95 – The Power of Partnerships and Innovation in Healthcare w/ David Dill, CEO of LifePoint Health
Episode Notes
In this episode, Vic and Marcus sit down with David Dill, CEO of LifePoint Health, to discuss LifePoint’s approach to healthcare in smaller communities, emphasizing partnerships and local impact. David shares insights on LifePoint’s transition from a public to private company under Apollo, which enabled long-term investments in areas like rehabilitation, behavioral health, and data management. The conversation covers LifePoint’s national quality program, partnerships with Duke, and the importance of local relationships in rural healthcare. They also explore LifePoint’s venture fund, 25M Health, and its role in driving healthcare innovation.
David M. Dill Bio:
David Dill is chairman and chief executive officer of Lifepoint Health. In this role, he is responsible for the development and oversight of Lifepoint’s strategic priorities and organizational growth, advancing the company’s mission and strengthening its culture enterprise-wide. He joined Lifepoint in 2007 as executive vice president and chief financial officer before serving in his most recent role as president and chief operating officer from 2009 to 2018.
Before joining Lifepoint, David was executive vice president of Fresenius Medical Care North America and chief executive officer in the East Division of Fresenius Medical Care Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA.
David is a former chairman of the board for the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and currently serves as a member of the FAH’s board and Executive Committee. He also serves on the American Hospital Association’s Health Systems Committee. He is immediate past chair of the board of directors for the Nashville Health Care Council and remains an active board member. Additionally, he serves as a director on the boards of R1 RCM and the American Heart Association's Greater Southeast Affiliate and is a member of the board of trustees for the Murray State University Foundation.
Stay Connected
Watch this Episode on YouTube
Episode Transcript
Marcus: 0:00
If you enjoy this content, please take a moment to rate and review it. Your feedback will greatly impact our ability to reach more people. Thank you. All right. We are recording the health further podcast live from Nashville health care sessions hosted at the country music hall of fame by the Nashville health care council. And, uh, I just got off stage doing a panel with, um, Anna Hagooey and Adam Bowler. We were talking about all things in the investing world and fresh into the podcast box with, as always Vic Ghetto, but also, uh, my very, very, very, very dear friend, uh, and one of the most influential, powerful people in, uh, healthcare in the United States of America. He may, he may not like that, but I think modern healthcare. So I, I probably can point to them for the source. Uh, David Dill, who's the CEO of LifePoint Health, David.
David Dill: 1:01
Great. It is great to be with you. I'm, uh, we're sitting here and I'm looking at so many. Friendly faces, and it's good to see everybody all back together again. If I get distracted during some of this, it's because somebody's making a funny face at me. Outside of one of these windows here. But I'll try to, I'll try to maintain focus. Yeah,
Vic: 1:18
we're in this fishbowl, uh, where everyone can see us, but they can't hear what we're saying, which is kind of cool and kind of distracting. Let's talk about them. Yeah.
Marcus: 1:25
David, um, Well, first of all, just, just really quickly. I mean, your, your reaction to Nashville health care sessions this year, you, you've, you've been involved on the board of the health care council for years now. You've been in this industry here in this city, uh, almost two decades, right? I mean, you know, how does it feel to this city start to actually convene one of the most important convenings for healthcare in the, in the country annually now. Um, and just the response and the electricity out there is fantastic.
David Dill: 1:54
Well, this is a, as you mentioned, this is year two of this event. Uh, it's something at the healthcare council and our board have been talking about for several years. Uh, it's one thing to, uh, you know, bring in donations and contributions and membership fees and dues. from member companies, uh, and we deploy those resources by convening groups together. Well, as the as the community continue to grow, literally, we were building up reserves that we had to question ourselves. What do we do? As a as a as a membership company, we had two options. One dividend the money back out to the members, or if there's value in this, let's put the money to good use. and make some investments in the city. And we felt Nashville was getting to the place, uh, with with infrastructure, with hotels, with, uh, you know, flights coming in and out from all over that the time was right. So about three years ago, we began planning what we now know is healthcare sessions. And as I look at even the name out there, it plays off of and we may talk about this a little bit more as the, uh, as the The discussion goes on. It plays off of this collaboration and music industry that really built Nashville into what it is. And Marcus, you and I have talked about this. I think collaboration is one of the things that makes Nashville pretty unique. And I give the musicians a lot of credit. for that. And as health care continues to grow and evolve, we want to make sure that collaboration continues to happen. It's the only way that we're going to be successful to really create something that's lasting and meaningful. So Sessions is a play on that. Uh, and last year to, to, to watch it all come together. And now this is year two and we'll continue to build off of this. So it's really exciting to see investments that we've made along with the city to to bring a couple of thousand people together, uh, in a place that people want to come to anyway. It's not that hard of a sell, uh, versus flying all the way out to the West Coast or up to New York City or Boston up in the Northeast, uh, come to Nashville and you can see a lot of different things. That was one and two. Um, Nashville is really evolving in the healthcare community from a provider centric, uh, largely a provider centric, uh, you know, piece of the economy and, and part of the sector to now with technology and you guys are great examples of that and there's so many more and now we have Oracle and we have Amazon and so Nashville is changing and we need to evolve and change with it and that was really what led us to this investment and to watch it come to life and sit here and see all these people, uh, walking back and forth, it, it's really exciting.
