Healthcare Innovation: A Deep Dive with Jose Lozano

Dive into the dynamic world of healthcare innovation with Jose Lozano, Chief Growth Officer of Hackensack Meridian Health, in this engaging episode of Green Streets. Discover the intriguing journey of Hackensack Meridian Health's expansion and its pivotal role in pioneering cutting-edge solutions for healthcare challenges. From their partnership with the Helix Project to reshaping the healthcare landscape at Metro Park, Lozano unveils exciting initiatives that are revolutionizing patient care.

In the first segment, Lozano shares insights into Hackensack Meridian Health's strategic collaboration with the Helix Project, highlighting the significance of this groundbreaking venture for healthcare innovation. Learn about the unique opportunities presented by the Helix campus and how it's poised to drive transformative advancements in medical research, technology, and education. Gain valuable insights into Hackensack Meridian Health's vision for the future of healthcare delivery and its commitment to fostering a culture of innovation.

Explore the transformative impact of Hackensack Meridian Health's expansion at Metro Park, as Lozano delves into the innovative approach of integrating healthcare services with corporate facilities. Uncover the rationale behind this visionary project and its potential to redefine accessibility and convenience in healthcare delivery. From leveraging digital platforms to enhance patient experience to addressing behavioral health needs, discover how Hackensack Meridian Health is leading the charge in reshaping the healthcare landscape for the better.

Don't miss this enlightening conversation that explores the intersection of healthcare, innovation, and community impact. Tune in to gain valuable insights into the future of healthcare delivery and the pivotal role of organizations like Hackensack Meridian Health in driving positive change.

Music: "Ride" by Jackson Pines
jacksonpines.com

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Transcript

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this episode is proudly brought to you by Helix NJ which recently made some big news some very big news in case you
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missed noia Bell Labs announced their plans to invest in a new state-of-the-art research and development facility located at Helix NJ
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Nokia considered approximately 25 different locations across the country for their new home but ultimately they chose the Helix because of its proximity
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to major cities its access to Talent its community of industry-leading companies and universities and because of its
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Cutting Edge facilities and environments for those not yet familiar Helix NJ is a new 5 acre state-of-the-art IND ation
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District located in the heart of new Bruns New Jersey that will house some of the world's most Brilliant Minds projects and organizations pursuing
0:37
critical life improving Innovations to learn more visit www.h Helix nj.com
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all right what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of greetings with the G state power by the New Jersey Lottery I'm your host Mike cam we're
1:08
here in Edison New Jersey at hackin M and health with the chief growth officer Jose Lozano Jose welcome to the show hey
1:14
thanks for having me thanks for having me into your office we got this is the definitely we don't do a lot of stuff in
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offices just to be totally transparent um but you got a whole bunch of cool Jersey some New York stuff but you know
1:27
some cool stuff back here all Jersey stuff all Jersey stuff yeah well you got the Yankee helmet not that I'm I'm a
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Yankee fan myself yeah I still think a majority of Yankee fans are Jersey folks so like it's s f yeah yeah for sure um
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because you are I mean we'll go through kind of like your story a little bit but you're a jersey guy like pretty hard
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born in New York but grew up in New Jersey and it's home right there there is I call nowhere else home it's the
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place I raised my two girls it's where I met my wife it's like everything my closest friends are here family is here and so Jersey is as home as home could
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be yeah where in Jersey did uh grow up I grew up in Bergenfield in Bergen County
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okay so small little goon collar town right outside New York City awesome and so uh you've done a lot of Public
2:09
Service had a lot of public service jobs um what kind of led to that like why why
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public service for you kind of going into all these all these different things yeah you know when you look at my
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family um and what my grandparents have done and so forth they've always been in those Public Service sort of jobs yeah
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my my grandmother was uh a nurse and my grandfather was more of an activist during the Martin Luther King days um it
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just was always kind of that bug of always trying to give back to those that unfortunately may not be a to be the
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voice for those that may not have a voice yeah um and I while I thought I was always going to go into kind of
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education the public service was something that just scratched an edge and I felt really passionate and I
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thought I was pretty pretty decent at it and so I mean I've had a really good run at it and now I'm in healthcare and so
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Healthcare is the closest you're going to get to public service but being in the private sector it's still it's still
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serving the greater good yeah I mean there's still a huge component of public policy making ensure that the services
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you're providing are are what the community needs right and so having that sort of understanding of what government
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is and what public service and where the community that it needs having the healthcare component and being the the vast span that hmh is like it it kind of
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complement each other really nicely yeah for sure and so just because we're Rec ing this episode on whatever today April
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24th and this week our episode with President Joe from Stockton you're Stockton Alum too right yeah Stockton
3:38
