Tom Vo, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Nutex Health Inc.

In an interview with Invest:, Tom Vo, CEO and chairman of the board for Nutex Health, discussed the company’s micro-hospital model, physician alignment, and growth strategy. “With technology, AI, advances in biotech, labs, and pharmaceuticals, there is much more that can be done in a small system than before,” Vo said.

What are some of the main changes in the healthcare market, and how are they shaping your strategy?

People are getting older, so there is more demand for healthcare and emergency services. With COVID, we also learned that viral infections and epidemics can come at any time, so healthcare providers have to be prepared.

In America, access to healthcare is still a big problem. People still have trouble getting the healthcare they need. It is not just about getting healthcare, but getting competent care. Just because you get healthcare does not mean you get the correct diagnosis, treatment, or plan of action.

Our hospitals are designed to solve a lot of those issues. The first goal is to increase access to healthcare. The second is to provide great healthcare on a personal level so that patients are treated as people, not just as patients, and receive the correct diagnosis. There is a big demand for that type of model across the country. We get requests on a weekly basis to open these small hospitals around the United States.

In America, most hospitals are large, sometimes with 1,000 beds. It is impractical to build massive institutions everywhere. If you can build a smaller model, around the size of a CVS or Walgreens, it is much easier to place them around the country and solve many of these issues.

There is also demand from cities that want economic drivers. Cities want commerce, industries, and jobs. It is hard for a city to attract businesses and industries if there is no healthcare for its workers. Even though our hospitals are small and we are not everything for everybody, we do provide a safety net for cities so they can attract industries, employers, and jobs, support commerce, grow the economy, and increase the wealth of their population.

How is the shift between inpatient, outpatient, and specialty services evolving across your network?

Our hospitals are small, but they have many of the same features as a hospital. They have an emergency room that is open 24/7, which provides accessibility and a safety net for the community. They also have outpatient imaging, labs, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, and even a pharmacy. We also have inpatient beds.

The point is that we can do a lot with a little. With technology, AI, advances in biotech, labs, and pharmaceuticals, there is much more that can be done in a small system than before. Many patients no longer have to go to a much bigger system. They can get care at the local level by using the technologies we have today.

How do you balance growth with ongoing challenges around reimbursement and payment uncertainty?

That is challenging. Money is always an issue for pretty much everyone. The way we think about healthcare is that our cost is not any higher than anyone else’s. Our cost is the same. The difference is that we see patients much sooner, and we treat them individually and correctly, so they do not burden the system by coming back much sicker.

The problem is that if patients cannot get accessible care, their conditions may be ignored or untreated. They come back much sicker, which costs communities and the government much more in the future. Our philosophy is that if you can get to patients earlier, treat them, and prevent them from getting sicker, that is our way of giving back to the community. If you get to patients faster, you can hopefully prevent sicker patients, which helps reduce costs down the road.

Do you see large health systems as competition, or are there opportunities to partner with them?

We do not see them as competition. Sometimes we do partner with them. Big health systems are good at treating patients in a large system, with all the red tape and multiple layers of leadership. Our system is flat. It is just our leadership and the hospitals. That allows us to move fast. We can deploy capital and people much faster than bigger hospital systems.

The bigger systems are getting into the game because they realize this is the future. Large hospital systems are expanding in Florida and Texas, just like we are, but they do not do as much of it as we do. They also have a different mentality. Their mentality is to build bigger and serve more people. Our mentality is to build it small but big enough so we can provide value and treat as many people as possible. It is a subtle difference, but it is a big difference.

We also give physicians the opportunity to invest in our system. That is important. When physicians have the opportunity to invest and potentially have ownership in the hospital, it goes a long way. If you have skin in the game, you go the extra mile to take care of patients and make sure they are treated well and satisfied. You have to have that ownership mentality and alignment.

What steps are you taking to attract and retain healthcare talent in such a competitive market?

We start with culture. We build a provider-friendly, nurse-friendly, and employee-friendly culture so we do not cause burnout.

We also bring the best doctors in the community to join and invest with us. Once they become investors, it is hard for doctors to leave because they would lose that investment. When you bring the best doctors in town together, they attract the best nurses and technicians because everyone wants to work with the best. Our retention rate for physicians and nurses is around 95%. People do not leave because of that retention and investment.

We are a publicly traded company, so we use stock and equity as an incentive to bind everybody together. Most of the leaders in our company have stock in the company. Now, when they go to work, it is not just for a paycheck. It is to increase the value of that equity every day. Once you create that alignment, the vast majority of people don’t want to leave.

Employees who are invested treat patients better. Our Google reviews for our hospitals are around 4.5 to 5 stars, which is highly unusual in healthcare. They also watch revenue, expenses, and the facility because it is their ownership mentality rather than just a working mentality. It is a big shift.

What are your top priorities for the next two to three years, especially for the Houston market?

Our top priority is to continue growing and increasing the number of Nutex hospitals around the country.

The second priority is to invest in infrastructure to increase ER volume, inpatient volume, and technology, including AI, to increase our offerings and initiatives.

The third priority is tied to being a public company. We want to maximize shareholder value so everyone who invests in us gets the maximum return on their investment. That builds on the first two priorities. The more facilities we have, the more patient volume we have, and the more revenue we have. In essence, it is about continuing to grow.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Our model is amenable to all constituents. Patients win because we provide superior care. Doctors and nurses win because we provide a superior culture. Investors win because, by aligning with physicians and the people who see patients at the ground level, they hopefully get a better return on their investment.

We have been doing this for about 15 years, so we are not new to this. We have been through many different cycles, including social, economic, financial, and geopolitical cycles, and we are still here. We have been through a lot and made a lot of mistakes, but we have learned from them. We are going to use everything we have learned in the past to move forward and hopefully make this a sustainable, long-term business.