Becker's Hospital Review

25 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AdventHealth's new CEO on care networks, smart rooms and what's next By Kelly Gooch D avid Banks is about five weeks into his new role as president and CEO of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth, bringing three decades of experience with the organization. Prior to his current role, Mr. Banks served as group CEO for the primary health division and the multi-state division of AdventHealth, overseeing more than 20 campuses in eight states and three regional partnerships. He has also served as AdventHealth's chief strategy officer, with significant involvement in the development and ongoing execution of Vision 2030 — the system's 10-year strategy and business plan. Mr. Banks told Becker's he's excited about AdventHealth's path forward and has had a smooth transition into the CEO role. He succeeds Terry Shaw, who announced his retirement in December aer 40 years with AdventHealth, including nearly a decade at the helm. "e nice thing about an internal transition is I've been working very closely with Terry Shaw," he said. "at's allowed us to almost feel like a baton hand-off in a relay race. It's allowed us to keep moving in the direction we were going." Mr. Banks discussed his strategic priorities, the organization's approach to addressing current industry headwinds and AdventHealth's innovation efforts. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: What's one strategic priority you're focused on in your first year as CEO that you believe will drive the greatest impact across AdventHealth? David Banks: We've made a brand promise to our communities to provide healthcare that helps them feel whole. So our focus is on the quality of care we deliver, the experience they have with that care. And then we're very focused on building out complete networks of care, and that includes strong, robust investments in primary care and digital tools that help with patient navigation. Additionally, we're continuing to build out hospital assets — so strong network builds, high focus on the quality of care that's being delivered and the experience of our patients who are receiving that care. Q: How are you building on the momentum of AdventHealth's Vision 2030 strategic plan to address current industry headwinds while advancing long-term goals? DB: What's fun about coming out of the strategy role is you're always asking yourself one of two questions: What is it we're trying to do, and what headwinds do we need to be prepared for? When I think of the headwinds, one constant question for us is ensuring that we are focused on delivering the highest value care possible. Healthcare is expensive, access can be challenging and we're always looking to make sure that we are focused in those areas. e first 100 days of the new administration has had a lot of focus on healthcare and asking a lot of the questions that you would expect an incoming administration to ask around Medicare and Medicaid, and all of the programs that go with those. We have made some investments in some of the value-based programs through CMS; we're watching those very closely. Medicaid funding has received a lot of attention at a federal and state level, and we're in nine states, so we're tracking nine conversations. And AdventHealth is in a very stable place, and so we're building out our scenarios of what could occur in Florida or Kansas or Colorado, and we'll be ready for whatever changes come. Our focus is always to make sure that we are prepared to continue to deliver care to the patients we serve and be ready to make whatever adjustments we need to make in terms of reimbursement or eligibility criteria, as the state and the federal government figure out what they want to do next. Q: What's one specific approach you're using to strengthen workforce culture and engagement across such a large organization? DB: We started a new set of team member promises. We stepped back and looked at the foundational level of the commitments we were making to our team — and put those into six promises around benefits and pay and opportunities for educational subsidies. And we have successfully rolled that out across the entirety of the company, and I'm so glad we did, because that is paying big benefits. We've also been able to see our turnover come way down, and it's a result of focusing on what matters most to our team members. We know if they don't feel whole, there's no way for them to be ready to serve our patients. So that's been a focus, and I've been very happy with the outcome and results we have seen there. e other thing we've done is really become much more strategic in the investments in our own university, AdventHealth University, but also in the colleges and community colleges, and programs in every community we're in. We have many partnerships now to create a more robust pipeline — not just for nurses, but also care techs, medical assistants, CRNAs, all types of professionals. And we're seeing very good success building pipelines through those sources as well. Q: Where do you see the most immediate opportunity for innovation in care delivery, and how are you acting on it? "Healthcare consumers, first and foremost, want their clinical problem solved. And they're willing, oentimes, to overlook inconvenience or other sorts of things that can happen in a typical healthcare experience. Our goal is to get it right first clinically, but we also never want a patient to feel like they had to make a trade-off." — David Banks

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