You are listening to, you are seeing hope on the worst conversation you ever want to have. Every day you wake up and Michael Scott goes, I'm ready to be hurt again. Like that's what you walk into every day and you talk about a purpose. Almost 18,000 people every day come to work to take care of almost 18,000 people, the youngest person on that accounting team to the CEO of Community Health Network.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to young leaders in Indiana?
From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. getindiana.com is your one stop shop for everything Indiana.
From festival and event guides, to blog posts covering hidden gems, local businesses, small towns, and more. Check it out and learn something new about the Hoosier State@getindiana.com. And don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter right there at the top. My guest today is Bryan Mills. He has spent over 40 years at Community Health Network.
He started back in 1985 when he helped Open Community Hospital North, later served as the CEO of its for-profit Affiliate Visionary Enterprises Inc. And ultimately became president and CEO of the entire network on May 1st, 2009. He's a graduate of Ball State University. He has his bachelor's in accounting and he has been honored by Ball State with its President's Medal of Distinction, the Accounting Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Today we're gonna be talking about his 40 year journey. Fun fact for everyone. December 31st, 2025 is Bryan's last day. He is retiring from Community Health, and we're gonna just dive into this 40 year journey and the incredible impact that you've had on. Healthcare in central Indiana and, uh, in your journey.
Bryan, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks Nate. I am, uh, I'm excited about this one. This is our first big health system that we've do dove into on the show, so I'm excited to learn and no one better to tell this story than you. You spent over 40 years, so I'm assuming when you graduated from Ball State, you wanted to get right into healthcare.
That was what you were chomping at the bit to get into, right? Not at all. I thought that healthcare were things. You, you did anything to avoid Classic. Okay. So you end up becoming an accountant for Ernst & Whinney, which becomes Ernst & Young, and so you're working in finance. How long did you do that for?
I did that for about four years. Okay. But I worked in hospitals. Oh, so your customers were hospitals? Yeah. When I, when I, I had an internship there and in one of the internships they sent me to Gary, Indiana. Downtown, uh, no way. This is 19, the early 19, um, 81. Okay. And, um, I fell in love And, and, and with healthcare in Gary, what made you love it?
Well, I tell PPP every morning, every Monday morning, I, I welcome people to our organization to go to new employee orientation, orientation. And what I tell them is that I, I don't know anything about healthcare. Nobody in my family was a doctor or a nurse or anything. Then we, we do now every morning, uh, there I'd get my parked my little car and heard of people would walk in and, you know, they're going to work, uh, for their shift.
And I could hear what they're, they're talking about. And I didn't know any of 'em. But sometime later in the afternoon, you'd walk back out and there other people are talking about it. And the idea that people actually come to work, to take care of people they don't know is just magic to me. Yeah. And you, you talk about a purpose.
I, I just thought that was fascinating, that people really, this was their desire. This was their call to go help people they didn't know. And you were up there crunching numbers. Yeah. Right. You're working in accounting and finance. Mm-hmm. And you're, are you living in Gary? Well, we were there so long. We, we were, I was in hotels for a long time.
Oh wow. So you're like having to go up there in person multiple days a week. Come back, then go back up there. Yes. You end up serving, um, healthcare customers. When do you end up making the switch and what leads you to go and work at Community Health in 1985? Yeah. I took the job in late 84. My boss took a job as a, as a treasurer, CFO for Community Hospital.
The one on the East Side Hospital. So it wasn't a network at this point, it was Community Hospital out on the east side. Correct. And he asked three of us to go with him. I was the youngest of the three. And I asked him, what would I do? And he said, well, they're building this hospital, the middle of nowhere, which it was at the time.
Fairbanks was there, but that was at Fairbanks Recovery Center. Um, and, and I said I don't, I can't do that. I'm not qualified to do that. Wait, when you say the middle of nowhere, you're talking about like Meridian and, or like 31 and I dunno, what's the shalin, what's the It's, it's just off, out of I 65 on 69.
So it's, oh yes, it's 82nd Street and Shalin Avenue. Oh, that was the middle of nowhere. Middle of nowhere. Okay. Nice. So you end up, uh, going there and accepting that role? I did. How did that make you feel when your boss at the time thought enough of you to, to ask you to go along with him? I really tried to talk, talk my way out of it because I really didn't understand what, what this was all about.
But, you know, I said yes 'cause I, I trusted him. I trusted the other two people that went, that they were a little bit older than me, but we, we worked as a team. Uh, for what's now I, yeah. And did, had it clicked then that you really enjoyed healthcare at that point in 1985? Um, I was glad to be in a hospital.
I never thought I'd be in a leadership position. Yeah. So what was, so you go and end up doing what for Community North? Well, I was a, I was a finance guy. Okay. So, um, I remember the first, first week or so, um, my boss came to me and said, Hey, figure out how, how much cash we have, not just for North, but the whole thing.
People listening to this know that you, you, you look at cash and how many days of expenses do you have on hand? Yeah. We didn't have a No what, so you gotta hit the phones and say someone's gotta pay their bills. Yeah. And um, and long story short, there, there was a bond that had been issued previously and those dollars from the bond were in a bank account.
It just wasn't on anything that we had. Oh. So there was money somewhere. So there was money, but we didn't. Well, that's like getting your, yeah. Getting everything in order. Mm-hmm. Um, I mean, how do you feel you're crunching these numbers and you're starting to see, you're like, I just left my accounting job to come over here and we don't even have a days of expense.
Like the finance people always know what, what's going on with the business first. Yes. So you end up working your way through, up through the ranks of community? Well, kind of. Um, I mean, it's not a normal path. I ended up, um, putting together a, a medical management company for doctors. Okay. Explain what that means.
So hospital was recruiting doctors. The doctors would come to work, but they really didn't have any business knowledge. Yeah. So, you know, next thing you know, the CEO is saying, Hey, we need some help. Can you help these doctors? And of course, I've never done this before, but I said, okay, I'll try. And long story short, I ended up having a company, but subsidiary Indianapolis Medical Management.
We managed physician practices and provided billing services and hired staff and all these other things to allow them to. To still be independent. Yeah. And then the next, and this was built under community, um, as a, a subsidiary. Oh, it was a new new company. Yeah. Okay. And then the next one was, um, and so we, we did that for a long time.
And so you're providing like the business acumen to doctors, office doctors, like this is like family, uh, like Right. Family doctors who are like, come outta school. Right. They know how to like diagnose sick people but don't know about billing and all that stuff. That, and then we had some that we just did billing for them.
Yeah. But we put together this company to do that. And then the next thing I know, they, uh, my boss came to me, the guy who ran Community North came to me and said, Hey Mills, what do you know about ASCs? And I said, I don't know what that stands for. And he said, ambulatory surgery center. I said, nothing. He said, we'll figure it out.
Um, because you know, we've got some things going on here. We need to maybe get into the, the surgery center business. An ambulatory surgery centers. Okay. What is that? In normal person's terms, they would be surgery centers, you know, places where you will have surgery. It's just like outpatient surgery.
Outpatient surgery. Okay. So you show up to get your, I dunno, whatever it might be. This is like orthopedic stuff. Uh, that's one. Um, it could be any, any specialty. Okay. Again, this makes no sense. And those didn't exist in community at the time? It did not, or, or, and it was really not many places at all. So, uh, but I, there was a nurse who, um, who worked in, in, um, the, OR at North and she'd, she'd been in California and they were out there.
So we hopped, literally hopped on a plane, flew to California, knocked on doors, took pictures, asked questions, and came back and, and. Put, put together an a surgery center that still exists on the Community North campus. So you helped create this, the community health first surgery center? Yes. And then we, and then many more after that.
