Victory Healthcare is a nine-hospital, for-profit, physician-owned health system. The health system does not accept patients with federal health insurance, as Mr. Helms prefers to “keep it narrow and try to do what I do very well,” he says.
Here, Mr. Helms shares his thoughts on Victory’s business model, his career successes and being a leader in an evolving healthcare environment.
Editor’s note: Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: What are/have been some of your top goals as CEO of Victory Healthcare?
Bob Helms: The first and most important goal is to come up with a model that is successful. I designed a business plan about three and a half years ago. In that time period, I’ve developed nine hospitals. I have eight open and operating and one under construction. The model appears to be working very well. I believe in keeping that business plan fairly narrow. I don’t believe in the concept we are all things to all people.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you face as CEO?
BH: One of the biggest challenges all CEOs of hospitals are being faced with is watching what is coming with the [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] because it seems to keep changing. You really have to stay on top of it because it’s a constantly moving target as to what it’s all about, the way it’s going to work, the timing associated with it, the type of reimbursement associated with it, where that reimbursement may be coming from and how it affects the players. The challenge is trying to watch the future and predict and try to figure out how we deal with what’s coming.
The changes that we’re involved in and what’s happening today in healthcare are the scariest I have seen in my 40-year career. What we see happening right now is so many dollars of reimbursement are being removed from the system, such as the tremendous reduction in the Medicare reimbursement. It causes me to not have a desire to be a participant in Medicare. There’s a significant reduction in reimbursement for physicians as well. Not only are physicians fleeing from Medicare, but they’re really fleeing from what’s coming so far as [the PPACA] is concerned. I’m choosing to be on the side they are fleeing to. Many young folks are choosing to not go into medicine. We still have the expanding need, a rapidly growing population. I think this is a very scary time.
Q: What have been some of your greatest triumphs and successes?
BH: My greatest triumphs have to do with setting goals and, in these challenging times, be able to meet those goals. I’m starting new companies. Coincidentally, my last company was called Triumph HealthCare. The company went through a series of sales, and the current owner is a national company and it’s a niche market. That was quite an accomplishment, to be a founder of a company that is still around today 15 or 16 years later. I was around in the beginning of Cancer Treatment Centers of America [headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill.], and that was a tremendous learning experience. I learned quite a bit about the entrepreneurial spirit and just what you can do if you set your mind to it.
Q: You used to serve as a Medicare auditor, CEO of Transitional Hospitals Corporation’s Tampa, Florida campus, COO of Dallas-based long-term acute-care hospital company Spectrum Comprehensive Care Corporation and founded Triumph HealthCare [now acquired by Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare]. How have all your experiences contributed to your work leading a health system?
BH: It has to do with exactly where you are lodging your common sense and your experience on what you’re dealing with every day. Without that, I don’t know where I would be. I rely on my team. I listen to my team, and even if the responsibility does fall back on me to make some of the decisions, I do not believe in doing it in a vacuum. I need a lot of input. It’s that attitude all to my career, relying on those around me, having a strong belief that two minds, three, four or five, are far better than one. That is really what’s needed as you are making decisions to move forward. Listen to those around you. Always hire the absolute best in the way of your team members. Guide them and [em]power them and then turn them loose. Let them do what they were brought on board to do. Rely on their feedback, take it into account and use that in your decision-making process. I would say in my 40 years of experience, that’s what I’ve learned. That’s how I apply it, and that’s what I live by.
Q: If you had one piece of advice for other CEOs, what would it be?
BH: The most important decision you’re dealing with in your organization are the people who work for you. Treat them with respect, listen to them, do not talk down to them, do not demean them. Do not in any way try to intimidate them. Instead, empower them and work with them. Try to minimize the turnover in your organization because the cost of turnover is quite high. If you can work with and develop the people you have and support them and help them grow, they will prove to be by far the strongest asset, and it will be them that really lead your company into the future.
Q: What is your ideal vision for healthcare in the future?
BH: Ideally, I see systems not all that different than what they have created in England. I see a system that on one end is tax-supported, if you will, and therefore offering the healthcare to those in need. On the other hand, I see another system that gives us the ability to purchase our health insurance and to some degree be able to, for those that choose to go that route, have more of a say in who their physicians and surgeons are going to be. I think ideally down the road long-term, I see that as the answer.
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