HJAR Nov/Dec 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  NOV / DEC 2022 17 role than anyone in terms of exerting influ- ence on any grocer or any retailer. I think what we can do as healthcare providers is provide some education directly to our patients as to what those healthy food choices are. And you’re right, a part of that education really needs to occur at an early level before a lot of those health choices are made. I think ultimately, even with our own patients here at Washington Regional and their families, we’ve tried that, and we have really increased offer- ings and had really healthy choices and tried to price those at the best level that we can. Oftentimes, we hear from patients’ families that those aren’t the choices they want, and they ultimately buy with their dollars based upon that. I guess my way to answer is probably the best way to get upstream is to get upstream in education — try to encourage people to make the right buying choices — and then I think where they buy and those things in the market will ultimately match that. Editor I’d like to see that experiment happen, it could be interesting. As CEO of Washington Regional, if you could create one cultural shift or change from your position, what would that be? Shackelford I would say culture of edu- cation and helping our patients, who are all those that live in Northwest Arkansas, understand what they can do to manage their own health. I think right now, the cul- ture is, “When I get sick, I come to the hos- pital or to the ER and they fix me.” Again, that’s part of what makes me most excited about our partnership, if we could culturally change that mindset to, “How do I stay well and how do we pay healthcare providers not to fix me when I’m sick but to help meet my goals and keepmyself well?”I don’t think we do a very good job with what we’re spend- ing in healthcare and the rate of increase of that spending with the goal of keeping people well. In my role, that’s part of why I am excited about the idea of transform- ing healthcare — both sides of how health- care is done and how healthcare is paid for. Because, quite frankly, I don’t think our current system is something we can sustain moving forward. Editor Five years from now, what do you think healthcare will look like in Northwest Arkansas? Shackelford I think we will have started down the path of fundamentally changing the question from what’s wrong with you today to how can we help you stay healthy? I think five years from now that we will see a new and improved pipeline of training more medical students in Northwest Arkan- sas, giving medical students inArkansas the opportunity for their training to be done here and for them to have practice oppor- tunities when that’s done. And I really hope that we will see these integrative and whole health principles woven into how we’re training healthcare workers and how we are paying for our health- care system and that we will begin to see some of the return on investment from that. At the end of the day, I hope what we will see is an improvement in the health of those that we serve. Editor You have the ear of Arkansas’ healthcare leadership, the public officials, and healers right now. Is there anything that I missed that you wish I hadn’t? Shackelford Because there is a large por- tion of our payment model that is tied to public payment, these concepts that we talked about of setting some floors on reimbursement and legislatively fixing some of the gaps I think is important. As you mentioned, legislatively fixing the ability for graduate medical education programs acrossArkansas to be able to be expanded — we know that there’s a large number of doctors and nurses that will be leaving practice, and I fear that if we don’t do something we’re going to face a continued crisis — that we are not train- ing new nurses and new doctors as quickly as those that are leaving is something that, apart from some legislative fixes, I think is going to be really hard to overcome. Editor It was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for your time. Shackelford Thank you. n “I think part of what we hope is to really allow our patients to have more control and to have more insight in terms of their own healthcare. As you become engaged, as you have insight, then you will take, hopefully, an active interest in your health.”