Writer: Jerrica DuBois
3 min read August 2023 — Greater collaborative efforts between education and healthcare were highlighted during the third panel discussion at the recent Invest: San Antonio 2022-2023 leadership summit.
The panel, titled ‘Twin Pillars: How healthcare & higher ed are driving innovation and economic diversity across Greater San Antonio,’ focused on growth, workforce development and what’s next for their companies and the industry at large. Joe Fisher, president and CEO of Hallmark University, Becky Cap, senior vice president for business development at BioBridge Global Advanced Therapies, Tarra Washington, CEO of Kindred Hospital San Antonio Medical Center and Robert Garza, president of Palo Alto College provided their insights to the final panel.
“Everything is different,” said Garza when asked what has changed coming out of the pandemic and how San Antonio is growing. “How do you navigate through these ever changing challenges with students and workforce and being nimble? Then you’ve got the economy and you’ve got wars going on. Covid is still a thing, and you’re trying to navigate health and wellness. Then you have employees that want to work remotely and work-life balance, which is very important. And you have to do all of this at the exact same time.”
In the past few years, the shift from volume to value in healthcare has been a hot topic. According to Managed Health Executive, payers and providers are better aligned due to value-based payment models. While the shift has been slow, larger practices and health systems such as Kindred are able to navigate a bit better as they are able to build their own internal support to organize the work and measure impact.
“The push to quality is exciting,” said Washington. “For so long we’ve seen the push on volume and how many patients can you see. Now, particularly in San Antonio, we’ve seen this wave of the incentives being more on ‘what are your outcomes, what is your quality of care, what is your coordination of care across providers.’ That’s very exciting because that only helps the most important thing, which is the patient.”
The panel also discussed workforce challenges and how it has impacted higher education. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, college enrollment has steadily declined from 23.7 million in 2011 to 21.1 million in 2021. As many teens and young adults question whether continuing education is right for them, colleges and universities face enrollment decline and struggle to attract students. The panel discussed the benefits of stackable credentials, financial aid and incentives to stay competitive.
“We are a workforce development university,” said Fisher. “We work with the end in mind. We are outcomes-based. We know 85% of college students are not going to become researchers or philosophers. The largest percentage of the population needs to get into a career so they can contribute to the community. I see a shift in higher education towards that. If you’re an employer, all a bachelor’s degree tells you is that they survived 120 hours. All of our programs couple the academic credential with an industry license or certification of some type. I think that is the model of the future.”
As the panel began to wind down, the conversation turned to what is the next big thing for healthcare in San Antonio. Washington stressed the importance of telehealth and how the buy-in sparked by Covid set the stage for continued growth. Cap then shared what’s next in healthcare delivery and therapeutics, but also discussed the external influences on that space.
“Big data and AI is not necessarily about replacing workers but more about informing development and making that a smarter process,” Cap stated. “Right now 90% of therapies that go into clinical trials don’t get through. How can we make that process more efficient and increase the therapeutic power of those options? That’s where you get another tie into the educational programs. It’s very targeted and focused on computer science and development.”
For more information, visit:
https://hallmarkuniversity.edu/
