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Q&A: Kaiser Permanente's Next CEO Talks Strategy

 |  By cclark@healthleadersmedia.com  
   November 06, 2012

Bernard J. Tyson, a Kaiser Permanente employee and leader for 28 years and its chief operating officer and president for the last two, will take over from retiring chairman and CEO George Halvorson in a series of steps over the next six months.

Halvorson announced in October that he would step down in December of 2013.

A resident of Oakland, Tyson, 53, has served as the executive vice president of Kaiser's health plan and hospital operations, and has been senior vice president and COO for Kaiser operations in eight states outside California.  

Kaiser serves nine million enrollees from its nearly three dozen hospitals and generates $50 billion in annual revenue. It has 180,000 employees on its payroll, of which 17,000 are physicians.

In a brief phone interview Monday, Tyson shared his vision and goals for the organization.

HLM: One of the things healthcare leaders may want to know is your vision for Kaiser. Will you follow the path set by George Halvorson or do you have some new ideas you'd like to put forth?

BT: Fortunately, I've had the privilege of working very closely with George. It's a vision and strategy we've worked on together and in the organization.  I believe in it. It's strong and we'll move forward with that work.  At the same time, I'll be looking at the strategic question of  'and what else.' We will continue to build out our strategy as we learn more about the changes that are happening in the healthcare industry.

HLM: Can you be more specific on what you think might need attention as we move forward into FY 2014 and beyond?

BT: We're continuing to build on our agenda of coordinating care and in particular, for our chronic care patients, we are learning a lot and teaching a lot. And the ability to better coordinate the different resources that our members need with chronic care diseases has allowed us to learn much, and drive to better affordability. 

In our hospitals we're tackling sepsis care and many of the issues that plague hospitals across America. As a result, we have some of the safest hospitals across the country. And we're continuing to build on that agenda.

Now that we have all our members on electronic medical records and all our hospitals wired with health information, we are learning a lot about the incredible power that comes from good data, in which we can access, monitor and look at how we're providing care to the millions of people that we are privileged to take care of.

One recent example is the Five Star program with Medicare. We are privileged that for the next cycle, for the next year, seven of our eight plans received the five stars, and our eighth region is 4.5 stars. I think that's one example of being able to improve quality and monitor quality and really demonstrate for the five-star program that we're a Five Star plan.

HLM: Since you're so far along with electronic health records, can you talk how to avoid harmful effects that an error in an electronic health record system can have? The Institute of Medicine recently elaborated on so-called 'cut and paste' errors as just one example.

BT: All I can tell you, which is evident of what we see in our program and what we report to our quality committee on a regular basis, the evidence we see is that our patients are safer. We can demonstrate that and we have a much better understanding of the enormous task of coordinating a lot of different things.

And the centerpiece of that is the health information. The quality of our information is such now that because we're a fully integrated system, the pieces talk to each other. So the pharmacy is a part of the record, so we know and we can cross track prescriptions, and as a result we've had a major decline in any kind of medication error.

We're able to track our patients better and give them coordinated care after they get out of the hospital. It's a learning curve for any organization that gets into the electronic health record, but we're seeing the opposite in terms of the benefit that it's providing to our leaders and healthcare providers in making quality decisions based on good information.

HLM: How is your life going to change with this new job?

BT: I suspect I'll have a little more to do. I've been very fortunate to have increasing responsibilities inside and outside of Kaiser Permanente. I think that, it's going to require me, after we get through the transition that I'm continuing to understand the industry and the country and where we're going and the role we're going to play. And helping to lead and guide healthcare transformation in this country. 

I will continue to contribute inside and outside the organization. Since Kaiser Permanente plays a role in the entire industry, my focus will be external and internal, whereas as president, my focus was predominantly internal, with some external.

HLM: Will you do anything differently than George Halvorson did?

BT: I have a great role model in terms of his staying in touch with the outside industry and I will do more of that. George has done a great job in helping to understand what's going on in the outside world and how that informs our strategies. And I will do more of that.

HLM: Halvorson indicated to me in a recent interview that a big challenge for Kaiser would be how to set up health insurance exchanges.

BT: That's what we're working on. How do we play in the exchanges across the country. We're working with the exchanges in each of the states in which we exist, and these are the pieces of the puzzle that we're working on to get and bring clarification, and hopefully create a solution that's going to work for everyone.

The central issue in this country as it pertains to healthcare is affordability. Our goal is to continue to build on our position of providing the highest quality care, but also absolutely affordable.

The biggest piece for me is affordability.

HLM: What do you do in your spare time?

BT: I am privileged to have three wonderful sons, and my lovely wife. I enjoy reading and exercise. I'm starting to appreciate wines more so I'm reading a lot about wines, and trying to understand unique features. I enjoy cooking, and read a lot of cookbooks. I cook all the time, and I cook healthy foods. You should have seen my rosemary chicken last night.

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