lump I did my undergrad at Stockton yeah how was that experience because it's certainly I mean like we we made this
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comment on that episode but he said that Stockton changed when he graduated from school uh from college and I'm like it's
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changed a lot since I graduated college it and uh so talk to me about like your experience there and kind of like you
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still like your connection to that school now too right yeah look I I am a trustee at Stockton it felt like I
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needed to give back to the institution that really defined on who I was you know folks you often ask me you know
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what does a Puerto Rican guy born in New York City raised in Bergen County how did you end up to Stockton which is a
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very rural campus and one of the largest campuses in the state of New Jersey majority is Woods right uh and I often
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tell the story as you know unfortunately growing up we didn't have a lot of money and our vacations were camping uh and so
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there was a lot of fond memories of camping and when the first time I visited Stockton it reminded me of the campgrounds which is kind of and then
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today it's very different very far so a lot of wood still a lot of woods like if you're a hiker Stockton is totally a
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cool campus for you but there's a lot more life to it than it was when I got there but did they have the AC campus
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then no no the AC campus is only a couple years old but many of us in Stockton days in the early 2000s in the
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late '90s we all worked at Atlantic City right it was for most of us we're Blue Collar students who needed to work while
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wanting to going to school so many of us worked in Atlantic City and given at that point there were about a dozen
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casinos a bit less today yeah um so we all worked we all either worked at the front desk checking in cleaning things
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up hostess waiters like that was kind of you at any place you went to it in Atlantic City at that point you would
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always find a Stockton student yeah Atlantic City is personally one of my
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favorite places because I just find it so interesting but I love and I only
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recently did I actually go down and see the Stockton campus uh down there and it's incredible what they did with it
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and kind of how that's helping the city especially in that immediate area but
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you know an area that needs a little bit of a of a boost of a little bit of a boo I I look it would have been amazing if I
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had an apartment on campus facing the ocean uh here I am in my career I think
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doing pretty well and I still can't afford a view of the ocean just it's amazing that college kids is getting a view of the ocean but it's actually
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pretty cool yeah no it's awesome so uh you go to Stockton um what was so we talking about the public service stuff
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what were some of your first jobs out of school that you were doing that kind of LED you down the path to what we're talking about now yeah so it's actually
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interesting in stock and undergrad I did an internship in Washington DC so I went for a semester and that's where I really
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got the bug work for Congressman Bill pascol um and when I came back um I
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thought I was going to be going into education world and it wasn't into actually was really fascinating uh
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Congressman Pas sc's office had called and said hey the Corine's office who at that point was Senator Corzine was
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looking for an education fellow so I started to work with Senator John Corzine while I was finishing on my grad
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school at University of Maryland College Park and I just built kind of an
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interesting relationship with the team and so forth and um as I was looking to move back to New Jersey there was an
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opportunity to work in at a senate office in New York not knowing at that point that you know Senator John would
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then become governor Corine and so kind of rode the wave with the team and was working in the governor's office and
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which was a really fascinating fascinating experience and at that point it just really there was some really
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wonderful things that the cor administration had been doing public service and it really just started to really kind of uh flame something inside
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of me that really wanted to give back so loved it I loved every moment of it that's really cool and just kind of like
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you know finding that little hook and then you know you never know where people are going to up you know to a
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degree if you look at my past I I often say this that you know I would have never predicted every step of the way
7:38
that I was going for there were individuals you met opportunities and there was always like kind of that grit
7:44
in New Jersey there's always one degree separation for someone who was from New Jersey and you're like hey you did this
7:49
we need that can you help out with this and so it was really fascinating how each chapter of my life has kind of was
7:56
kind of carried on from the previous chapter but was predicted oh yeah for sure I mean if you're trying to predict
8:02
stuff it's it's not going to happen yeah don't over don't over plan for St don't over plan it definitely not um so you
8:09
you're uh working in the governor's office doing different things kind of getting connected to all these different people um eventually you wind up working
8:15
in the Obama administration too right so talk to about that experience what that was like was that just kind of like a