Marcus: 4:25
Well, we're thrilled to be here and to be able to record this podcast, uh, live with all the energy going on around us, but just to segue off of your last point about how Nashville has changed in terms of our healthcare industry. It really has evolved rapidly over the last decade, right? From this heavy, heavy provider centric industry into, you know, a pretty diverse industry. Obviously you had all of the. folks that were surround, you know, consultants and things like that. There were sort of staffing that were surrounding, but really over the last 10 years, we've seen data technology, make a really big move into this city. And also even, you know, at least offshoots of the pair ecosystem are starting to be here as well, right? Can you talk about how that is reflected in the partnerships that are now possible to happen right over the course of the last 25 years, technology has pretty radically changed the way that health care is delivered paid for, um, you know, and and even the access that patients have to their own health care information. Technology has been a massive, uh, Advancing force in that it also is changing the way that organizations can work together from the perspective of someone who has worked on the health system side for for quite some time. How have you seen technology change the way that partnerships can be structured are structured and how does it make them better?
David Dill: 5:43
Yeah, well, there's a lot that's in there and, uh, Maybe we break it down into what I'll call economic partnerships, uh, where you have kind of shared interest, shared ownership, and some non economic partnerships. Uh, and we have examples of both. I'm sure both of you have some great examples of both as well, but, but you're right. If you go back, you know, 15 years ago or so, um, I think about the makeup even of our board at the Health Care Council and the membership of the Health Care Council. It looks a lot different. It looked a lot different than it looks today. And I just finished a meeting a few hours ago upstairs and when I look around that table, we would not have had all those voices around that table 15 years ago. And it is really a result of. The recognition that health care is evolving and health care is changing and technology plays a big role in that. And so, uh, we have adopted that at our company, uh, getting better control and having better control of our data to share, to make better decisions, to have more viable partnerships with others that we can all be successful. So that has really been at the crux of, of, uh, investments and decisions that we've made as a company, uh, to invest, whether it's in, you know, just public health. block and tackle electronic health records, which was the first phase of this. We have a big partnership with an organization that's helping to kind of sit over the top of all of our different pieces of technology to bring real decision making, um, capabilities to our people on the front line. Not just a fancy dashboard for David to look at or for our CFO to look at, but for our operators at the unit level. to look at on a day to day basis, a minute to minute basis to make better clinical decisions. And we're just really scratching the surface of it. The balance of it is there's just, it's, there's an insatiable, uh, amount of technology that's out there and we can only adopt and pay for a certain amount of it. So picking our, and choosing our spots is probably the biggest challenge that we have. It's not because we've run out of opportunities, I can assure you that. But it is, there's only so many things that we can get done.
