Home is Where the HEALTH is
Home is Where the HEALTH is
Why Mission Matters — How Purpose-Driven Organizations Attract Leaders and Partners
In this episode of Home is Where the HEALTH is, Andy Pate, COO and President, East, at Compassus shares what makes the organization a destination for health system partners and mission-driven leaders. His reflections on military service and its influence on his leadership are powerful reminders of how personal purpose fuels professional impact.
Ashton, Hi everyone. I'm Ashton Jones, and this is home. Is where the health is. This podcast brings you the latest news on progress and innovation in the homebase healthcare space, in association with compasses. At the end of the day, every person deserves to be cared for with compassion, whether they're dealing with a serious illness, recovering from an injury, or nearing the end of life, and in the place they call home, no less. That's why this podcast features different subject matter experts as we do a deep dive into how their work is improving home based health care for patients. In today's episode, we're talking with Andy Pate, newly appointed Chief Operating Officer and president of the East Division at compasses. We'll discuss leadership and what it means to build a culture rooted in compassion. We'll also hear about Andy's military background and his personal motivation for joining compasses. There's all that and more coming up on Home is where the health is. Hi everyone, welcome back to Home is where the health is. We're so excited to have you back again as we explore new topics, products, partnerships and more in upcoming episodes. So today, I'm grateful to welcome our guest, Andy Pate, Chief Operating Officer and president of the east at compasses. Andy, thank you so much for being here. Thanks,
Unknown:Ashton, it's a pleasure being here. Thanks for having me, of course. So
Ashton Jones:I know that many people are eager to learn a little bit more about you, including myself. So first, can you share a little bit about your background and what led you to compasses? Yeah, sure.
Unknown:So I started off my career as a as an environmental engineer by degree, and I became an army officer right after college, kind of the cross between environmental engineering and public health. So that kind of really started me off in healthcare, and then as I progressed through the army, you know, I decided to get out of the Army. I was deployed a lot, and decided to try my hand at things in the civilian sector. So I was given an opportunity to lead a large service team at General Electric medical systems at the time now, GE Healthcare, where my team installed and maintained high end imaging equipment. I then really wanted to see kind of what it was like to be in patient care, so I joined Fresenius medical care, and ultimately led Fresenius kidney care for a little bit and then, and then came to compass us at the beginning of this year.
Ashton Jones:Yeah, that's even more than I had known about you before. I did a little bit of digging on your LinkedIn, but I hadn't heard about all those different areas that you've been involved in. So I do think you have a very unique career path, and especially, I would say the military experience. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you got involved with the military? Yeah,
Unknown:you know, it was interesting. I always wanted to serve. You know, I went off to college, and I didn't have a military scholarship at the time, and I competed for one very early on in my I think it was my sophomore year, and ultimately was awarded a scholarship. It turned out to be a four year scholarship for engineering. And that's really kind of how I began my career in the military,
Ashton Jones:I feel like you must have had a lot of life lessons that you took from that experience and then maybe applied to your current leadership. Do you have any specific examples that you could talk about? Well, there's a
Unknown:lot of things about the military that kind of shape your style. You know, just to name a few. I mean, first and foremost, the discipline, which I think is an obvious one people think about when they think about when they think about the military, but attention to detail and commitment and kind of, you know, never say quit. I think that has shaped my style, for sure, things like adaptability. You know, in healthcare in particular, we're always challenged. There's a lot of things evolving every day around healthcare. I think leaders have to be very adaptable. And course, in the military, it's very much that way. You know, you really have to be a serving leader and keep, always in mind the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of your of your troops. And that has shaped my style as I've moved off off into healthcare organizations. I'd
Ashton Jones:love to learn a little bit more about you personally. Can you tell us about your your personal life, some of your interests? Are you a dog or a cat person? Yeah,
Unknown:well, first of all, I'll answer that first, I'm a dog person, awesome. Yeah, kind of allergic to cats, but in terms of my personal life, so I have been married to my wife, Michelle, for 35 years. We got married very, very early while we were just fresh, just after our freshman year in college, and have been married for again, 35 years. We have two grown children, and as a matter of fact, my daughter has three kids of her own, so I have three grandkids. That's great. We live in. A suburb of Dallas, Texas, as we have for the last 17 years. And that's really unusual, because I moved around a lot in my early adulthood. So after college, we were moving every three to four years, and so we've been in one place for 17 years. And so that's pretty special.
Ashton Jones:Well, now I'd like to shift our conversation a bit to our next topic and ask you why you've decided to step into this role at compasses. I've seen your background and your experience, and you've told us a little bit about it, and I do think you would have had your pick of going wherever you'd like to go. So can you tell us what about the organization stood out to you?