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like a holy kind of moment for you was that it was a magical experience
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right um someone who's a history buff public service to be able to work for the first African-American president and
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be an appointee uh was one of the biggest honors I've ever had uh Lisa
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Jackson was the administrator she had actually had been the D commissioner in New Jersey yeah so I had a familiar
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relationship with her and um I remember her calling once and saying look I could really use you down here as my Deputy
8:51
Chief of Staff and then later briefly became Chief of Staff but as Deputy Chief of Staff I need someone who's going to have my back understand you
8:59
know things are go and just give it to me straight so I had a wonderful opportunity to be the Deputy Chief of Staff of probably one of the coolest
9:06
agencies um in the US government but at the time we were going through this very pivotal P moment of defining what
9:13
climate change is it was still divide now fast or today no one's really arguing climate change everyone's just
9:19
figuring out like what's sort of the path forward yeah but you know during my times at EPA was some really fascinating
9:25
times you know fuel efficiency it was kind of the biggest uh movement where I think has really sparked the electric
9:30
vehicle movement today uh we were dealing with the BP spill unfortunately down um down in the Gulf that's right we
9:37
had Fukushima in Japan and so there was not one quiet moment at EPA but I felt
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like every day you know the citizens of this country got got my well worth out of me on this one there right 14 hour
9:49
days yeah just 14 that's great yeah on a good day yeah sure seven days a week
9:55
well no definitely seven I don't think I got a day off um so yeah I mean I think that that's a super interesting kind of
10:01
path to take because you're talking about like kind of the way that you uh like you're upbringing like where you where you're from uh then kind of like
10:07
going to Stockton then winding up in in DC and and all the stuff that you kind of have done since then um when uh your
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time with the Obama Administration was done was that when you came back and started uh running chws or was that
10:20
prior to no it was prior to chws I had uh believe it or not it had done a really wonderful stint uh 10 years in in
10:27
in multiple government opportunities um but at that point I had a three-year-old daughter my wife was back
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at home um and my wife says it was time to to come home yeah uh and be with the family because the community was
10:39
starting to take a little bit of a toll so I told the Obama Administration that I was going to start to transition I fell into this opportunity to work at
10:45
hackensac UH at that point was hackensac University Medical Center so I had this opportunity to come back and again I was
10:52
looking for this opportunity to move into the sort of the private sector but I really didn't want to give up that
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public sector sort of compl owned and so working at a healthcare organization who is upand cominging and was already the
11:04
number one Hospital in New Jersey and so to be a part of that sort of growth was fascinating and I couldn't have asked
11:10
for anything better from a transition I often speak to Young Professionals in the government where like how is that
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transition from government to the private sector I thought it was a wonderful transition for me um it was
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cool and I told him I was like just never give the passion if if Government sector is what you always want to do you have to find something that's close if
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you do a stark difference you're just truly never gonna be happy and so try to find that true north for yourself yeah
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and so uh when you when you started with Hackensack uh after the Obama what were you doing then for that I was Chief of
11:40
Staff to Bob Garrett the the CEO of hacken university health who's still the CEO right who was still the CEO which is
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fascinating so I often tell the story that upon arriving at that uh we had
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just opened up our third Hospital okay five years later we had done with the merger we were up to 17 hospitals so in
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5 years you know what was hacking saac University Health Network then became hackin saac Unity Health was the largest
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growth and expansion that the organization has ever seen and to see that magical process go through and
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seeing what communities were going to be benefiting from hacken def redefining what the markets were where the
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opportunities were what services we needed to expand on it's been really is really absolutely amazing and then I
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flipped over to to work with the Murphy Administration for a bit right and so and it is interesting that you said that
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kind of like at that time because I feel like almost wherever you go in New Jersey like you see Atkin Zach mury and
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health of course like some something you know hospitals uh Health Center whatever
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um from as far south as you can go almost to all the way up you know into Bergen County all that kind of stuff too
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um so let's talk about uh your time with the Murphy Administration and and shoes New Jersey a little bit too because
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that's an interesting part of the story to me it is it is you know I I again I had worked for hackin sack Meridian
12:54
health um had the opportunity that at that point Ambassador Murphy um asked me
13:00
to run his transition and help build his administration out and so I had the
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amazing honor to help him navigate that with the full intent of coming back to hacken te Health it was not I was not
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looking to leave a job and go back into permanent yeah and so at the conclusion of the transition I did come back to
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hacken Side Community Health okay um and the governor really felt strong about wanting to recommend me to the board of
13:22
chws to be the CEO of choose New Jersey and while in the beginning I said I'm really happy at hackin act Mir health
