Ascension

Yeah, legislatures are really focused on hospital price transparency.

I really think that if you want to do that, you've got to also have insurance payment price transparency because it is so structurally unfair to rural hospitals who are trying to compete with Ascension and HCA and AdventHealth and all these big health systems.

who Blue Cross, United, Aetna, all of these insurers are paying them two to three times more to do the same work that we're doing at our rural hospital.

But they won't negotiate with us because they say they don't need us.

We'll talk a little bit about the market.

And then at the end, this very, very unfortunate Ascension medical error.

But first the headlines from the National Commission for Certification of Anesthesiologist Assistance.

And you can, if you're looking on the screen, if you're watching on YouTube, which is apparently one of our big Big avenues for listeners, skip right down to the bottom.

And that's a consistent, it relates to this idea of second victim syndrome.

But for those people, that anesthesiologist, potentially those CRNAs, They need to, none of us here is a therapist, right? But they need to see someone, right? To get the necessary support, to begin to train their mind in a way where they can still live their life, right? And try to compensate these families in a just way and do this work that both of you have spoken to at the systems level.

And I'm certain that's what Ascension will be doing, uh, The only other point which occurs to me is there's no evidence of intent to harm, which would be criminal, right? It flips into that other mindset.

No one sought out this morning, that morning, thinking about intent to harm.

We have two independent healthcare systems.

One's Bronson, and one, um, used to be Borgess, then was bought by Ascension, and now is bought by Beacon.

And those two healthcare systems, Bronson and Beacon, are actually partners in the formation of the medical school.

So the university, Western Michigan University, Bronson, and Beacon, have come together and are delivering a medical school for our region.

Next up, faith-based investing has quietly grown into a serious force in private markets, with religious institutions collectively overseeing trillions in assets worldwide.

As our Rudy Sinatis reported for us this week, a new fund from Anthos and Ascension is the latest sign that Catholic investors, in particular, are moving well beyond simply screening out quote, sin stocks.

David, this story treats us back to nuns pushing their asset managers over a decade ago to do more than just avoid harm.

What does it say about where faith-based investing is headed that we're now seeing dedicated fund-to-funds like this one?

It really started with, with, with nuns deciding that there was a way to move some of their assets and finance affordable housing as part of the sort of mission to, you know, to house, house the unhoused.

Um, and so many different strands of impact investing trace, trace their roots back, back to, to the, to the sisters or the women religious as they're called.

Um, The most immediate news, as you say, is this fund of funds, Ascension Investment Management.

That's part of the Ascension Health Network.

I've been in healthcare a little over 30 years, and, uh, started out my career as a healthcare consultant, uh, before I came over to the provider side, and, um, throughout the course of my career, have spent, uh, different roles both in, uh, quality executive roles, operational COO roles, and strategy roles.

For the last several years, gosh, 10 plus years, I've been a strategy executive for large health systems, um, from Atrium Health to Ascension, and now thrilled to be with CommonSpirit, and have been with CommonSpirit now for two years, helping them develop their, their new national strategic plan, which we're getting ready to launch, and then also working with just an incredible, incredible team of leaders across the US.

Thank you.

And, and, and talk for a second about what trends are you watching in healthcare today? Uh, obviously such a challenging and changing time.

the pharmacy got orders for the medications.

And what Ascension St. Thomas Midtown does, instead of getting individual vials like a lot of hospitals do, they instead buy it in bulk and they ask the pharmacy to prepare it individual into individual shots.

And what happened was they were preparing the shots The syringes and in five of the syringes, they put the wrong medication in.

There is a system of checks and balances where they're supposed to scan and corroborate that what the medication is that they're putting in the syringe is the same thing.

And within a couple of days, they come up with a corrective action plan and immediate jeopardy is lifted.

With nursing homes, quite often when there's immediate jeopardy, they cannot take any more patients.

With this hospital, with Ascension St. Thomas, according to the report...

Three immediate jeopardies.