Vic: 7:51
Yeah, I mean, what I wanted to touch on is there's an opportunity, I think, to empower your caregivers at all different licensure levels. to deliver better care, be more efficient, and also get better fulfillment, enjoy their job more. And so maybe, is that one of the metrics that you're looking at as you think about where should we spend time and energy in technology? Yeah. Is can we empower our people? Yeah. Because really, the people at Life
David Dill: 8:14
Yeah, so, so Vic, we, we, uh, developed, uh, with Duke. So, if I rewind 15 years ago for us, we, uh, developed a partnership with Duke University, and it was really designed to go out and acquire hospitals in and around North Carolina. Uh, but it was this notion that if we combine a disciplined operator of community hospitals with a brand and a reputation of Duke. Could we build something that one plus one was more than two. And as we developed that partnership and we started being invited to go to communities all through North Carolina, it was incredible the reception that was there. Uh, the understanding of we can get a Duke brand. But somebody that knows how to operate community hospitals, and we're proving out this thesis of one plus one could equal more than two. And while we were doing that, and we were very successful and acquired about probably 10 or 12 hospitals, uh, over maybe a 7 or 8 year period, uh, all the way up through probably 16, 17, uh, was the last year. hospital that the partnership, uh, uh, purchased and, and partnered with, uh, we developed a national quality program and we developed a national quality program with Duke that we could spread out to all of our hospitals. My fear was as the operator of the company that we would have this separate track of quality if you were a Duke related hospital or affiliated hospital, but our other 50 hospitals over time could get left behind. And what I was looking for was I need a program that served as the railroad ties that bound the track together. So no matter where healthcare moved, whether you were in North Carolina or in the other states that we operate in, that we were going to have the identical program and that national quality program where the railroad ties that ensured they stayed parallel. Well, the vision
Vic: 10:09
that you brought to it is to take that. Really thought leadership, incredible combination in North Carolina and then bring it to the rest of the company that you lift everybody up, you lift
David Dill: 10:19
everybody up. And where I was going with the main tenants, the three main tenants that we set around board tables and talked about for a national quality program was about. empowering leadership. Uh, this isn't, you know, quality is not just the C. N. O.'s job or the chief medical officer's job. We expect in our company, every one of our CEOs to stand up in front of a room and explain what's going on with their clinical outcomes, clinical results and what they're doing to drive them forward. So empowering leadership. In setting expectations is number one. Number two is proven methods of performance improvement. So I was in here, uh, around the hall here earlier today, talking, uh, to some representatives from one of the partners that we work with about the research that they've done. And how do we take their research that's proven? That's documented. And then we're the only ones that can go adopt it. And then we adopted so proven methods of continuous improvement as much as I would like to say we can implement this. We hit the switch. It's in. We're done. It's this journey that we're that we're all on. And then finally, creating an enterprise wide company wide, but also a system wide in a hospital wide, uh, commitment to safety in the community. So so a culture of safety, community. Proven methods of performance improvement, but it all starts with leadership and empowering leadership at every level to, uh, to drive us forward. And, and that's been exciting to watch. It's been very exciting to watch our CEOs of our hospitals. Some naturally are pretty gifted at being able to get in front of a crowd and talk about their quality results. Some Aren't very good at all. And to watch how that whole curve has shifted as the expectations were set and we get them in an uncomfortable spot, force them to own it. And now we have a group of leaders. They're not all like
Vic: 12:12
positive peer pressure where they, they pull it.
David Dill: 12:14
There is. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I can tell you 15 years ago, if we were at a meeting and we say, we're going to talk about quality, the CEO would have, uh, stood up just like a good leader and said, Hey, Uh, we're going to talk about strategy and then quality when we get to it, I'm going to introduce you to my CNO and let him or her do that. Now our CEO has to do that, and I think that's been a big cultural shift. And that partnership with Duke, uh, part of that was kind of a non economic partnership. We developed that with Duke, uh, but it really started out of that economic partnership with Duke to go out and make a difference in the state of North Carolina. And while we're on North Carolina, I, I think it'd be, uh, it would, it doesn't feel right for me to, uh, to not mention everything that's going on in Western North Carolina. And we may not get another chance to talk about that, but I'll be over there later on this week. Uh, just the devastation. So, thoughts and prayers are with the people in Western North Carolina. It is a, it is sad. It's tough. The pictures are hard. The reality is hard. Uh, but when you watch team members come together, come in your greatest time of need, sometimes you see the greatness and it's been so inspiring for me over the last six or seven days to watch team members taking care of team members. And then we do what little we can do to help bring additional resources into the community. So a shout out to, uh, to that, uh, to that part of the country. And now we have another storm barreling down in Florida. Uh, these are tough times, but this is what we do in healthcare.
Marcus: 13:31
Yeah, absolutely. My, my prayer is that for. These, uh, these parts of our country that have been devastated is that they have the kind of triumphant return that we had in Nashville. You know, I never wanted to live through the 2010 flood, but I do believe that this city took, you know, a turn after that because we saw how we could all come together and take care of each other. Right. And so that's my, that's my prayer is that, uh, you know, uh, in these very, very dark times, these communities just see, see just how strong they are.