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there was a moment to think about this is something really cool because I always felt New Jersey was never getting its fair share and its Fair due and its
13:36
reputation out in the world and to have the opportunity to take my skill set in
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the in the marketing the communications The Branding to have an opportunity say like let's fix New Jersey's narrative
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right and defining you know and I felt like the governor was really needing on me to help Define the voice of New
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Jersey why New Jersey and make that case in a really clear succinct and so when I
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look at you know at that point my second daughter was being born and I looked at an opportunity to kind of redefine and
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make New Jersey and bring light to New Jersey like some of the greatest things that we just love about New Jersey I
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thought it was a really cool job and so not only did I really do it for kind of myself and for New Jersey but I wanted
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really to do it for my daughters and saying we're going to put New Jersey back on the map and make it really cool
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um and so those were really four magical years at choose New Jersey as being the CEO and hackin Z muray help said okay
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it's time for you to stop playing in the uh in the government world could you you please come back home where you kind of never wanted to leave so it was a really
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cool opportunity those four years yeah for sure and you were the uh the second CEO of CHS right I was technically the
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third CEO of uh of chws but the first CEO to go through a transition okay chw
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New Jersey was uh was created under the previous administration so Phil Murphy Governor Murphy was responsible for kind
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of that transition and really making sure that it was not intended to be a political organization it really wasn't
15:02
we really wanted to kind of Drive businesses to call New Jersey home how to expand what's already here um and
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really Define kind of some of the coolest things about New Jersey yeah and when you're talking about defining the coolest things about New Jersey and kind
15:15
of finding the voice of that organization from your kind of perspective and your you know um your
15:21
time there like kind of what was the the main objectives I guess because you know I think you know we had West Matthews on
15:27
the show love West W awesome no better person to replace yeah and he's he's he was great he was a guest of the show
15:33
last year um and I'm just curious to kind of see like when when you kind of take the Reigns there what were kind of
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like some of the initiatives that you were pushing hard for to kind of Define that voice yeah so there was a couple of
15:44
things you know chues had done an amazing job beforehand Michelle Brown was my predecessor who did a wonderful
15:50
job what I had realized was it was a difficult time for us to convince a
15:57
company domestically to move to New Jersey in the Northeast so having convincing company from North Carolina
16:03
South Carolina the Texas of the world to come to New Jersey was a heavy LIF right from a cost if they pick those States
16:09
they picked them more often than not because of all the cost and New Jersey was a little bit more costly but what we
16:14
found was many International companies really wanted to enter the US market via
16:20
New York City but when you look at the cost of New York City that in itself is a sticker shock but when you look at New
16:25
Jersey New Jersey found at better value it was cheaper to to do business you still have access to New York great
16:32
flights great place to raise a family and so it it felt like it checked a lot more boxes off so we started to develop
16:38
this International Narrative of the Y New Jersey now it doesn't mean we moved our eye off the ball off of the domestic
16:44
side we just strategically focused on the californias the New Yorks the Connecticut the floridas the places
16:51
where we felt like we could go toot toe from a cost perspective but and Boston as well but what we really focus is that
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the International there was great so there was a huge opportunity so um I was
17:03
really really privileged to have to be the firsto to really open up a New Jersey office internationally we opened
17:09
our very first office in Berlin to represent us in Europe and then latter down later down the point we opened the
17:14
one up in India but what was really really cool is that West Matthews had worked for the Eda and was my International partner and so it was a
17:21
really he was a part of developing that strategy and being able to succeed me afterwards really carried that torch
17:26
forward but for me it was it's really easy to talk to a company and say look I'm young it's a place where I raise a
17:33
family it's a place where I want to um kind of grow myself and there's so many
17:38
opportunities and so I think many organizations and CEOs saw the passion
17:44
that you could talk about New Jersey and I thought was really convincing on why they should strongly consider relocating
17:50
or expanding their businesses into New Jersey and I think it resonated we got some of the largest companies to ever
17:55
move into New Jersey with there in that period of time now granted Governor Murphy is like the best salesman you're
18:01
ever going to get to convince a company that man does not he will not stop until you get to yes and like there's no
18:07
better you know cheap salesman than than Governor Murphy yeah so all right so now we're back to Hackensack because we are
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here and it's kind of a little bit roller coaster no I love it we love kind of just stories that go that have like a
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lot of branches you know um so you get back to hacken Zac uh when you get here
18:24
uh was Chief growth officer like kind of what you came back as did you come back at something else no I came back as a
18:29
senior vice president for Partnerships um and because of the many relationships that I was able to build
18:36
and really understanding of the New Jersey Market I was really brought back to help kind of grow the organization
18:42
via strategic Partners things that were just unique and sort of different uh and then over time the individual I worked
18:48
for was transitioning towards retirement so I had the opportunity to then upon his retirement to really expand my role
18:55
to a chief growth officer something that Bob gar Co really was a kind of forward
