I work for Cone Health, a six hospital not-for-profit health system headquartered in Greensboro, NC. Cone Health has more than 100 locations, including six hospitals, three ambulatory care centers, three outpatient surgery centers, four urgent care centers, a retirement community, more than 75 physician practice sites and multiple centers of excellence. I spend most of my time at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, which serves as the home to the Cone Health Heart and Vascular Center.

I work for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a not-for-profit health care system. Children’s is the only dedicated hospital system in Georgia that treats only kids and teens. I am the vice president of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center which is housed in the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston campus. I am directly employed with Children’s which is comprised of three hospitals in Atlanta for a total of 575 beds.

My current role is vice president of Heart and Vascular Services and Imaging Services, partnering with physician leaders of each service line across all Cone Health sites. I also provide executive-level leadership at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital including direct responsibility for Cone LeBauer Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the Office of Research/IRB, Procedural Short Stay, Environmental Services and Patient Transportation.

I serve as the vice president of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center. I’m also on the leadership team of both the cardiology physician practice (Sibley Heart Center cardiology) and the Children’s CT Surgery physician practice (a leased physician practice from Emory University, but managed by Children’s). In this role, I provide leadership of the cardiac service line in partnership with the physician chief of Children’s Sibley Heart Center.

I am not sure what a “typical” day would look like, as every day presents something new! Nearly every day includes a working committee meeting or two, such as a specific disease state-focused team, financial and operations-related team, or a quality/safety-related meeting. With the large amount of quality and operational metrics associated with our service lines, updating, sharing and acting upon our metrics requires almost daily attention.

Leadership rounding is also big part of our daily/weekly standard work, which includes visiting work and patient care areas, rounding on staff and physicians, and rounding on patients and families in some units. We actually block time off of all organizational leader schedules to allow time for these activities.

Through the use of use of clinical and business related data registries, we find it essential to benchmark clinical and operational metrics, and identify best practices for improving our quality and operational key indicators to achieve the triple aim of improved cost, quality and outcomes as we transition to population-based health care. Additionally, through this network, we have the opportunity to share our experiences and knowledge for innovative care delivery models, value-based and other alternative payment methodologies (e.g., bundled payments, accountable care organizations, pay-for-performance, shared savings, capitation), and optimizing our processes in the outpatient practice and hospital-based setting.

With the continued integration of physician practices with hospitals and health systems, there is a need for sharing resources, experience and expertise to assure our cardiovascular specialties continue to thrive and adapt as we shift from fee-for-service to fee-for-value models. I look forward to networking with physician and administrative leaders from around the country. Some of the most successful programs I have been privileged to be a part of in my career were developed, in part, through networking and learning from my professional colleagues.

The best part of my job is experiencing the productive collaboration of clinical providers, staff, administration and patient families from both inside our practice setting and externally through national collaborative such as ACC’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology and CV Management Sections. The collaborations with each other and our physician leaders serve as a means for us to deliver the most optimal care, value and experience for the patients we serve.