David Dill: 14:00
Yeah. And it's, uh, it's just amazing when you, uh, some of the pictures and the stories that I've heard from our team and leading into the storm, we positioned some resources and support. In a certain place where we thought they were going to be needed the most only to find out, uh, by, by Friday afternoon that we had the right resources. They just weren't in the right place. And then to relocate those resources became a problem because roads and bridges. And so, uh, the patients that our teams on the ground had as we went through this, but whether it's fuel trucks or water trucks are partnering with second harvest food bank, we've sent it. Trucks over a food. All those little things really proved to me why partnerships are just so important. You cannot do this on your own. You have to have people that can come alongside and like points blessed to have a lot of those partners.
Marcus: 14:46
Uh, that's a great segue because you just talked about a non economic partnership that you ended up leveraging into national level improvements across your entire network. Um, but then we just. We just zoomed right back into something that was happening locally, right? You have the benefit of being this really, really strong national network where you can get the peer pressure and you can get the, you know, the standards and all that kind of stuff. Operating leverage. That's great. Um, but at the end of the day, each one of these hospitals. Inside of their community, um, is seen as something important to that community. Hospitals are, are, are these kind of weird things where they serve a purpose, but the members of the community see them as something more than just a place where you go get health care, right? Oftentimes they end up sponsoring. You know, little league teams or they end up being important philanthropic, you know, providers in those communities, et cetera, et cetera. I think people look at their hospitals as important cornerstones of their community. They employ a lot of people in the communities. And so I think many times as people who are trying to focus on innovation in healthcare, we see a lot of things around the development of, uh, the, uh, determinants of health and things like that and health systems get charged with, uh, Improving the overall wellbeing of their communities far beyond what their standard remit would really be far beyond, Hey, this is a service I provide. This is reimbursable. Um, and what you just talked about showing up in a moment like this in partnership with, you know, different, uh, you know, second harvest and things of that nature. Can you talk about those local partnerships, um, and maybe how LifePoint is able to provide an infrastructure that can standardize them, but still the local teams have to. partner with organizations in that community and they will be different than the next community um, that a life point hospital resides in. And, and how do those, how are those partnerships structured such that life point can do its best to deliver on that, that, that promise that the community sort of believes is, is important. is there.
David Dill: 16:46
Yeah. Uh, there's a lot of thoughts that go through my head when you, when you, when you were speaking. And if I reflect back on, uh, sometimes I wonder why am I at LifePoint doing what I'm doing? I'm an accountant by training. Uh, I got into healthcare 30 years ago, came to LifePoint, uh, 17 years ago. Uh, and, uh, what drew me to LifePoint Uh, was this notion of providing care and communities that don't have the resources that a city like we're sitting in right now has. And I grew up in a small town in western Kentucky. Uh, my favorite place in the world, I've traveled all over the world, is to go home and be with my mom. Uh, that's home for me and it's really what reminds me of our company each and every day. And so the, the mission of our company has been, uh, for, uh, Almost all of our company's history, which we've been around since 1999. So a little over a quarter of a century at this point, uh, has been making communities healthier. And I like that mission statement, first of all, because it's short and it's easy to remember and write out, but it's infinitely complicated because making communities healthier is not just taking care of people when they come to the emergency department or to the clinic or wherever it is that they need to be kind of caught and taken care of and then move to the right setting of care. But it means that we're an economic engine in these communities. We are more than just a healthcare company. We're making communities healthier. We're the largest employer. We're recruiting the most high paid talent that comes into these communities with oncologists and orthopedic surgeons and cardiologists. We're a big taxpayer as a, as an investor owned company. So we are an economic engine of these communities. And so what that means is, uh, when Toms of need. Uh, to much is given, much is expected, right? And so we have to lean in and be there. And there are some things that we can do at a national level, but those local partnerships, whether it's with EMS, uh, whether it's with local food banks, whether it's with the local community college from a recruiting standpoint, uh, all those little local partnerships are vitally important. We choose at LifePoint at the national level to only get involved in a couple of things reflect the mission of who we are. And our two big partners here are Second Harvest Food Bank and Special Olympics. Those are two big national partners. To some extent, those partnerships really don't matter in Price, Utah, when a crisis happens. What matters is, is they have a relationship and a partnership. So I think about it as we're basically just modeling up here. What's important for them to develop on their own. So in their greatest time of need. Yes Second Harvest can help us and we can have a lot of resources go but the resources that are available in the community It's important that that partnership has that hospital has those partnerships intact and our hospitals do a great job of that because to your point These are the biggest businesses in the community. Everybody understands how important the hospital is. Are we perfect every day? No But most of our communities understand what we stand for. And that is to make every one of our hospitals, the best and most that they can be.