19:01
thinker in this and saying Hey how do we take the many things that we're trying to do expanding not only growing our
19:06
reputation our footprint yeah how do we really lump that all in the one umbrella to make sure the left hand is working
19:11
with the right hand so he created this Chief growth officer which is really new I I think it's it's newer to healthcare
19:17
it's probably one of the fastest growing positions yeah in healthcare but it's newer and hmh is one of the first places
19:23
to really adopt it and it's really unique it's you know other than leading an amazing team and the marketing and
19:29
the communication is The Branding side we have the patient access center side which is kind of the uh the um the call
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center and that that that front door how do we get patients to um enter the organization and really provide the
19:42
services that they're really looking for yeah but I also oversee the real estate footprint really supporting and leading
19:47
the efforts on our ambulatory footprint so expanding our footprint beyond our 18 hospitals that we have where are those
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onop shop kind of locations that could be really convenient for the communities that we serve yeah so really helping out
19:59
of the amatur I'm overseeing really the real estate team the facilities team and so that's it seems like a lot but
20:06
there's there's really some really cool complimentary components of the left hand and the right hand branding
20:11
experience really working with kind of our footprint it really meshes really nicely yeah that's awesome and I love
20:18
kind of how we got all the way through that to this point in the story so we're going to take our break actually um then
20:24
we're going to come back we talk all about Hack and Sack and all the stuff that we kind of came here really to talk about not just you of course uh but uh
20:31
so this is the greens gar podcast I'm Mike H we're here with Jose Lozano at Haack Muran Health uh Chief grow Chief
20:37
growth officer here that's hard to say if I say it really fast yeah don't say too many times uh green podcast powered
20:44
by the New Jersey Lottery sorry I forgot to say that uh we'll be right back the male Performing Art Center is the heart of arts and entertainment in Morristown
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remember that's co.com all right we're back for Segment two this episode of green the ARs sa
21:56
Power by the New Jersey Lottery I'm like cam we're here with Jose Lozano Chief growth officer of Hackensack Meridian health uh so first thing we learned all
22:03
about your background uh all the cool stops that you've made up to this point um and now your role here as Chief
22:09
growth officer at hackensac Meridian health um I think we just get this out of the way at the top uh because part of
22:15
this episode the one of the big reasons why we're able to set this episode up is through our friends with the Helix uh NJ
22:22
and Chris palino and the devco group and all that um so talk to me about a little bit uh hack
22:29
relationship with the Helix project um kind of what you're excited about with that because you know we kind of talked
22:35
a little bit at the end of the first segment about all the stuff that you kind of have going on with the branding the real estate all that kind of stuff
22:40
and and growing it out and why that project is important for you and you
22:46
hackas Mur Al as a whole yeah and the state and the region and the country right so what's really cool is while I
22:52
was at choose New Jersey we ended up developing the strategy of the Helix
22:58
okay not knowing that a couple of years later hmh would end up being uh one of the founders and one of the leading
23:04
individuals actually on that sort of campus and so when I'm going to blend a
23:09
little bit of the chws and the hmh when you look at organizations really developing that next that next great
23:17
idea that next Innovation they're always looking for professionals and wellestablished organizations that are
23:23
seasoned to prove that their concept could be successful having a location
23:29
like the Helix that you have two of the most premier Healthcare organizations in
23:35
the country and one their location and two of the most premier institutions of higher education being Ruckers and
23:41
Princeton yeah Under One Roof getting the four of us to be in one roof is
23:46
absolutely unique and it's amazing and with hackin really one of the most forward-thinking Healthcare
23:52
organizations in the country when it comes to Innovation really pushing the boundaries of healthcare from a medical
23:57
device services to research really Forward Thinking there was no better place for us to be than at the Helix now
24:05
we do have our medical schools up at Clifton we do have the Center for Discovery and Innovation we do have a
24:11
research component there but we really want to be a part of something that's special as a part of New Brunswick there's such Rich history there yeah
24:18
from the Johnson Johnson's the Thomas Edison's Ruckers University are State institution I mean Stockton's a little
24:24
stronger but I understand why rockers is down the research side yeah um and having prin in and so how could you not
24:30
have hackin Sac mity Health there like we really want to be there you know being the largest Health Care system in in the state 36,000 employees 18
24:38
hospitals you know we are a test bed for full of innovation I often say that
24:43
hackin saac Muran health is like the microcosm of the United States yeah when it comes to diversity when it comes to
24:50
the populations that we serve when it comes to the communities we serve we go from from Palisades Medical Center which
24:56
is right in the most urban area right outside New York City to some rural campuses to Suburban the diversity in
25:02
the communities that we serve is a really truly is a microcosm so when you look at Innovation and ideas why
25:08
wouldn't you want to partner with hackin sa Mar Al to Pro point that is your concept could be something that could be
25:13
scaled across the country and across the world it is funny because you mentioned kind of like the history of New Brunswick uh and just as a sidebar Chris
25:21
actually owns the title for the most watched Instagram real that we've ever had on the show by a lot like 150,000
25:29
views talking about the Johnson Brothers and Thomas Edison like all that kind of stuff so that was that's pretty pretty
25:35
cool it's really cool and if you um I know my office doesn't face it but right on the other side of you know the hall
25:41
the offices where view were kind of the iconic museum for Thomas Edison so we are in Edison New Jersey right down the
25:48
street from New Brunswick yeah um so it's really cool history I I just I can't wait to have a presence here I
25:54
can't wait for it to be open because there's that really cool bu effect when
25:59
someone with a great idea is going to bump into someone that happens to be in healthcare maybe next to institution and you're having a cup of coffee and you're
26:05
