Becker's CEO + CFO Roundtable 2019: 3 Questions with Patrick Young, President of Population Health at Hackensack Meridian health

Patrick Young serves as President of Population Health at Hackensack Meridian Health.

On November 13th, Patrick will serve on the panel "Advancing Population Health" at Becker's 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place November 11-13, 2019 in Chicago.

To learn more about the conference and Patrick's session, click here.

Question: What is going on right now?

Patrick Young: In health care the bigger story isn’t what’s going on right now, but what’s not going on right now. Uncertainty is the biggest hurdle facing health care professionals in 2019. It is a tumultuous time in politics, and it is not clear what role government policies will have in shaping health care. With so much uncertainty, health care systems and providers have to be nimble as they plan and structure their transition from fee-for-service to value-based care.

Q: Healthcare leaders today need skills and talents that span beyond those emphasized during formal training and higher education. What is one specific competency that you learned or sharpened in real life?

PY: When I was an undergraduate at the University of Maine, I was a student-athlete playing on the school’s football team. That experience taught me the critical importance of setting a clearly defined common goal and using the power of your team to reach that goal.

Obviously, our football team’s common goal was to win, but that common goal could not be attained if the 11 players on the field were not working together and in constant communication with each other about the changing landscape between them and the end zone. I’ve found the business of health care to be no different. I constantly ensure my team is aware of the common goal and cognizant of their unique role in achieving that goal. It is crucial that a team is informed and willing to collaborate because no single person can succeed without a team supporting them.

Q: We are all pressed for time and attention. Help us sift through the meaningless and the meaningful by sharing the last thing you read, heard or did that shifted your mindset and really made a difference in your personal or professional life.

PY: I’ve recently been reading more about the social determinants of health. It reinforced for me the importance of improving system access and care coordination in order to have a meaningful impact on a patient’s quality of life. We, as a society and as health care providers, need to aggressively pursue solutions that effectively address social determinants of health. Health does not start at the hospital or the doctor’s office. It starts at home, at school, and in the workplace. We need to take a more holistic view of our patients and their lives so we can enact effective, long-lasting change.

While the need to treat the sick will never disappear, we need to shift our focus to keeping the well healthy and supporting our communities and patients in their quest for wellness.