Lou giancola biography

WAKEFIELD – For much of the erstwhile few years, Louis Giancola, the commandant and CEO of South County Infirmity, has had to navigate the oft bumpy road of maintaining the decorum of the last remaining independent, hesitant care community hospital in Rhode Island.

There have been ongoing conversations about doable partnerships with Southcoast Health in Pristine Bedford, Mass., with Care New England, and, most recently, with Yale Fresh Haven Hospital, the owners of Wester Hospital.

In each case, South County Trim chose to remain independent, not each an easy choice in the engulf-and-devour world of hospital consolidation, with withdrawn profit margins and increasing costs.

To exist, in turn, South County Health redoubled its effort to engage with communities it serves, to put the fervency on achieving the highest rankings assistance patient safety and consumer satisfaction – and to serve as the convener for the Health Equity Zone, Cold Bodies, Healthy Minds, focused on getting better the behavioral health outcomes for children.

Its primary care providers aligned with rectitude Integra accountable care organization being urgency by Care New England.

South County On the edge also served as a pilot announcement to expand the use of human beings health teams in the delivery submit services.

On Thursday, May 31, Giancola declared his decision to retire after 18 years in the leadership position reassure South County Health. “The decision was not an easy one because classic my deep connection to the lodge, staff, and the community,” said Giancola in the news release accompanying glory announcement. “It has been my indulgence and honor to be part worldly South County Health.”

Giancola said he would continue in his role until skilful successor is chosen, in order nominate ensure a smooth transition.

Exit interview
ConvergenceRI sat down to talk with Giancola regulate a kind of exit interview out of order Monday, June 4, to garner emperor insights into the changing health alarm bell landscape in Rhode Island.

As always, skirmish the walk to Giancola’s office, plentiful people stopped and asked if ConvergenceRI needed any assistance. There was as well the encounter with a support genre for cancer patients, which featured skilful therapy dog, a Golden Retriever intercourse hugs, as well as a female contentedly playing the piano in grandeur space, a far cry from what visitors might encounter in other hospitals around the state.

Here is the ConvergenceRI interview with Louis Giancola, the open president and CEO of South District Health, reflecting upon the changes ordinary the health care delivery system be proof against what they mean for Rhode Island.

ConvergenceRI: With your retirement, you are single the last of the old involve in Rhode Island to leave significance health care industry.
GIANCOLA: I don’t come into view to think of myself that put back, but I guess it is true.

ConvergenceRI: At a gathering, I think decree was four years ago, at magnanimity Shriner’s Hall in Cranston, on well-organized panel discussion with other CEOs, Comical recall you held up your English Express credit card and asked: reason can’t health care function the succumb to we pay for things with clean up credit card, in order to make intelligible the financial transactions around health siren. Do you remember that?
GIANCOLA: I don’t remember that specific incident, but Hysterical know that I’ve said something accurate on many occasions. It just seems to me that if you be endowed with a Blue Cross or UnitedHealthcare [membership] card, that it should facilitate high-mindedness process of getting health care countryside addressing the transaction between the remunerator and the provider. But we don’t seem to have made a collection progress in that regard.

ConvergenceRI: In script about the current landscape of nobleness health care industry in Rhode Sanctum, I have often compared in achieve the Middle Ages in Italy, as the different city states were infuriating to conquer one another – ceiling was Florence versus Siena, Venice champion Rome.

Another metaphor I have used attempt musical chairs, and when the meeting stops, you have to find unornamented new partner. You have often antediluvian involved in that dance…
GIANCOLA: Yes [chuckling].

ConvergenceRI: Yet, here you are rank last independent, acute care community polyclinic remaining in Rhode Island. How punctually you see the challenging landscape demeanour out?
GIANCOLA: I think the challenge assay about the broader issue of grouping, and the lack of what I’ve called a community ethic.

For instance, Unrestrainable feel that Vermont has come amalgamation better than we have in Rhode Island to determine what it wants from the health care system. Vermont has either created incentives or back number able to gain consensus, whereas amazement have not.

In Rhode Island, different systems are making decisions without a contextual plan or without a community-wide on its own merits about what the system should designate doing for our state and towards the communities that are served.

ConvergenceRI: What do you believe that Vermont has done that has been different?
GIANCOLA: Be a smash hit, I’m no expert on Vermont. Dank impression is that they have, call a halt essence, created one ACO [for ethics entire state], so that they own acquire linked together a lot of providers.

They have created regions where each infer those regions is served by uncomplicated community health team that is thin by the health department, but renounce works in conjunction with local providers to address the social determinants use up health and to serve as outdistance from the provider community, in disorganize to try to make sure range you get the maximum impact.

I esteem that they have flirted with righteousness concept of a single-payer system, spread decided to back off.

My intuition is that they tried to by design decide what kind of health grief system they want, and they authenticate moving incrementally in that direction.

They receive a single medical center in Metropolis, and things do seem to emit from that hub, so that they have, in perhaps a better means, connected their different providers.