Marcus: 20:01
You talked about being investor owned when I, when I met you, LifePoint was publicly traded company. Um, and then, you know, Bill Carpenter, uh, retired and, and you stepped into the role of CEO and kind of almost right as that was happening. Um, Apollo, uh, Purchased LifePoint and the company was no longer a publicly held company. And so, you know, I, I remember sometimes we'd have breakfast and you talk, sort of talk about what it was like to be a public company, uh, you know, manager, uh, and, and, and officer. Um, but, but since then, it seems like you've just had a lot of, um, Just a lot of joy in doing your job. You know, you haven't mentioned kind of, you know, board meetings or investor calls or anything like that. You never kind of talk about that at all. Right. And I was just sort of wondering where we're investors at a much smaller scale, but I know the relationships we have with the founders we invest in and the management teams we support. And when we sit on those boards, um, it's real, you know, it, we, we are shoulder to shoulder with them. We're rolling up our sleeves. Sometimes it's great. And sometimes it's some of the hardest things these people will ever have to do. And, um, I think a lot of people just think about investors as writing checks and that's kind of it. And they're just kind of, you know, money grabbing people or whatever. But if you, if you really want things to work out, well, there is an importance of the culture in the relationship between investors and management teams. Can you talk a little bit about. You know, sort of maybe just a, a very small amount about the change from being publicly traded to, to privately held. Um, and then what's, what's it been like, you know, working with Apollo, one of, you know, sort of America's great investment firms.
David Dill: 21:36
Yeah. So, uh, LifePoint's been around for 25 years. I've been lucky enough to be part of the company for the last 17 of those years. I've seen the company from the seat of the CFO of the company and the chief operating officer of the company, now the CEO of the company. And I've only ever worked in healthcare. In a for profit environment and a public company environment until November of 2018, when we took this company profit up until then my previous, whatever that is, uh, 18 years. Plus, uh, was all around, um, actually more than that. 22 years, uh, was all around, uh, being a public company. So all the pomp and circumstance that comes with that, the investor meetings and the roadshows and the raising of equity and board meetings and annual meetings. That was just kind of built into the DNA and I kind of thought that's how everybody operates. Well, until I met people like you. And I've told our team at Apollo, we sat down in 18 when they were, uh, when they were contemplating making an investment and I had the opportunity and I'll have dinner with, uh, with one of the gentlemen tonight, uh, about the things that were important to this company, Bill and I and, uh, that this is a company that. Is mission driven. It's a company that, that has purpose and meaning to it. Uh, and, uh, and that's who we are. And I want to make sure that we not only don't lose that, but we make it even better as we grow. And so we embarked on a journey with Apollo in 18 and boy, a lot has happened since then, and you think about what we've been through with COVID, uh, kind of repairing from COVID, uh, all the inflation that, that, that's impacted all of your companies and our company and the whole, you know, everybody in the economy, um, But they've been just such a steady hand through it all. And, uh, I tell him all the time, like, I'd like to never be a public company again. I love being a private company, not because it's easier. It's not easier, but there's one person or two people that I can call and we can make a decision. And a real live example of where that played out. When I think about how our company has grown and evolved over the last five or six years with Apollo, uh, we were, uh, Only an acute care hospital company in smaller communities around the country where we're the only hospital in almost every one of our communities and coming out of covid. We made a strategic decision with our owner to diversify the business and today we have the second largest rehabilitation platform in the country behind encompass down in Birmingham. We have a growing behavioral platform that we never had. And we've had to, from a change management standpoint, kind of explain that evolution to the company. And some got it, some didn't. We still work on it every day. But those are investments that we probably wouldn't have made as a public company. Because our public company shareholders would have thought, if I want to go own a rehab company, I can go buy Encompass's stock. Like, why, why do you want to do that? But those are examples of, I think the seats that you get to sit in, no matter how big or small the investment is, you have a chance to not only, you know, help make companies more durable, but also be an incredible mentor and champion for your management teams. They're doing great work. And yeah, you have to make hard calls every once in a while with them and coach them and maybe some discipline along the way. But, but the, the, uh, the influence that you can have. is profound and don't miss that opportunity. And, and I appreciate all the, you know, owners that are out there, but, but our owners are not, uh, just write a check and hands off the will. Uh, they are very involved with the state of day. They're very thoughtful. They understand our business. We've tried to educate them. And I told them from the very beginning, my goal in this. I don't know how long it's going to be is I want this to be the case example of the best way that Apollo can work with the management team. And I tell our members of our management team that every day that we're going to be transparent. We're going to be open. If we get frustrated, we're going to be frustrated with ourselves. Uh, when we need to push back, we're going to push back, but we're going to be a great partner because partnerships are important. And that's another great example of why partnerships work to make things better.
