Joey Wahler (Host): He is ACHE'S Gold Medal Award winner, given to outstanding leaders who've made significant contributions to the healthcare profession. So, we're talking with Jack Lynch III recently retired president and CEO of Main Line Health in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. This is the Healthcare Executive Podcast from the American College of Healthcare Executives, providing you with insightful commentary and developments in the world of healthcare leadership. To learn more, please visit ache.org. Thanks so much for joining us. I am Joey Wahler. Hi there, Jack. Welcome.

Jack Lynch: Thank you, Joey. It's great to be here, and I hope I can contribute some insightful things in our conversation.

Host: That's why we wanted you aboard. So, we are ready to roll. And first, congratulations on winning that ACHE Gold Medal Award. What does that mean to you?

Jack Lynch: Well, you know, I got to tell you that a lot of us do this work for others and don't give a lot of thought to individual recognition. It's great when our team is recognized, whether it's to be a magnet institution or to receive a quality award or an equity award. But I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to individual awards. And when Deborah Bowen called me and said, "Jack, I just want to let you know that you are receiving the gold medal this year," I almost drove off the road, and largely because of the people that I know before me who have been recognized with the gold medal.

I look at the individuals that have been recognized by the American College of Healthcare Executives, and they're all role models. They all exemplify integrity, hard work, commitment to their community. And so, to be in the group of those previous award winners, was something that I was quite frankly overwhelmed by.

Host: Well, congrats once more on that. And let me ask you this, in a nutshell, what would you say first led you to a career in healthcare? Why that?

Jack Lynch: So, I grew up in Washington, DC. My father was a physician, my mother was a nurse, and I'm the oldest of five, and the only boy. When I was probably 16, I had this desire to join the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, hence the fire helmet in the background. And I really wanted it to be something that nobody could look back and say, "You wasted time. You didn't learn anything that contributed to your future." You did something with that experience. Because quite frankly, you know, joining the volunteer fire department can be something that can sidetrack you from your academic pursuits. So at 17 and a half, I joined the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad.

I was nine months later in EMT, a year and a half later driving an ambulance around the Bethesda Maryland, Washington DC, Chevy-Chase area, and it helped me grow up. It put me in the back of an ambulance with me and a patient. And albeit from the time we got to their location to the time we got to the hospital, I was expected to help them.

And I really enjoyed the medical aspects of it, but the passion I had was for the bigger picture, the delivery of emergency care in the community, the logistics, the preparedness. And so, made a decision to pursue a bachelor's in management. And I knew that I'd have to go on to graduate school. I was fortunate enough to start working at the Washington Hospital Center while in high school, in the trauma unit, as a tech brand new MedStar trauma unit. And so, while the medicine piece was interesting, I never pursued sciences. I never pursued wanting to be a physician. I really wanted to be, quite frankly, at the time, administrator of a trauma program.

And over time, it grew into much more than that. But four years of college, knew I had to go to graduate school, decided to go to graduate school immediately out of college, was accepted to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. I did two years there, did a fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. And I've never looked back thinking I should have done something different.

Host: And so, working in the trenches initially fueled your passion for what you eventually wound up doing. That's awesome. Now, you spent 20 years at Main Line Health, overseeing really numerous capital improvement projects, innovations, philanthropic developments. So, what are some of the lessons you learned along the way about your own leadership style and working within the community?

Jack Lynch: I'll preface it with I spent 19 years at St. Luke's in Houston, and then 20 at Main Line Health. And I say that because I'm one of those rare executives that had the privilege of working principally in two institutions for my entire career. There are a handful of us out there that spent it in one institution. And I just admire that a great deal. And there are a lot of that have moved around, and that's good for them.

I believe for me, being in the communities of the institutions that I served, listening to the community, understanding what the community's needs are. Having a mentor early on in my career that told me my responsibility was to help improve the health status of the community, help individuals become healthier, help them stay well. I developed a real passion around, I'm part of this community and I want to help make sure that we're there for their wellness. But more importantly at the time, be there for when they need us. And there are a number of things throughout my career that helped me understand how important that was, not the least of which was the pandemic. So, you know, I would say listening to your community, understanding what your community's needs are, and recognizing that not everything you do is going to return a huge financial return to the institution. But that's part of why we're here.

