Andrew Meade, CEO, Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital San Antonio

In an interview with Invest:, Andrew Meade, CEO of Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of San Antonio, discussed the trends and innovations in the healthcare industry and the hospital system’s momentum in building a stronger presence in the region. “This is a highly competitive market with aggressive growth. I believe Encompass Health has the expertise in the inpatient rehabilitation market to successfully meet the growth and quality needs of the community,” Meade said.

What makes San Antonio an ideal location for Encompass Health’s continued investment and its operations? 

The state of Texas, being as entrepreneurial as it is, is growing so rapidly that the Baptist and Methodist systems have added new hospitals. Our company is looking at how we can expand our footprint. The only Encompass hospital in San Antonio has been here since 1988, and we’ve been able to successfully grow in this building. We want to capitalize on the growing areas in San Antonio to make sure we have rehabilitative services in those communities that can meet their needs. Even though we provide great quality worth driving for, we want to meet people where they are. The local government has been supporting businesses in the region. We have open lines of communication with elected officials and their healthcare advisors, keeping them up-to-date on the issues affecting inpatient rehabilitation. While working at a Level I trauma center in California, I couldn’t get anything done without the staggering bureaucracy. In contrast, the city of San Antonio has growth in mind, and it shows. 

What are the trends for healthcare service providers?

A lot of focus is on healthcare at home, and we work with various vendors to meet that need as our patients are discharged. We work with home health services, including visiting physicians and visiting nurses. The average age of our patients is 78, and the long transport to get outpatient care can be a challenge for them. We see a lot more technological advances helping with that, with AI and digital mapping delivering care and assessment remotely. Despite that trend, we cannot provide inpatient rehabilitation at home, so our patients stay an average of two weeks in the hospital before we transition them into at-home services. Our main goal is to prevent return visits to the hospital or a nursing home. We want patients to be at home where somebody who loves them is going to take care of them and they have adequate services to support the patient and the family.

What other innovations are incorporated to deliver the best possible outcomes for your patients?

We use predictive modeling to prevent in-hospital falls and a return to acute care hospitals. Falling is a common thing when patients are learning how to walk again and learning how to get their life back. We make sure high-fall-risk patients are properly monitored and use the right interventions so they don’t have to come back to the hospital for short-term acute or extended care. All manner of advanced electronic rehab tools are incorporated, including in the new hospitals. These devices can help with gaining balance and fine motor skills. Our patients come on a referral basis from a hospital or a physician. Our physicians will then determine whether the level of care here will be appropriate for the patients. The marketing teams are able to use AI to assist in the communication before review, which makes the alignment process a little more seamless for the patient’s physician and insurance companies. 

Which healthcare area is your main focus for the hospital?

Encompass Health is the largest owner and operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the United States, with 169 hospitals currently. The company plans to add six to 10 hospitals a year through 2027. We stay focused on inpatient rehabilitation. We don’t do outpatient therapy or physician practices. Encompass Health San Antonio employs about 250 people, and this is the size where we can really focus on what we do. We want to be the best at what we do. Another way we innovate is through having three Joint Commission certifications for stroke, brain injury, and amputations. Those aren’t the only types of patients we receive, but they make up a lot of our patient base because of the large diabetic population in San Antonio, as well as the high number of brain injuries.

How do you attract, retain, and develop the labor pool of healthcare professionals in San Antonio?

Healthcare recruiting remains competitive, and we continuously assess the market for different job types to make sure we are in line in terms of compensation. There are many special aspects of working in inpatient rehabilitation, including the ability to form relationships with patients and witness them making progress toward their goals. At Encompass San Antonio, we celebrate special employee observances such as National Rehabilitation Awareness Week and Nurses Week. We also make sure our staff feel that they’re part of a family. In our core group, we have two employees who have been here since 1988, one of whom was a regional employee of the year. We support each other so we can best serve our patients.

How does Encompass give back to the community?

We have a stroke survivor support group that meets here every couple of weeks. In the last few years, we have participated in and sponsored the San Antonio Heart Walk. We have also sponsored a brain injury symposium here. We consistently provide continuing education to our referral sources, where we teach the community about what we do and the services we provide. We consistently talk to referral sources and physicians in the community because patients or their family members might not know about the necessary processes to receive proper care. I conduct almost all the hospital tours for the patients and their families when I’m available. I help walk them through the processes, and I am completely transparent about whether outpatient or inpatient services would be the appropriate fit for the patients. We have the best outcomes of any inpatient rehab hospital in San Antonio, but we may not be the right level of care for everyone. We meet the patients where they are, tell them what we can do, and then give them the best information to make an informed decision about their care.

How essential are partnerships for the hospital’s presence in San Antonio?

The hospital I was in before relocating to San Antonio had a pipeline of patients coming from only two hospitals. If there was an issue at one of the hospitals, we lost half of our prospective patients. What I like about San Antonio, and being in the only Encompass Health rehabilitation hospital in San Antonio, is the lack of focus on only specific partnerships. We do meet with some institutions and big hospitals, but I want to provide our services to all of San Antonio. If patients drive up from Mexico, we are the first inpatient rehabilitation center they’ll encounter. As we add more hospitals, the market will be more segmented. We refer to ourselves as The Alamo, covering San Antonio as best we can on our own. We try to be a resource to the entire community. 

What are your top priorities for the next few years?

We have a strong outlook going forward. Encompass Health continues to grow to meet the rehabilitation needs of the aging baby boomer population. For the next few years, we are focusing on growth in San Antonio by getting into areas we’re really good at, which are providing services for stroke, brain injuries, amputations, and hip fractures. Military retirees here can enjoy decent weather all year round, and they will require assistance after service. Occasionally, we receive younger patients from accidents, but San Antonio is the perfect place to expand our services and focus on the retired population. All the major health systems in San Antonio are building hospitals here, and we are no different. Since we have only one hospital in San Antonio, Encompass Health sees growth in this area as a big strategic focus.