Though Stephen Evans, MD, has spent years as an executive, he still believes actively practicing medicine is vital to understanding the realities of the healthcare industry.
Dr. Evans joined Washington, D.C.-based MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in 1990 as a specialist in general surgery and assistant professor of surgery before rising through the ranks to become vice president of medical affairs. From there, he was promoted to CMO and executive vice president for medical affairs at Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health.
Dr. Evans earned his medical degree from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, Fla. He took the time to speak with Becker's and answer our seven "Corner Office" questions.
Editor's Note: Responses have been edited lightly for length and clarity
Question: What's one thing that really piqued your interest in healthcare?
Dr. Stephen Evans: I think people come to healthcare in two ways, either through an early interest in the biological sciences or serving individuals. For me it was the latter; the idea of taking care of people and making them better was a pretty compelling argument for going into healthcare. In college, I was an engineering major working in a research lab on heart and muscle research. I was on the science side of things, and the person who ran the lab said I should go to the clinic and see how the research we do affects patients with heart problems.
So I volunteered in a clinic and became totally hooked. I said, okay, taking care of people with heart diseases is cool. So I worked in a retirement home taking care of the elderly, cleaning bedpans, folding sheets and tucking them into bed. I pretty much fell in love with the whole idea of taking care of patients. High tech, low tech, anything. I just thought it was the greatest thing. That was sort of the path I started on in healthcare.
Q: What do you enjoy most about living in Bethesda (Md.)?
SE: With all due respect to great cities like New York and Chicago, Washington, D.C., is sort of the epicenter for healthcare because of all the regulatory pieces. The American Hospital Association, CMS, Institute of Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and a big chunk of the Department of Defense are all here, so it's a unique exciting place to be able to practice. We're the largest provider in the mid-Atlantic with the privilege of taking care of one in five patients in the region, so the spotlight is very bright here. It's not a place if you're faint of heart or shy to practice. There's nothing that we do that's not under a big spotlight or heavily scrutinized, but I think we like that. And we love the other healthcare systems around that we have the privilege of working with as well. We love our area and our geography.
We have pretty much everything you could possibly imagine. We have the Chesapeake Bay, the mountains to our west, all of which are within an hour's drive. I have two young daughters and we have the privilege of having access to all the downtown monuments on a regular basis.
Q: If you could eliminate one of the health care industry's problems overnight, which would it be?
SE: I would say that it's probably the lack of equitable care for everyone. If we can solve that, then a lot of problems would go away. The motivation for all clinicians is to care for whoever walks in the door, so I think it's frustrating to have barriers to care based upon geography or how much money you make. Those are just not core values to any American.
Q: What is your greatest talent or skill outside of the C-suite?
SE: My wife and I are gym junkies, we work out every day. We met running, so we run and work out all the time. If it's bad weather we're in our home gym, and if it's good weather we're out running. If I was given five hours a day, I'd work out five hours. We pack in a good 60 to 90 minutes every day, which is usually after work when the kids are in bed.
Q: How do you revitalize yourself?
SE: Exercise and time with my wife and my daughters — those are the things that rejuvenate me. I also think I'm really lucky that the people who I work with keep me pretty revved up and amped. I think there's a lot of synergy in the energy we create between each other. I never get bored. I never tire, and I think a lot of that's due to the job and the people I work with. And then going home to beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife is a pretty good deal.
Q: What's one piece of advice you remember most clearly?
SE: When I was in medical school, people were always asking what specialty you were going to go into and where you were going to train. One of my anatomy professors, George Salter, PhD, had some great advice. He was from Birmingham, Ala., and had a heavy Southern accent. He said, "Son, it won't make any difference, become a surgeon or pediatrician, train in Harvard or Iowa. The only thing I can tell you is if you just think about the patient first and everything else later, you'll be fine." And that's the truth. I think if you just keep the patient first and foremost, everything else follows.
It's interesting too, because we have this conversation with executives in our organization: If you do the right thing from a quality and safety point of view, the financial side of things follows. If you do the right thing for a patient from an access point of view, nobody worries about volumes. If you do the right thing in the patient's eyes, patient experience is taken care of. It's all a matter of thinking about the patient and nothing else.
Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement in MedStar so far?
SE: I'm hoping it's still to come. We've built a remarkable team of really talented people in quality and safety, and we've made tremendous strides in making us a safer, better organization. I've had the privilege of being intimately involved in that whole process, working with some really talented people who are driven and motivated for all the right reasons. So I think that's probably my single greatest legacy, I guess.
I still practice medicine, I still operate, and I still see patients at Georgetown, although not in high volumes. I do it because it's important as a young organization, which MedStar Health is, that I am still on the EMR, seeing patients and operating and with residents and students in the OR. It keeps me grounded and helps me understand the problems facing our clinicians, but still understand what an incredible privilege it is to have these positions. I never, ever take it for granted. So I think that's an important message for anybody that's working at the executive level or any other level in healthcare.