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67 67 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Corner Office: Baptist Health CEO Michael Mayo on his love for teaching, riding motorcycles By Kelly Gooch M ichael Mayo became the president and CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Health on June 1, and he brings more than 32 years of healthcare ex- ecutive experience to the role. Mr. Mayo most recently served as presi- dent of Baptist Medical Center Jackson- ville, the flagship facility of Baptist Health. He became interim system president and CEO when Brett McClung resigned May 1. Mr. Mayo leads a five-hospital health system with more than 13,000 employ- ees. Here, he answers Becker's Corner Office questions: Editor's note: Responses were edited lightly. Question: What piqued your interest in healthcare? Michael Mayo: My journey into the healthcare field began when working in the business office of a major county med- ical center while attending graduate school. I was pursuing a graduate degree in teaching, but in the hospital I had the opportunity to become introduced to helping people at their most vulnerable time, while seeking medical care in a hos- pital. My interest grew as I had the chance to move into an early administrative role in the medical center that exposed me to more direct patient care and the many team members that make up the care team. This interest led me to change my graduate education path to pursuing a master's degree in healthcare administration and later completing a postgradu- ate fellowship in hospital administration. As I gained experi- ence and insight into the importance and impact of leader- ship in a healthcare setting, the combination of teaching and leading in a faith-based organization have met my personal and professional goals. Q: What do you enjoy most about Jacksonville? MM: Having moved to and from Jacksonville on four differ- ent occasions, I have come to love the sense of communi- ty Jacksonville offers. What I mean by that is as the largest land-mass city in the U.S., Jacksonville's various communities become so important. The diversity and variety of the com- munities, the beach, the intercoastal, the urban core and the rural parts of Jacksonville come together in a beautiful sense of the true meaning of community. Q: If you could eliminate one of the healthcare industry's problems overnight, which would it be? MM: Access — closing the gaps of care and social determi- nants that limit access. I liken this to the quote by Desmond Tutu, "There comes a point where we need to stop just pull- ing people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in." We, as healthcare providers, must go upstream to assist people in their health before they reach a critical state. Q: What is your greatest talent or skill outside of the C-suite? MM: Teaching. I love to see the lightbulb go off above a person or student's head when I see they really "get it." As an adjunct professor in the Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida, I love being in the classroom and assisting stu- dents in understanding the real-world components of leading a healthcare organization. In addition, my 30+ years of opera- tional experience allow me to share and give back from all of the situations, scenarios and hands-on examples of where you can make a difference as a leader. Q: How do you revitalize yourself? MM: Like many outdoor sports enthusiasts, I love to play golf. I also power-walk 3.5 to 4 miles every morning, five days a week. However, the most impactful activity for revitalization for me is riding my Harley Road King Classic motorcycle. The intense focus on what you are doing, no cellphone to answer, and the exhilaration of the wind, smells and camaraderie of riding with a group is therapy for me. Q: What piece of advice do you remember most clearly? MM: "God gave you two ears and one mouth; use pro- portionately." That always reminds me to listen twice as much as I speak. Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement at Baptist Health? MM: I am not sure I have realized my most outstanding achievement, but I feel very passionate about creating and maintaining a culture of caring for people. Not just our pa- tients we are entrusted with, but all of our 13,000 team mem- bers and the members of the community we serve. As a leader, you are the creator, maintainer and influencer of your organization's culture. At Baptist, our 65 years of a culture of caring is undergirded by our core values. My sense of achieve- ment comes from knowing I am leading our organization in maintaining these values and culture. n Q: When you hand over the reins to MD Anderson's 6th president & CEO, what will you hope to have achieved? PP: We could spend an hour on this question alone. If I were to identify three areas that are very important to me and to our future, one is our institutional commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; how important that is for further development of our own workforce, including our faculty, and our commitment to our community. e second area would be our commitment to the underserved. We have a unique opportunity in Harris County, where we have the largest number of underinsured or uninsured individuals in the country, and having the No. 1 cancer center in the country positioned in that same county — that creates a huge, huge opportunity that I want to impact in material ways. Lastly, up to this point in time, if you were to look closely and describe the key elements of our brand, it would be described by internal stakeholders as re- search-driven patient care. I want to add to research-driven patient care and further elevate the importance of compassion and empathy in cancer care. If our brand in the future is elevated to 11 figure valuation and is a household name recognized by all for compassionate, empathic, research-driven patient care, we have really succeeded. n