How does a health system navigate unexpected challenges like the pandemic? Donald Baker, the regional president of UT Health East Texas, offers a firsthand account of how he led his team through those uncharted waters. He reflects on the resilience of the UT Health East Texas staff, the community and other health care organizations in East Texas.
Baker also addresses the higher rate of child mortality in Northeast Texas and shares the proactive steps being taken to combat these challenges, such as training tomorrow’s physicians and creating better access to care.
MIKE LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Four years ago, Donald Baker joined UT Health East Texas as chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Today, he is regional president of UT Health East Texas, and he leads strategy and operations for 10 hospitals, including everything from regional rehabilitation facilities to more than 80 physicians’ clinics. And he’s our guest today. Welcome.
DONALD BAKER: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mike.
LANDESS: You are a busy guy. I am exhausted just looking at the list of all of the things you are responsible for. How do you do it?
BAKER: No, it’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure, it’s a privilege to be here in the role, and the busy people in our company, truly, truly caregivers, every day, taking care of people. We touch 1.23 million unique people a year. And every one of them, you know, are super important to us, and they’re obviously, every one is a mother, a father; it’s a brother, it’s a sister. We take it really seriously. It’s part of our purpose; it’s what we teach every day, and it’s just a privilege.
LANDESS: You have to be very proud of all the things that are being accomplished right now here in Tyler.
BAKER: Unbelievably proud, you know, to come into the community and be number one, welcomed and embraced, number two, just to get a sense of how many incredible people there are in the region. And you know, we’re really a regional health system, even though our large academic hospital is in Tyler, we stretch all across the region and 10 hospitals around the, in and around the region. When you think about when I got here, one month in, COVID hit, and we made it through a pandemic. And we don’t live in the past, we focus on now and the future. We got so many incredible, you know, elements of our vision that are out there to achieve and to create a regional system for all of East Texas and improve the outcomes of health for East Texas. And but, when I look at what our team has accomplished the last, you know, my three-and-a-half years here and even before, it’s just remarkable. It really is. It’s a testament to the resilience of our staff, the compassion and caring they bring to work every day. I’m talking about all of our clinical staff, all of our administrative, administrative staff and just our physicians. You know, if you’ve been in the business as long as I have, you know, health systems, doctors are the backbone of our business, and providers are critically important — all providers and all clinical caregivers. But you know, a quarter of our workforce are nurses, you know, or physicians and just so proud of that group, how they put the community first and everything that they’ve done. They responded to our vision of caring for people. We refer to it as our purpose: caring for our patients, their families and one another. And we think that’s really important to be holistically that way. And but our teams have bought into it. Our doctors have been incredible, and just watching the growth of the system and the investment in the community just could not be more proud.
LANDESS: You mentioned the pandemic. You arrive here as the pandemic arrives here.
BAKER: Yes, sir.
LANDESS: And you had to see some amazing changes and resets and rethinking and evolving that had to happen on the fly.
BAKER: On the fly. It’s, you know, reinventing the plane while you’re flying it, right, and so much uncertainty in the beginning. But, candidly, there’s two or three things that stand out to me amongst many, many, many. I mentioned one, is it’s the resilience of our staff and the people of this region, the people of East Texas, candidly. That’s what we represent. But secondly, you know our, the teamwork and the collective work between the health care organizations across East Texas-that’s us, that’s CHRISTUS Mother Francis, that’s our support in the legislative offices to get us the resources we needed, when we needed them, and to be part of a broader national health care organization as well from our unique partnership. You know, I saw that come together and work together. But the thing that stands out is putting people first, putting community first. I mean that you know, from the bottom of my heart. I watched it with my own eyes. You know we had to adjust on the fly, and when we were looking to how to how to take care of people, it was our doctors coming together, our leaders coming together on the administrative side. Our clinicians coming together and, candidly, other health care providers, and we said what’s the best thing to do? What’s the right thing to do? And I will say, proud to say, that entire time we focused on what was the right and best thing to do for the community, and that’s what we tried to do.
LANDESS: The UT Tyler School of Medicine reported in May that there is a higher rate of child mortality in the Northeast Texas region than both the state and national averages. A lack of access to care and resources were cited. What’s being done to address that?
BAKER: But the short answer is trained physicians for tomorrow create better access. We started it two and a half years ago with residents. We started the medical school in perpetuity this year. And over time, it’s going to change the face of health care in East Texas in the whole region, not just for UT Health but for many other institutions that hire those physicians.
LANDESS: What are the chances that East Texas would ever see its own children’s hospital?
BAKER: You know it’s a really interesting question. I never say never. You know when you look at it. What I’ve learned in this business is, working together, many things can be accomplished. I think that the important thing to do is, if you’re going to be in an area, you have to be in it and able to do it really well. And we’re lucky enough to have significant acute facilities in Dallas, as I mentioned. But there’s no question, East Texas needs more pediatric care and more pediatric services, and we’ll work with UT in that regard. And we are working with UT, as I mentioned before, both in the development of general pediatrics-what we call “ambulatory pediatrics” and the clinics to take care of kids, working with the emergency centers around. There’s a lot of freestanding emergencies around that children land in. We’ve made major progress there. So what’s the likelihood? I really couldn’t say. What I could say is would never say never. But what I will say is that you’ll see a significant deepening of acute care capability over time in East Texas, in partnership with the large children’s hospitals in Dallas. That’ll significantly lift the pediatric level of care in East Texas and keep many more children here and here in a way where they can be cared for right and done correctly clinically, which is the most important thing. And you’ll see us invest in that, and you’ll see others invest in that.
LANDESS: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
BAKER: You know, I think for me it’s just, it’s been such a pleasure being in East Texas. I’ve loved being here, I’ve loved the people here. I love the medical community that’s here. It’s top notch. The physicians who are in this region and community-top notch doctors, top notch specialists, top notch programs. The region’s lucky to have two great health systems, candidly. And we embrace CHRISTUS and our shared mission to the community and to the region. We really embrace that wholeheartedly. And we feel strongly, what I would say is, the region over time, our commitment to elevating the health outcomes of East Texas. It’s fundamental to what we’re trying to do beyond the short-term mission of caring for people. It’s to change outcomes, health outcomes, for East Texas over time, creating significant access for doctors both in and around Smith County and in the regions. As I said, we’re a regional health system.
LANDESS: Our guest has been Donald Baker, regional president of UT Health East Texas. To hear this conversation again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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