Host: Yeah. So many leaders, it seems, know about the importance of being a good listener. Now, throughout your career, the healthcare field, naturally Jack has gone through so much change, volatility. What are a few examples of challenges that have impacted you and your two organizations? And how do you work through those at the time?

Jack Lynch: Well, you know, with 41 years of experience, the first thing I would say is I wouldn't have wanted to go through them by myself. I was privileged both at St. Luke's and at Main Line to have an incredibly talented team that worked with me, I worked with. And I would say from the housekeeper to my chief financial officer, chief quality officer, chief medical officer, the board. So really, my success and, in large part, what I've said to people about the gold medal was there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people that helped me achieve the kind of success that allowed me to be recognized with that gold medal.

Along the way, there were some real challenges. And I would say, some of them I've tried to put out of my mind. Some of them as hard as I try, they'll never leave. The first time you tell a patients family that you injured them, it is pretty overwhelming. But I learned very early in on my career how important integrity and transparency was. One of the most impactful experiences I had was managing through Tropical Storm Allison that hit Houston on first week of June in 2001, and literally wiped healthcare in the Houston market and certainly in the Texas Medical Center out. We were in the dark. We were in the dark for days. I was in a 26-storey building that had patients in it. And we had to manage through that disaster, and we couldn't have done it without people. And what I saw was by empowering people to make decisions at the closest point to the patient, that's how we got things done. We didn't get things done because people ran it up the pole and asked Jack or Michael Jin, what should we do? We had created a culture where empowering individuals to do what's right for the patient really got us through that. And we had about a hundred million dollars of damage. Methodist had about $200 million of damage, and Memorial Hermann, which may have been Hermann Hospital at the time, had $300 million of damage. So literally, healthcare in the Texas Medical Center was shut down.

What I learned from that is that I, as a leader in an institution like that, has an obligation to be ready for the community's needs. And our generators were under water. Our generators were at C level, and C level rose above C level. And we failed. We let the community down. And so, I swore that anything that I could prevent from happening, that leadership or management decisions could alter outcomes that I would lead in the way that we were prepared.

Hence, when the flu vaccine became an issue and we started talking about should we vaccinate our employees for the flu, it was a no-brainer for me, because I couldn't afford to have 50% of the community end up with the flu. And therefore, 50% of my workforce not able to work and then not be prepared to deal with the flu. So, at the time, the flu vaccine mandate was not as nearly as controversial as the COVID vaccine, but it wasn't something everybody wanted to do.

And I adopted very early on the need for having flu vaccine mandatory for our employees, because we had an obligation to be ready for the community if the community needed us. And that readiness and the lessons I learned both in Tropical Storm Allison. And the flu vaccine largely helped us deal with the COVID outbreak and the pandemic. We weren't ready. We had moved away from thinking about just patient safety. After Ebola, we understood how important employee safety was and needle sticks and back injuries were all there. But we always talked about patient safety. And we changed after Ebola and talked about safety. So, it was the Safety Quality Committee and that it became the Safety, Quality and Equity Committee.

And so, the second or most impactful part of my career was managing through the five years of COVID. And It was all unprecedented. It was all unscripted. You had no idea what the next day was going to bring. And I look back, and I'm really, really proud of the team at Main Line Health, and I'm really proud of the leadership in the city of Houston. We collaborated with all of the healthcare providers. We never had to have patients out in the street like some cities did because they were literally overwhelmed. And again, we learned from what was going on in New York, we learned from what was going on in California. And so, we were able to adapt to the challenges that other institutions were facing. But we got through that without laying one employee off, without furloughing any employee, without ever closing a bed. But we spent a lot of money. I think that's what a lot of the resources that we had were there for, that rainy day. And we were blessed to have resources that allowed us to make sure that we had the proper personal protective equipment and we took care of our employees, who then we expected to take care of our patients.

And, just again, so proud of the leadership and the team that jumped in and really, quite frankly, at the time, believed they were taking risks for their lives. It's something I look back on and feel very proud of. I wouldn't want to have to go through it again.