brainstorming your ideas some of the best ideas are come from these casual conversations that evolve to something
26:11
even bigger and greater right and so uh when we're talking about hackin sack's role as one of like the you know RWJ
26:19
right and you guys is that yeah yeah the smaller Healthcare System right yeah the other one yeah the other one um with
26:25
with you guys well with you particularly there um what are you doing there like what
26:31
what like the helix or um hack attack Meridian health inside the Helix what's kind of the uh obviously like Innovation
26:37
and growth and kind of collaboration and different things but what's really like the main purpose of being in that space
26:43
yeah so uh one is we want a glimpse of what are some of the newest things that are going to be coming out of that area
26:49
so just full transparency two we have an amazing Innovation team we have the Bears Den in which uh which many folks
26:55
may not know about it was created several years ago in this organization it was a financial commitment by the
27:01
board okay to say hey we should be investing helping to some of these startup companies with great ideas we
27:07
should help invest with the benefit that it helps some of our constituents and some of the patients that we serve in
27:12
the future and so we have the Bears then we have a team that really helps upand cominging companies work with them and
27:18
so having that team have a presence there not only getting the first glimpse of some of the coolest stuff that's
27:24
coming about but also be able to support them help them and interact with the folks here back at hackin M Health at
27:29
each of our hospitals and each of our service signes to see where best fits so I think that team will have obviously a
27:35
significant presence there um and I think some of our Tech transfer folks really helping our some of those great
27:42
ideas help commercialize um and so I think it's not what's necessarily going
27:47
to be on we have so many options to go there we're just trying to figure what the Right Mix is and you know often in
27:52
these sort of projects where you start may not necessarily always be where you end up and so I think we'll have kind of
27:58
a rotation of folks going in and out of there but we'll see what companies are in there what programs we in there if
28:03
there's some really cool project that's being jointly done by Ruckers or Princeton or Barnabas maybe we join in
28:09
and we put a separate sort of team in there and so it it's really we want to keep keep it Nimble because I think some
28:15
of the greatest ideas and some of the things that have come about is when you're Nimble and be a little less stuck in the mud yeah like we said in the
28:21
first second like you get to plany it doesn't really work never works never works never works um with life and
28:27
business and everything talk Metro Park let's talk about Metro Park a little bit because we were going
28:32
to try to record over there but yeah it's a lot of noise going on there they
28:37
there's a lot you know metr Park is the second busiest train station in New Jersey so unless the segment was in like
28:42
a 15sec bits like we were going to get a lot of train noise which we've done before which we've done before and I get we've actually just started commencing
28:49
some work over there that is a really great idea that our Bob Garrett our CE has really come up with we had we had a
28:54
couple of needs and that kind of Blended in together in this market in Middle sex County where we currently sitting in we
29:01
saw that there was a huge growth in population and that the services that we were providing we needed to add more
29:08
capacity so we were looking in this market for what we call an ambulatory
29:14
capabilities that allows multi specialty primary some of the services to create that really cool One-Stop shop model
29:19
yeah and we really couldn't find a location that best fit that but we also had another need on the other side which
29:26
was in this postco world we unfortunately have multiple locations for our corporate services that ranges
29:33
around the state but we have three locations immediately in this area so we wanted to consolidate Under One Roof our
29:39
corporate services so on the left hand we were looking for inventory on the right hand we're looking for corporate services and Bob had said is there an
29:46
opportunity to sort of blend them together and we knew that door which is a developer a a combination of Deno Onyx
29:53
and Russo won the bid with NJ transit to build at Metro Park and so we said hey
29:59
wouldn't it be really cool to actually build an ambulatory right there in Metro
30:04
Park but also maybe at top of our cor uh corporate services so it it it developed from a from a business perspective the
30:10
simplest way to say is an economies of scale model right right so each one helped fund the other one from a scale
30:16
per perspective but what we saw was there is no other Healthcare organization in this country in the
30:22
metropolitan area that really provides Healthcare Services on a train not everyone has as a vehicle to get to
30:30
where they need to and so to say that we're going to have a multi- specialty
30:35
comprehensive location right on our train station which happens to be the second busiest in New Jersey yeah was
30:41
really really cool because metrop Park is not only for NJ Transit it's also for amtr so you
30:49
have the ability to go from Philadelphia to metrop park in 35 minutes and also
30:55
from New York City down to metrop park in 35 minutes so it's a great central location so we have our medical services
31:01
that we're building at and we started to think from a corporate services perspective you know the leadership of
31:06
the organization having one great central location that allowed folks to really commute to work not using a
31:14
personal vehicle but to be able to access a mass transit so we thought that from a from a team members perspective
31:20
the net of attracting the next generation of talent would be great and
31:25
then secondly the ambulatory side which I think is what we LED mostly with yeah but to say that it's really cool that
31:31
you can go visit a doctor now what I think is going to be really unique is some of our services we're hoping to
31:37
provide them prior to so folks that are going into New York City to work could maybe have a quick appointment at 6:30
31:43
o' in the morning be able to get it get it done in time just before you can jump on the train and get into New York City
31:48
and not have to miss a day of work yeah or we'll have a pharmacy out there so think about all those times that your
31:55
doctor prescribes you something you're like oh that script has been sitting on dashboard for the last couple just keep
32:00
like pick up your SC like no here for two more days that's exactly you know I usually go like I'm putting it on the
32:05
Shelf in five minutes if you don't come again I like I'm on the way I'm on the way but to think about that a pharmacy can be right when you get off the train
32:12
prior to you go to your car you could pick up your script can't see a car from a convenience so we're really trying to bring Healthcare to what's most
32:18