Wow. And, uh, well, how did you feel like when the first patient walks in there to get a surgery performed at this new surgery center, how'd that make you feel? And like your team and the work you guys had put in? Um, I would say anxious because I still really didn't know what was going on. Yeah. And, and one of the stories that I tell Nate is that at some point I said, I need to understand this business better.
So, so I learned to go watch surgery. I go to watch the surgery. It's a, it's a high school football, a quarterback, and he had an issue in his, in his shoulder and I watched, and I'm sitting down, uh, watching this and all of a sudden, you know, the doctors knocking on this pipe that go through and open that up.
And when that opens up, all this fluid comes out and I'm going down and no way. And a patient popped me, I mean, a nurse popped me in the chest and said, do not pass that on the patient. So we got through that. A few days later, a few days later, I'm in another surgery center 'cause I'm, and we had, we had several of these, 'cause I'm trying to understand, you know, what this is all about so that I can be a better business person and advisor.
Yeah. I walk in the next, uh, the next one and there's a high chair with a seatbelt on it. And I said, uh, I looked at it and they said, we, we hear you're kind of weak. And, uh, and so I went over there. I, but I sat down in the stool, buckled myself in and I said, I'm here to learn. No way. And, and that's, that's how I've learned healthcare.
I'm not a very good accountant anymore. I can't even do my own taxes. But, uh, but they, the whole thing was, I still think it's just amazing in our organization that we have almost 18,000 people every day come to work to take care of almost 18,000 people that they don't know. I still think that that at its core is amazing.
So there's 18,000 employees now, and you see almost 18,000 patients a day. Numbers are pretty close. That's pretty cool. Every day your, your 18,000 people come to work to serve almost 18,000 people. That's amazing. Where along the journey, I, I think this is a big qualm maybe with healthcare is. A lot of the providers get in because they want to take good care of people.
Correct. And how do you manage running a business and providing exceptional care for your patients? Well, I'll, I'll go to what I believe my real title is. Yeah. And that's that I'm the Chief Cultural Officer. Yeah. That's really what I do. Yeah. Okay. So to try to, to try to put teams together to understand that we all, we all have, there's a lot.
It's complex. There's a lot of of pieces here. Um, another story I would tell you, Nate, would be i'll, I'll never forget the day two or week two of COVID. Oh yeah. Okay. I'm in my office. My assistant tells me that there's a bunch of doctors in the, on the first floor looking to talk to me. 'cause we, we employed, you know, over the years, doctors, instead of having their own practices, many have.
So sold those practices or people who are coming outta school wanted, wanted to just practice medicine. They don't wanna have a, a private practice. Yeah. So we have a lot of doctors that we, that we hire. And to be candid, you know, I'm thinking we're in COVID, we don't know what's going on, what the heck, what, what's this all about?
So I'm kind of anxious, a little bit upset as I'm walking out, down to this foyer. And I looked at a, a physician surgeon that I knew still know very well, and I said, what the hell? And he said, what do you guys need? And he said, you know, we, we, we, we are not open. And he looked at me and he said, Bryan, I didn't know that.
We all know that, but we're on your team. What do you want us to do? We can't practice. And on that day, we became one team because doctors went with helping with supplies, you know, running errands, doing housekeeping. It, it had nothing to do with being a doctor. They were just part of what we are. Yeah. Um, and there's so many stories out of what happened there, but the, the thing about it was, was we became one entity, one, one team and, and came together because all of us had a problem and we had to figure out how to get through it.
Yeah. I think that's, that's pretty cool being able, especially like doctors, like being Okay, I might be a doctor, but today if you need a housekeeper, I can be the housekeeper. If you need someone to, you know, do whatever. I'm here for that. I'm part of this team. Like, what was your title during this time? I was the pres president of VEI.
That's the entity that we have there. But we, we had also expanded. We, we had surgery centers in Michigan, uh, Illinois. Um, and we're running them because other hospitals had reached out to us to come help them do that. Wow. So it was, it was actually very fun. Yeah. I feel like. Today. Not a lot of people stay at jobs for 40 years.
You know, like, I don't know. I think the average tenure is like, I dunno, three or five years or something like that. But to stay at a community for, oh, for 40 years, but you got like these different. Micro jobs or different individual challenges to go solve during your time there, that'd be pretty fun. What, what was, out of all the different things that you worked on, what was, what are you most proud of from that time before you were the CEO back then?
I mean, a lot of these things we were doing were, people were making investments, so these things were for-profit. Yeah. So we're putting things together. We're, we're creating something, we're helping people. People. So you guys had like, investors, like private investors? Typically physicians. Okay. Um, because, and that's, you get into a lot of regulation here.
Yeah. But, but there, there's limited people that could do that. What time, what timeframe? This is like what year? This would be from about 1991 to 2005. So you're like raising investment from doctors? Mm-hmm. Physicians, uhhuh, and then investing that to create what Surgery centers or? Or similar things that literally are a pro, a profitable entity.
We did things with other hospitals outside of community, so we could, we were investors. They were investors. It was, it was really something that was, yeah. This is not like running a health system. No. This is like, you're this for-profit entity. Kind of like almost innovation, you know, like you're building new things and that, that's pretty fun.
Yeah. From there in 2009, was your mentor, the old CEO, uh, who's your mentor? My mentor was a, a guy who was the head of the Indiana Gas Company. Oh. His name was Jack Heney. Okay. So how did you get connected with Jack? Um, just over the years he was on boards and I thought it was fa fascinating. He was, um, he was a baseball player.
Yeah. And I was a baseball player. We became friends as I said that he, uh, he didn't have children. So he was, he was a mentor. He was a smart guy. Yeah. And, um, so I would pick him up and we'd have lunch or, or, and he was also someone who was, um, just down to the earth, just somebody who really wanted to do anything to help other people.
He actually served under Patton in World War II and No way Uhhuh, Jack Heney, he was the, he led Indiana Gas Company. Mm-hmm. Wow. So he becomes your mentor. And then in 2009, uh, Community Health's previous CEO decides to retire. Yeah. 2008. They, yeah, they came to me and I said, why I like what I'm doing. I mean, I'm, I'm not interested in that.
I don't know anything about that. And, um, I was told to send, send your resume, put together a half-baked resume, and turned it in. And the board chair came back and said, you can do better than that. So now I'm kind of ticked because, 'cause I'm wasting time. 'cause I really don't wanna do this. Yeah. Why didn't you wanna do it?
Because I loved what I was doing. Nothing. I mean, I was, I was having fun, I was doing transactions, I was working with people. It was a financial thing that I understood and this was still, you know, you guys are building these for-profit entities, doing, you know, surgery centers or whatever that might be.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's kind of like, almost like investing like venture capital type work, you know, like business work, but you just happen to be in the healthcare space. That's pretty fun. Yeah. Um, so you go back and you redo your resume and turned it back in? Yes, I turned it back in. You know, I went through, I went through the whole interview process and, and then one time they, uh, at the end they wanted to, to talk to my wife and, um, Kathy and I just, uh, had our 40th anniversary Congrat to all this congrat.
Oh, so this is all together, like you've been Yeah, we've we've been one team. There you go. I have a just amazing relationship, but there were two females on the. The, um, board and, uh, they wanted to have dinner to put the two of us. So we get there and everybody said, we're here to talk to your, to Kathy, not you, Bryan.
So, you know, kind of keep your mouth shut. Shut it. Yeah. Classic. And, uh, uh, I'll never forget they said, so what are you, Kathy? Well, how are you gonna feel when he's never home for dinner? Um, you know, how, how does that, you know, he's got things going on. These organizations never closed. How, how do you feel about that?