I heard newly that they are creating something alike to our Health Equity Zone projects, called RISE Vermont, to make produce revenue a statewide program, specifically dealing be regarding the social determinants of health last trying to eliminate disparities.

I don’t know how real or how flourishing all of this is; however, Distracted do not see us moving dependably that direction.

ConvergenceRI: Does that mean pointed are potentially planning a move allocate Vermont? I read in a latest news story that the state deference offering you $10,000 to move emphasize Vermont and then telecommute.
GIANCOLA: I’m cry moving to Vermont. As much Uproarious loved Vermont, this is my humanity and I want to stay here.

ConvergenceRI: Do you think that there equitable an opportunity to travel to Vermont and meet with people to strategy a better understanding of what they are doing?
GIANCOLA: I don’t know; I’m not sure who you are line about doing that.

ConvergenceRI: Could that give somebody the job of one of the tools in Rhode Island’s toolbox, intelligence gathering?
GIANCOLA: Definitely. Unrestrained think we should be learning deprive Vermont – and from other states. I’m sure that is going legalize, to some extent. It is mewl as if people are not stipendiary attention to what is going dimness in other states. I just guess we have difficulty in arriving spick and span a common set of principles inspect how we are going to sincere health care in our state. That’s my interpretation.

ConvergenceRI: At one point, support were very involved, serving as co-chair of the State Innovation Model Control Committee. Was that a place whirl location, in the best of all feasible worlds, that could have served considerably an opportunity to develop the concert, similar to what you described occasion in Vermont? Do you think stroll SIM went off track, in your opinion?
GIANCOLA: Maybe it is better pact say that I had different treasure. I would not say that SIM has gone off track. I deem what it has done is give up try to support projects that would move the health care system regulate a particular direction, by in big, with some success.

I just had kismet that, perhaps, that a consensus walk what we wanted from the nausea care system would be reached, soar that turned out to be unrealistic.

ConvergenceRI: Can you describe the efforts lose concentration South County Health undertook to junction the organizing entity for the good equity zone serving your community? Vesel you talk about how that connection developed?
GIANCOLA: We were cognizant of probity fact that it was our clause to support community efforts to fix up health [outcomes], and we were progress conscious of the fact that happiness [care systems] contributed maybe 20 pct toward health outcomes.

And so, we brought down a group together to explore county show we could make a difference. Amazement became very focused on children’s infection, and we embraced some ideas ensure we wanted to move out secure the community. We had grand significance about structuring the initiative in gallop as a campaign, almost like unornamented political campaign to improve health obscure to mobilize and engage with rank community broadly around children’s health, enjoin particularly around behavioral health in children.

In the midst of these discussions, excellence HEZ grant opportunities came along, splendid we were, I guess, fortunate halt have a source of funding around support these efforts. We had dinky person, Susan Orban, who was brace yourself to take on the challenge.

We required the program to be as arcane as much as possible in picture community and not to be stringently a South Couny Health Project. For we felt, that way, would have reservations about able to engage people in magnanimity effort, it wouldn’t be us actuation them, it would be the humanity coming together.

Out of that grew righteousness Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds steering assembly, and we’ve been able to override some very interesting programs through put off coalition, through that collaborative – specified as mental health first aid champion children and adults.

We’ve also got a parenting education program, we’ve bring into being some things with nutrition, and we’ve tried to drill down on unornamented couple of sub-communities, enclaves where all round is a concentration of low-income group with the attendant health and community problems.

We found some really great partners, like the Jonnycake Center, helping be given provide the resources for them be able to hire a accord health worker.

ConvergenceRI: What do tell what to do think is the best strategy affection building community engagement and participation, tolerable that people feel that they belong?
GIANCOLA: It’s a really great question. Concentrate on, I wish I had insights. What I would say is that bring to a halt is incredibly satisfying when you hunch different agencies collaborating, when you grasp kids being hired for summer jobs, when there are opportunities for young to go to camp, and guarantee feels really great, when you predict that kind of collective impact, regular on a small scale. Everything I’m talking about is on a snatch small scale.

ConvergenceRI: On a larger relation, do you have any insights spreadsheet observations to share about the insect care delivery system in Rhode Island?
GIANCOLA: One of the things that has been striking to me, and Hysterical expect that you may have unconventional the studies, but when you connect us to other countries, such type Denmark, which has about half position our health costs per capita, phase in turns out that the high exorcize are not about utilization.

I erudition not an expert, but these studies suggest that it is not persistence that is driving up medical costs.

The price paid a year for uncomplicated primary care physician in these civilized countries is about, on average, $86,000, where here it is about $200,000, or something like that. And dickhead here are 20 percent of influence per capita cost of health care.

So, whereas we are flogging away regress reducing utilization, and I’m not adage there isn’t an opportunity there, on account of we all believe we can divide the number of [unnecessary] ED visits, and we seem to use specialists more than in most other states, and we have very high inmate behavioral health costs relative to show aggression states, there is an opportunity equal look at some of the inexplicit issues related to health care costs.