Mason speaks with Audrey Gregory, PhD
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00:00All right, Dr. Audrey Gregory, who is the Ph.D. and Chief Executive Officer, Detroit Medical Center, thank you for this today.
00:08Thank you for having me.
00:10As the world starts to change, tell us more about the DMC, how it shows its commitment to the community.
00:17I will tell you, you know, for me, the DMC is amazing.
00:21We've been a fabric of this community for 150 years.
00:24I'm not going to age myself, but that is a lot of times my age.
00:30And so what I know about the DMC, we remain so committed.
00:34The team who works at the DMC are providers, the staff, they want to work at the DMC.
00:40They want to take care of the community of the DMC.
00:42What is interesting, though, is that in the past 10 years, the DMC has gone through what I would say transformation.
00:50It's been a transformative change.
00:53And really what the driver of that was really our commitment to the community.
00:58And I don't know if you know this, but the DMC has had about, I would say, about a billion dollars worth of capital infused within the DMC at the same time that we are taking care of the most vulnerably in our community.
01:14So for the past 10 years, I will tell you, we have done about one point, a little bit over $1.3 billion in uncompensated care.
01:25So I am so proud of what we do at the DMC.
01:29And, you know, we are here to serve the community.
01:31We are proud to serve the community.
01:33And as a nurse, I will tell you, for me, serving the community is a passion.
01:37It's a calling.
01:38So I'm really excited about what we're doing at the DMC and how we place ourselves in the community.
01:43We're talking with the chief executive officer of the DMC, Dr. Audrey Gregory.
01:48Let's talk about training and research.
01:51How has it changed?
01:53Oh, wow.
01:54I don't know if you're aware.
01:56You know, as I'm not, I can't say I'm the new CEO anymore, right?
02:00I am here.
02:00So I am always amazed about the fact that the DMC has the largest resident training program in our state.
02:09And each year, over the past 10 years, we've increased the number of trainees that we have at the DMC.
02:16I'm also proud about the partnerships that we have.
02:19We have our partnerships with Wayne State University, Michigan State University, Central Michigan University.
02:25And just because we are who we are, also Meharic College, as you know, this is one of four historically Black colleges and universities that we actually partner with to do some of our training.
02:37And then the other thing, though, with the DMC, it's not only physicians that we train and medical students, but also allied health.
02:44So nurses, pharmacists, you name it, they get trained at the DMC.
02:48And then research.
02:49We do so much research.
02:52The thing that I found astounding about us is that we have been cited, researchers at the DMC has been cited over 80,000 times in terms of how we do our research.
03:06And I will tell you, way back in the days when I got my PhD, I was so excited when a couple of people quoted my research in their research.
03:16So if I could extrapolate that for the DMC, not only are we training, but our research is also guiding other research.
03:25And that is phenomenal, right?
03:26Because that's how we improve care.
03:28That's how we improve access.
03:30That is how we learn more.
03:32And so just very proud of the research and training that we do at the DMC.
03:36You can tell it's my passion.
03:38Oh, I can tell.
03:39And it's good to be passionate in your position.
03:41So let's talk about COVID-19 and its impact on the community and how the DMC was still able to run the threat through the community and the pandemic.
03:54Explain it to people.
03:55I will tell you.
03:56I will start out by saying, you know, I know the word unprecedented has been used a lot.
04:01And I've been in health care for a long time, have been through so many things in health care, never came upon anything as we did for the past year with this pandemic.
04:13And I will say, I will start out by saying I would be remiss if I did not say how proud I am of the DMC.
04:20So I will tell you, the past year, I have had the experience of seeing the best that the DMC has to offer.
04:27Or physicians, the providers, nurses, people just really banded together to take care of the community.
04:34In the beginning, clearly, at the DMC, much like every other hospital across the country, we were literally flying the plane at the same time we were building it.
04:43And so I would say I got to see the best of us.
04:48I got to see innovation.
04:49I got to see a lot of collaboration in terms that we provide care.
04:54Fast forward a year, and I will say now we've built the plane.
04:58We know the parts.
04:59And so we are able at the DMC to take care of patients with COVID and patients without COVID because we have made it a safe place to work.
05:09But in terms of, and to be cared for, but in terms of our impact on the community, we, whether it was the health department or the city,
05:16we were hand in hand or the state with our community, testing, doing vaccines, all the things that were are required to make sure that we get back to some sense of normalcy.
05:27I would not be truthful if I didn't say it was challenging or even the fact that we, I would say in the beginning, we learned and we got new knowledge.
05:38And so it was difficult for us in the beginning, and as time went by, we were able to just do an incredible job.
05:46I am very fortunate because the DMC is a part of Tenant Healthcare, which is a company that is a large company across all across the United States.
05:55And certainly that has helped, that helped us with being able to source different resources to help us.
06:01And so I will tell you, I hope we never go through a year like this again.
06:05But if we do, I do know that the DMC is the team with which I would like to do it.
06:10Beautiful.
06:11We're talking with the CEO of the DMC, Audrey Gregory, who is Dr. Audrey Gregory.
06:18I'd like to always say that, and speaking of the COVID also shined a light on racial inequalities.
06:27Boy, what a task that has been, and it is still being worked out and it is still being talked about.
06:34What would you say the DMC's role has been in trying to bridge the gap?
06:39Well, I will tell you, Mason, that question is right up my alley, because I will tell you, not just as a clinician, but as a person of color leading the DMC, certainly there is an awareness that healthcare disparities, it's not new.
