has done this past year to help us achieve that that ranking. That's amazing to hear, you know, and certainly a huge accomplishment to be ranked and recognized nationally, for the different, things that you're doing at ValueWise Health. Now and building upon that success, what are your some some of your big goals for 2025? What's top of mind for you? Certainly, for us, you know, in 2025 is we wanna continue to sustain this positive momentum. You know, we are have just completed a large, you know, refresh of our facilities. The citizens of Maricopa County passed a bond issue in 2014 which allowed us to modernize, you know, our facilities within Valley West Health, which culminated with the construction of a new patient care tower. We were able to move into this new patient care tower in June of this past year and are providing our services in that space today. So as we look to the next year, we want to continue to look for opportunities to improve our access for our patients and our patient populations. We want to continue to maximize our ability to you know touch our community and improve you know the health of our community you know through this particular work. We're working certainly on our employee satisfaction, our employee retention and recruitment as we continue to grow our team, and grow into this space and, again, maintain that high quality safe patient care, which we we we've, recently been recognized for. That makes a lot of sense. You know? And it is great to hear focus on growth for 2025. And I'm particularly interested when you talk about, the employee satisfaction, retention, and recruitment. What have you learned, I guess, over the last couple of years or so, about what's working well in those areas and anything you're planning new for next year? I I know that's a topic of much, conversation amongst the leaders that we connect with at Becker's, and, certainly, many organizations are trying to figure out the right strategy or or what's gonna be most effective for them. So I'd love to hear from your perspective if there's anything, that, you know, you're really excited about trying or have done well in those areas that you might wanna share with our broader audience. Certainly. You know, I think, yeah, it's how do we, you know, create an environment where people feel supported, you know, and a and a team where people can work well together and continue to function in a very challenging and high pace, space. You know, health care delivery and our demands for health care delivery continue to increase, and finding the right talent and team, you know, really is essential for us to be successful. Certainly, you know, we've done a lot of work around partnering with schools and colleges here within Maricopa County as well as in the state of Arizona, to create pipelines of of interested learners that are coming into the health professions. We are lucky to serve as a member of the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance, so we have a lot of postgraduate teaching programs for our physicians, with residencies and fellowship programs, we've been working to expand that with our nursing colleagues and our nursing colleges and schools, but not only that our other allied health professionals as well around you know radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, pharmacies technicians, how do we get these individuals into the spaces, into those learning opportunities as they're doing rotations, making sure that that experience is pristine for folks. They're getting the knowledge, but they see what a highly functional team and organization that we have and are excited and want to join us to further their careers and build those careers. So that's where we've focused a lot of effort on these pipelines to really be able to, you know, tap into early folks, around there. And then, again, focus on that environment to make sure that people wanna stay, and we've really become one of the best places to work for health care, here within the state of Arizona. That's great to hear. And, definitely, you know, truly, truly a success story of of having that ability to create a culture, where people feel safe and excited to come to work every day and, serve the community at a high level. Now I know there's a lot to be excited about for next year, but, also, you know, what are some of the headwinds that you're anticipating and planning for over the next year or 2? You know, again, certainly as for us, and and certainly in our geographic constraints here within within Phoenix and within Arizona, you know, the demand for health care services is going to continue to increase. And then how do we have access to the right trained individuals, you know, physicians, advanced practice clinicians, you know, staff members to be able to meet that growing need and meet that growing demand. I think that we as we see our population continue to increase, that demand increases to the point that we just don't have, you know, that people that and make sure that people are getting through the system, getting the care that they need? Certainly, as we see, you know, our administration change on a federal level, we continue to watch how that may impact, our our coverage of our patients. You know, we rely and see majority of, uninsured, underinsured, and Medicaid, you know, individuals within our organization. As that changes or eligibility requirements from those continue to evolve, we may see demands further increase certainly as a safety net system, and how do we work through to accommodate that? That's probably our largest and biggest headwind and and thought on at least on from a clinical care delivery side on my on my radar. Got it. That's, you know, really, such a hard challenge, to know and understand, you know, how the what the patient demand is gonna be for care and then looking at the capacity constraints, within, you know, any kind of organization or setting. And then having that challenge as well with some of the underinsured and uninsured, you know, coming in and and needing care too and needing to take care of them. And, you know, I can imagine heading into a year where a new administration is coming in, there's just all sorts of uncertainty on what kind of benefits and and, you know, policies could change over the next few years or so. Correct. And, you know, and then, again, what demand does that look like? What sites of care will then people be, you know, looking to, meet these particular needs as we see the, you know, the lack of outpatient coverage, you know, that may come. You know, what does that do to our emergency departments? And how does that how do we make sure that we're effectively, you know, meeting the needs of patients that are coming through that environment? Are there additional ways that we can, you know, get into the community to work on prevention, to prevent some of that work? So a lot of opportunity that presents. However, there will be, you know, stumbles as we work through, you know, how to meet these needs. Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. And, you know, having that understanding up front, I I can I know we'll just make things, smooth as possible, though nothing is ever perfect, but as smooth as possible? Considering everything we've talked about from some of the new opportunities, technology, AI, and and more as well as the headwinds, How are you evolving as a leader to meet the needs of your team as well as, the larger community of patient population that you serve? You know, certainly, as we see new technologies and new ways to, you know, provide care, that are are that are available to us. We we take a look and and evaluate those and how we can best integrate those, again, to ultimately meet the needs of the patients that we're caring for. Certainly, we're excited about the, you know, efficiencies that some of the AIs and LLMs can bring to us as an organization around summary and communication with our patients. We have such a diverse culture within, the patients that we serve with multiple languages, you know, multiple backgrounds? How do we best, you know, leverage these tools to communicate with folks, make sure that they have the right information? How do we have the team be able to utilize these to be more efficient, you know, in some of the less glamorous work of health care that we do, around that so we can free up their time to be, you know, back and doing things that have a tremendous correct impact on our patients and the care that they receive. I'm excited. I think technology, you know, continues to evolve. Healthcare has always been exciting when it comes to, you know, technology, certainly in the clinical care delivery spaces. It's just, again, how do we evaluate this in that safe way and make sure that we are, you know, making the right decisions, that are gonna truly have a positive impact on the patients that we serve. I love that. Doctor White, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been really a fun and fascinating conversation, and I look forward to connecting with you again soon. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.