Louisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city this week.

Meet the new CEO of UofL Health, Doctor Jason Smith.

Now, you may remember him from 2020, when he was regularly updating the Louisville community on the response to the Covid 19 pandemic.

He received the very first Covid vaccine on camera just to demonstrate it was safe, and he made national headlines when he got candid about the problem of gun violence after a mass shooting in Louisville.

Here's what he said in the aftermath of the Old National Bank shooting in 2023.

>> But I'll be honest.

Caring for three shooting victims plus the other that came in, is not an frequent day for us.

And the events surrounding this made this obviously much more difficult.

But to be honest with you, we barely had to adjust our operating room schedule to be able to do this.

That's how frequent we are having to deal with gun violence in our community.

I'll tell you personally, I'm weary.

I've been in Louisville for 15 years, all of it at University Hospital.

For 15 years.

I've cared for victims of violence and gunshot wounds.

And people say, I'm tired, but I'll be answered.

It's more than tired.

I'm weary.

There's only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they're not coming home tomorrow, and it just breaks your heart when you hear someone screaming, mommy or daddy.

It just becomes too hard day in and day out to be able to do that.

Now my team is fantastic.

They're they're absolute professionals and they're wonderful.

But sooner or later it catches up to everybody.

You just can't keep doing what we're doing because you just can't keep seeing these lives lost.

You can't keep seeing all the people with these horrific injuries coming through the door without doing something to try and help them.

And I don't know what the answers are.

I'm a doctor.

I don't know what the answers are, but to everyone who helps make policy, both at state, city, federal, I would simply ask you to do something because doing nothing, which is what we've been doing, is not working.

We have to do something because this is just getting out of hand across our city and across this great nation of ours.

>> Well, Doctor Jason Smith is now the CEO of UofL Health.

Thank you so much for being here.

We heard those powerful words there about gun violence, not only in Louisville but around the country.

And a lot of people remember that time and speaking out about that.

So I want to look back at your perspective of that time.

And looking back now several years later, has anything changed?

>> Yeah, I think, you know, that's a fantastic question.

If I look back at that time now, I'm even more impressed with the response from the community, from LMPD, from from all the folks that were at the scene, from my own team at the hospital.

You know, it's one thing to live through that and you train for things like that, but until you're faced with that situation, if you look back at that, I don't know that it could have gone any better in a horrible, horrible situation from a lot of different perspectives.

And you don't really get a piece of that until you're well after that point, for sure.

So from that perspective, I think that's the one thing that sticks in my mind.

Have things changed?

I think the awareness has changed across the country around gun violence.

I would love to say that I've seen a huge change in the impacts of gun violence, or a reduction in gun violence around the country.

I don't think we have yet, but that's going to take a long time to fix a lot of the issues that lead to that.

But it's important that we keep that in the front of our mind.

Our community was touched by that.

There are hundreds of communities every day across the country that are touched by this in some way, shape or form.

Maybe not to the extent we were, but in some way.

And it's important that we keep advocating for people to understand that this is still out there.

This is still something we need to be a part of.

We need to engage in communication to figure out a better way of doing this.

>> I think that struck so many people at that time and made national headlines, because it was very rare for a trauma surgeon or a leader in a hospital situation to come out and be so candid about something that can somewhat be a controversial or subject or hot button issue, I guess.

So what was it about you that made you feel compelled to do that?

And and why did you feel like that was important?

>> Yeah, well, that was not planned.

As you can quickly realize from that, I think it was the impact of the preceding days and what we had seen.

And, you know, I've spoken with my wife and friends and family, and it's just about giving voice to what I think everyone in the community felt at that time.

And it was, you know, a moment I happened to be there for whatever reason, broke from the traditional surgery doctor administrator role and just spoke like a citizen of the Commonwealth and a part of this community.

And I think that's what's resonated with everyone, is that we all felt that way at that time, and there are things that we can be doing better, and particularly as we go through this.

I have been impressed that that sentiment has stayed within Louisville, and I think that sentiment has stayed within the Commonwealth as well.

>> And it wasn't just about the mass shooting.

The point was that this happens every day with gun violence in our in our community.

So another point that I think a lot of people remember you from is from Covid times.

You were you were out there, you know, showing people how to wear a mask and what to do.

You were you took the first Covid vaccine on camera.

So let's go back to that time, 2020.

What was that like for you?

>> Well, that was very different.

So you've got a trauma surgeon, a surgeon trying to detail infectious disease policies and figure those things out.

So that was a different world, to be honest with you.

Some of that had to do with disaster management planning.

When we talk about, you know, dealing with with large scale disasters, this is part of the training that we have is someone who's being a surgeon and working in trauma and emergency surgery.

We use some of that.

Some of it was just being a doctor and thinking about, you know, how you connect with people particularly.

