Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1444560
12 12 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP At UPMC CEO Leslie Davis' table, conflicting opinions are welcome By Molly Gamble L eslie Davis assumed the role of president and CEO of UPMC Aug. 1, 2021. She succeeds Jeffrey Romoff, who over 48 years led the Pittsburgh organization's growth from academic medical center to fully integrated $23 billion global health system. Ms. Davis has been with UPMC since 2004, leading the system's 335- bed Magee-Womens Hospital as president for 14 years and spending three as COO of the system's health services division. Becker's sat down with Ms. Davis to learn what has been top of mind early on in her transition to the top role, how she responds to local political leaders' expectations and demands, and the responsibility she is most cognizant of as UPMC's first female chief executive. Question: The average tenure for a hospital CEO is somewhere around five years. I understand an institution the size and breadth of UPMC exceeds that of the average hos- pital, but you succeeded Jeffrey Romoff, a leader with a 48- year tenure, which is decades beyond the average. What's top of mind for you early on in this transition? Leslie Davis: First of all, I'm very happy that I had the opportunity to be at UPMC for a long time. My family moved to Pittsburgh 17 years ago for my opportunity to lead UPMC Magee-Womens Hos- pital, and I've had successive promotions, new challenges and op- portunities over the last dozen and a half years. It's an honor and privilege to have this role. I'll tell you what's on my mind. We've always focused on new cures and treatments, innovation, growth and life-changing medicine. I don't see any of that changing. If anything, we'll double down on many of those things. But what has changed is the environment we're in. e pandemic truly tested the strength of our organization. We hope to come out of the pandemic as a much stronger UPMC in many ways. We began what we call the UPMC Experience four years ago. It's an intense focus on our employees, members and patients. Given what we've been through with the pandemic, I feel very fortunate we have begun this journey. A lot of it is about culture. While UPMC was grow- ing and doubling basically in its size — we are all across the Common- wealth now, in Maryland and in New York, and across the globe in Italy and Ireland with consulting arrangements in China and Kazakh- stan — we've had a chance to really focus on our employees, members and patients. During COVID-19, we've had pay protection in place. We kept all employees in place and ensured all were paid even if they weren't working. Basically, we kept the payroll running. It was a risk, but we felt it was very important. e most important thing right now is engaging with all of those who have been impacted by the pandemic and breathing new energy into our organization aer an exhausting 20 months. Q: Did UPMC issue furloughs at all? LD: No. We had no furloughs and no work stoppages. We were basically able to use our employees in different parts of our system. We had UPMC Health Plan nurses volunteer to go back into the hospitals. We were able to use employees from Western Pennsylvania in Central Pennsylvania and help some of our newer hospitals. I'd say it was a unifying experience. e other thing we did very well was telehealth. We were also able to assist the public system in Ireland because of some of the infrastructure we've placed overseas. We were very much ready for this, from an infrastructure perspective, to keep the work going. Q: Much time throughout your career has been spent in Pennsylvania. There's the adage that "all healthcare is local." Does your connection to the state inform your role? LD: I've had the opportunity to work within five academic health systems throughout my career. I started in Boston, at the then named Tus-New England Medical Center, as a fellow. en I moved to Mount Sinai Health System in New York before I moved to Pennsyl- vania and worked within the Jefferson Health System and Penn Med- icine in Philadelphia. And then I actually tried a for-profit, so I would say that is what was a little bit different. I went to Tenet Health and became CEO of Graduate Hospital, one of their former holdings in Philadelphia. I've learned something important in each of these organizations. I had the opportunity to work with many people, physicians and executives, from all parts of the country. e fact that they happened to be in Pennsylvania, I don't think that mattered as much. But being recruited to UPMC is what I would say was the highlight of my career. Western Pennsylvania is filled with people who have great values. Hardworking, dedicated folks live in this region. UPMC has great resources, strength and scale. I have the opportunity to do things I really couldn't do until I moved to UPMC. ere is a real focus on academic medicine, clinical care, community medicine, and innovation and new discovery. Q: From day one, some local leaders have made their expec- tations of you known. As Rep. Dan Frankel put it: "Perhaps now the institution can become the leader it promised when it posted its logo in the brightest possible lights on top of the Steel Tower: Stop taking and start giving back." What was your reaction to this? LD: First of all, I like when people share their opinions. at says they're engaged. As long as UPMC continues to drive engagement, that's a good thing. We'll never get to a point where we have complete consensus about every sign we put up and every program we open, and that's OK. Overall, we'll continue to work on educating our stakeholders and our community, including local political leaders. UPMC's commitment to our community is about $1.7 billion. at's 2020's community bene- fits. I don't think there is anyone — anyone — across the country that provides that much in community support. We just have to get the story out, and we're working on ways to do that.