convenient to you right what I love about kind of you explaining Metro Park to me and also you know knowing knowing
32:25
my stuff about the helix or the stuff that I know about the elix and what you just kind of told me about the elix um
32:31
is how it's kind of like turning the Health Care System sort of and how it's
32:37
always operated a little bit on its head so to speak so kind of like thinking outside the box and not just be like
32:44
we're a Healthcare company we do hospitals and doctors and that's it you know but kind of thinking holistically
32:50
almost to kind of Bring It is uh that's what I I did ask Chris when we did the episode about the Helix was like why
32:56
would an average New Jersey and care like they're going to go to the doctor no matter what they're going to go get prescriptions no matter what but like
33:01
all the stuff that we're talking about with these different things is like it's going to impact your day-to-day life you
33:07
know beyond just going to a doctor a absolutely look more and more every day
33:12
services are being done more efficiently and outside the four walls of the hospital yeah having hackin mity Health
33:19
sort of lead the way on that footprint and those Services bringing them a little closer to home is more convenient
33:26
I can't pick up the hospitals and replicate them right but I can replicate some of those Services outside and a
33:31
little bit closer to you and having the Helix right there and having that some of the greatest invention they I assure
33:38
you that in the next 105 years something that will be a way of life that is
33:43
impacting your health and your well-being I guarantee you will be will come out of the Helix I guarantee given
33:49
the amount of inventions that have come out of New Jersey sure I have no doubt
33:54
that something in 1015 years will come out of the helix and it'll be like how did we not have this sooner yeah and
34:00
folks like hack ands health is a catalyst to ensure that makes that happen you're going to need to test out
34:06
any of these Concepts and ideas in a real a real life institution and this is this no better place than hmh yeah
34:13
absolutely um what are some other things kind of coming uh so we're talking about
34:18
things that are kind of in the works right now yeah um and as Chief growth officer like I'm sure always thinking
34:24
about future growth oh yeah like what are some things maybe that that are kind of in the work stuff that you can talk about uh you're excited about all that
34:31
kind of stuff look hmh is really focusing on making the experience
34:37
something that's really customed to you we understand that in today's day your
34:42
phone you can do anything and everything via phone you can buy your movie tickets you can buy parking tickets you can
34:49
transfer money we need to make sure that Health Care is equally as just as convenient and where hmh is coming about
34:55
is ensuring that that digital front door is something that's seamless and useful to you scheduling an appointment right
35:02
at your convenient time instead of picking up the phone and having to call and be put on hold and wait for um the
35:08
scheduler to come on and find the time to being able to look at that live on your phone or on your computer to see
35:15
what the most available time for you we want to make it really easy for you because it's it's easier and cheaper to
35:22
keep you healthy than it is to get you healthy when you're sick right right and so we really want to make that
35:27
convenience so for us we're really focusing on how Mike we're going to make things easier for you to schedule an
35:32
appointment those annual physicals maybe we need to remind you via technology about emails or text messages hey hey
35:38
it's time for your checkup again here are these results your prescriptions yeah prescriptions got to go get it
35:44
after this episode um but really trying to find a really convenient way so I think we're more forward looking about
35:50
how we're making things really healthy for you there's so much going to the home I think there are some things that
35:56
hmh will be coming out and we're going to take much more of that Health Care away from one of our facilities closer
36:02
to home where let's let's be clear you heal better and you just feel better when you're able to take care of
36:07
yourself at home like home is home for a reason and so I think the more and more that we can do things at home I think
36:13
the better off the patient is and I think the better off that hmh can be at um and there's some really cool things coming out of our CDR center of
36:20
discovery and Innovation some great research that they're really focusing on you know they they were really one of
36:26
the early individuals who helped combat covid um with the testing and
36:31
understanding how many strands and what strands were in this area so they can kind of match it up with the vaccine really amazing work that team up there
36:37
just deserves all the Kudos because I think they were definitely a huge part of kind of getting us in this post
36:44
pandemic recovery yeah but hmh we have a lot that's coming about you know there's some really great activities that are
36:50
going to be going on in New Jersey I think hmh will be a part of I think the World Cup is something that's really cool it's it feels like it's only in two
36:56
years but it's a around the corner will be a part of um you know the New York Giants by the time um this airs New York
37:04
Giants we coming out is celebrating their 100th anniversary that's crazy uh which is kind of wild I mean hmh has
37:11
been taking care of the New York Giants and its fans for a long time I think for us to be celebrating you know the last
37:17
100 years and you know looking forward to the next 100 years I think there's some really cool stuff so uh hmh is
37:23
going to be leading a lot of fun up but I I think you'll be seeing a lot more of us in the news and the the coming months yeah for sure and so could we also talk
37:30
about to um and you had mentioned this a little bit earlier but I kind of wanted to go a different route but I do want to Circle back to it is serving as uh as HH
37:39
continues to grow and and all that kind of stuff serving communities that probably before were almost underserved
37:45
when it came to healthcare and all that kind of stuff um so we we talk a little bit about that because I think that's
37:50
when we're talking about Jersey there's my favorite thing about Jersey is that it's so diverse but diverse in a lot of
37:57
ways umom you know all these different things and so uh with with Haack and and what
38:05
you guys are doing here I'm sure that kind of comes into play as well as making sure that you know as you grow
38:11
you're continuing to serve more and more communities around the state right yeah we we want to not only serve all of
38:17
those communities that we can but we want to really make it convenient and so we have an amazing strategy team that's
38:23
really focusing about understanding kind of the needs of the community to sure that the services we build actually
38:29
match up to the community needs so we're not just plotting locations just to plot them from a revenue perspective we're
38:35
