Healthcare Reframed

One of the biggest threats to rural healthcare isn't always talked about: workplace safety. In Titus County, Texas, emergency departments are facing rising challenges tied to psychiatric care gaps and staff safety concerns. For many healthcare workers, the decision to stay or leave comes down to one thing—whether they feel safe at work. This is a look at the realities behind workforce shortages—an...

Can a rural hospital grow without being acquired by a larger system? In Astoria, Oregon, local leaders partnered with Oregon Health & Science University to expand their workforce—without losing independence. By giving community providers academic affiliation and support, they've significantly increased their provider base over time. This model shows how collaboration—not consolidation—can strength...

In New England, the rural healthcare crisis is taking on a new form: the workforce can't afford to live where they're needed most. At a New England Rural Health Association gathering, leaders shared how rising housing costs—driven by tourism, second homes, and remote work migration—are pushing out essential healthcare workers. In places like Cape Cod, even recruited physicians have turned down job...

What if the solution to rural healthcare shortages starts in training? In Rockford, Illinois, the University of Illinois College of Medicine is redesigning residency programs to better prepare physicians for rural needs. Their "Stretch OB" track equips family medicine doctors with advanced obstetrics and surgical skills—allowing them to provide care that would typically require specialists. It's a...

In the mountainous regions of Puerto Rico, access to healthcare isn't guaranteed. With difficult terrain, limited infrastructure, and the lasting impact of disasters like Hurricane Maria, providers have had to rethink what care delivery looks like. This Federally Qualified Health Center is bringing care directly to patients—through outreach, home visits, and support systems that extend far beyond...

Healthcare worker shortages aren't just about the job—they're about life outside of it. In Hutchinson, Kansas, Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System is tackling retention by removing real-world barriers: offering housing support and providing $0-cost care for employees within their system. The result? Early signs of reduced turnover and a more stable workforce. This is a look at how rural health s...

What does it take to recruit doctors to rural America? In Cortez, Colorado, leaders at Southwest Health System are rethinking recruitment by focusing on something most systems overlook: community. Instead of traditional hiring, candidates and their families are invited to experience the town—meeting local leaders, exploring the outdoors, and building real connections before making a decision. As r...

Creator of Your Local Epidemiologist , Katelyn Jetelina, shares how she went from academia to reaching millions of people with clear, trusted, and actionable public health information. After working in public health, academia, and alongside organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she saw firsthand how critical information often stays trapped in institutions—and why that...

What if the biggest driver of poor health isn't just housing, food, or income – but mistrust? In this episode, host Judson Howe sits down with Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett (KGB) – family physician, health policy leader, and community-based researcher at Boston Medical Center – to unpack medical mistrust as a social determinant of health and what it really takes to rebuild trust in the exam room an...

Why would two elite physicians walk away from millions to fix healthcare's broken heart? In this compelling episode, Judson Howe sits down with Dr. Asaf Bitton and Dr. Bruce Finke of Ariadne Labs – two visionary leaders who chose purpose over profit – to challenge everything we think we know about American healthcare. Drawing on decades of experience at Harvard, the Indian Health Service, and the...

Discover the framework reframing U.S. health from "sick care" to well-being. In this feature-length conversation, host Judson Howe sits down with Becky Payne (20 years at CDC; now at The Rippel Foundation ) to explore the Vital Conditions for Health & Well-Being , why Belonging & Civic Muscle sits at the center, and how Shared Stewardship helps leaders bridge divides and shift dollars from perpetu...

Is more healthcare always better healthcare? Dr. Elliott Fisher has spent decades uncovering why high-spending regions fail to deliver better care or longer lives — and what this means for patients and policymakers. In this episode of Healthcare Reframed , Fisher shares the inside story of how one 1973 paper shook the medical world, why towns with the same people and same hospitals have 10× differ...

Rick Rawson on Healthcare Reframed Production: Healthcare Reframed — Micah Buller | Todd Carpenter | Lindsay Swain Hunt Rick Rawson explains why cutting costs and chasing transactions made hospitals weaker—and how a community-first, mission-driven strategy tripled revenue, rebuilt trust, and grew access across rural towns. What You'll Learn Escape the cut-to-survive trap with "make the hose bigger...

World leader in shared decision-making Dr. Glyn Elwyn (Dartmouth) joins Judson to unpack co-production in healthcare: what it looks like in real visits, why simple tools like Option Grid change choices, and how SDM can protect clinicians from burnout and moral injury while improving outcomes and patient trust. Glyn traces his path from rural Wales—through a lab explosion, an arts degree, and a "ba...

In this Healthcare Reframed You'll learn why waiting on DC won't transform care, how boards and big balance sheets can drive value (not just volume), what "one foot in Blockbuster, one in Netflix" means for strategy, and the inner work required to lead authentically at $2B+ scale. Essentials are short episodes focused on essential takeaways from past full-length Healthcare Reframed episodes. Watch...

The U.S. healthcare system has no shortage of resources, talent, or ambition. Yet for patients and families, it too often delivers fragmentation, frustration, and suffering. Few leaders have both lived that failure personally and reshaped the system globally as Maureen Bisognano. • Former President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she co-led the landmark 100,000 Liv...

35% of American physicians have considered leaving medical practice since the start of 2025, with burnout as the top reason (MedCentral, 2025). Patients wait months for primary care. Physicians see thirty patients a day. Insurance premiums climb faster than wages. Hospitals lose money on the very service that should prevent admissions in the first place. A quiet but growing group of physicians, en...

  In this episode of  Healthcare Reframed , host Judson Howe talks with Göran Henriks, former Chief Executive for Learning & Innovation in Sweden's Jönköping Region, about how Sweden built one of the most high-performing healthcare systems in the world. Henriks shares actionable lessons for healthcare executives, policymakers, and clinicians on creating sustainable, value-based care models that de...

Does this Alaska healthcare system have the blueprint to save the American healthcare crisis? Discover the story behind the health‑care system that Harvard , the Institute for Healthcare Improvement , and two U.S. Baldrige Awards all cite as living proof that American medicine can reinvent itself—even in one of the most rugged, under‑resourced corners of the map. In this feature‑length conversatio...

This week's conversation is with Somava Saha  of Well-being and Equity (WE) in the World. Why this conversation matters: Every year, U.S. health-system CEOs, their teams, and their boards, huddle in conference rooms late at night, with copious amounts of coffee, to finalize budgets that will govern billions in spend, dictate thousands of jobs, and silently decide which life-saving services will re...

Inside the mind of one of the most successful health system leaders in America: Scott Reiner dares us to aim higher in the way we approach healthcare.   Scott Reiner was the CEO of Adventist Health - a 24-hospital system in California. At the age of 56 - at his peak - he moved his family to Zambia chasing an idea that healthcare can be so much more than what were doing here at home.    ⸻   What Sc...

Rethinking the system on conversation at a time.