Vic: 25:45
David, it, uh, it strikes me that one of the advantages of moving to a privately backed, uh, investor owned company is you have the ability to think in longer terms, right? Like you could invest today and it may not pay off in the next quarter as long as it pays off in the future. And as you were listing off some of the things you've been focused on, um, reha rehabilitation, adding capacity there, behavioral health. I, last year you talked with uh, Palantir, there's a lot of IT. You're really leaning into some of the biggest challenges as a healthcare system that we have. Behavioral health in rural communities, rehabilitation, where we don't have enough facilities. And how do you think about like where you can make an impact on that? In the near term in 90 days or 180 days and also where the company is going to be in the future Yeah, so,
David Dill: 26:36
you know one of the things that I missed uh When when I first started this journey with uh with Apollo And moving and pivoting from a public company to a private company and I just completely underestimated it And it's so obvious to you and so many of your listeners i'm sure but what I missed was You The real value of the investments that we're making on how do we make this company more valuable for the next owner? Apollo's mindset of there will be a next owner of this company. And, uh, we talk about that all the time and there are a handful of investments that we have made and they're not insignificant investments, uh, that we have made with Apollo that will not payoff in the economic sense over the horizon of their investment, but it will make the company more durable and more valuable for the next owner that maybe the next owner will pay a piece of that. I don't know how all that stuff will work, but I really underappreciated the important distinction of yes, returns today are important, but making the right investments that make the company better over the long haul is something I completely underappreciated. Uh, and, and, um, And I have appreciated with Apollo on the back end of it. Yeah, it's
Vic: 27:52
really a mindset thing. And then you then attract team members that think like that. And I mean, you started in the finance department. There's certainly things you can do to increase earnings per share right now that don't necessarily build future value. And when you're private equity backed, you have that kind of luxury. You have a, You have a significant owner that you need to do right by, but they're thinking about the longer game and where's LifePoint going to be in this healthcare ecosystem for the next 20 years. Yeah.
David Dill: 28:20
Well, think, think, think about, uh, for us just real quick, I won't, I won't belabor this too much, but it's a company that's grown. It's a company that's diversified. We have assets in a lot of different states that have been acquired from a lot of different people and Apollo had been in this investment for, you know, the better part of probably four years. 18 to 22. We decided what we really needed to have more control over of our business to create some efficiencies long term and more stability and decision making kind of insights. We need to embark on an enterprise wide resource plan, and we're deploying a big piece of technology now, and it's been a very expensive piece of technology. A lot of consultants around. We probably won't even implement it until 25 or early 26. So think about that. That's eight years after the initial investment. And it was a discussion that I actually was thinking, how will they think about this? And it was, if it's right for the business, David, we need to do it because it's what's going to set you and this company up for the next decade and the decade after that exactly, Vic, to your point. And those are just great examples of things that I would have missed because in my previous mindset, I would have thought the answer to them. No, we're not doing that. We'll let the next owner do that. We'll let the public company do that if you're a public company again, but it was if it's right for the business, we'll be thoughtful about it. It's not easy, but if it will be thoughtful about it and we'll make that investment.
Vic: 29:45
Yeah, and I think it's important point to touch on because we're seeing the other side of private equity in health care with service and steward. And of course there are bad actors in every market, but Apollo and Lifepoint I think is really a case study where it can work really well for The owners for the employees, but also for the patients on the ground.
David Dill: 30:03
Yeah. And it's largely because they have taken an interest in understanding our company and what's important. And if they didn't care about that, some of these discussions would have been a little bit different. Uh, you know, I probably wouldn't be still here because it's, it's just too important to me. Uh, but that relationship that we built with them, but it was based on. They really wanted to understand what was important to us. And we've had to make some changes and we've tightened things up and we've turned over management team and so we've made hard decisions. It's not like we're just stay out of our way and let us go. I think this has been the greatest phase of our company's existence. Over 25 years have been in these last four years. And it's been a joy to be in the middle of it.