Host: Absolutely. Twenty-six floors with no power. That's on the job training, right?

Jack Lynch: Yep. And, you know, we had everybody pitching in. The CFO is running meals up the stairs. I learned early on that the staff need to see that there's nothing you're not willing to do. Now, that said, you're a leader. You can't be doing things that don't require leadership all the time. Occasionally, if you want to grab the mop and mop the floor, fine, but they're expecting more than you just mopping the floor. And so, it's that balancing act that there's nothing below me. I'm not sitting in a white, you know, ivory tower with all the answers. But more importantly, they're understanding the challenges that we're facing.

During COVID, our leadership team was out in the intensive care units. We were out in the emergency room. We were visible. We went to work every day. We didn't try and manage from our basements. And I think it said, you know, if you're going to bring your workforce into work, the leadership of the organization needs to be there demonstrating leadership.

And so, again, that didn't come to me through book knowledge. It came to me through experiences, great mentors, modeling behaviors that I think were models or behaviors that I admired in other people. And again, while every institution faces challenges, it's how the leadership and the team that they're leading responds to those challenges.

Host: Yeah, no question about that. So, switching gears a little bit, you've reached fellowship status with ACHE. So, how has that FACHE credential helped you and your career, would you say?

Jack Lynch: I went to graduate school, as I said, at Washington University of Medicine Health Administration Program. The program director was a guy named Jim Hepner. One of the first things I remember in the first couple days of school was how important it was for us to become student associates of the American College of Healthcare, I think at the American College of Hospital Administrators at the time.

And Dr. Hepner went on to become the chair of the college, which was very unusual for an academic guy to be the chair of the college. It was usually practitioners. But I came to understand the value of the college very, very early on in my professional career. I started attending Congress in 1983, '84, and didn't miss very many of them between then and now.

The educational sessions were valuable. The networking was incredibly helpful to me and hopefully to others. The code of ethics gave you sort of a lens to look through if you ever had a question about which direction you should go on something with regard to an ethical issue. And there are lots of them in our field. I felt that that code of ethics was a North Star. I felt that having that FACHE credential separated me from others that didn't have it. That doesn't mean that those that don't have it aren't qualified to do what they're doing, or aren't even better than some of us that may be credentialed.

But the credential was something that I really valued and it was something that I value today as a life fellow, soon to be a life fellow in the college. First of all, putting that L in front of the FACHE is going to be a big turning point for me, because it kind of moves you from being active in the field to being a life fellow. But it's something I keep in my LinkedIn page, I haven't wiped out my FACHE credential and it's something that I found valuable to me and I want to role model it to others.

Host: When you're scrolling through LinkedIn profiles, you don't see many of those, right? It's an exclusive group.

Jack Lynch: It is. But you know, I think it's one that demonstrates your commitment to the field, demonstrates your commitment to continuous learning. And there are requirements for continuous learning. I had the privilege of serving on the board of ACHE and really valued that experience, both growing as leader and a board member to an organization, but also helping to set the stage for what was important for the members of the college.

Host: A few other things for you, Jack. First, how about a few of the healthcare leaders that most inspired you and what you took most from them?

Jack Lynch: You know, I've given that a lot of thought. And, you know, with 40 years, there's people that came before you and there's people that are coming behind you that fall into that category. So, I would say one of the most impactful leaders for me was Doug Shepherd. Doug had been a board member of ACHE, and I'll never forget when I became a board member. He gave me the ACHE pin that has the red star in the middle of it. That was his pin when he was a governor and he gave it to me. He taught me a lot of things, taught me how to recognize that, quite frankly, the most important people in the organization are the employees and the physicians, because they're the ones on the front line delivering the care. And if you care for your staff, this is sort of second nature now. But if you care for your staff, they'll go take good care of your patients.

I had the privilege of working for Michael Jin when I was in Houston. Michael was an engineer by training, thought differently than many of us through our traditional educational paths. But Michael taught me how important it was to become predictable as a leader. He used to say to me, and he drove me crazy on occasion, that I didn't appreciate at the time why he was doing it, but he used to say, "I want to be able to slide a problem underneath the door and know exactly how you're going to respond." And the value of your team and the community understanding if this happens, how is that leader going to react, I would say, is invaluable.

