Rush’s investment reflects its commitment to modernizing its facilities and making them more efficient and patient-centered. But while cutting-edge facilities are important, nothing is more important than the people that work within them, according to Mr. Butler, who currently serves as president and COO of Rush University Heath System.
He recently sat down with Becker’s Hospital Review to discuss the importance of stable and focused leadership and the importance of recruiting and retaining top-notch talent at all levels of an organization. 
Q: What are the most critical capabilities health systems must have, or be actively be working to develop, to be successful in a future that will increasingly reward value over volume?
Peter Butler: Actually the most important competency is superb, stable, focused leadership. The key to success is not a brilliant strategy, but people that can execute. The other competency I would highlight is technology in the broadest sense of the word. It’s hard to believe the iPhone is only five years old, but it is one example of a technology that really transformed. It’s astounding, and how quickly [transformation] can happen [in healthcare], I think we underestimate.
Q: As you look to bring “people that can executive” into your organization or into leadership roles, how do you determine if they are going to be able to provide the focused leadership you’re looking for?
I’ve learned over the years that probably the most important competency I look for when I interview is the capacity to learn and grow. It’s not so much the resume and the experience that somebody brings to the table, but my gut sense of ‘are they going to be able to grow and adapt and take on the challenges that lie ahead?’ Then, I think clearly you have to have a culture that gives space to these leaders to innovate — to not just be told what to do, but to be part of the redesign that is required.
Q: Many health systems, as you know, are starting to reach outside their four walls and stake a claim for the provision of outpatient care. As an academic medical center, how does the organization balance the traditional focus around employing and training specialists with new realities that necessitate close alignment with primary care providers?
PB: I don’t know anybody that’s not trying to grow primary care, but it’s obviously a supply issue. I would point to the non-physician health professionals as being equally important. We’ve had tremendous growth in our advance practice nurses, and we established a new physician assistant program in the last couple of years that also is an important pipeline. Getting back to strategy, I would say a very important strategy for us is our Rush Health Organization. It has almost 1,000 physicians in it, employed by three hospitals, and it is our physician hospital organization that interfaces with payers and employers and already has a lot of pay-for-performance associated with it and a governance structure that I wouldn’t say is unique but is certainly one that is supportive of the physician-hospital partnership. The organization has been around about 18 years, so it’s had a chance to mature, and it has the data and the competency to perform in the payer environment ahead of us.
Q: Within you day-to-day responsibilities, what single goal or responsibility is most concerning to you?
PB: The most concerning thing to me still is recruitment, retention, development and motivation of the people that you put in place under you to deliver results. In the end it’s all about the people. As long as we can recruit, retain and motivate exceptional people, we can solve the problems we are facing. Without those people, you can have all the facilities in the world, and all the money and all the market position in the world, but you’re not going to be successful unless you have an engaged workforce that is led by exceptional people.
Q: What about your role as a healthcare leader energizes you?
PB: Much of my career I’ve said I want to be somebody where the average person says, somebody finally got it right in healthcare. There’s so many things we know we can and should do better, and I do see with the advancement in technology, the renewed focus on improving the health of the population we serve, and with an increased consumer focus guiding our efforts, I think we’re really going to make amazing strides in creating systems of care people will be excited about having as an option in their healthcare.