06:55But as you said, COVID just, what's the right word for it?
07:02Emphasized and brought it to light, right?
07:04So we can no longer hide from it.
07:06I am proud of our state.
07:08I am proud of our city.
07:11Our mayor has done, I think, a phenomenal job of getting in front of it and making sure that we are caring for the most vulnerable in our population.
07:20Our state also, or the chief medical officer for the state, or governor, or lieutenant governor, they were very fast.
07:28In the beginning, we were like, okay, we need to get a task force together.
07:31And I do like the fact that that task force was not just healthcare people, but real good stakeholders, a diverse group from across the community, really thinking through, okay, how do we address these inequalities?
07:44Because I think the first thing is acknowledgement.
07:46And I think sometimes as a society, we don't do a good job of acknowledging.
07:51We may excuse it.
07:52We may explain it.
07:53We don't always acknowledge it.
07:55And I think in our state, we acknowledge that there were inequities and then came up with plans to address those inequities.
08:02And I remember earlier on in the pandemic when we were thinking, how do we get tested in?
08:07And so we had great partnerships with Wayne Health, Wayne State University, Ford.
08:11We were like, okay, let's take the testing into the community.
08:14And so where the DMC sits as an example of making sure that we address inequities, right?
08:20We're a hospital in the city for the people in the city.
08:24And I think as time goes on, we are going to have to figure out as a society how to deal with the inequities.
08:31And so I would implore our listeners, so for example, there is a special enrollment period now.
08:37You just need to visit healthcaregov.com.
08:40That special enrollment period helps all of us to look at affordable options for healthcare.
08:46And so we want to make sure for people of color and communities of color, we want to make sure that not only that we're at the table, but that we're engaging with what is at the table.
08:56So I would implore all our listeners to make sure that not only do we address access, but then making sure that access is affordable.
09:03So I am very proud of the DMC because, you know, we sit in that space, we live in that space.
09:08I'm a hand talker, right?
09:09You see the hands moving around.
09:12It's all good.
09:13We're talking with Dr. Audrey Gregory, who is the CEO of the Detroit Medical Center.
09:19In closing, the role that the DMC will play in the future of the city of Detroit.
09:27I will say that I cannot imagine the city of Detroit without the DMC.
09:32I feel like you're a staple.
09:33Can you imagine it, Mason?
09:34I cannot imagine that.
09:36I was like, I don't know.
09:38I might ask this question out.
09:40I cannot.
09:40What a different world it would be if there was no DMC.
09:44I tell you, it's a, I asked you that question only for us to both understand and agree together on the importance of the DMC.
09:54I think it is, it is part of our fabric.
09:57It's not only that we care for patients, it's that we train, we teach, we do research.
10:02And for me, we also take care of those who are most vulnerable, right?
10:06Those who may be forgotten.
10:08And we do, I would say, groundbreaking care.
10:12I love the word care in healthcare because it speaks to what it is that we bring to the table.
10:19And when I look at even things like, or vaccination efforts.
10:22So if I look at that, not only is the DMC doing vaccinations at the DMC, but we're partnering with the health department with our city.
10:30We want to make sure that when people think about healthcare, the DMC is the solution.
10:36That is how I want us to be positioned in this community.
10:40And not only just taking care of your health, but also educating you about your health.
10:46We are, we're the experts, right?
10:48So whether it's our physicians or nurses, nutritionists, the exercise physiologists, whatever anyone's healthcare need is.
10:55From birth until the opposite of birth, the DMC, I would say, is a fabric of this community.
11:02And we're committed to that.
11:03So I'm proud of us.
11:05We're here to stay.
11:06I mean, you have looked at our buildings, like we're like here.
11:11But I think more than that, when you talk with our staff, when you talk to our providers, I, you know, I'll interview providers.
11:17And they're moving across the country to come to be at the DMC because they want to work at the DMC and care for our patients.
11:24And so I would say that our community can rest assured and just know that we're not going to waver for more commitment to the community.
11:33And our goal is to build a stronger DMC.
11:37Beautiful.
11:38Thank you, Dr. Audrey Gregory, the CEO of the Detroit Medical Center.
11:43That was great.
11:45We appreciate it.
11:46Thank you very much.
11:47I got a project for you.
11:49I got a, I got a real project for you.
11:53It's a gritty get in the city project.
11:56So hopefully all the right people get together and let me talk to you about what I'd like to do.
12:02Okay.
12:03I will tell you, I am sure, you know, the members of my team, you know, Tonita has been around for a long time.
12:10I tell you, it's, it's really been helpful having a team who is so familiar with everyone in the city.
12:16It has really helped.
12:17And the other thing I love is the partnership, right?
12:20So our city, stakeholders or communities or ministers, they love the DMC.
12:27They are, they want the DMC to be successful.
12:30And so we're always open to talking about how we can do those partnerships.
12:34I mean, Sinai Grace is like the heart of the part of the city that it's located.
12:39I love to, you know, Sinai Grace.
12:41I love all of the DMC, but Sinai Grace is situated where all the good Jamaican restaurants are.
12:46So I love it.
12:48And you still look like a teenager.
12:50I know you're a big time executive.
12:53I'm not flirting with you, but you still look like a teenager.
12:56I could imagine you in school saying, I'm going to get this.
13:00I'm going to get this.
13:02True that.
13:04Dr. Gregory, thank you very much.
13:06And blessings to you for today.
13:08And thank you for all you do with the DMC, for the community, for everybody.
13:13I appreciate you.
13:14Stay safe.
13:15Stay safe.