Unknown:That's a great question. First, you know, I was really focused on on my next move, being in a mission driven organization. So, you know, compass is absolutely mission driven. Yeah, the caregivers just are so passionate about everything that they do, you know. And I think we, as an organization too, are very nimble. So we're very nimble and agile in the way that we approach growth and that we approach problem solving and care for patients. The other thing too, that I think is really great is that we're willing to invest in technology that improves the patient experience, improves the provider experience, and launches, you know, launches us on a growth trajectory. So the innovations that that I see in compasses have been tremendous. And so those are the things that really drew me originally to to compass us. And I'll tell you that everything that was kind of told to me before I got here, I have found to be true. And then some, it's
Ashton Jones:awesome. And that kind of leads into my next question that I had written down, which was around the innovation. So I do think that can pass. This is doing a lot with home based care, and we have these joint ventures going on at the same time as AI pilots that we have underway. So what role did innovation play in your decision and then in the success of the organization that you're hoping to see,
Unknown:healthcare is changing very rapidly, and the challenges associated with healthcare are becoming more prevalent every single day. And so you know, organizations have to innovate in order not just to keep up with those changes, but to get ahead of the changes that are happening. And if you really want to build a company for the long term, you have to make those investments. And so when we think about AI pilots that are improving the provider experience, so literally taking tasks that take our providers hours to do on a weekly basis, and shrinking those down to less than a minute? Yeah. I mean, you got to think about that and how much that that enables the success of those providers to do what they want to do and need to do anyway, which is work at the top of their license and create better outcomes for patients. So I think that's part of innovation. The The other thing, these joint ventures have been just tremendous in the way that we can bring a continuity and a continuum of care to the patients, and how we work together to really make sure that patients get the right care that they need at the right time in the right place, has been great as well. And so I think any organization who wants to stay ahead of the change as healthcare evolves, has to be willing to invest in innovation, or you're gonna find yourself quickly behind.
Ashton Jones:So you came to compass us from Fresenius, which is a really large organization, and that's something I wanted to bring up, because I do feel like we have a lot of really talented leaders at compasses who are from large health systems or payers. So in your view, coming from another really large organization, what do you think is driving that momentum, and why do you think people are choosing to build their careers here? There's
Unknown:a lot of reasons why professionals that would come from a large system would come to a place like compass one, the purpose so really a sense of purpose number two, being nimble and agile and willing to kind of shift as we see the environment shift, so that we can serve patients better and continue to grow the willingness, like I said before, to invest in technologies and tools and support for our providers and our patients. You know, it's not all that common. I mean, we do see innovation, and we do see investment in other parts of healthcare, but the larger companies get, the more the more difficult it is, and of course, the more expensive it is to continue to want to invest in those types of support tools and technological advances. And so at a place like compasses that is more than willing to not only invest but building that roadmap for the future is, you know, is very attractive to people who want to continue to evolve healthcare.
Ashton Jones:So speaking of changing healthcare and having these new innovative projects, what does this mean for our joint venture partners? For
Unknown:our joint venture partners, you know, the. Large systems. They got a lot of things going on, very complex organizations, and they're trying to treat a variety of patients across an entire continuum, from, you know, very simple to very complex acuities, I think, for our joint venture partners, if they're looking for the expert in home based care, than coming to a place like compasses and choosing a partner like compasses that gives the ability to continue to improve the patient experience, keep patients out of the hospital, lower lengths of stays, really create better outcomes for patients, then compass is the place to be. Now we're
Ashton Jones:going to take a quick break from our main discussion to share a story with you. And the reason why we want to spend time on a single story is because when you're looking at the big picture, you can forget about all the lives that are impacted by this work, and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. So I did ask Andy to come prepared with his story, to share with all of you something that has really impacted him, both personally and professionally. And so Andy, as I understand it, your story is about finding purpose. Can you tell us a little bit more?
Unknown:Yeah, thank you. Ashton. You know, I thought a lot about this, and as I thought about it, I just reflected on a couple of different moments in my professional life, and that really kind of impacted me and probably set me on a trajectory that's represented where I am today in healthcare. So my story is about a deployment that I had to Bosnia Herzegovina in very early 1996 you know, I was deployed. And when you're a soldier and you're you're called to go, you go and you hope that, that there's a purpose, there's a why behind that. And I went, you know, with all of the hardships of deployment, being away from family, being in austere environment, you know, you were you really kind of look for the why? Why am I here? Why am I enduring this? And so one afternoon, I was on a long convoy between base camps, and I think there was an accident ahead, and we all stopped. The convoy stopped, and we were going to experience a pretty significant delay. And I looked over at these houses that were right across the street from my vehicle. And these houses had been damaged by, you know, the war. They had been shelled. There was bullet holes in the houses. There were parts of the roof that were missing. Yet they were these kids. They were playing in the front yard, and these kids lived in these houses. And so as the kids were playing, you know, after a little bit, we started to interact with them, and they were asking for candy and things like that. So we were giving them candy and just interacting with them on the street, but it dawned on me that just months, many months before that they weren't able to play in the middle of the street or in the yard because of the war, and so in that moment, you start to think, this is why I'm here. I'm here because I'm the only thing standing in the way of these kids being able to play in their yard. So, you know, just think about basic things like that. And so in an almost an instant, I got purpose. So it all the the hardships of deployment, being away from family, you know, the austere environment, all these things just kind of melted away. And so one of the kids, right before we were leaving, so everybody was called to get back in the vehicles, one of the kids came up and said, thank you in English, which was, you know, just kind of really changes your whole mindset. And so from there, it really became important to me that as I continued my military service, and then, of course, after my military service, that I really focused on the things that would give me purpose. And so as I looked for jobs in the civilian sector, you know, I had opportunities in a lot of different industries, you know, agriculture, of course, engineering consulting and a lot of other things, but I chose healthcare because it gave me a sense of purpose. I had no idea where my career would lead, but I knew I wanted to do that because it helps people. And I really kind of want my life and my career to be made up of things that help others. And so that's that's why I chose healthcare and why I continued to to pursue my career in healthcare and will from here on out.