And I'll never forget, she kind of paused and you could, I could tell she was thinking. She said, well, my best friend growing up was my dad. And I still love my dad. He's now deceased. But, uh, I can't think of any time that he actually was there for dinner. I think it's overrated. That's what you, and you're like, no, stop, don't say that.
I don't want this job. Wow. And so you Yeah. Well, by, by that point I did. I mean by what, what flipped that switch for you? It, I mean, it was just, it was just going through the whole thing and talking to other people. I was talking to other board members. This is what they were looking for. It was, they thought I had the ability to do it.
Yeah. And so, so, and I, instead of just stiff arming it, I just said, okay, there's something here. Yeah. Uh, I'm anxious 'cause I don't know what I'm gonna do. Yeah. And, um, and I've never run a hospital, never run a clinic. I mean, all these things that you, you think about, I just hadn't done that. Yeah. And so you end up getting the job.
Yes. And obviously from that moment up into the right, all great times. Only talk to me about how things really went. Personally. It was me trying to find, what can I do here? Yeah. You know, what, what is it that I can, like what is the job of the, the CEO of a, of a healthcare network? Like what does that even look like?
Uh, I think people look at it different ways. Some people, I mean, you can go to school to, to learn how to do all this and, and run a, run a health system or run departments or whatever it is. I, I didn't have that background. Yeah. So, so that's where, to me it was culture. It was, it was go through and try to identify what it is that we do.
And part of what I said was, do what, what would you want for your family? What do you want for your friends? How can we put something together that, that is focused on, not how much money you make, not how much you know, how much of this or that you do, but basically trying to put together an organization that's focused on patients.
Yeah. We, as an organization, have tried to go through, I've tried over the many years now, it's to say we need to have patients first in any conversation that we're having. And to make sure that we're, we're c you know, putting our hands around ourselves, trying to say, okay, how do we help patients? Yeah. And which is, which is really important.
And second thing is that, and, and with that, um, I'm kind of jumping topics here. Yeah. But what, years ago we, we had a oncology program that just wasn't doing much. And long story short, I ended up, um, doing some research and try to figure out who's, what's the top, um, oncology place in the, in the United States Actually in the world now.
It was MD Anderson and, and, um, Houston. Yeah. So, so I cold called Houston and said, Hey, I got, I got, I need an oncology. I'm having trouble up here. Do you have, can you help me somehow? And they, and bottom line is we put together a partnership with them. We follow all the things they do. We, the doctors, uh, you know, learned what they're doing, what we're doing.
We come together as a partner and they have six partners in the state, in the United States. And we're one of those six no, that came from a cold call. It's cold call from a cold call. And, and, um, all the others are academic medical centers. We're not you cold call the number one oncology department. They came here, I mean, this, this happened over a long period of time.
Yeah. They had a program for people that wasn't at a lesser level than this partner. And so we were in that for a long time. And then they decided, um, a few years, about two years before COVID, that they weren't gonna do that anymore. So, um, I talked to the, the, the CEO and said, Hey, I know there's another level, you know, can we try to, to achieve that level?
And he said, well, you know, I don't, I don't, nobody's ever done that. I don't know if we can or not. I'll get back with you. And they said, okay, we'll give you, we'll give you a shot here. Yeah. But, but, and, and it's really detailed because it really is how do medical oncologists, you know, pro provide services to patients and how do nurses and everything else do it?
And they, and they said, okay, we'll give you a chance. And, um, and we, we made it. Was it hard for you to flip the switch in your head coming from the profit side of healthcare? You know, like you're working in the for-profit entity, you have investors, all that stuff, and then switching to, Hey, we're keeping patients at the center of that.
I just feel like this is a really hard part with healthcare is balancing profit and patient experience. I think I changed in when I was in the for-profit side. That was my responsibility to create that as, as I, as I trans transitioned to running a not-for-profit healthcare entity. You, you really get into mission.
You really get into, um, what, what people need. And I just personally believe that when you take on that mission, you, we are here for everyone. Yeah. And this is not about the who's who or anything along those lines. It's that I, I believe that, that, from my perspective, everyone should have access to great care.
Yeah. Everyone should have people to treat them respectively. Yeah. For whatever's going on. They, they, and the questions should be questions that people respond to, and it's putting together a team that really wants to put patients first and make sure that their experience is, is fabulous and what they're doing regardless of who they are, what language they speak, where they came from, what their issues are.
Those things, to me, uh, back to your last comment that drove me, drives me more. Finance. It's always interesting to see, uh, providers, you know, they get into this, they become physicians, they become specialists, whatever that might be. 'cause they wanna take care of people. And then you realize it's like, well, you know, like it still has to be a profitable business.
You know, like you have to figure out how to balance this scales there so that you can afford to give the highest quality of patient experience to the most people and also pay all your staff. You know, like, that just seems like a really hard math equation to really dial in. So kudos to you for, you know, taking that on.
For how many years, uh, 16. You've been the CEO for 16 years, right? How have you seen community health change over your 16 years as CEO? The idea that we ended up hiring physicians and, uh, nurse practitioners and what, what have you? To be a part of what we are. There are, there are still a few doctors that are independent there, but it's, it's really changed over time.
A lot of it's just the complexity, you know, the regulations, the cost of medical, electronic medical records, all these things have made it very difficult to do, do that on your own. And so we've, we've, um, hired a lot of physicians, but, you know, one of the things that we do when physicians, um, come to our organization, we have leadership programs from them.
You know, if you are a physician, you probably didn't have business classes. Yeah. You didn't do all these things. You were focused on science. So we, we, we run cohorts of people tr trying to make sure that you are a good leader. Yeah. And that's, that's helped a whole lot. And, um, and, and then with the cost of studying for practice, the cost of electronic medical records and all these other things, most people who graduate, you know, the majority of them want to work for somebody.
It's really changed. How big is community health today? Depends on what, what you, how, how do you look at it? Yeah. You said 18,000 employees, right? Like roughly, yeah. Total. And they're not all full-time, but that's the head count. Yeah. What, like, where are those all spread out to? Like what are the different things and entities and like the footprint of community health?
They're in, they're in hospitals, they're in clinics. How many hospitals do you have? Uh, it depends on how you look at a hospital. It's, you know, somewhere, somewhere in, somewhere between eight and 10. So it's okay. But facilities. But if you look at campuses, we have campuses on the north side, east side, south side here, Kokomo Anderson.
I mean, those are our large campuses. Yeah. And, you know, and like the, the Kokomo, well, south Kokomo Anderson, those, these were places that. We're not financially strong, so that's why we absorbed them and brought 'em in. What, like what did, did you have to take over all previous healthcare hospitals? Yeah. So like, what was the hospital in, on the south side?
Um, it was University Heights was the name of it. University. And then what was the one in Kokomo? It was Howard Regional. Howard Regional Health. Okay. And then, and then Anderson's Community of Anderson. Okay. But those, but those were, they were independent. Was this before, was this before your time or during your time?
During my time. Okay. As CEO. Mm-hmm. So, okay. So take me through one of those. So you get, do you get like a call, like, Hey, things are looking a little bit, uh, bleak over here for the future of this, uh, county hospital. Like, we, we need to talk. Mm-hmm. That's how it goes. That's how it goes. That's how it starts.
And, but from like, the old CEO calls you, like, take me through like how that transact. Is it a transaction? Is that what you call it? Uh, yes. It would be a transaction, yes. And, and the call did come from the, the former, uh, CEO. And, and it, and they weren't just calling us. They were calling other people. Yeah.
And, um, and they're, they're looking for, because you know, a lot of these are, are, a lot of the county hospitals literally were, uh, started by the county. Owned by the county. Oh. But they have obligation to that. And, you know, if you go through like a, like a Kokomo, and I'm not being mean spirited here, but a lot of, a lot of bad things happen in ho in Kokomo, especially in automotive, you know, for a long time.