There was so much information and strange information you're trying to make, you know, heads or tails of that information, particularly if you put yourself back in 2020, even as a physician, you didn't know really all the right answers.

Right?

And so you were trying to, you know, think again about being a person of the community.

What what would I want to know or what would I tell my friends?

And so when we when we would get in front of folks and speak about that, or we would talk about, you know, the importance of vaccines, or we would talk about testing, I tried to think about putting myself as if I were not a doctor, or I was explaining this to my mom or my aunt or my uncle, how would I do it?

And I think that is what made that particular communication meaningful to folks, because it wasn't doctor speak.

It was, I'm going to talk to you as if we were person and we were sitting around, you know, having a drink and sitting around the backyard, even though we couldn't do that back then.

>> Right, right, right.

>> But I think that was what made that whole portion of that meaningful for everybody.

>> Yeah.

And I and I think that's what really brought you to the spotlight in the community is a trusted voice, because people did see you as as somebody who was speaking like they do and not in doctor speak.

And do you think that really led to the leadership role that that you're in now?

>> Well, I think it led to the trust and the and the folks in the leadership role in particular.

You know, you talk about stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to manage and lead different efforts across the community.

You're working with city leaders, state leaders.

That, to me really made a difference when I now go and I'm and I'm advocating for UofL Health or the university or the healthcare system at large, people understand that you're coming from it from an understanding of, hey, I've worked with the state before, I've worked with the city before, I've worked with other institutions that made a huge difference in being able to connect with people, for sure.

And if you do a good job, I hope I did a good job.

You get a chance to do other things.

>> Yeah.

So let's go talk a little bit about your background.

Where are you from?

What brought you to Louisville?

What's kept you here and what, you know, you've you've been a part of the Louisville community for a long time now.

>> Yeah.

So I, I grew up in southwestern Ohio, kind of lived a little bit all over as a kid, but in particular through middle school and high school, I was I was near Dayton, Ohio, but my family and I still have family in Jackson County in Somerset County.

So we were all from eastern Kentucky.

And in fact, my grandfather had a farm in Jackson County that I spent a lot of time on when when I was a kid.

So I've always been drawn and I have family in and around Louisville now still who've been to UofL have family been to to UK Morehead.

So I've got folks that have been here for a long time, and that's one of the things that drew me back when I was leaving my training.

I trained at Ohio State and looking for my first job.

One Kentucky felt like home because I had so many people here that I that I knew from a family perspective.

And two, I when I came down and I and I met the people at UofL hospital, which is it was just UofL Hospital.

I loved what that hospital stood for in this community.

I loved the people.

And you know what that meant to be working at UofL Hospital.

That resonated with me.

And that's why I 20 years ago, I came down here and brought the family down here.

And I've been here ever since.

>> Yeah.

And you mentioned UofL Hospital, which is now UofL Health.

Correct.

Which is over nine different hospitals.

And you were chief medical officer, you have a hospital and then transitioned into this role just recently.

What has that transition been like for you or and the people you work with at UofL?

>> Yeah.

So, you know, I became the chief medical officer at University Hospital when we kind of stood up, University hospital on its own outside of Kentucky.

One health that very first, in about 2017.

So we had just started to get University Hospital kind of doing well when we became, you know, UofL Health and took over all the Kentucky one assets here within the Louisville market.

And so I became I went from being a one hospital CMO to helping to direct the clinical enterprise of all of these different hospitals almost overnight.

>> Yeah.

>> And then of course, Covid hit.

And so.

>> Right after.

>> Right after.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

So, you know, I laugh.

We merged the whole hospital system in November of 2019.

And then I promptly shut the whole hospital system down in March of 2020.

And so that for me was almost a surreal experience really, for the first 18 months to two years, because we were doing so many things that were just so strange, different, not planned for, because of everything going on.

But then we got a chance to grow and expand.

You know, we built the South Hospital down in Bullitt County.

We've had the great opportunity to expand University Hospital.

UofL Health has allowed us to do stuff that, I'll be honest with you, I never thought would be possible at University Hospital alone.

You've become a healthcare system.

We've become a real academic health care system and everything that that means to the community, which we didn't really have before.

And so even though we're new, you know, it's great that we've been able to to develop that.

And I've met a lot of great people in all different counties, in all different areas of Kentucky, outside of just the metro area.

And that reach and being able to take what I felt made UofL Hospital so great and bring that out to everyone in the community has just been wonderful.

>> It is a big change though, and to explain what an academic hospital means, what does that mean?

>> So we've got, you know, I will tell you, we've got a lot of great health systems within Kentucky, but but really, UofL are the academic medical centers.

UofL, University of Kentucky, Pikeville, for example.

They really have a triple responsibility.

They've got the responsibility that every health care system has.