Marcus: 30:46
Two comments before I move to our last question. Uh, the, the first is I'm, I'm just really happy for you as, as an operator. Uh, that you got to have this experience, you know, and not have only ever worked in publicly traded companies. I'm glad you got to have a true capital partner to let you do some longterm important things that were important to the mission. Um, and just sort of part two of the comment is that, uh, I remember. When life point health care became life point health. Am I remembering my hospital hospitals became life point health became life point health. And I remember we had this conversation and at that time there were a bunch of different businesses that were doing this. And quite frankly, it felt like a branding thing, you know? Um, and I think what's so, so fantastic is that through this Apollo acquisition, um, and the relationship that. You and them were able to build is that you were able to make good on that brand change, right? You're not life point hospitals anymore. Um, you know, the rehabilitation business, the behavioral health business, that diversification is a reflection of a true commitment to making communities healthier and I'll just tell you from the perspective of an investor We only support our management teams in doing that. If they're executing well, like if they're not, if they're not getting the basics done, they don't get to do that. You know what I mean? And so I would assume that a poly, you never promised when you changed the life point health, you were going to keep the management team. Or you don't think you're, you're focused on the communities you're serving. And so sometimes changes need to happen throughout that process. And every investor understands that. But I think the ability to diversify the business into what everybody understands is a much more complete. Picture of what it means to be healthy, right? Not just what happens when you're impatient, what happens when you're post acute, what happens, you know, on your day to day, when you're just trying to live your life in this very stressful world, right? All of these things now being part of what LifePoint can offer its communities is a pretty big deal. So I just, I appreciate that.
David Dill: 32:51
I appreciate that. You know, I, I get, uh, I get notes and emails from people all around the country and, uh, you know, some of them are, here's where we're falling short. That's good. We can take that. We can learn from it. Uh, makes, makes us better. I hear great stories about things are going well, but with the, with the nurse at the vets, I've never, David, received this kind of care, like nurse fill in the blank, whoever it is. And those are just heartwarming stories, uh, to hear. But, uh, what's, what's really important to me is, is that we have stayed true to our mission. And as long as we keep doing that, focused on quality, this notion of tax paying versus non tax paying, I like think of it for profit, not for profit. It's tax paying, non tax paying, and we're all doing the same thing when we're out acquiring and looking at hospitals to partner with. We take our mission statement, their mission statement, put them together. And it's amazing how consistent they are. So there's so many similarities of what we're all trying to do. Uh, and that's, uh, you know, that's, we're going to stay committed to that. As long as we stay focused on quality, the rest will follow, financial results will be there. And that's what galvanizes the team. So, but I, I appreciate the, uh, the, uh, the, the thoughtful comment.
Marcus: 34:01
Final question. Um, you gotta get you out of here, man. You're you're busy, man. Uh, And this, this is a, this is also part of the, the, the Apollo discussion. Um, 25 M health, right? So, uh, one of the things that maybe I necessarily didn't see coming was that, uh, you all would, would make an official branded dedicated step into the venture world, right? And, um, it's, I'll, I'll leave it to you to actually explain it. So I don't butcher it at all. Um, but. Whenever an organization does that in a branded way, not like an internal initiative, but like you're actually coming to the public and saying, Hey, this is something we're doing here are people you should talk to, et cetera, et cetera. Um, that, that creates interest and excitement, quite frankly, in the venture world, you know, um, you know, Vic Vic's fund has already, Yeah,
Vic: 34:52
we'll have, we'll have Merrill and Sean on another podcast tomorrow. Oh, great.
Marcus: 34:55
Yes. Great. Yeah. So maybe just talk a little bit about that experience as well. Right. I mean, you know, you didn't have a ton of experience in the venture world and now still don't. Yeah. Well, well, you got more now than you did four years ago. Right. That's for sure. But just talk about, you know, what is it like to to have taken this step into this world? And what have you learned about it? And how have you maybe, you know, seen opportunities for life point to evolve in a way that it can Um, optimally interface with the venture world, right? Because we know we're weirdos out here with our, you know, 1, 000, 000, you know, deals here and there, you know, you're playing in bees were playing in them. We get that part. But also, I mean, I think we have the same sort of aspirations right to make the American health care system better and to help communities, um, in our own way. So I'm just I'm interested in your thoughts on this journey. Like, what have you learned? And what are you hopeful for?