Yeah. And next thing you know, you got a place that's thriving. You know, I, I still go back to my high school years and, you know, playing ball and, you know, when you went to Anderson and Kokomo, you're gonna get your butt kicked. Yeah. Right. Like, there was a lot going on. Yeah, for sure. And, and, and it was year round in summer leagues and all these other things.
I mean, they were, they were just places that were huge and then, and then they weren't. Yeah. And, uh, and but the, but the people are still there. Yeah. And, uh, and so it really is, okay, how can we come together? And, and, and take things like our mission, vision, value and say, how do we work together? Was there like a timeframe where they're like, Hey, things are not going well here.
Like if we don't figure out the next evolution of this by, you know, the end of the year, like we're gonna have to close up shop. It's not quite that direct. It really is trying to go through and see what can you do to help us. Yeah. Without giving up and are like other health systems pitching as well of like, Hey, we wanna make this, you know, IU, Kokomo or whatever, you know, like what does it come down to like through those three transactions?
What wins that bid, I suppose, or what, what makes that a good fit for you? All the, those things change over time. Yeah. You, what's immediately happens and what happens in the future change. Yeah. But it really is trying to have us take on the mission. Yeah. You know, it really, the people get caught up in the business piece.
You're doing this for a return on investment and everything else. I mean, I would say. Basic, basically what you just said, that's just not what it is. Uh, we believe that in the mission of not-for-profit hospitals, that we're there for the county, for the citizens, that's where the dollars go back to. Yeah.
It's not like you're gonna buy something and, you know, make it better and sell somebody else. That's not, that's not the, um, that's not the purpose of, of what we do. Yeah. So, so it's trying to get in there, can we get the culture together? Yeah. And, and, and sometimes it, it ends up happening. You, you've changed leadership, you know, because those leaders had a different calling.
Uh, we've changed boards, we've, we've changed the amount of authority somebody has locally versus, versus for the network. So they're complex. But when it's all said and done, if we can all take on. The responsibility of providing the best healthcare for the citizens, no matter where they are. Then we're gonna do it.
It's like, it's like Westfield. Okay. We're building a new ho. The, we're building a new hospital in Westfield. First one new since North in 85. We have, we have not built anything new. We've taken over things, we've redone things, but we have not done anything new. And it, and it's 40 years later. Wow. And so we're, that's, that's an area that we believe, you know, it's growing amazingly quick.
Yeah. And so we, we've uh, we're under construction and so you guys end up taking over, you know, the Kokomo Uhhuh the hospital up in Howard County. That's not, there's, there's a reason that it's not working for them anymore, right? Like, clearly, like, you know, your business Correct, uh, is probably losing money or something like that. So why does it make sense and how are you able to turn that around and fix that? Like make it a thriving hub for healthcare. Well, I can't say this for all businesses 'cause I don't know all businesses. Yeah. But you have assets that need to be replenished or, or changed. Yeah. You have a staff of people and maybe we don't need all that staff or what we're doing in that location.
Are there opportunities we're not allowed to take care of that they can't take care of because they don't have the resources to do it? How do you get the local community involved in what that is? Yeah. But, and then you take things like computers and electronic medical records. I mean, those things didn't exist for a long time.
These exist now and, uh, the, the, the one we use is a really good one, but it's expensive. Yeah. And, and so then you can like fold that into your larger, you know, plan or whatever with the bigger Yeah. And then we can also recruit physicians. There, and maybe they're there part-time and back at another place part-time.
But it's trying to put together, you know, all the components to say we've, when it's all said and done, it's gotta thrive. I mean, you know, if you looked at our bottom line margins, they're not much. But we're, we pay our, we pay our expenses and we, we, we have a little bit to put in the bank, but, uh, but it's, it is not, it's not flipping a switch and it's not trying to find the bad guys.
It's trying to say, okay, can we agree upon mission, what we're all about? Yeah. And do that. And, you know, and I would say in the Anderson and Kokomo towns that have had some tough times, we're, we're doing a good job. Yeah. What's the hardest job at a hospital? This probably isn't a direct answer, but I am, I'm still admired by people who, who provide direct care.
Yeah. I mean, it's a calling. I mean, I can't do it. I mean, I've been around a long time. I could not do it. Yeah. I mean, to the understand what people go through for years. To learn how to do surgery or cardiology or anything. It's amazing, right? I revere physicians, but I tell you what, the, the, the nurses and the people doing that direct care, that calling is amazing.
That calling to say, I'm here to do anything. These are, these are people that they'll, they'll walk through anything to take care of a patient. These are tough, tough people. Yeah. I would always, uh, like anyone who has to deliver bad news, you know, like let's say like surgeons are, you know, performing whatever the surgery is, but like who, whether it's a doctor or whoever that has to be like, Hey, you have this terminal illness.
Like that would be so hard to do day in and day out. So, so two things come to my mind on that. One is we decided years ago on every one of our campuses, there's gotta be somebody who's the top. Somebody's gotta be responsible for everything going on in those campuses. And we, a community decided that that would be an RN, it's been a really good decision because then an RN would be at the top of the campus, like, what is that role called?
Um, the Chief Nurse executive. I mean, that's, that's what we call a top person there. And the reason is when, when chaos is going through and you're trying to figure out what you do, which lane do you get on? The nurse is gonna do what's best for patients. Yeah. That's how they're, that's how they're made, that's how they roll.
And that's been a really good decision. So it's not saying finances don't mean anything, but, but it's very important that they do that. I mean, kudos to, to them. And yeah, that would just be like, I get to sit in here and talk on a podcast and it's like, I can't imagine having to go out and have multiple conversations in a week delivering some of the tar, the hardest conversations, you know, like.
Think about that from a provider perspective. Let's say you're in oncology and you know, let's just say, I don't know the numbers, I'm making all this up, but five times a week you have to tell someone that they have cancer. It's like, that's the biggest conversation in their life. Like they have probably never had a bigger conversation than that. And you've had five this week. You know, that's heavy. So you picked the right one. Yeah. Okay. We all have been either don't want to hear that or you've heard it and have seen it live. So when we did our, when we became a partner of MD Anderson mm-hmm. And we had this big gathering and the, you know, all the people from Houston came here and we're here and we're celebrating this, our, our number one medical oncologist stepped up to the microphone and he said, if you get a a, a cancer diagnosis, we will see you within 48 hours.
That's factual. That happens. I, I, I sat there and I looked at him. I'm thinking, oh my gosh, because I can't make that. I cannot, I can't say you will do, but, and I probably wouldn't have, but that's what he said. Well, yeah. 'cause you gotta think about the stress of that. If someone says, Hey, your test came back, you have cancer.
You're like, oh my God, how do I, how do I get this fixed immediately? Yeah. And you're like trying to beat a clock too, there. And, and what's, what's the plan? So the idea is that come have this conversation. Yeah. Bring your family, do all these things, you know, and we have, it's surprising the number of people say, I can't be there in four, eight hours.
Okay, that's fine. When can you be here? Let's have a conversation as soon as you're available to come. Yeah. The start, let's go through this process. And it just kind of deescalates what's going on and what's next. Yeah. I mean, but I've, I've had many, many people who've said, I can't believe it, Bryan. I mean, that happened and now we've got other specialties that are saying the same thing.