You've got to deliver high quality, accessible patient care.

Your job is to take care of the people that come through your front door.

It's your number one mission, but there are a lot of great health systems that do that.

Number one mission, what sets us apart and what makes us different is two is we're training the next generation of nurses and physicians.

You know, we are aligned with medical school, the nursing school, the dental school, so that next generation of people that are going to practice medicine in some way, shape or form within the Commonwealth or within the region are going to come through our doors at one period of time.

And so your job is to give them a great training environment, to introduce them to clinical care, to introduce them to taking care of patients.

And it's one of the best responsibilities we have.

And then the third part of that from an academic medical system is really the research component.

It's taking that next step in care, be that in cancer care or trauma care or heart care, it's about what is the next great solution to the problems that we're seeing today, and what can we do to help expand that knowledge, to expand that care possibility to someone to take that then and be able to move it into a community hospital or a rural hospital, you know, how do we how do we do all of those things?

And that's the third mission that we have.

And so we do everything that that other community hospitals do and other health systems do, and the other and I think that's what makes the academic health care systems in particular great.

And it's what has led us to do all kinds of really great things here in the community.

>> And I know you also are still a practicing trauma surgeon while you are a CEO.

>> I am not giving that.

>> Up of this health care system, which is very rare.

Right?

Yes.

So why why is it important to you to keep practicing as a trauma surgeon?

>> Well, one, I love it.

You know, I always say I went to medical school to be a surgeon, not to be a CEO.

So I remind folks, I spent a lot of time becoming a surgeon, and I don't want to give that up.

That's to me, the best times are when I'm able to care for somebody.

It's very tangible.

There's a person in front of you and I don't have to worry about a system.

I don't have to worry about this or that.

I just have to worry about taking care of the person in front of me.

So to me, I'll probably never give that up until I can't possibly do that any longer.

But that being said, the other great part about this is that if I make a policy or a rule or we come up with a decision as a health care system, if I'm in the operating room or I'm just a doctor on a Friday night, I have to live and deal with that.

And I'm on the front lines and I get a chance to talk to the patients that are coming through the system.

I act as a provider and be their surgeon.

I'm talking to the nurses or respiratory therapy or our environmental service folks, you know, how is life?

What are they doing?

And it gives you an insight into what's going on, not just at the 30,000 foot view when you're managing the system, but what is the people that are living and working and breathing within your system feel on a day to day basis about what's going on?

And I don't think you can underestimate how important that is to stay and have that connection with the healthcare system, the community and the people you're taking care of.

So I'm never going to give that one up.

I remind folks, I have slowed down.

I don't do nearly as much trauma surgery and coverage as I used to, but I still do it.

And I still think it's important to to be a part of that.

>> There had to be a little bit of a learning curve, though, to go into the business side of of hospitals, because it is, I would imagine, yes, completely different.

>> It's very different, you know.

So I got my MBA from Indiana University and from the Kelley School of Business.

And I remember when we were sitting there talking, the first thing they tell you in business school is it's very, very different than medical school and medical school.

You learn very in-depth about one very specific thing.

In business school, you learn a little bit about everything.

And I always said, right when it got to be fun and interesting, we were off to the next topic.

And so it's a lot like that is that you're you're touching on different ideas and different areas that you are not going to be the subject matter expert.

Like, I'm never going to know as much about radiology as someone who has been doing this, or about finance or about what have you.

But my job is to facilitate letting them have an environment where they're making great decisions and making sure the system works well.

And if the system works well, then they can do what they need to do to make the world a better place.

And and that's my job.

And I think that is, you know, it resonates.

It's somewhat easy to, to, to fill into that role, as long as you don't go into it thinking you're going to know everything.

It's about being a sounding board and letting the folks who do know what they're doing get the job done.

>> Yeah, and I would also think that there's I mean, your job as a surgeon is absolutely life and death and yes, instances.

And when you are looking at that 30,000 foot view, as you mentioned there, it's it's not life and death, but there are very serious decisions that you have to make as a CEO.

And I know just recently we've heard a lot about federal funding cuts and how that could close some rural hospitals.

What what's your view on that?

And what do you see as the future of that challenge that seems to be still ahead?

>> Yeah.

So, you know, I put my surgeon hat on for a moment and it says like, look, we've got to find a way to take care of every single person.

And I still believe that.

And we do have to find a way, because I think, you know, the idea that that being healthy is, is not really a right or responsibility for us is just not real anymore.

But put my business hat on and I will tell you that we've got an unsustainable system currently.

And so if we want to be able to continue to take care of the folks that are coming through the doors for years and decades to come, we're going to have to find a different way of doing it.

And I think that's one of the most important problems we're facing right now in healthcare, really around the country, not just here in the Commonwealth, you know?

And I'll be honest, we've got some great partners here in the state.

