Q&A: Socius Health Chief on 'Driving the Value Equation'

Mark W. Tribbett, president of Socius Health Solutions, the NC shared services organization formed by Vidant Health, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and WakeMed Health & Hospitals, talks about agility, efficiency, and creating a platform for innovation.

After months of planning, three of North Carolina's largest health systems have launched a shared services organization that they hope will leverage buying power to generate savings, consolidate redundant services, and improve quality and clinical outcomes.

Senior leaders at Vidant Health in Greenville, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, and WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh have named Mark W. Tribbett president of this new shared-services organization, which they're calling Socius Health Solutions.

Tribbett spoke recently with HealthLeaders Media about how he'll be spending the next few months as the first—and so far, only—employee at Socius. The following is an edited transcript.

HLM: The publicity around Socius refers to it as a shared services organization, but it sounds like you're trying to do more than simply leverage group buying power.

Tribbett: Shared services is a part of what we are trying to accomplish, but we are steps beyond that because there is such a strong focus on quality and clinical redesign as well, beyond leveraging and getting the economies of scale. I don't know if there is really a term for it, but I am sure we will come up with one. It's much more than a shared services organization. It is also establishing a platform for population health at some point.

HLM: What is the organizational status of Socius?

Tribbett: It's an LLC jointly owned by the originating members.

HLM: How many employees are there at Socius?

Tribbett: Right now there is one. We are extraordinarily lean at this point. We really do not want to create a lot of infrastructure within Socius itself. I would like to leverage existing capabilities whenever possible. When we think about the Socius staff itself and what it will attain, it will be lean and the purpose of it will be initially around helping to assess opportunities as far as what the core staff would be focused on, helping to identify the opportunities and help with the implementation, provide some ongoing measurement of success.

Beyond that, it is going to be determined by what makes the most sense. We want to be extraordinarily agile, so if it makes sense to congregate a service or a capability under the Socius banner, if that is going to drive the most value, that is what we will do.

If it makes more sense to keep it where it is and share best practices and let Socius be that conduit, that's great as well. If it is something where we look at a third party that can do it at a higher value, then that is another route. As it relates to staffing, it's hard to say exactly how many bodies will be under the Socius umbrella.

HLM: What is your operating budget?

Tribbett: That is one of my first charges, to establish a budget for Socius going forward. Obviously that will be related to the budgets that are established in each of the three organizations. There is a modest initial investment that seeded the company and as we get the model finalized, the structure in place, and the operating budget established, the investment level and support will be calibrated according to that.

HLM: What will Socius look like in a year from now?

Tribbett: I would hope that we are seen as the instigator driving the value equation amongst the organizations; that we would be very focused on the clinical redesign driving the quality part of that equation, as well as the cost side. The economies of scale as it relates to the supply chain and those types of things will come into play and we will be front and center that first year.

I'm focused on taking advantage of the intellectual capital that we have amongst the three health systems and finding ways to leverage that. If you look at the number of employees and the physicians associated with the three systems, we have well over 35,000 minds out there. I'd like to find a way to leverage that intellectual capital to help establish that platform for innovation.

Derive efficiencies in the supply chain and other functions, focus heavily on the quality redesign and share that amongst the organizations, and set up this platform for innovation would be the broadly stated goals of that first year.

HLM: When will you see the effects of your work?

Tribbett: You'll see it very soon. Some of these things are very tangible and real when you talk about supply chain and operating efficiencies we might find. We aren't at a point yet where we can say a dollar amount associated with any of those but I think we will see some pretty significant impacts relatively quickly.

The fiscal years for all three organizations start in October so as we budget we are going to project what those impacts would be in the budget process. I can probably in the next couple of months give you a much better defined answer on that, but I think it will be fairly substantial and fairly quick.

HLM: How do you protect against anti-competitive concerns?

Tribbett: Initially that is not a factor because of the geography. If this grows and other organizations become involved, that may be a question that comes up. We have to be acutely aware of what the issues might be around that. We don't have a set philosophy at this point that says we will look at this opportunity, but not that opportunity based solely on that. But that clearly would be an impacting factor.

HLM: Do you anticipate adding additional health systems?

Tribbett: If you put yourself in the shoes of a fourth system, I think you'd want to see what this produces before you'd be interested. The reality is we need to focus with the three systems initially and if that is where it begins and ends as far as the systems involved it will still be tremendously successful.

But in doing what we are doing, especially with the focus on maintaining the independence of the organization, I personally have a strong belief if the importance of that, if we sustain that and are able to show results in terms of the value I am sure there will be other systems that will be interested.

HLM: How will you determine where to find value improvements?

Tribbett: It goes back to what I was talking about with leveraging that intellectual capital. We will look within. People who are dealing with issues or challenges or see opportunities in their day-to-day world can be the source of a lot of potential areas to dive into. That's part of the reason why it's important to find an effective way to tap into that. It will come from within.

There are a lot of external factors that drive what we do in healthcare, whether it be reimbursement, technology or any other sources. I am sure there will be some external motivation as well to dive into certain areas as we go forward. We will be tapping into that internal resources as well as being responsive to the external ones.

HLM: Will Socius lead the change or facilitate the change?

Tribbett: It's going to be both. Facilitator is a good word. Clearly there is a lot of innovation and a lot of work on things within each system right now. That's not going to stop. Socius can serve as a conduit to help with the assessment of those things. In some cases we may say 'Hey, great idea. Keep going.' And in other cases we may say 'This has some applications across the three systems. Let's come at it from that angle and develop it there.' There is going to be some facilitation and some coordination of what is already going on as well as some genesis-type thinking on some new thoughts.

HLM: You talk a lot about 'agility' at Socius. Why is that so important?

Tribbett: Being an agile organization is going to be extraordinarily critical. We should have a high degree of agility within Socius than a system would in a traditional sense. I want to make sure we fully utilize and realize that agility. That means we will be looking at a lot of different things. It doesn't mean we will chase after every idea out there. We will be strong in our assessment capabilities as far as what these opportunities might provide.

If agility is the currency of success, then the fuel is going to be data and analytics and ultimately predictive analytics and using those tools to not only identify opportunities but to assess them and ultimately to measure the success with them.

HLM: How will you measure Socius's success?

Tribbett: The ultimate measure of success will be how we've driven that value equation. A lot of this is going to be driven off the quality side with the outcomes and all the other stuff that meets the broader definition of quality with patient safety, patient service, etc. We will have metrics associated with those things. That will be a big part of it, as well as driving efficiencies and finding ways to lower that cost base.