People say, well, how do you, Bryan, how do you make that happen? I don't make any of that happen. It's, it's because as a culture, this is what we believe in. We are, we are community here for the citizens of our community. Talk about hard conversations, right? Like you get that hard conversation, a diagnosis with cancer and, and you guys are stepping up and, you know, within 48 hours you're giving them the option to be seen there. What have been hard conversations that you've had to have? There's been a few. Um, the ones that come to mind, Nate would be, you know, people that are, have been good friends and people that I still wanna be friends with, just weren't doing what they should be doing. Oh, yeah. And so they need to, we need to help 'em find a job some other place.
Yeah. You know, and, and that's hard. How does healthcare staff and healthcare systems, what's the scoreboard? How do you know if you're good or not good at something like, at a job like a doctor? I would say better. I don't know if that's the right word. At least we have data these days. You know, like what's the data you're looking at though?
You know, like if we had two, let's say family doctors, how do you know if one is, uh, excellent and one is not excellent? We have analytics, we have, you know, information that we send, send out to patients or, or companies to try to get their input. We didn't have that all the time. Yeah, I mean we, you know, it's no different than being at an airport or a ball game or any other industry.
You know, we've got these data that we get mm-hmm. And we get, I mean, the feed we ask for people for feedback on all these various things. And I think sometimes they, they feel like it's, you know, you're just peppering me, but we really are using this information. Yeah. And we have hundreds of thousands of data points.
Yeah. Like, well I guess like when you were sitting there and you're looking at, you know, whether some sort of provider, like what are the, the, and are you allowed to talk about like the indicators where it's like, Hey, so and so's patient satisfaction score is X. And like, what is it like knowledge, like one I'm assuming is, is just like knowledge of medicine.
Like you need to have that and then like, customer interaction, customer experience, you know, like not being a jerk. Like, I don't know, like what goes, what goes into it? Well, first thing that comes to mind to me is, is uh, and this isn a direct, but I'll get to what you said is that, you know, you wanna have a conversation with the patient.
Okay. Don't be, don't be have one foot at the door. Yeah. You know, sit down, talk to them. Let's go through what we're trying to get done here. What, what's the plan? That's part of the reason of doing these leadership trainings for doctors and advanced, uh, practice nurses and everybody else is going through and say, this is what it's all about.
And I think that's changed in healthcare over time. I think it's a good change. I think it's good that we have data. It's good that we can actually help people. I'll just say this, I mean, we've done this for hundreds, hundreds of, of, uh, physicians to go through this program about, you know, how, what, what's it like to be a leader?
And you know, you know you're doing something right. When I've had calls and letters come in from spouses of physicians who have, who have made comments like, thanks for giving me back the person I fell in love with. Now that's a strong, that's a, you hold that piece of paper and look at it and think what, wow, what a, what a sentence.
Because at some point in time. That doctor be, he achieved that. He didn't go to business school or she didn't go to business school, they didn't have all this. They're trying to get through something that is really hard to get in and really hard to get through. And that is another piece of it. Um, I do wanna know, like yeah, you're, you're talking about leadership training, but like when you're looking at, like if you had to look at a health system and find the number one doctor, I know that's gonna be really hard to do, but the number, what kind of values, what kind of characteristics, what kind of things would make up the greatest doctor in a health system?
I mean, the outcomes are obviously is something you can't put aside. So whatever, whatever's happening, what are the results? And we have a better way to looking at that. Oh yeah. But see I didn't even think about that. 'cause I, I guess like when you don't, when you're not around healthcare, I just kind of like, just assume that whatever.
Any doctor says, like, I feel like I, I have this, like every doctor is all knowing, you know, like they all know how to fix exactly the problem that I have right now. And it's like, well, there's still levels of, uh, how much training and experience and knowledge and specialty and all of those different things versus like, every doctor knows everything about the human body.
Always. That is interesting. So outcomes, well, first of all, we, we have data. Okay. Yeah. For, so for, for years, you know, people kind of made up, you know, why they were good. And I'm not saying they were wrong, but we had no data. But, well, it'd be like, I would rank it on who's the friendliest, nicest, easiest to talk to doctor.
Like that one's the best. Right? And so and so with all the things that we do to analyze what this is, I think for a long time there was kind of a. Stiff arm. Like this isn't part of what I do. And, but the physicians have coming around and said, and there's, and, and their apps as well of, of saying, Hey, this is important because the whole point is I wanna make sure that people receiving care are care that we would provide for our own family.
Yeah. There's, it should not be a separation. And so it's going through and figuring out how to do it, but so much of it is that even as you have information to provide, sit down, talk to 'em. This is not, you're bad, you're good. This is about how do we get better because this is a we organization. I think it would be hard, you talk about like the letters you get back from spouses, a doctor or any sort of these providers go in there and the emotional and psychological aspect of like having these tough conversations or like when you work in a certain, uh, field, like you're not everyone is gonna make it.
You know? Sure. Like, I don't know what the number is, but you think about everyone I feel like knows someone who, I feel like every person in America knows someone who has lost their battle with cancer. And you talk about like, multiply that out, you know, like outcomes aren't always positive. And that would just be so challenging, uh, to give yourself to that.
And like every day you wake up and you walk into the door of the hospital and you're ready to just like, I'm ready to, it's like, uh, have you ever seen the office? Mm-hmm. And Michael Scott goes, I'm ready to be hurt again. Like that's what you walk into every day and like, try to find positive outcomes and try to have, find some optimism, man.
Like that would be challenging. I agree with you. I, I, but what goes through my mind and nothing against what you said. Yeah. I'm not saying what right and wrong, but, but I get this, what goes through my head is suicide. Yeah. And, and how could we prevent that? And is that like a. Something that's prevalent in doctors.
It is. Hi. Higher than most other professions. Yeah. As an organization, you know, here we are in COVID and we, we've had Fairbanks Recovery Center. It had been on the north campus before Community North, and we had a good relationship with them, but we actually acquired them during COVID.
Yeah. What is the Fairbanks? It's a, it's a hospital for addictions. Yeah. That, that's it, that's all. It's done. A hospital for addiction and then there's all things, you know, outpatient and therapies. But we, but it, it could, it wasn't, couldn't make it, when you think about all the addictions we have in, in our country, in our city, and all of a sudden something that's been here for 80 years, you know, cannot survive.
And so I think those are, those are also the things that, that this kind of get kicked in the corner sometime. You know, it's kind of like those people addictions. Of a number of things. I mean, I mean, it's not just alcohol or drugs. I mean, there's all kind all kinds of things. Yeah. Especially in society.
And you go back to all this data and everything that, well, it's like, it's never been easier to be addicted to something like we live in the like world of excess, you know? Like, and it's easy to get hooked on. Oh my gosh. Tons of stuff. So we, you know, we acquired it, that's where that, where we had a relationship.
But we now, we now work with organizations to, to produce more, uh, people to do this, to help it. But the, the addiction, the mental health, behavioral care addictions in our state and most labor state are just undersupplied. Yeah. And, and so those are the things because, and I'm still saying, I'm not saying, I'm not, not saying what's one or two or three between this and cancer and anything else.
Yeah. Or a, or a baby in a NICU. I mean, all these things are very, very difficult. I think it's important that we as a society address all of these. Yeah. Is it hard to context switch like that? You know, like you're leading this organization in one moment, you're talking about how are we supporting the most amount of kids in the NICU and the next moment you're talking about, and are we taking care of our aging and elderly community?
And then the next minute you're talking about, uh, emergency, uh, car crashes, you know, like people coming in from there. Like that's a lot of different, uh, priorities and different, just like hats to wear. It is just a group of people. I'm, I'm assuming it's similar to other places. I only know one place I've ever worked at, but these people, they're wired for it.
I mean they're, it's amazing how calm. The providers are. The nurses are The therapists are, yeah. When something's going on. It is just amazing to watch. Like, have you ever witnessed that firsthand? Mm-hmm. Where there's like pand, like where you like look from the outside and you're seeing pandemonium ensue, and then like, as you really start to break it down, providers are cool, calm, and collected.
