MDNews - Minnesota

course in leadership and education from the Harvard Macy Institute in the mid 2000s. I was nominated by the medical school to attend this. I thought it was going to be taught by Harvard Medical School, but in large part, it was taught by Harvard Business School. That was my first experience with business. Prior to that, if you would have asked me if I would ever be interested in business, I would have asked, 'What are you smoking?' After the course finished, I was so taken by business as a tool to improve education and medicine that I decided to get my MBA, and that was the start of my path to leadership. A f ter I finished my MBA at Northwestern University in 2006, I felt like I had a lot of book smarts, but I really didn't have a lot of experience in business. I thought if I'm ever going to do that, I needed to do my 'residency' in business. I quit a great job and joined McKinsey & Company, where I did healthcare consulting for nearly three years. After that, I became CEO of a large group practice at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Then, I came here in April of this year. Each of these experiences built upon the others and put me in a good position to assume the role of CEO at Hennepin County Medical Center. Q What kind of support should physicians expect in their workplace, and how does HCmC offer that support? A: We're working in an environment where everyone works to the level of their license and training, and we have no waste. In other words, we want to be very efficient. To get there, we're trying to do things like having electronic health records work for physicians and not the other way around. You want the right data at the right time for good decision support. You want advanced practice providers (APPs), registered nurses and medical assistants doing what they're trained to do, so our physicians can do what they do best. It's a system that — when we put all the pieces together — creates an efficient working environment. Q With the physician shortage intensifying, the role of the non-physician provider will continue to evolve. How is HCmC making greater use of nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, and how does this support the physician? A: We value APPs tremendously and have increased from 140 to 240 APPs during the past three years. They work in a multitude of ways to support physicians. In many cases, they have their own panels of patients, which allows physicians to see the more complex patients. They can help with discharge and transitioning patients to their homes and post-acute care facilities. They can take care of more routine matters in wards and clinics and help keep doctors in the operating rooms and procedure areas, and so on. They're part of the team and are working up to their levels of licensure, which allows physicians to work up to their levels of licensure. Q Healthcare delivery is changing. How has HCmC been a crucible for innovative approaches to the changing model and meeting patients' needs? A: We had some external challenges from county and state entities to care for complex patients, and we demonstrated that a group of caregivers could be very innovative and successful with this. One of these programs is called Hennepin Health, and the other is our Coordinated Care Center. These are innovative programs that have garnered a lot of national attention and awards. We've demonstrated expertise in this, and now what we're going to do is expand our Center for Healthcare Innovation to look at new models of tiered delivery for all patients, not just those with complex needs. We want to be a big player in healthcare delivery innovation. ■ ABouT DR. PRyoR JoN l. PrYor, Md, MBa, earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, where he also completed an American Foundation of Urologic Disease Fellowship. A trained urologic surgeon, Dr. Pryor has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. After receiving his MBA, he left medical practice in 2006 to gain real-life experience in the business of medicine by joining McKinsey & Company as a consultant. He continued to cultivate his vision for the advancement of medicine through collaboration, innovation and education. Prior to joining Hennepin County Medical Center in April 2013, he served as CEO of the Medical College of Physicians in Wisconsin. Dr. Pryor has authored many articles about urology and men's health, which have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals. MdNewS.CoM ■ MD News Twin Cities | 27

• Cover