HJNO Jan/Feb 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JAN / FEB 2025 11 if you get caught up in your title and in all the initials you can put after your name, you won't be as effective as you think. I always tell my people the degree doesn't make the person, the person makes the degree. All it does is open the door. But you’ve got to go through it. You got to be a people person. You’ve got to be understanding, and don't expect your people to do anything you wouldn't do. Because at the end of the day, you can lead, but if you turn around and nobody's following you, you're probably not the right leader. But if you lead by example, people will always rally behind you, in front of you. You don't always need to be in front. I have an amazing teamwith me. They've been withme for 20-something years. We all grew up together. I have to tell you, they're amazing. And I tell them, “Everybody's star rises together. There's no one star.” Editor How does Terrebonne General Health System balance the needs of being a community-focused hospital while staying competitive with larger health systems? Peoples Well, our community is extraordinarily supportive of Terrebonne General. Supportive in that we are the thought leader within our entire region. And we're large for our community size. We're a 321-bed healthcare facility. But we've got other facilities with us — a surgery center, an ambulatory surgical center, our acute care hospital, clinics. But we are definitely a community part- ner, and because we're a partner, we are in the school systems. We're in everything that our community does that’s related to health and otherwise. And what I always tell our community leaders is, “I have a city by myself. If there's something we can help you with, we're all available because I've got a lot of talent within our organization if you need them to come talk to your group.” We reach out to our older citizens — I say “older”because I'm getting to be one, so I'm not discriminating. We recognized our peo- ple that were 60, 65, and older really don't understand healthcare, and they're getting a lot of comorbidities or other issues besides the primary diagnoses they come in with. So, we started a program that's called “Well andWise” and they come once a month for a six-month period. We thought we'd have a few people sign up, and we’ve had over 50 to 100. We have doctors talk every month, and we asked, "What do you want to hear about?" And what they wanted to hear about was heart disease, urology, how people can't steal your identity. We all know some of our parents, our older population, are very sus- ceptible to people calling and asking them for some information. They don't get the computer stuff. We teach them about how to work out for their age and health. And it is packed. Our biggest challenge on that is nobody wants to graduate. As soon as they graduate, they ask if they can they sign up again or become an advocate or ambas- sador so they can stay in the classroom. We just had to say, "Okay guys, we got room for 100, but y'all are taking up 50 and have been through it three times. We've got to let other people in." And our docs love to go talk to the group. You can have orthopedics talking about falls and injuries. You've got cardiac, female issues, age-dependent things. We've got somebody teaching them about exercise, wellness, how to eat. They want financial planning — not about their finances, but how not to be taken advantage of. We fill it with whatever they think they want. The other thing, and I'll get on a tangent because I'm real proud of all the things we do, is that we have what's called a patient focus group. Remember, we don’t get patients at their best. We don't. And so family members or people say, "I didn't like this,” or, “I didn't like that." And it's really an issue more of control, I find, because most things people will fuss about is maybe the food that was served. They're not going to tell you about the medical care because they don't understand it. So, we asked some of those patients or family members who sent in a survey, "Why don't you join our patient focus group and let us educate you on how healthcare works, and you educate us on what it looks like on the other side of the bed." In the end, they all have become ambassadors for us. That's another group that never wants to graduate, ever. They want to come back. They said, "We learned so much we didn't know." People think you're like a hotel — “The minute I need a bed, you should have one open.” I was like, "Yeah, but grandma's still in the bed. I can't throw your grandma out to get the other person in." You might have a little bit of a wait or something like that. So, we educate them, and we go through some of the challenges and some of the obstacles that happen in healthcare; they give feedback, and we give them tours of pharmacy, dietary, our cath lab, … and they are amazed. The more we can educate peo- ple or show them who we are and what we do, the better they're a community partner for us. We started that a couple years ago, and that has been very favorable. Editor Are there any partnerships or collaborations you're particularly excited about that are helping to expand Terrebonne's services? Peoples Oh my goodness, how long you have? We do. We're a massive cardiac facility. Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) started here. CraigWalker, MD, is from Houma, and we're their flagship hospital. So, we've been very progressive in cardiac care for many years, and we've continued to be on the forefront of technology and innovation in that particular area. They have been a partner of ours for over 40 years. Oncology services here — absolutely state-of-the-art, very comfortable. We just added on even more so with an infusion center. We're partnered withMary Bird Per- kins to do our radiation oncology, and we've had over a 16-year relationship there. We continue to look at innovative ways to partner with our orthopedic group. Some of their ambulatory surgical services they do are same-day kind of cases. We're a part- ner with our physicians in that particular