Role of academic-based health systems: An interview with Catherine Jacobson and Thomas Zenty
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What is the role of academic medical centers in healthcare?
McKinsey on Healthcare, a podcast series about visionaries, leaders, and problem solvers shaping the future of healthcare. On today's episode, recorded live in Chicago, McKinsey partner Pooja Kumar is joined by Tom Zenti of University Hospitals and Kathy Jacobson of Freighter Health.
So first of all, Kathy and Tom, thank you so much for joining us. We were actually supposed to record this as a podcast, but we're just going to do it live instead. And today, we're really hoping to focus this on the role of academic medical centers and academic-based health systems in our broader healthcare ecosystem.
How did the guests enter the academic medical field?
This is a topic that I'm personally passionate about, and I know that these two leaders are as well. So I'd love to just start this off by asking each of you, tell us what brought you into the academic space. Was it something you always wanted to do?
Sure. I never intended to go into health care. So kind of fell into it. My background is actually that I am a CPA, got my accounting degree and went up to Chicago with one of the big accounting firms. And when you get up there, they give you this list of industries that you want to work in. And I checked off hospitals and there was a background for that. My mom was a hospital RN. Her entire career and my first job actually coming in high school was washing dishes in that hospital. So I know hospitals, they actually freak out a lot of people and especially accountants. And so people didn't want to be on hospitals. So I ended up being one. But I started on the health plan side and was there for about eight years and then went over to the main medical center working in the C-suite.
What challenges do academic medical centers face today?
Originally, I became the CFO, chief strategy officer, and it went from there. So really had no intention of going into academic medicine. And actually, when you start on the health plan side, you don't look at it through a very good lens because it's expensive. And that's exactly what you don't want to have when you're on the health plan side. And I really got the completely different view once I got on the inside over at the academic medical center and was actually able to see the specialization, the differentiated services.
Yeah, I had a slightly different path. I'm a little bit atypical in that I knew what I wanted to do from the time I was 15 years old. I wanted to be a hospital administrator, which is a really geeky sort of thing to do at the end of the day, right? But I never wanted to get into academic medicine, and the reason for that is I grew up in a really small town, and the local hospital administrator took an active interest in me, and she was a fascinating leader and Very powerful woman and someone who I'll never forget.
How is culture impacting the operations of academic medical centers?
Had a big impact on my career. I had to do an undergraduate internship, and I worked in a small 200-bed non-teaching hospital. But then coming out of graduate school, we had to do an internship, and I interviewed at 10 or 11 places. I read the theses of the previous students where they did their administrative residencies and those that did them in non-academic medical centers. And what I found is people who went to the academic medical centers had a very narrow slice of something that they were responsible for. And I didn't want to get lost in the complexity of a very large, complicated organization where I wouldn't have an opportunity for a breadth of experience. So I chose to go into the non-academic world to begin with, thinking that I could always work my way up, which is ultimately what happened.
Very different path. What would you say is the hardest part of your job right now?
You know, what everybody talked about today, and it's going to resolve around one issue if we can ever figure it out, and that's culture.
What tactical changes are being implemented to shift healthcare culture?
And I must tell you, everything that I heard today was consumerism, consumerism, consumerism, consumerism. Academic medical centers are not designed to be consumer-centric. So what I find to be the most challenging is changing a culture that has been ingrained and taught for over 100 years. Now, people are very responsive, and we've made terrific progress.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the role of academic medical centers in healthcare?
0:07–0:42
2
How did the guests enter the academic medical field?
0:42–1:38
3
What challenges do academic medical centers face today?
1:38–2:28
4
How is culture impacting the operations of academic medical centers?
2:28–3:18
5
What tactical changes are being implemented to shift healthcare culture?
3:18–5:35
6
How are academic medical centers addressing social determinants of health?
5:35–6:48
7
What future trends are expected for academic medical centers?
6:48–7:46
8
How can academic medical centers balance research and clinical care?
7:46–19:51
Speakers
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Leading a best-in-class health system integration