You know, Jep Dalston, who was a stalwart in our profession, a University of Michigan grad, Michigan or Minnesota, may have been Minnesota. And someone that really taught me the importance of lifelong learning. Jeff was instrumental in the setting up of the organ procurement organization in Houston, which I later had the privilege of serving as chair. But Jep really was probably one of the leaders that I knew that worked all the time, worked hard and made tremendous impact in his community.

And then, moving along to someone that worked for me for a little while. But I tease him a lot because he's older than me. But Dennis Poland, Dennis is an African American leader. He's a leader who happens to be African American. He worked with me in Houston. Our kids went to daycare together, and he ended up at MedStar, the Washington Hospital Center as the COO, and then went on to Union Memorial—or not Union—more Harbor Hospital in Baltimore and became the CEO. But then, I promised seven, eight years ago, became the CEO of Virtual, which is literally across the river from Philadelphia in New Jersey. And Dennis and I have talked about the issues around meeting the community's needs and understanding the differences around equity and affordability. We joke one day I was in his kitchen and it was over the holidays and he had a black Santa Claus on the counter. And I just made a big scene about having no idea that Santa Claus was black.

And I say that because those are the kinds of conversations that I was privileged to be able to have with Dennis. And I think it really helped build on my foundation of equity and my foundation of giving many people that look different than me the opportunity to experience some of the things we did or I did.

I bought into the Summer Enrichment Program at the Institute for Diversity and Healthcare Management early in my career because I wanted young minorities to have the same opportunities that this doctor's son had when he was a young high school and college student working in a hospital. And so, Dennis has taught me a tremendous amount about how to be responsive to a diverse community.

And I think I've taught him a lot about how to blend that commitment to that community and, at the same time, not be considered the best African American leader, but to be in the categories of a great leader who happens to be African American. I happen to be white. Dennis faced different challenges than I did as a black leader. I don't pretend to think the challenges that I faced were nearly as difficult, but me understanding the challenges that he faced helps me break barriers down for individuals that look like Dennis and others as they move through their career and, more importantly, helps me understand how important it is to ensure that every single patient that shows up for care or doesn't show up for care because they don't think they're welcome is in fact welcome, is in fact listened to, and gets equitable treatment.

Host: How about advice you have for emerging leaders? I'm sure you've been asked this a lot over the years. Has it changed over the years while you've been at this? Is the leadership advice different today than, say, 20 or 30 years ago?

Jack Lynch: I think it is. I think we're in a much more complex world. I used to tell young students and fellows, I thought there were five things that were important to be successful in this field. You needed to work hard, you had to have a high degree of integrity. Hold yourself accountable for not just the good things you did, but also the things that weren't as good. I'm convinced I got promoted once early in my career because I took responsibility for something that wasn't so good. You need to have a didactic component to the delivery. And I say that because you don't want to ever think you wasted time going to school.

And the fifth is, quite frankly, common sense. A lot of the things, a lot of the decisions that we make on a fairly regular basis, it just drives a lot of common sense. I've moved on to what I describe as sort of 10 characteristics, and I'm going to sort of briefly go through them.

First of all, I think you have to understand it's a privilege to be a leader. It's not an entitlement. It's not something you earn by time. It's a privilege. You have to be trustworthy. Your integrity is all you got. And nobody can take it away from you except you can lose it. You have to be able to inspire others. Think about the people that you follow, what inspired you about them.

And so, I think as a leader, inspiring, having the ability to inspire others to follow you. Be an active listener and, you know, there are some people that may see this video and say, "When did Jack pick up on that?" I would say over the course of my career, I became a better listener. And I think that you make better decisions when you listen.

When you listen to diverse opinions around the table, when you listen to a diverse community, you become much better, be able to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. You know, not everybody can do that. And if you're in this field, there are a lot of uncomfortable things you're going to have to deal with and you're going to be forced to make decisions. And some of them aren't going to be that popular, but you got to think about what's the overall mission, empowers others to make decisions. I talked earlier about how important it was for the organization. You know, I've had anywhere from. 8,000 to 15,000 employees. And if everything had to go up before it came back down, one, you're not fast enough, you're not nimble enough and patients don't benefit, the community doesn't benefit. So, empowering others.

