Becker's Hospital Review

72 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Living like a leader: A day with LifePoint Health's President and CEO David Dill By Alia Paavola B etween driv- ing growth, meeting clin- ical objectives and navigating complex payer dynamics, there don't seem to be enough hours in the day for health- care executives. Leaders succeed despite these challenges, each with their own habits, hacks, styles and meth- ods — and David Dill, president and CEO of LifePoint Health, is no exception. In his role as president and CEO, Mr. Dill is responsible for the development and oversight of LifePoint's strategic priorities and organiza- tional growth, advancing the company's mis- sion of "Making Communities Healthier" and strengthening its culture enterprisewide. e Brentwood, Tenn.-based health system has 89 hospital campuses across 30 states. Mr. Dill first joined LifePoint in 2007 as exec- utive vice president and CFO. He was then ap- pointed to COO of the system in 2009, a role he held for nine years. He added president to his title in 2011. Aer LifePoint finalized its merger with Brent- wood-based RCCH HealthCare Partners in November 2018, Bill Carpenter, then-CEO and chairman of LifePoint, retired, handing the reins of the newly merged and now private health sys- tem to Mr. Dill. Mr. Dill recently spoke with Becker's Hospital Re- view for our "Living like a Leader" series, which examines influential decision makers' daily rou- tines to offer readers an idea of how they manage their energy, teams and time. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What's the first thing you do when you wake up? David Dill: I've always been a morning person. I love mornings because they are a quiet time at the house. I do my best thinking in the morning, so those 90 minutes before work are helpful for me to clear my head and think about what I am going to accomplish that day. I go to Starbucks every morning, which is about 1.5 miles from my house, pre-order a Venti Pike roast with the mobile app, and my coffee is handed to me when I get there. It's a nice feeling to walk into a place where the baristas know you and your order. Typically, from there I will head home and catch up on the morning news. is includes siing through my e-mail for news items sent to me overnight. I try to limit my morning reading to things that organizations such as Becker's have written or other items that I can share with my team. CNBC is usually on the TV in the background. Q: What's the first thing you do when you arrive at work? DD: In every given week there are breakfast meetings or other meetings outside the office, but a typical day for me starts by climbing the stairs to my office. It's a seven-story building. I decided on my birthday in June to start climbing the stairs each morning as a form of exercise to start my day. From there, I get myself organized for a series of meetings that oen start right away with the team or outside organizations. Q: Is there anything that makes your physical office setup unique? DD: ere are four key elements in my office that are important to me. e first is that I have some bookcases behind my desk with glass fronts. It reminds me how important transpar- ency and openness is to our organization. ere is nothing hidden behind wooden doors or in secret materials. I want to be a leader that works to promote transparency and openness. Another thing that is important to me are pic- tures of my family, which includes my wife and two kids, one boy and one girl. Once a year, I take each kid on a small weekend trip, and my office is full of pictures from all the different trips. It really reminds me of the importance of family. I also have photos of the different communities where we have hospitals. ey aren't pictures of the hospitals themselves, but they are represen- tative of the community, and they serve as visual reminders that the work we are doing every day is much bigger than just debits and credits or numbers on a piece of paper. We are investing in communities and making people healthier. Additionally, I have a large picture of a sunrise over a rural county road. I grew up in a small Southern town, and I enjoy the beginning of each new day. Also, a lot of our hospitals are in communities very similar to where I grew up. e picture helps me think about the promise of a new day, a new chapter and the communities we serve. ose are the four key elements to my office because they remind me of the things in life that are most important to me. Q: What kind of work do you like to get done before lunch? DD: It depends on the day. I travel a couple days a week to various hospitals or other organiza- tions. But typically, I like to complete any struc- tured meetings in the first two-thirds of the day. I try to open my calendar on the back part of the day for ad hoc meetings. I use that time to talk through problems with the team. Q: How much of your time is spent with direct reports? DD: We meet once a week as an executive team. Additionally, once every two weeks there are scheduled one-on-one meetings with each of my direct reports. I also have that unstructured time at the end of the day where they can pop in to discuss any issues. Q: How often do you meet with clinical staff/perform rounds? DD: We have 89 hospitals throughout the coun- try. I try to get out to at least one of our hospi- tals every two to three weeks. Some months, I will visit a bunch, while other months I may not even visit one. But I truly think one of the most important parts of my job is listening to our frontline caregivers about our challenges, problem-solving with them and knocking down any barriers. Q: How do you think your routine dif- fers from that of other healthcare exec- utives? DD: All healthcare executives are working hard. My schedule is a bit different from a hospital CEO who is situated upstairs from the main facility. I don't have physicians in and out of my office like them. I guess something I think is unique is that I am working on being more effective about scheduling a margin in my cal- endar for more time to think and explore new ideas. I really admire leaders who have built that margin into their schedules, and it is something I am working to mirror. Q: What is the hardest part of your day? DD: In my previous role, I had a list of tasks, and I was able to cross out items on the list as they got done. What I do now in the CEO role is more long-term in nature. So, the hardest part of my day is shaking the nagging feeling that I didn't

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