Education: The University of Texas at Austin (MPA), University of Michigan (BA)
Birthplace: Oconomowoc, WI
Biggest Success: “Continued—and significant—investments in our people and the frontline patient care they provide.”
Destinations of Choice: “I love to go places where I can go hiking in the mountains. I also really enjoyed Cuba—it’s the most interesting place I’ve been.”
Fun Fact: McCanna joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and worked in Alaska as a disc jockey and oversaw news and educational programming in the western half of the state. He covered the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race by traveling to each checkpoint in a two-seat bush plane.
Key Strategies: “I value the fundamentals of being action-oriented, mission-driven and surrounding yourself with talented people. Patients in healthcare today, particularly if you break it down by generation, have much less loyalty than you might think. We believe if we are providing them with what they want, where they want it, when they want it, we can increase loyalty.
Do-Over: “Quarterback for the Green Bay Packers”
First Ride: “It was a yellow 1970 Dodge Dart.”
Future Forecast: “I’m excited about the opportunity to transform healthcare by delivering high-quality care when, where and how our customers want it. Technology and a customer-first mindset will be a big part of our future. We can take information about you, and we will hit that up against 300 million records and find a cohort that looks a lot like you and use pattern recognition to give you a diagnosis and to issue a treatment plan that we believe will work. Physicians will still have a big role, but it will be augmented by AI. It’s a very exciting future because the tools are uniquely different than they were just five or 10 years ago to achieve this.”
Biggest Challenge: “Labor is a very serious public health problem. A lot of industries are facing workforce shortages. But during the surges of the pandemic, particularly the last Omicron surge, it wasn’t the number of physical beds that was restricting access; it was the number of available medical professionals to train and treat patients.”
COVID-19 Impact: “The pandemic forced us into a different managerial operating style. We moved from mission control to what we call mission command, meaning we are clear about what the goal is but allow the commanders in the field to innovate and achieve those goals. There are fabulous things that are going to pay dividends down the road as we go through the modernization of healthcare. We have learned how rapidly we’re able to apply virtual care in our environment. We’ve just scratched the surface of virtualization in healthcare. We’re in the first inning but have an optimistic future where everything that is done short of a procedure will be done through a virtual channel and, on top of that, a home channel.”
Industry Change: “Healthcare accounts for $1 for every $5 spent in our economy. I think we’re going to see an evolution in healthcare that will look and feel a lot like what you expect from service providers in the other areas of your life—an ecosystem that gives you an array of choices, ease of navigation, and is accessible. What service business issues 50 percent back orders on any given day? That’s what we do in healthcare–you can’t access us. If you were in retail, that would be a cardinal sin. So, we want to be accessible through multiple channels and give you care when, where, and how you want it.”
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