really trying to serve the needs of the community yeah now our our our clinicians are also spending a bit of
38:43
time understanding the individuals and the patients ensure that food
38:48
insecurities needs Behavioral Health we're really focusing Behavior we know that the the pandemic has really brought
38:54
light to many of the complexities of the behavior of Behavioral Health and so we're investing a bit more time in
39:00
ensuring that our clinicians Are all uh informed and educated about some of the signs to ensure that we're taking care
39:06
of the whole patient not just the purpose that the patient was coming in for um but when you look at the most
39:14
northern tip of our our footprint our Market where we have the most out of coverage in the northern part of Bergen
39:20
County all the way to the most northern part of Atlantic County I mean we have this span of the entire Coastline of New
39:26
Jersey yeah um we're looking to ensure that you know at any point you have a touch Point within 15 minutes of your
39:33
home to some hackin saian Health Services we're going to continue to expand our footprint to make that maybe
39:39
even closer and even more convenient for you yeah so again we're trying to bring the care to you versus you having to go
39:44
find the care kind of situation no I love that I think that you know as it's just accessibility you know like whether
39:51
it's food Healthcare like all these different things I think that's a big thing like that impacts a lot of these communities that we're talking about
39:57
um and I do want to shift it a little bit more kind of as we wrap up here um so we talked a lot about hmh we talked a
40:04
lot about your background I do want to get just like a couple Jersey things from you um so you're a Bergen County
40:11
guy now uh but you've kind of done so many different things all over the state really do you have like spots that
40:18
you're just like oh I love going to here like what what are some of Jose's spots in Jersey oo wow how am I not going to
40:26
get in trouble picking one or leaving someone off the list um I always do always leave somebody off and I'm just
40:32
like oh man I should have said this one yeah you know um for me you know the
40:38
places where I feel relaxed and I really enjoy life we we we try to spend the summers at the at the beach or down the
40:44
shore and So Long Beach Island is a cool wonderful place and um look Kate May
40:49
Brewery and Kate May in the South awesome sort of sort of beer you go up you got clam um Chow Fest over in lb was
40:57
a really really fun time Mac and Mango's Pizza in sumers point awesome um when you look at Bergen
41:04
County I love oceanos is Greek Mediterranean still kind of familyowned great customer service spectacular food
41:12
yeah what I love about New Jersey is like whatever ethnic food you're sort of looking for you want something different
41:17
you've really have gotten it um if you look at my waistline I clearly enjoy the pastas and the Italian so I'm even gonna
41:23
attempt the Italian food kind of situation but it feels like I gotta go wherever you want to meet up I'm sure
41:29
there's a rush great Rush within 15 minutes of that we're going to fight out but yeah what do you think and I think
41:34
the other thing too is like what do you think people sleep on about New Jersey the most like people just like oh I
41:40
didn't even know that you could do this or uh yeah I I think where people forget
41:45
unless you're physically here right often you're the turnpike cuts through some of our most industrial areas
41:51
Parkways down sort of the coast we're a very Highway Central set set of state but I think with the folks who move into
41:58
New Jersey or spend a significant amount of time in New Jersey realize that you can have it all you can go from the
42:04
urban walkable community of Jersey City to like a really cool walkable Suburban
42:09
like Monclair you have the mountains up in the Northwestern part of this state you've got the Jersey shores so whatever
42:16
itch you are trying to scratch you totally have it in New Jersey from the hiking to the beach to relaxing to kind
42:23
of that night life you kind of have it all and I think all in debt you could literally do it all in a day you know I
42:29
often tell folks is like you know you go to California if you want the beach you're driving hours or maybe even a day to get to it for us there's no part of
42:36
New Jersey you can't get under in two hours that a situation and so I think most folks are just forget that you know
42:43
I can go one day starting in the morning down in Atlantic City doing meetings at Stockton you know so you've kind of have
42:49
that Beach Casino sort of life but I can grab lunch in New Brunswick and downtown on George Street and then go home to
42:55
kind of or albergen County and have little Suburbia like I could do that all in a day not many other states and um
43:01
cities and communities could you do that and New Jersey's got a really cool feel for that yeah I love that answer and I
43:06
agree with all of it um okay so uh as we're wrapping up uh if people want to
43:11
learn more about the stuff that's happening with hmh and we'll put any links that you want in the show notes so even if you miss one it'll be there um
43:19
where would where should people go to kind of learn more about what's going on connect with you guys all that kind of
43:24
stuff look we have a really robust Hack and Sack M and Health Website you know you can schedule appointment with the
43:30
doctor's office you can schedule some you can understand some of the services that we're providing you can even come join the team if you're clinicians or
43:37
you want anything at the end of the day hospitals are like little miniature cities yeah we we have Finance folks
43:42
from facility folks to you know Dining Services what you know if you want to come join the team we'd love to have you
43:48
on uh have you join the team but if you want to learn more about some of the services we're proving hackin Muran
43:53
Health Website is always a good One-Stop shop Perfect all right we'll put that in the show notes people can click it check
43:59
it out um I really appreciate you jumping on with us and I Thanks for doing this yeah absolutely and we'll and
44:05
we'll thank the Helix Helix NJ also for kind of helping get this set up and facilitated so thanks to them uh I'm
44:11
looking forward to more of the growth of hmh it's really yeah yeah yeah we we're coming to a neighborhood near
44:18
you um all right great so we'll put the hack Meridian health uh website in the show notes along with greetings from the
44:23
gate.com which is the website for the show uh you can check out all of our other episodes because we've been crushing it with episodes this yeah no I
44:30
see um some great guests so far and this was right in line with with all of them so appreciate it again again this is the
44:37
greeting greetings from the guarda podcast powered by the New Jersey Lottery I'm Mike ham he was Jose Lozano the chief growth officer here at Haag R
44:44
and heal thank you for listening and we'll catch you next
44:51
time myab do you want right
44:57
oh tell me before you go all the way do you want to ride
45:27
h



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