One year after Theodore DeWeese, MD, assumed permanent leadership of Johns Hopkins Medicine, he remains focused on enhancing patient care and bringing care closer to home.
Dr. DeWeese was named permanent CEO of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and dean of the medical faculty in December 2023, following an interim period beginning in 2022. He joined Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1991 as a radiation oncology resident and served as the founding director of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's radiation oncology department for 15 years.
Dr. DeWeese shared his strategies for 2025 with Becker's, in areas such as employee retention, capital investments and community partnerships.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What do you expect to be the biggest financial challenge facing health systems in the coming year, and how are you preparing to address it?
Dr. Theodore DeWeese: Health systems across the country are facing a workforce shortage that will likely get worse over the next decade. Burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to more people leaving healthcare. For nurses especially, the mental and emotional toll of the past few years has led to a high number of resignations. As a result, the cost of employing a healthcare workforce -- from techs to nurses to providers -- has changed dramatically, presenting a significant financial challenge.
Given the shortage, part of our approach to retention is focusing on the culture of our organization and investing in the well-being of our employees and career development of the provider workforce. We are working to bring the joy back to medicine by creating a culture where everyone can thrive, whether it's by easing the administrative burden that clinicians face or offering greater flexibility for front-line workers. We are also working to develop and deploy new models of care in certain of our care settings that take advantage of the top-end skills of our nurses to manage teams of others who help deliver care to patients.
Q: Given the current economic climate, how are you prioritizing capital investments for the upcoming year? In what specific areas do you see the highest ROI?
TD: Our approach for 2025 is to remain laser-focused on the future of our tripartite mission of research, education and patient care. And from creating new molecular tools that can image proteins moving between neurons in the brain to the development of gene and cell-based therapies for human disease, basic research is at the root of all advances in modern medicine. To remain on the forefront, Johns Hopkins will break ground on a new life science building next year that will provide approximately 500,000 gross square feet and six floors of lab and convening space.
This exciting project will create a new ecosystem for foundational, basic biomedical research centered around rapidly developing technologies in areas such as imaging, artificial intelligence and genetics, which are helping scientists make discoveries with record-breaking pace. Our life sciences building will be the hub for six newly developed "scientific neighborhoods" that connect scientists in similar fields and five technology hubs that help scientists maximize the potential of new scientific technologies to advance biomedical research. The neighborhoods and hubs, designed and led by Johns Hopkins scientists, will take shape alongside construction of the building. In addition to a hub for research and nexus of faculty research space, the life sciences building will be home to hundreds of graduate students who are enrolled in some of the most highly ranked graduate biomedical research programs in the nation.
We are also investing in our medical students by providing free tuition to most students and tuition plus living expenses to a large subset. The goal is to ensure we are bringing the most economically diverse students into medicine with a focus on being the most need-blind institution in the country.
Q: How is your M&A strategy evolving to support Johns Hopkins Medicine's long-term goals, and how do you determine which acquisitions will add the most value to your health system both operationally and culturally?
TD: The healthcare landscape is still facing instability in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, in Maryland, where Johns Hopkins was established and has the biggest clinical presence, hospitals are paid under a unique reimbursement system. This unique system adds additional instability and uncertainty when establishing an M&A strategy.
However, Johns Hopkins Medicine is always exploring opportunities to expand our clinical, research and teaching missions. We believe that patients are best served when they can receive their care close to where they work and live. We aim to achieve this goal through a portfolio of new builds and partnership -- working with like-minded organizations and clinicians who share our passion for quality health care and our culture of collaboration.
Q: What strategic moves is Johns Hopkins Medicine making to expand outpatient and ambulatory services, and how do you plan to balance this with maintaining inpatient care?
TD: There is a recognition that our community -- both in Baltimore and across our region -- needs Johns Hopkins Medicine care more local to home. We saw a huge opportunity to expand our presence in the National Capital Region -- to bring our clinical research and specialty care to patients who wouldn't otherwise have access to it. In that region, a great deal of primary care has shifted to concierge medicine, and there's also a significant Medicare population that doesn't have access to primary care. Through partnerships and strategic market entry points, we have expanded into Northern Virginia to grow our signature clinical programs and provide patients with access to Johns Hopkins specialists closer to home and access to many of our unique clinical trials.
These ongoing efforts are increasing access to high-quality tertiary and quaternary care while meeting the needs of the region's diverse population. These expansion efforts are ongoing and, as a result, we are ensuring people receive the services they need closer to home while also increasing access to Johns Hopkins for high-quality tertiary and quaternary care for patients in that region.
Additionally, maintaining inpatient care, including bed capacity, has meant focusing on moving care to the appropriate setting. With all of these efforts, our goal is to ensure patients can access the safe, high-quality, patient-centered and compassionate care they expect and deserve from Hopkins.
Q: What specific strategies will your health system deploy in the coming year to improve employee retention, particularly in critical front-line roles?
TD: At Johns Hopkins, we are addressing employee retention through a series of precise and intentional strategies. First and foremost, we are focused on targeted recruitment to ensure we have a robust pipeline of candidates, especially when it comes to our most critical front-line job shortages. And when people do choose to come to Hopkins, we're making it very clear that they are coming here for a career, not just a job. We are currently in the process of launching an innovative new program to help employees navigate career development opportunities -- offering resources like career coaches to help employees build new skills, enhance their education, and meet their personal career goals.
Finally, we are investing in and prioritizing the well-being of our employees. That means providing competitive salaries and benefits -- but it also means recognizing and supporting a healthy work-life balance by offering increased flexibility and meeting employees where they are, whether they are on-site, remote or hybrid.
Q: How are strategic partnerships with community organizations and other healthcare institutions shaping your efforts to address key challenges within your health system and drive long-term success?
TD: Johns Hopkins has always been a big believer in leveraging partnerships across our community and across the healthcare industry. When it comes to primary care access and services, partnerships with federally qualified health centers allow us to provide expanded access to local communities across all payers who need comprehensive primary care services.
Similarly, network affiliations -- partnerships with other health systems -- allow us to bring uniquely differentiated care to markets often adjacent to core service areas.
And a clinically integrated network allows us to partner with community providers on care of our shared patients that is low cost, high quality and of the highest value. This allows us to touch more lives than we could through a direct system of care and reach patients who receive specialty care or hospital care but are not part of our primary care network.
We are also closely aligned with a number of community organizations that provide the free or very low-cost services that address social determinants of health to many of Baltimore's historically marginalized communities. Our top five priority areas are access to care, employment and education, neighborhood safety, food environment and housing.