Nick Bardo

And then again, Rich talked about the integration management office.

I think having that staffed with people, led by people that have credibility, that have, you know, I wouldn't say long histories, but have histories within the organization that know some of the idiosyncrasies that we're bringing to the table, that know how to get things done is important.

It's important to the success of the organization.

I think it's only fair to the organization to have someone that's not trying to learn on the fly.

That said, I think it's also important to think about what talent gaps there are within the team and look at who do we hire from outside the organization that might bring a level of expertise that we don't have today.

But I think it's very hard, at least in our industry, in our sector of the industry, to bring someone in from the outside to lead that work.

As an individual within the organization, I think leveraging relationships is an important part of the success of any integration in terms of the credibility that you bring to the table.

I think it's important to Rich's point that we did blend the two organizations.

I think it's important for the 44,000, for each individual person to see part of the legacy of what they brought to the table, what their organization brought to the table in that purpose statement, in those values.

And I would go a step further.

We haven't just used it in our integration, right?

As we continue to evolve just daily operations, right?

We're in our second year.

We're putting together our two and three year plans in terms of operations and improvements and how we're going to measure success.

That's all been interwoven into that work, right?

So not only is that about the integration and what we recognized in terms of our cultures that we brought together, but now we're weaving it into this, the daily operations of the organization so that people can see themselves and their history into the operating plans we're putting together to move forward together and create that commonality across the St.

Louis and the Kansas City region.

I think one of the long-term objectives is to be better than what you both were coming into the combination.

So I think committing to, hey, we had a five-year plan as individual organizations.

How do we together exceed that from a financial point of view, from a patient satisfaction, from an employee satisfaction point of view?