Northwell Health CEO Prepared for Second Wave

system in the country. I'm sure he would say it's a dubious distinction, but they have been working so hard right here at the episode we're talking about Michael Dowling. He's the president and CEO of north Well Health. He joins us on the phone from late Success, New York. I have to say I live within a mile of one of their hospitals, the Phelps Hospital here in Westchester, so very familiar with this system. Michael. Really good to

have you here with Carolin myself. Now, I'm I did thank you so much for having me, appreciate it very much. So I guess I would start by asking you and knowing everything you do, where are we in fighting this disease from a clinical perspective and from what you've seen and the trends that you're seeing across the system right now, on the trends look good. We have reduced admissions each day and have had those reductions each day for the

past dozen days. We only have about half the number of patients in the hospital today with COVID that we had about two and a half weeks ago. So we're und the downslope of this. But I have to caution that it doesn't necessarily mean you're out of the world is because if the public doesn't continue to practice social distancing and prevention, then you could have an uptick in

cases and that's not what you want to do. I also believe too your question that we're learning how to treat the patients better now than we did at the beginning. Because of very beginning, this was a completely unknown and uh, we now know a lot more about the patients. It doesn't mean we don't have a cure, but I think we're learning a little bit more about how to delay putting a person on event. Uh, we understand better I

think the aphacare that is needed. So we're learning a lot more and we are doing a lot of treatment styles on sept and drugs. But we're a long ways from having a vaccine, as you know, or from having a drug. The window actually really works on a large basis, On a large basis, we're in a very good position, uh. And I believe that the health systems, the hospitals, all of the hospitals in New York, especially in the city area and in Long Island, have done a spectacular job here. Um.

This is an experience and an adventure of that. Uh. Nobody really wants to live through. But when you're in it, you do the best you can. And I think we've done an exemplary job. And if it comes back again in the fall, I think we are quite ready to hand it was whatever is drawn at us in the fall,

assuming and hoping, of course it doesn't happen. I have to say, I talked with the CEO of Unilever earlier today, and you know, they are expecting and others are expecting that we do get a second wave, and you've got to be pandemic ready. And I do wonder. You know, you have a massive healthcare system, um, largest as I think Jason said in uh, the city of or the state of New York. So are you planning for a

second wave, Do you feel like you will be better prepared? Yes, we we We We have a very strong uh you know, emergency management infrastructure here, and we walk as a reel system, so all hospitals walk together, etcetera. So we have put in place already a whole structure of what we would do if there is another rebound in the in the fall.

So we are ready given the experiences that we've been through over the past about them a half where we have actually created an out health system alone and all those similar things, about two thousand new beds, so we know how all. We know how to surge up to create new beds, We know how to create the I CEU facilities quickly, we know how to deploy staff and much more efficient with and we did at the very beginning of this. So we are very much much much

more prepared. Um. We obviously will be much better to coropate all of the ppe the masks and the gloves that was a problem, as everybody knows at the beginning of the crisis. So yes, the answer is we're more prepared um. And we learned an awful lot of things that every time you go through this you learn and then the next time you're most your your better positions.

So let's talk about PPE because that is something too that came up with Alan Joe CEO of Unilever, and again he taps into global supply chains understands and he said they didn't. He said, there's lots of PPE out there if you tap the global networks. Is that where we messed up? Well, you know, uh, we we did. We we tapped every part of the world that we could finally tap that we could possibly tap to get all in supplies. And so did in the state of New York. Um uh, they happened, and all the search

here happened very very very quickly. Give you an example of masks alone in our health system, we use between ten and fifteen thousand masks a day, so that means you're losing you're using a hudd masks a week. Because of our scale and our size. What we need to do here is make sure that we have a number of places around the around the world that we can get the supplies from. But we also have to learn

how to make these things here in the United States ourselves. Uh. You should not always be relying on people overseas to get basic core supplies that you need. We have to do them here. That's a lesson from this experience or the supply chain because most of us depending on off on on China, that supply chain got completely disrupted. So yes, where we cut off a little bit off God, a little bit at the beginning, that's if we make that mistake a second time around in you know, then it's

on us that hopefully whatever again happened. But we have to make some of these things in the United States. There's no reason we cannot do it. We must do it. So, Michael, I do want to ask you. You know, you talked about learning how to treat this disease, and I do wonder, especially now that you have to look at, maybe more closely at how to treat everything else that you would

normally be doing. How does that change, even in the short term treating you know, the patients who are COVID nineteen related, as well as doing the regular business of being a massive hospital system. Well, a lot of the regular business, mostly surgery, and a lot of our outpatient ambilatory facilities we close. We stopped doing except for emergency surgery that was that was necessary. So all all of

that we have to bring back. But there are there are a couple of lessons here without over be getting too complicated. One is um tellent medicine that everybody has been talking about. There was a lot of resistance to tell a medicine. The payers and the government didn't really want to pay for it, and a lot of doctors didn't want to use it. I can tell you we've had a phenomenal increase in the use of telemedicine and virtual health during the last five or six weeks, so