We've got great advocates for us at a federal level for Kentucky.

I will tell you that they're working really hard on this, but there are no easy answers to this problem.

And I said if it was an easy answer, we would have had that answer long ago.

Right?

But from us, I think if we remain in the important part is to realize that at the end of the day, there's a person sitting in front of you, and that's the person that the healthcare system is supposed to administer to.

And we can talk about dollars and how we get dollars and maintaining that.

But at the end of the day, it's about the person in front of you and the patient in front of you.

And, you know, as a physician leader of a healthcare system, that's the most important thing I can keep in front of our our staff and in finance and lab and everything else every single day, is that that patient centeredness is that I I'm just like everyone else.

I want my system to thrive.

I want to have money so we can expand access and education and research and all those things I talked about.

But job one, and what is always job one is taking care of the person who comes through the front door.

>> Yeah.

And as you mentioned, I mean, a lot of people say the healthcare system is broken.

What do you think?

What do you see as being the biggest challenge for the healthcare system in general right now?

>> Well, and I think from our perspective, I'll tell you that the biggest thing that we run into on a day to day basis is the amount of money that's it's quote unquote, in healthcare, but not actually in healthcare.

It's not in the delivery of the care to the patient.

It's going to some other company entity, what have you.

It's not going to the hospital.

It's not going to the physician.

It's not going to the patient's care.

When we start bleeding out all of that extra money, that's where things get really, really expensive.

And again, there are some reasons for that in certain times.

But for the most part, we've really expanded what we call quote unquote healthcare to a lot of things that didn't really the system wasn't really set up to provide.

And so that's where we've placed the strain on the system.

And it's about finding different ways to do things so that we can maintain this very high level of care that we have.

I mean, United States has some of the very best healthcare everywhere.

But how do you maintain that, bring all of those benefits to that and not bankrupt the system while you're trying to do it?

And and that's a hard ask right now.

>> Yeah.

It's complicated.

>> It is.

It's very complicated.

And there's not going to be an easy solution that everyone will be happy with.

But, you know, again, it's about how do we set the system up so that the people that can make those decisions do it in the best manner possible?

>> Yeah.

And I know you all are, as you mentioned, expanding and UofL Health and just opened a new tower at University Hospital West.

West tower.

>> Right.

Yeah.

West tower, University Hospital, we just opened that actually a couple weeks ago.

That's been phenomenal.

I told someone else, even when we were digging and putting in the foundation, I was thinking, there's going to be something where we're going to find a mammoth bone and have to shut something down.

It was great to have that tower up that's going to expand the capabilities of University Hospital in particular.

It gives the patients a better place to be in.

You know, University Hospital was built in the early 80s, and it looked like something that was built in the early 80s.

So now they've got what would be a modern lobby and a place to sit and wait.

The floors that we have around surgery and around bone marrow transplant and some of the cancer things that the Brown Cancer Center is doing are state of the art.

And they have been doing state of the art care in 1982 size building.

And so now they've got some areas to expand into.

It will open up a world of possibilities within that hospital that hasn't been there really since its inception in the early 80s.

And given the role it has in the community, it's great to be able to provide that and it's a great space.

I hope no one has to come through the doors, but if you do, I hope you're comfortable when you get there.

>> Yeah.

What do you see as the Or what's your vision now as you're the head of this hospital system, what is your vision for the future of UofL Health?

What do you hope it is?

>> Well, so a couple things.

One, I'll pull on my rural roots for a little bit.

One of the great things that I think we can do is take all the all of the stuff that makes UofL Health and the academic health care system special and move that into environments in the rural community.

They don't typically get access to some of the very high level services because their their hospitals may be critical access hospitals, which serve a wonderful purpose, but they just don't have the ability to to do those things.

How do we partner with them?

How do we figure out a way to take that care closer to those rural communities we serve?

Similarly, what we do here in Louisville, where we take care out of just the university and move it to some of the areas in the urban environment that may not have access to some of those, those services and facilities.

So thinking about different ways of doing it, that's not something that UofL has done in the past.

We've been very, you know, kind of footprint in the downtown area.

But there's more we can do.

And in giving our learners an opportunity to go out into rural environment and community environment, taking research out into that and our clinical studies and clinical trials we do in cancer care and other things, and then just the wealth of services.

So that's one thing I want to see us do.

And two is, you know, I've given this talk to others.

I want UofL Hospital and UofL Health to be a five star hospital in every single instance that we are measured in, we have some excellent physicians.

We do some excellent things.

I don't think we tell our story well enough sometimes, and I want people to understand what really can go on and what goes on behind those walls in that hospital, be that at Jewish or Marion, Elizabeth or University Hospital in particular, and see what we can produce and let them know that that you are getting the very best care you can get in the country right here within, within Louisville.

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Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week!