Ashton Jones:For our second and final topic of today's episode, I want to talk about leadership through growth. Since joining you've stepped into a really critical role, especially as compass this grows, and there are all these joint ventures welcoming 1000s of new teammates. And so what has your experience been like leading the East Division, and how are you working with your teams to prepare for the future in
Unknown:just a very, very short time as the leader of the East Division? You know, I have noted that. So, you know, we have an incredibly talented team, just a team of incredibly talented operators who care deeply about what they do and the caregivers that they're privileged to lead. We're very, very focused on kind of a holistic experience for the organization, one very focused on on our provider experience, so making sure that our clinicians in the field have the support and the tools that they need in order to provide the care that they're licensed to. Care, I think number two, you know, we are all about the patient experience, making sure that our patients really experience compass us in a meaningful way and at a very vulnerable time in their lives that that they and their families really receive that care, not only the quality of care, but but the experience that goes along with it. And then that leads to growth. And so that leads to more patients and more providers wanting to send their patients to to compass us. And so that's kind of how we're focused. So really looking to make the most out of every opportunity that we see.
Ashton Jones:How are you and your leaders within the East Division supporting all of these new teammates who are coming into the fold, especially with some of the large integrations like the Providence and compass joint venture?
Unknown:You know, as new members come into the fold, whether they be from from joint ventures or or otherwise. You know, I think making sure that we're really over indexing on those team members having a really good onboarding experience is is really important. And so, you know, we have a number of teammates from across the country that have kind of deployed to, to make sure that we're integrating those new teammates into our systems, that we're that we're educating them on our system, that we're bringing them on and helping them to to integrate, to every extent possible into compass, and that, you know, quite frankly, they're coming in with a lot of great practices of their own. They're coming in with a lot of great ideas of their own, and making sure that that we as an organization learn from them just as much as as as we help them integrate into into our organization.
Ashton Jones:What are some of the most important things that you look for when you're building a strong regional leadership team.
Unknown:As I think about what really makes a strong leader, particularly at a field level, I think first and foremost, you have to be a serving leader. You have to lead the right way, making sure that that we're that we're taking care of our teammates, physically, mentally, emotionally, and that we're providing the support that they need to be their very best self at work. I think that's really important. Number two, making sure that we have clear expectations, and that they are setting clear expectations for their organizations, and that we're holding each other accountable for what we commit to do. And I think those are some very clear attributes of good leaders. But I will say one thing that I think, you know, good leaders have is adaptability. So I'm looking for leaders who can be nimble and who can adapt to change. You know, healthcare is changing. Compass is changing as we grow and as we scale, and having leaders that can adapt to that change is incredibly important if we're going to continue to stay ahead of the curve.
Ashton Jones:What sort of feedback do you hear from the field, maybe clinicians or patients, that really helps guide your decisions as a leader, I
Unknown:hear things from the field. You know when, when they talk a little bit about what would be useful in helping them to deliver better care or be more productive or have better work life balance. And we hear a lot of those types of comments and ideas all over the organization, and it really shapes our decision making as an organization, because you start to think, well, how can I support them better? What are the tools that I can bring? You know, I'm not a I'm not a clinician, so I don't, I don't touch patient care in, you know, hands on. But what I can do is I can bring decisions. I can bring support tools, I can bring investments to the organization to help those caregivers deliver better care and create better outcomes for patients. If
Ashton Jones:you could leave our audience with one big takeaway from our conversation today, and I know we had a lot of topics to go through and summarize, but what would be the most important thing for them to know,
Unknown:if there's one takeaway, I would say that compass us is an organization of mission driven caregivers that is continually looking to evolve the way we deliver home based care for patients, providers and patients families, in my opinion, the best days. For compasses are ahead of us.
Ashton Jones:Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of Home is where the health is today. We had the pleasure of hearing from Andy pate about his journey from military service to health care leadership. We talked about what drew him to compass us, and how he's helping lead through an exciting chapter of growth. We also heard a powerful personal story that reminded us of why this work is so important. Andy, thank you again for joining us and sharing your insights and your heart with our listeners. To everyone tuning in, we hope today's episode gave you a closer look at the kind of Compassionate Leadership and forward thinking innovation that defines compasses. If you liked today's episode and you're listening on a streaming service, go ahead and give us a like and a follow, and be sure to tune in next time for another in depth discussion on progress and innovation in the home based healthcare space. Until then, this is Ashton Jones, with Home is where the health is. Thanks for listening. You.