I think we have a real obligation. I think the college does a good job at expecting us to be mentors, mentor others. And as I indicated to you, I was mentored by some great folks and I credit them with a lot of my success. One of them taught me to presume innocence. When somebody does something wrong or something that you don't like, you got to just assume that was not intentional and maybe you don't understand what their objectives were. Maybe they didn't understand what your objectives were. But it's much easier to go into something, one, trusting people from the beginning as opposed to having them to have to earn your trust. So with Jack, you don't have to earn my trust.

I trust you from the beginning. But if you lose my trust, it's going to be very hard to get back. So, I think that's real important. You got to work hard if you're going into this field, and think you're not going to work hard. Becoming a leader is not your ticket to sit back and relax. It's something you've got to do every day.

And then, the last thing that I think is really, really important is don't put yourself on a pedestal. There are lots of leaders that look around. And when you can't find them when things get hot, they think they're above everybody else in the organization. And I'm jacked to everybody in our organization. And I get goosebumps when a housekeeper or a food service employee says, "Good morning, Jack." I say, "Good morning, Mike." And if they say, "Good morning, Mr. Jack, I say, "Good morning, Mr. Mike," or in your case, "Mr. Joey." You know, we all put our pants on the same way. And so, I think that you can't get hung up on yourself as a leader. And there are a lot of things that happen to us in our career that puts us up on a pedestal. And I think you got to step off that pedestal and show everybody that, quite frankly, everybody in the organization is important. And if they weren't, they wouldn't be working for you.

Host: Valuable advice indeed. And so in summary here, Jack, now that you are retired, at least from the chapter you've just discussed, what's next for you? We can hear the passion in your voice with just about everything you discussed. Where are you going to apply that to next?

Jack Lynch: I'm not really sure yet. I think I've been given a lot of advice that the first year, first six months. Really sit back and relax. Take some time for yourself. Take some time for your family. I'm doing some podcasts like this. I'm doing some speaking. I'm passionate about equity of care and I'm very comfortable talking about it. Talk about needing to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. If we don't talk about it, we're not going to make improvements. And anybody in this country that doesn't believe that there's disparity of care going on in their community is mistaken. And the first thing you got to do is measure it. And once you start measuring it, you'll understand.

In fact, there are disparities of care. So, I hope to stay involved in some work in that area. I'm working with a couple consultants on some board/CEO, board chair/CEO working groups that I'm passionate about governance, but I'm also passionate about the role of the board chair and the board versus the role of the CEO and how important it is for the CEO to be the leader in the organization.

And if the board needs to do the CEO's job, it's time for the board to find another CEO. So, I'm doing some work in that space. I'm sitting on a couple advisory boards. But it's all on my clock. I'm where I want to be, when I want to be there. And the best advice I got, I think, from somebody about retirement and deciding where you're going to spend your time is spend time with people you want to be around. You know, that's not always the case. When you're employed, you work with what you've got. And not everybody you work with or work for or work in and around are going to be people you want to socialize with or do things on the weekends with. And I'm at a point in my career where I'm going to spend time with the people that I enjoy being with and hopefully that they enjoy being with me.

Host: And deservedly so. Folks, we trust you are now more familiar with Jack Lynch III. Jack, congrats again on the award and on your wonderful career. Best of luck in retirement and congrats on being such an esteemed member of ACHE. After all, as you just illustrated, you've got the pin to prove it, right? I do, and I'm proud to wear it. And I really look forward to seeing who gets recognized with this prestigious award going down the road. And I can tell you that one of the things I didn't mention, but I'm going to continue to actively mentor a number of folks who I've invested a lot in and, quite frankly, who have invested a lot in me.

Jack Lynch: And so, I think I'll go to my grave committed to developing and helping to develop others, and the beauty of that is you always get further develop yourself when you're mentoring others.

Host: Paying it forward indeed. Well, folks, for more information, please visit healthcareexecutive.org. If you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. I'm Joey Wahler. Thanks so much again for being part of the Healthcare Executive Podcast from the American College of Healthcare Executives.