The story comes to my mind when you said that is, is during COVID, you know, we all, we all did. Everybody was in the office said, get outta your office, you can't do anything. Go volunteer. So, so we all went to places and I went to, worked in emergency room first time in my life. Okay. What'd you do? I was a runner, you know, to take things back and forth.
One of them, the lab wouldn't work in the the thing, so I was running to the lab. What I was amazed is the people in there, in there, they're calm. I mean, they're, they're doing what they're doing. They are so calm. It's amazing. Yeah. And I remember being in, uh, ICU. And there was a couple codes you, because you hear what's going on, you know, and I'm after a couple codes, I talked to the doctor and he said, Bryan, this, this isn't tv.
You know? And that seems kinda simple, but to me it gave me a chance to be live in all these things going on, like back to the surgery or anything else. It's trying. You can't, I don't see how you cut your, I feel like I'm the head, I describe myself as the head coach of the team. That's what I do. That's what my job is.
Yeah. You can't be a good head coach unless you understand who all is on that team. What's their role, how, what's good about it? How do we train people? That's what this is all about. Yeah. And how they're each motivated, how you can inspire them and, and you know, their roles within that org. That's, but that's, that's, that's where I get my can't wait to get to work every morning.
Yeah. I got it. We're a team. I'm trying to coach my team best I can. Yeah. But I've gotta learn and I've gotta be vulnerable and I've gotta be willing to go into places that I'm not comfortable in 40 years with community, which is wild. Like I think anyone that stays anywhere for 40 years is, is is wild.
When you look back at your time at community and obviously as people, uh, within the org are gonna listen to this episode, what do you hope they learned or your legacy at community means to those still going and carrying that mission on? I would hope that people understand that I really care about them.
Yeah. I want that. That when people call and want to talk to me. I, I walk the, I walk the floors a lot of the time I go to other places, and it's just to make it real that, that people understand that, you know, first of all, the first thing they say, but you're pretty small. I said, alright, here we go. We are.
Thanks. Appreciate that. So that, that's it. I mean, but to have those conversations, I eat lunches in our cafeterias. I mean, people come, can, can I join you? That's a great feeling. Yeah. That somebody wants to sit down and get to know each other. It, this is, this is really, we get into hierarchy. I just don't think, I think we have gift, different gifts.
Yeah. But we have one common mission. Yeah. And that's to deliver this care. And I hope that that's, that's what anybody sees because we get distracted by how much it costs and mm-hmm. You know, what, what's going on with, you know, the debate on this or that. Oh. That, that's just part of the job. Yeah. Okay. Not, don't like it that well, but it's part of the job.
But the real thing is we are here because we care for others. The new CEO coming in is Dr. Patrick McGill. Correct view, obviously, I'm sure you've had this conversation, but what, what's the advice that you have, you know, you're taking, he's taken over Community Health Network starting in 2026. What would you, what would your advice be?
No, I didn't pick, I don't pick my successor. I don't even have a vote on my successor. Uh, I do have an opinion. Yeah. And I, and our board, when they're going through this process, I said, look, I realize I have nothing to do this, but, but if I were doing it, I would have. The person succeeding me would be from within and a physician.
And I think the physician piece is really important of that. That's interesting. Coming from someone who doesn't have the physician background, why do you think it's so important for that? Nor could I have gotten through school to be a physician. Yeah, you and me both, man. So I think it's important because we as a, as a business, as a state, as a, you know, look at the cost of care, we look at all we get, we get, we spend so much time talking about these things.
I hope that we can change the agenda to talk about Hoosiers and health and issues and education and all these other things that we work on. Because what we, we often, we are dealing with what the outcome was. Okay, so, so it, it's saying, okay, can we change our, our conversations to talk about how do we make Health Hoosiers helpful?
How do we get people through education? How do we get people out of poverty? How do we, how do we do all these things that the end result in much, much of this is what we see every day. Yeah. So I'm not pointing fingers of anybody. Yeah. I just wanna change the conversations like, as you were the CEO of Community Health Network, what kept you up at night?
Something that I could have done better that day. Yeah. Or that week. I mean, but it, it changes. Well, I just didn't know if there was like the underlying fact of we need to make people healthier. You know, there's this whole talk about, um, preventative measures versus, uh, responsive and like, you know, just like in general, I think people are starting to take care of their health.
More, or take care of their body more seriously. Maybe it's just all over Instagram and all over social media where people are like, you know, pouring into the gym and this skincare routine and this, that, and the other thing. But it does seem like there's a wave of people realizing that, you know, what you eat, how active you are, all of these types of things are important.
I didn't know if, like, just the general state of how healthy Hoosiers were. Yeah, so data means a lot to me. Yeah. So I agree with you wholeheartedly what you just said, but I would segregate this from our population and how do we make sure all of our population has this? How do, how do we, how do we get people out of poverty?
How do, how do we get people purpose every day that they wanna go to work? As much as I want to go to work, how, how do we do this? And at that same time, have more manpower, have more people looking, looking to work. Yeah, I think we've got some red lines that we just kind of include some people and we don't clue, include this whole idea.
Like, I, I went, when I go to new employee orientation every Monday morning, one of the things people is that I found a place I belong to. I belong here. Yeah. And have all kinds of people over the years. And I think that, and I hope that everybody in our organization feels that way. I'm probably not correct, but we, we gotta figure out how, how people do, why do you leave?
So, so I just, I just think it's trying to make the Hoosiers better, our state better. Yeah. By looking at it holistically as opposed to saying, you're bad, you're good. You know, not spending money here. So that's, that's my 2 cents. If every previous and current Community Health Network employee listened to this exact episode, if every employee of Community Health listened to this episode, what would you hope?
To tell them. If you could speak one-on-one to each and every one of them, what would you say? I would say, uh, one, thank you for teaching me healthcare. Yeah. I've learned healthcare through the eyes of people who do work. Mm-hmm. Uh, thank you for having the courage to reach out to me when something was going wrong.
Yeah. I, I've, I've received a lot of things over the years. Okay. Everybody had the courage to tell the truth. Yeah. Never was it investigated and it was a lie. So, and thanks for, thanks for your patience to allow me to come in your areas, to talk to you have lunch with you in a cafeteria. Mm-hmm. Because we're, we're just, we're just pe, we're just people.
We just have different gifts. Yeah. And when that, when we come together, we can be one heck of a team if we just really respect one another. What's next for Bryan Mills? You're retiring from your time at Community Health Network. After 40 years of service, what do you do now? I've had this conversation or that questions several times and you know, are you gonna, are you gonna work?
Are you gonna do something else? You're gonna write a book, you're gonna, and and I've said, no. I, I don't, I'm not gonna do any of those. I, um, I just really want be a much better grandpa. How many grandkids do you have? We have four right now. Mm-hmm. A fifth is on the way. You know, I make it to some events here and there, but I'm not, I'm not very reliable.
You know, you run an organization that never closes, you got responsibilities. Yeah. And, and like I said, my wife has understood that for our 40 years. But, uh, I just, I really want time, um, to, with, with grandkids. And my, my dad, that's what he did when he got so ill, he couldn't work anymore. And he became the place where the kids, the grandkids went because it was, they knew that he would take care of 'em.
Yeah. And, uh, so I, I wanted, I wanna do whatever I can to, um, to, um, be a much better grandpa. Yeah, it's interesting. Um, a lot of times people in the healthcare space or you know, any of those where you spend all of your time serving other people's families, that sometimes, you know, your family ends up like, uh, coming in and like, get the short end of the stick at times.