that horses out of the bond. We will be doing substantially more telemedicine in the future than we ever imagine that we would be doing, uh, you know, two months ago, So that's a benefit. The other thing is we have now we've had over the last six weeks thirty two thousand employees working from home, and we find out that, you know, with certain functions, that can work just as efficiently from home as they do by coming to the office. So my guess there's a lot of those employees will

not come back to the office anymore. And the third item is that a lot of the various clinical disciplines we're all working to important unity breaking down all of the clinical barrios storing the treatment of COVID. That will be a benefit that will help sc forward. All right, stick with us, We're going to continue this conversation. I want to talk to you about some of the work you've done with Governor Andrew Cuomo. I mean, this has

been a massive undertaking. We know we're speaking with Michael Dowling, President CEO of north Well Health. He'll be back with us in just a few minutes. This is Bloomberg. We're talking with Michael Dowling, President and chief executive officer of north Well Health, on the phone from Lake Success, New York,

and it's a massive hospital operation here in New York State. Michael, one thing I do wonder, and I know we want to get into some of the work you've done with Governor Cuomo, but I do wonder about the financial impact of all of this. And obviously, when you're in the midst of a crisis, you do what you have to do right to take care of everybody, make sure your workers are safe, make sure patients are taken care of. But there is a reality of the financial cost. Talk

to me a little bit about that. Yes, Well, when you're in the middle of a crisis like this. In a situation like this where the public health is such a major, major, you know, foremost priority, you don't let yourself worried so much about the financial impact. You just do what you have to do and at the end of the day, you do the right thing irrespective. Uh. And you are obviously with the recognition that you're going to get hurt financially, but you then say, I'm going

to deal with that later. For our health system, for example, Uh, this has impacted us a big time. We are losses are about three fifty million a month because we had to croptail most of the major revenue streams that were coming in, like surgery, and we we stopped all of that sorgery to be able to take care of COVID patients. So, yes, it does have an impact, but we will recover. Um. We are now beginning to think about how we get back that other business that we lost over the next

coup the months. It will take time because it is complicated, and also you have to make sure you build confidence among the public that they feel very very safe when they come back to any health care facility that has had corpid patients in it. So we will recover, We will come back. It will take time. Um, but you have to feel good about what you do, irrespective as a financial impact, when you know you're doing what's right by the public. And so let's talk about your work

with Governor Cuomo if we can, uh. The governor uh making a statement today, you know, no more school uh for this year. Certainly that impacts a lot of us here in New York State, and it has an impact on reopening, especially when it comes to parents. Help us understand the advice that you are giving him about reopening and what that looks like, especially across the state and

candidly and very parochially, especially here in the down State area. Sure, well, you know, I've known the governor for a long time. I worked for twelve years with his father, and uh, you know, Andrew the Governor has been you know, providing extraordinary leadership here as we all know. I mean, it's a lesson in great leadership. So it's easy to work with him, UM, I do. I've talked to him quite regularly.

And now, of course the focus is on to make sure that we can get the economy back, but we've got to do it very smartly. We can't just jump and make you know very quick judgments too quickly, because what you'd want to avoid is to generate any um uh, continuing increases and transmissions so that you have the the COVID crisis comes back to hit you again. So it has to be done very deliberately, business by business, sector by sector, and I believe that will begin to happen

now over the next couple of months. UM. It is inconvenient for everybody. Um. People are unhappy, but there will be a lot more unhappy if we do things stupidly and we get another round of the COVID crisis. Then it only makes the economic situation so much worse. Um. And you let people second guessing all of the time. But you have to take a very rational, smart look at how it is you do that. And and that's

the process that the government is going through. Nobody wants the economy open up more than hand, but he wants to make sure we do it right, especially given the degree and the severity of the issue that we've had in New York, because we've been the epicenter of the COVID crisis. Well, and I think that's a really good point, because we you know safe to say it's different around the country. But what happened in New York. You were

seeing it firsthand, your staff was seeing it firsthand. I mean tell us, I mean it was really difficult, yes, and I I and I've been in this business a long time, and I've been in every hospital and every intensive care unit almost every day for the last couple of weeks. And I don't and I don't care how long you've been in this business or how extensive your

knowledge has been. I don't. I've not met anybody that has been in a circumstance like this, when you are in a hospital with extraordinarily sick people where you got you know, mortality rates happening, you know quickly each day. Actually you have so many people on events, many who may never come off. And where your hospital is essentially all COVID patients, with a few exceptions COVID patients. It's it's a strange, strange experience to go through. Um, you

don't want to go through the second time. You want to go through this once. I think we handled it quite well, but you do not want to recome back now. It may you may get a bump up in this in the fall. But it's just a bump up. You can handle it. Um So, if you have to delay and reopening for poot to three weeks despite somebody inconvenience to appoy what might happen again, it's the right thing

to do, all right. Michael Dowling, thank you so much for all of your time on this Friday, President, chief executive Officer of Northwell Health. They have truly been in the thick of it when it comes to the virus here in New York joining us on the phone,