Leading Clinical, Technological, and Social Innovation to Address Health Care’s Most Pressing Needs
View from the C-Suite: Rod Hochman, MD, President and CEO, Providence
// By Sheryl S. Jackson //
In a wide-ranging keynote interview, one of health care’s most innovative leaders discusses the industry’s biggest challenges and greatest opportunities. Here are some of the highlights.
This month, we hear from a health system CEO who kicked off the Becker’s Healthcare 11th Annual Meeting Virtual Experience in May with a discussion of issues of greatest concern to health care leaders. The conversation between Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO of Providence and Rhoda Weiss, Ph.D., conference co-chair and president of Rhoda Weiss Consulting Group, provided insight into strategies employed by Hochman to guide his organization through the issues faced in 2020 and to prepare for future challenges.
Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO, Providence
As an immunologist, Hochman offers insight into the clinically related issues brought to the forefront in the past year, but he also has a reputation as a forward-thinking strategist and innovator — two qualities that have led to decisions that provide a framework for the health care of tomorrow.
Five years ago, Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO of Providence, was talking about two viruses that should cause concern for health care leaders — an RNA virus and a cyber virus.
While the scope and speed of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak was surprising, the event was not entirely unpredictable, says Hochman. “I think there were a number of us out there that had this pending feeling about it; those of us who’ve looked at SARS and looked at the biology knew it was not a question of whether it would happen but when,” he says. “We’ve been shielded from pandemic in the United States, but there have been a lot of epidemics around the world, such as Ebola in Africa. It’s a natural consequence of life in a lot of the parts of the world.”
Although the current epidemic crisis appears to be under control, Hochman identifies several other issues that will continue to challenge health care leaders in the near future.