'cause you know, the organization never closes and these people need care. 18,000, almost 18,000 patients every single day, you know, like. I, I think that you, this is well deserved Grandpa time, you know, 40 years in the healthcare industry, no one's gonna batten eye, you know, Bryan taking some extra time for, for you and your family and to be a grandpa.
I think that's so cool. Well, they gave me the, the greatest name for grandpa that I've ever heard. They call me G Daddy. G Daddy. I love that. That's a good one. That's the coolest I've ever been. I've never heard that one. But G Daddy, that's a, that's a good one. This has been enlightening. I, I have one final question about just healthcare in general in the state of Indiana.
Um, and then we can just talk some more general things about Indiana as we wrap up. If you could wave a magic wand, you know, and, and you could fix one thing with healthcare in Indiana, what do you think the number one issue is that you would fix with a magic wand? I'd feel a lot better if, if we took your question, went upstream, uh, tried to address this through business, through legislation.
Through education and to say, this is what, this is how we wanna do healthcare in Indiana. Unless we look at it holistically. We just, we just, you know, we're the, we're the circus clown, just kind of pop the next thing that, that, that shows up. Yeah. And I, I just think that people think that they have the easy answer and I don't think it's an easy answer.
And, uh, and, but, you know, good things, good decisions take a lot of time and data and, and, and even now, right now we can't even agree upon the data. We have to have a single source of data. I do think it's super complex and it is an unfortunate time where it does seem like everyone. Can point out what's wrong.
Mm-hmm. And like places where they wish it was different, but it's not always, uh, the most solutions coming to the table of how to make it any better. It's more of like, well, it's too expensive. It takes too long. It's this, it's that. It's a lot of negativity. I can never see. It's like whack-a-mole, right?
You're talking about like, this problem comes up and you put it down there and then you go work on the next one and then another problem pops up here. And that'd be, that'd be challenging. So kudos. I do wanna say thank you to all, I'm sure that some providers and healthcare workers are gonna listen to this one.
And, um, I commend you. Like, it is not an easy job. It's one I could never do. I think that people that wake up every day to serve others and to serve patients, some of which, you know, again, we talked about it at your lowest day. Like, I still remember, um, having the conversation with, uh, when my mom got diagnosed with cancer and the doctor comes and I'm just like a kid.
I'm like 20 years old. Wow. And she pulls me out into the hallway and tells me that my mom's cancer is spread to her brain. That was a horrible conversation for me to receive. But imagine having to wake up and go and tell that to people every day. Like, your job is to, you know, like, Hey, we're gonna try to put a treatment plan together and blah, blah, blah, blah.
But you have to walk yourself into those conversations willingly every day. Like, I only ever had one of those conversations, but yeah. And I'm, I'm, I didn't know that about you or your mom. I'm really sorry to hear that. And, and I, I, I, uh, but the one thing that goes through my head is that, is that so pancreatic cancer, yeah.
Okay. It's a death sentence. Right. It's not, I, I personally know people who, who lived, are still living, thriving because of what goes on here. Yeah. You don't hear that. That's not, you know, those are, there are so many solutions going on. Yeah. That, that, that, and hope is so huge. Yeah. I think that's an interesting piece too, of.
Uh, so my mom went through treatment up, uh, at Goshen Cancer Center Oh, sure. Up in northern Indiana. Uhhuh, Uhhuh. And so much of that job working in oncology is having something, having goals or like, uh, milestones to achieve versus just like, Hey, this is the circumstances. And like what happens, happens.
Like them bringing in positive mindsets and positive vibes and like checking off, um, you know, milestones like nine months from now or two years from now, whatever that is. Like, those are just so important and it can make a big difference. I feel like the lady who runs our foundation. Yeah. I'm, I'm only telling you this because it is public.
Yeah. Okay. Joyce Irwin, she gets pan pancreatic cancer. Yeah. She runs, she runs, one of the things that she and her team know, we have this Giving Gig. Yeah. This, this thing every, every, every year to raise money for cancer patients. So she goes, she goes, she goes, she ends up with that diagnosis. And I, I would never say this if I wouldn't, didn't have permission from her to say that.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. I would never do that. But I said Joyce, and she would, she had worked some of it here. Someone was Houston. So when we were gonna have our Giving Gig after that, I said, Joyce, you gotta tell people they, she said, they all know. I said, no, they don't. They don't know what's, can you sit there?
And she sat there with another person, a local person, I won't say her name, who had had a cancer as well. And they told their story. Yeah, I tell you what, you could have heard a pen drop, but I also could feel people's, you know, just heart, just kind of going really rapidly because you're listening to, you're seeing hope.
Yeah. On, on the, on the worst conversation you ever wanna have. We need to promote that, we need to bring it together. We need to make sure that people understand that's what it's gonna do. And the people and the people that I'm mentioning, they're still working. Okay. So it's, that's awesome. So it's just, I I changing the, the message goes so far.
That's such a great point. I'm over here talking about all the negative outcomes. I didn't even think about, talking about the positive ones. Where you get to say, people get to ring the bell, especially when you, oh my gosh. When you see like a little kid walk up there and ring the bell and just it, and it's so hard.
They're just, let's go. I mean, yank it off a Yes sir, it is. It's, it's. There, there, there's all, there's a lot, a lot of good, and, and I think it's disproportionately good. Yeah. But we don't focus on that. All right. We are gonna talk all things Indiana. Now we're gonna round up the, the episode here. First question is brought to you by our friends at J.C. Hart.
They are a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. Bryan, my question for you, why do you call Indiana home? My dad got transferred here. There you go. That's start. So and so we showed up here in 1974.
Yeah. And I've moved a solid mile and a half. One mile and a half since 1974. You talk about, you went up to Gary, you get, you probably could have like taken career paths, other places. Why have you chosen to stay in Indiana? I never thought I would ever work in healthcare. And I've never felt greater purpose.
It's really special. I was, I was, I was born in rural Kentucky. Uh, then we moved to West Virginia and I moved to, um, Noblesville in 74 and I've moved a solid 10th of a mile since. How has Noblesville changed since 1974? Working on a farm with one of my buddies. 'cause most, most of my friends then were, were, had farms or whatever it was.
And the guy who owned the farm that my best friend's dad at the time, and he said, mills, you better go to school. You ain't no farmer. That was back when Noblesville had farms and Westfield had fields back in the day. Yeah, fields. So, 'cause it like Westfield one, one stoplight as I recall, no way Fishers, I don't think if they had one, is when I was in high school, Fishers closed.
Fishers High school was closed. Yeah. Wow. And Ville, you better go to school. You're not, ain't no farmer. Oh, wow. That's, uh, yeah. You've seen it really develop and take off up there. Yeah. And very good. I mean, just, just to, I, and matter of fact, I, I think the, the people that are making decisions up there really think about what they're doing.
They're proud of what they're doing. Yeah. Um, I, uh, I, I know most of the mayors and I'm just really impressed by them. I, mayor Jensen, he's a cool guy. He has a lot of energy. He, he and I spend a lot of time together talking about the future. He's just a very wise anchor. Yeah. You talk about spending more time with your family and your grandkids.
When your grandkids and your family look at 40 years of service to Community Health Network. Look at. Living in Noblesville, being active in the community. We didn't even get into talking about, oh my gosh, United Way and I mean all the other nonprofits and community service organizations that you're helping out.
What lesson do you hope your family learns from your life thus far? One, nothing's easy. Yeah. Two, you've gotta get to know people before you make decisions. You can't just, you just can't presume something. Yeah. And um, and the other thing is that, um, we all have been very blessed and, and, and with that blessing is to get back to others and do anything we can, not only, not only money, but time.
