Direct Line from Max Buetow for 6/7/2024

June 7, 2024

EVPs and SVPs planning for the future

Leading a dynamic organization, you have to focus on the future – both immediate and long term. Even when you have major projects right around the corner, you also have to focus on the vision.

We took time this week for our executive VPs and senior VPs to be off site for a day of future-focused visioning. We wanted to step away from day-to-day operations and immediate projects to think about where we will lay the tracks for the CoxHealth train to go in the coming years.

We are investing in Epic for our Electronic Health Record and Workday as our Enterprise Resource Planning tool.

Those two projects mean we have a concrete understanding of what our next two years look like. We know what objectives are in front of us, and we know what we need to do to be successful. Our work will revolve around Epic and Workday, and the corresponding ripple effect of change they will create for us.

It’s an exciting point in our history, and we know the projects will create opportunities to elevate both the employee and patient experience.

But the finish line of those projects isn’t just a successful implementation. We will have them as tools, but it is what we will do with that investment that is most important.

That’s why we are taking the time now to have conversations about what CoxHealth’s ideal future state looks like beyond these critical implementations.

At our offsite, Dr. Staci Rogers, chief transformation officer, took the group through an environmental scan – challenging us to consider how factors like artificial intelligence, vertical integration, and new collaborations will affect our work.

Cheryl Hertel, vice president of strategy, and Scott Rogers, administrative director of strategy and innovation, talked us through a systematic approach that will let us keep these conversations going, help us continually generate ideas, but, ultimately, hold us accountable for moving at the right pace.

As executive leaders, we have to make sure the track continues to extend in front of us and our teams understand the vision we are driving toward.

The more we can communicate and explain where we are going – and have people help us shape that vision – the better off we will be. We plan to do offsites quarterly, setting aside time to have these conversations, assess the environment we are in, and get feedback from our leadership team about where the opportunities and benefits will be.

It's an important balance of near and long-term perspectives as we think about what will set CoxHealth up for success.

As exciting as it is to focus on the next big, splashy thing to transform health care, there is as much or more promise in maturing in the fundamentals. We know that perfecting the things we do 100 times a day is where you win long term for your patients and your colleagues.

We will continue to focus on collaborations and projects like The Alliance for Healthcare Education, but we will never overlook the everyday things that make a difference for patients and staff.

We are going to be bold in our decision making for the long term, and we are going to be rock solid in the fundamentals of our daily work, and essential projects like Epic and Workday.

Ultimately, all of our efforts are about serving each individual person who comes to us to receive care. For every single one of those people, that experience is the most important thing that happens that day.

If we can perfect the fundamentals of serving people in each of those experiences, that is a true measure of success worth striving for.

Our new CoxHealth Branson Hills urgent care is set to open Monday

This spring, we built on our legacy of commitment to the Branson community with the opening of the new Branson Hills Clinic. On Monday, we will open a new urgent care at the facility – our second urgent care option for Branson.

“The urgent care at CoxHealth Branson Hills is located right in the heart of a high-activity area with the Branson RecPlex, a growing neighborhood and multiple schools nearby,” says William Mahoney, senior vice president, and president of Cox Medical Center Branson. “For local families and visitors, this can bring comfort to folks who may not have a relationship with us yet, but know CoxHealth as the most trusted health care provider in the area.”

Urgent care is a vital tool in improving community health, and I couldn’t be prouder that we are investing in this expansion for our neighbors in Branson!

Seeing behind the scenes at Cox South and City Utilities

Our senior leadership team and the senior leaders of City Utilities spent Tuesday seeing a “day in the life” of health care and utility services. Our teams spent the day together learning more about each of our industries, with a morning at Cox South and an afternoon visit to CU.

It is an important exercise in viewpoints and perspectives. Our organizations have a great relationship, and we understand our work through the lens of the services we provide.

CU knows everything about power and water, but Tuesday was a chance for their leaders to see the fundamental services we provide.

We toured areas like our operating rooms, the electrophysiology lab, and neurotrauma – places where you see the real human stakes of making sure the power stays on. It resonates with people differently when you can see firsthand how lives are in our hands.

And conversely, as customers of City Utilities, it benefitted us to spend the afternoon learning about their work, and the challenges they face. It was an eye-opening experience to see the similarities that exist between our organizations and the missions we strive to accomplish.

Both of our organizations pride ourselves on being great places to work, and we both provide services that are so essential for our community.

I love the fact that CU’s leaders and our leaders came together to make this great day, walking a mile in each other’s shoes. We will use all we learned to work even better together!

Celebrating the new Forvis Mazars global network

I want to give a quick shoutout to Forvis Mazars on their new global network, which launched this week. Forvis has been a long term partner for CoxHealth, and I so admire the growth trajectory they have been on.

In the time since BKD evolved to Forvis, we, as a client, have already seen the advantages of them bringing additional resources and skillsets to the table. We have taken advantage of their consulting, in areas like compensation and benchmarking for productivity. We have seen the benefits of them growing and maturing and adding complimentary services to an already stellar portfolio.

I know this next evolution will bring similar benefits to their clients and our community – congratulations to the entire team on their new chapter!

Voice of the patient

Adapted from patient feedback at Cox Branson: “The staff physicians from the hospital were very good from the moment I checked in. They were fabulous and very informative, I give them 5 stars.”

Thank you for all you do,

Max