David Dill: 35:46
Yeah. So, uh, there's so many, we said, we talked earlier about there's, uh, we're not out of ideas and opportunities to improve healthcare. So there's tons of opportunities. One of the things I've enjoyed most about it is watching young entrepreneurs, uh, live out a mission and a desire and to, to watch them, to, to see the excitement, to keep me young. And in a weird way, like to, to, to keep me young and on my front foot on what really is possible, I don't want our company to be just that you're that old line hospital company. That's just hard to work with. Uh, that's not who I want us to be. And I know we can be that way sometimes. And we have. You know, lawyers and, and business people that are looking at everything. Uh, but when we, uh, we, we, we were looking at a lot of different opportunities with other companies and we engage some to help us and watching those companies become successful, we, we really looked at and said, we've got an opportunity to do some of this ourself, but it's not in the DNA of our company. And we need. We need somebody that we can invest with. Keep it separate from us so it doesn't get kind of clogged up in this big machine, but keep it separate. Let let that organization bring ideas to us. But the best ideas that have come were from people that have traveled. Out to our hospitals to listen to our people about where the real pain points are, and then create a solution to solve for those. So Gratia is a good example of that. There's several other good examples, but we also know that we can't implement everything. But we have to pick and choose our spots. But when we have a young entrepreneur that has an idea that's listened to where the problem is, has proven out the, the, the, the investment thesis, then we have the opportunity to build something. Will it move the needle overall on the investment for Apollo? Probably not. But it's really kept our company on our front foot. That's what I've learned more than anything else. And when I travel around and I hear our CEOs talk about, we had Merrill, uh, out in our hospital with his team and they're helping us with this. And it is so cool, David, what they're going to do and how they can take something that used to take us this long to this long, those little things stack up. And they're meaningful and then once we develop those and prove it, then we can commercialize it. And, uh, but, but the learnings for our company have probably been the most valuable part of the whole experience.
Vic: 38:12
Yeah. I mean, that's great to hear. I think the scale that LifePoint operates on, you're saying these notes from, you know, good and bad notes from the field. It's everyone's, like, most important thing in their life, when their mother is in a hospital room, and that nurse is coming in and seeing, I don't know, 10, 15 patients all shift, and he or she has to care for that family really well. That scale is, uh, And your ability to not compromise that, but, but create this, the studio where entrepreneurs could come learn from the people on the ground working and then try new things and bring some to market that seemed to work is, is just an incredible benefit for I think your system, but also for me as an investor and for the whole, space to learn in that.
David Dill: 39:02
Well, and, and, you know, it's not just taking care of a family. It's in, in, in our communities. It's, it's what brought me to the company years ago. It's a, it's taking care of their neighbor, literally their neighbor. You know, my son in law is a nurse, uh, here in Nashville and he's taking care of people every day. He's doing it the best he can, but he doesn't, he doesn't. Really know these people. They're more than a number for sure. That sounds way too like they're more than ever, but it's just it's a person, but we're all America. It's not like that. When you get into these communities, when you get into the devastation of Western North Carolina, these are people that are taking care of their Sunday school teacher. or their school teacher of their kids. And so yes, it's, it's taking care of family, but it's taking care of your neighbor. It's taking care of somebody that's important to you. And I think that's what not only makes the company unique, it's what motivates me to make these stronger, more durable, uh, and, and, and better, uh, from a quality standpoint than they can be on their own. And that's really exciting. And part of it's just because of where I grew up.
Vic: 40:09
Yeah. Yeah. But your wisdom to just to say. Yeah. We don't want to throw standards to that gear where we're taking care of these thousands of people every day. Let's create a dedicated studio where we can have them come in and teach us what the problems are. I think that was really like a lot of companies will just try to do it ad hoc. And that's challenging because you, You have to do things that are, you know, a high quality at significant scale. Yeah.
David Dill: 40:34
Well, I'm really proud of what we've done. Uh, but I'm also not so, uh, removed from it that it's not perfect and it all can sound good around this table. Uh, but we work hard every day and we mean it. And we do it with a purpose and we will continue to work to get better each and every day to fulfill that promise that we made to these communities.
Marcus: 40:53
No better way to end than that. David Dill. Thank you very much. Thanks
David Dill: 40:56
Marcus. Thanks Vic. Appreciate you.