Yeah. I think that's a big piece too, when you think about as people like get higher and higher up the ladder of seniority or it's like, okay, I'll just write a check to that thing. I'll just give money or whatever. And it's like sometimes giving your time, just like those physicians, when you talk about getting in the room and making everyone feel heard and understood and all those things.
Like we can all take the time too to sit in there and, you know, learn people's story and, you know, do whatever the service, uh, that we're being called to do is Boys & Girls Club Kid. Yeah. Uh, in several cities and still involved with, um, noble ZA Boys & Girls Club. And, uh, I think that's a great place.
I mean, you think about what it does, it takes children after school to come to a place. Yeah. And that place isn't just a playground. There's a lot of things happening there. Yeah. And I, I, I still, I still think that that is, I wish we had more clubs, larger clubs, more. More engagement in all cities, all states.
Yeah. 'cause I think, and I'm not trying to, it's just I say that because I know it, I'm a product of it. Yeah. Uh, I'm not saying that there's not others that are really good as well. Yeah. But to me, that whole concept makes a whole lot of sense of like Yeah. Some after school type. Yeah. You got that time.
Okay. Yeah. You're gonna do something maybe good, but maybe you got talk Yeah. A little bit of, yeah. A little bit of free time to get into some trouble. Mm-hmm. We all, hey, we've all been there. Mm-hmm. Working your way up from the youngest person on that accounting team. When you first started your career to the CEO of Community Health Network, what is one piece of advice you'd give to young leaders in Indiana?
Look at yourself in the mirror. Don't look at what everybody else is doing or what they have, or whatever it is. Figure out who you wanna be and, and have the courage to ask questions. Have the courage to raise your hand. When you know you don't know the answer, but you're gonna take that on. Yeah. And when it's all said and done, just, just remember, you can do more than you can do.
We all need to be challenged. Challenges make us look, look at things differently, and also have the same respect for the person who comes to you and or me and said, okay, here's where you were. Here's where you are. How, how do you help me? I'm a mentor of a lot of people. Yeah, I agree. I think one of the secrets to what makes your story so interesting, I don't know if it's really that big of a secret, but at every step you had no idea how to do whatever you were doing.
You know, like you had no idea how to run finance at. Community North, you had no idea how to set up the billing and the phy and like that first thing, and then the surgery centers and then the ne like, it was just like, okay, but I know that I can figure that out. And I think a lot of people taking that risk that might on the outside seem risky, but like relying on your problem solving ability and the fact that the work usually shows yourself the way, like people can usually figure out, uh, with time research the internet, talking to people, like picking up the phone.
I totally respect that. I'm, I'm that kind of person too. If I had an issue with whatever, it's, let's say the podcast like cold calling or cold emailing or cold DMing, the number one cancer, the number one oncology center in the nation and in the world and saying, Hey, we are having an issue. Do you have anyone that can help me?
Like, that's so powerful. And I think people are like, oh, they're probably busy. Like. So many times I feel like the, you get to a certain level and people think like that, those people no longer wanna help. Okay. So, MD Anderson, I didn't know it when I called, but MD Anderson is literally a department of the University of Texas.
I I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know that. They actually cannot own assets out of the state of Texas. So their way of spreading what they spread with us is by bringing partners in and, and, and train those partners to have the same protocol that you would get in Houston. Yeah. I, I didn't know any of that.
Yeah. I just knew. So people say they're the best, so why, why would, why wouldn't you try to No, and that and, and best, I mean, ev you know that that's, that's somebody's calculation, whatever it is. And it doesn't have to be that. It's like trying to find somebody that you admire or somebody who's been successful because most people would love.
Yeah. Absolutely. I totally, I think that's a lesson that we could all learn of, just like, you know, a lot of times, especially Hoosiers Yeah. Really willing to give back. Mm-hmm. You know, and like, if they come and just ask like generally like, how do I be successful? Like, that's a little vague, but it's like, Hey, I'm having this issue with this specific thing.
Do you have good advice around this topic? Like people will usually give you some feedback and some, and at least help you avoid the landmines that they've stepped on themselves. Um, okay. As we round out, we have the same three questions that we ask every guest who comes on the show, all about the state of Indiana.
So first, if you could shout it from the rooftops, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana IU? It's actually a football team There. We, we gotta shout that from the rooftops for sure. I mean, I mean that's, and, and what a story. What, what an absolute story. The, I mean, it has to be like the craziest underdog turnaround story ever.
Like they were literally the most losing hist football team in the country in the ever using what we've been talking about. Why can't you take that? It's so visible, it's accurate. I mean, it's like, well, the math's not right. No, it is. They haven't lost, but, but really two years. But, um, but, and say, okay, we can change things.
Mm-hmm. You know, I realize it's the team and do this. No, it, it, it is just, it's, it's a movie that you get to the end of and like, well, that couldn't have happened. No, this is not a movie. If you went back a year from, we'll just use sports analogies and say the Indiana Pacers are gonna be in the NBA finals, the Colts start, the season seven and one, and IU is gonna go undefeated.
In the regular season and beat Ohio State in the Big 10 Championship. I would've said, sir, you've had a couple too many drinks, sir. Like, this is, this is a movie. Like, what are you doing? And it's crazy. Like it's wild. Um, but, you know, but those, that, that brings people together. Yeah. And, uh, it does seem like Indiana is at the, the epicenter of the sporting universe right now.
Pretty cool. The state of Indiana is, you know, from the fever to the Pacers, to the Hoosiers, to Purdue basketball. Like sports runs through Indiana. The, um, basketball tournaments are here next year too. Next, this is your opportunity to highlight something across the state that you really love and that needs to be getting more attention.
What is a hidden gem In Indiana? We, we've had a relationship with Ivy Tech for years. For, for, for nurses. Yeah. I love that program. The Ivy Tech nursing program. Uhhuh, yeah. Most of these are, are, are students who. Have started life and decide they wanna change their life. They come back through Ivy Tech and, and, and become a medical assistant, and then we help them get to be an RN. That's awesome. I, I still think that's one of the most magical things and other things are happening in other universities, but to me this is a life changing, um, opportunity. Opportunity. And these are people that are very, be busy, but they, they're, they're gonna go do something that changed typically their family.
That is, that's a gem. More people need to know about that. That's, that's my gem. I love that one. Okay. Finally, this is your opportunity to share love. This is how we get guest recommendations or learn about other people in our state doing inspiring things. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar.
Someone who's doing big things like a Scott Fadness. Yeah. And, and you, you get, you get Scott, um, I mean Chris Jensen and Noblesville as well, but I know, I know the things that, like Scott. How do you take what, where you are and make something bigger? How, how can you be so curious is about how we change this or that.
So, so that would be one. Um, second one, selfishly to the community is, you know, we've, we've, we've gotten to the insurance business. We're trying, we are trying to make sure healthcare costs less. So we've put together these programs, we've, we've got things going on because we're all talking about the cost of healthcare.
And so we've said, okay, let's figure out how to do it. Yeah. So to me that would be mother, it's maybe a selfish gem, but it's not, it's not just community or, yeah. I love it. Bryan, it's been a pleasure to learn about 40 years of service to Community Health Network. Uh, it's incredible. You know, talk about the start at Community North, even though you didn't really know at first what you were doing and why you would be great at it.
But in 2009, becoming the CEO and serving as the leader for the last. 16 years. Um, it's incredible. Uh, I'm honored to have gotten to share the mic with you and learn a little bit more about your story and the impact that you've made across the state of Indiana and beyond community health, doing great things.
Uh, congrats on all the success, Bryan. It's, uh, 'cause of people like you that the state of Indiana continues to thrive. So thank you. Thank you. All right, and we'll talk soon. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater.
If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
