Roundtables

mand for our services. One of the things that sets us apart is that we are much more than a hospital – we are an integrated pediatric healthcare delivery system that attracts patients from throughout our region, across the country and around the world. We offer very high-end, specialized qua- ternary pediatric healthcare ser- vices, and there is great demand for those services — especially for things like in utero surgeries and unique cancer therapies. Keeping up with this demand has been our greatest challenge, but it has also kept us operationally and financially healthy. We're in the midst of a very large construction program, with about $2.5 billion invested over the next seven years. e ability to manage that type of construc- tion and development and pace of growth is a challenge. CHOP has invested more than $1 bil- lion in construction on our main campus — hundreds of millions in facilities in our Care Network, investments in IT and other in- frastructure. Our Care Network is an import- ant part of our growth strategy, and one way we build the net- work is by forming relationships with providers in our region. Right now we're evaluating six new relationships with other community providers that we could potentially include in our network. SS: Opportunities arise out of challenges; once you understand that, you can embrace them as vehicles of change. Our most recent challenge has been the expansion of our health system. e addition of two new hospi- tals, a freestanding emergency department, a nursing home and range of ambulatory services has created a broader geographic reach, transforming our entire system. In addition, a redefined relation- ship with our academic partner, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is enhancing our ability to respond to changing healthcare and medical educa- tion landscapes. Over the past several years, the partnership has enabled us to recruit the nation's leading clinicians, scientists and researchers, so that we may offer the most advanced bench to bed- side treatment for our patients. e new relationship, in which we will play a more active role in daily operations, ultimately strengthens each institution. Our continuing growth is certain to bring new challenges. We must support our strategic expansion and maintain our successful model while integrating best practices that exist in the new institutions. WT: Like everyone in our indus- try, we are managing a significant amount of change as we aggres- sively transform from volume to value. Managing this change, such as the impact health ex- changes, innovation and tech- nology will have on the industry, can be challenging for both the management team and for the employee base. We have to make sure we understand the change and can communicate how we intend to address it. at's why it's important to have the right people in our organiza- tion…and the right people in the right positions. Our leaders need to be good at managing change and being master communica- tors. If not, you have to make the appropriate adjustments to ensure success. DW: We're blessed at Memorial Hermann to be in the wonderful market of Houston. We are in a strong, vibrant economy with the population growing by more than 1 million people every eight years. Our biggest challenge is capital allocation among many worthy strategic initiatives. We have to grow our system since most of our hospitals are full every day. How do we continue to provide needed services to the community and grow with the community during these chang- ing times? is is a unique characteristic of the Houston market; the hottest economy in the U.S. for the last five years. Is that a long-term phenomenon? Probably not, but Houston has a population of Top Priorities, Challenges & Innovation in Healthcare 3

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