What if one of the most important moments in healthcare happens after a patient leaves the hospital?

In this episode of PEMBA On Demand, Dr. Norman Chapin sits down with Dr. Tiffany Hanf, Regional Medical Director for Post-Acute Care at TeamHealth and current PEMBA student, to discuss one of healthcare’s most persistent and costly challenges: helping patients successfully transition from the hospital to post-acute care while reducing preventable readmissions.

Dr. Hanf oversees post-acute care operations across nine western states and shares insights from her work leading skilled nursing facilities, long-term care facilities, and rehabilitation programs. At the center of the conversation is her work on an acute-to-post-acute transition program designed to improve coordination, communication, and continuity of care between hospitals and post-acute providers.

She explains that one of the biggest barriers to successful transitions is the fragmentation that often exists between hospitals and post-acute facilities. Because these organizations are frequently managed by separate entities, critical information can be lost during the handoff process. Effective discharge summaries, medication coordination, and timely communication are essential to ensuring patients receive seamless care after leaving the hospital.

The discussion explores how the role of physicians in post-acute care has evolved significantly over the years. Dr. Hanf explains that modern post-acute medicine requires dedicated physician leadership, advanced practice clinicians, structured rounding models, and specialty support services. The traditional model of infrequent physician visits to nursing facilities has largely been replaced by a more proactive, team-based approach focused on quality outcomes and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations.

Dr. Hanf also shares lessons from a collaborative initiative with a health system seeking to address long hospital stays, discharge bottlenecks, and readmissions. Through coordinated partnerships and standardized workflows, her team has demonstrated improvements in transitions of care, reductions in readmissions, and shorter hospital lengths of stay. However, she notes that meaningful change often requires overcoming organizational silos and building trust among multiple stakeholders.

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on readmissions from post-acute care settings. Dr. Hanf explains that many readmissions are driven by factors such as infections, sepsis, congestive heart failure exacerbations, falls, inadequate access to diagnostics, staffing challenges, and patient or family decisions to seek emergency care. She emphasizes that successful programs focus on identifying these drivers early and creating systems that allow patients to safely remain in the most appropriate care setting whenever possible.

The episode also highlights TeamHealth’s philosophy that clinicians are the organization’s primary customer. Dr. Hanf discusses how supporting physicians and advanced practice clinicians through strong workflows, technology, communication systems, and leadership ultimately improves facility performance and patient outcomes. This clinician-first approach has become a key part of TeamHealth’s strategy for recruitment, retention, and quality improvement.

Later in the conversation, Dr. Hanf reflects on her own career journey. After spending more than a decade as a hospitalist, she transitioned fully into post-acute care, drawn by the opportunity to build deeper relationships with patients while maintaining a sustainable work-life balance. She describes post-acute medicine as a unique blend of acute care complexity and long-term patient continuity.

Finally, Dr. Hanf shares why she chose to pursue the Physician Executive MBA at this stage of her career. Encouraged by colleagues and mentors, she viewed the program as an opportun...

What if the biggest problem in lung cancer is not treatment, but that patients are diagnosed too late?

In this episode of PEMBA On Demand, Dr. Norman A. Chapin speaks with Dr. J. Robert Headrick, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at CHI Memorial Rees Skillern Cancer Institute, about physician leadership, innovation, and transforming how we approach lung cancer and preventive healthcare.

Dr. Headrick shares how his journey evolved from traditional surgical practice into a mission-driven focus on early detection, access, and system redesign in lung cancer care. He explains that one of the biggest problems in healthcare today is not a lack of treatment options, but the fact that patients are often diagnosed too late, when symptoms finally appear.

The conversation highlights how lung cancer has long been misunderstood as primarily a smoking-related disease, when in reality, many patients, including non-smokers, are affected, and outcomes improve significantly when cancer is detected early.

A central focus of the episode is Dr. Headrick’s work in developing mobile CT screening programs, including a bus-based model designed to bring low-dose CT scans directly into communities. He explains that traditional healthcare delivery creates barriers such as time, access, and inconvenience, which prevent many eligible patients from getting screened. By contrast, simplifying access to a quick, minutes-long scan dramatically increases participation.

Dr. Headrick shares real-world examples of how this approach is changing outcomes, including communities where people are now living with early-stage lung cancer who would not have been diagnosed otherwise. These success stories demonstrate how visibility, convenience, and trust can shift public perception and engagement with preventive care.

The discussion also explores the operational and scalability challenges of this model. While mobile screening improves access, it introduces new complexities such as:

• Managing large volumes of imaging data
• Coordinating follow-up care
• Ensuring patients return for repeat scans
• Avoiding strain on radiology resources

Dr. Headrick explains that these challenges are driving the need for new solutions powered by artificial intelligence, particularly in imaging interpretation and workflow efficiency. AI has the potential to significantly reduce the time required to review scans and help identify early disease patterns more quickly.

A major theme of the episode is the shift from reactive healthcare to proactive care. Dr. Headrick emphasizes that relying on symptoms to guide care is fundamentally flawed, especially for conditions like lung cancer and heart disease, which often remain silent until advanced stages.

He outlines a broader vision for the future of healthcare that includes:

• Earlier and more accessible screening
• Lower-cost, high-efficiency diagnostic tools
• Integration of AI to support clinical decision-making
• Empowering patients to engage in their own health earlier in life

Dr. Headrick also discusses how his experience in the Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program helped him transition from thinking as an individual clinician to thinking at a systems level, including business planning, financial modeling, and leadership strategy. This shift enabled him to bring innovative ideas into real-world implementation.

The episode concludes with a powerful perspective on healthcare economics. Dr. Headrick references projections suggesting that moving toward proactive, preventive care could significantly reduce national healthcare spending, while improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

Ultimately, this conversation highlights how physician leadership, combined with innovation and system-level t...

What if hospital-level care could safely happen in a patient’s home instead of inside a hospital building?

In this episode of PEMBA On Demand, Dr. Norman A. Chapin speaks with Dr. Mihir H. Patel about the growing hospital-at-home movement and what it means for physician leaders, health systems, and patients. Hospital at home refers to acute hospital-level care delivered in a patient’s home instead of a traditional inpatient bed, not simply remote monitoring or home health. The model has gained major momentum in recent years as health systems look for new ways to improve capacity, reduce harm, and deliver care in the right setting.

Dr. Patel explains that hospital-at-home programs are designed to address three major challenges in modern healthcare: hospital capacity strain, the risks patients face inside hospitals, and the high cost of brick-and-mortar inpatient care. He walks through the types of diagnoses that often fit the model, including conditions like pneumonia, COPD exacerbations, CHF, cellulitis, UTIs, dehydration, and similar cases where patients need acute treatment but do not require ICU-level care.

The conversation also explores how these programs actually work behind the scenes. Dr. Patel describes the mix of physicians, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, case managers, and logistics teams needed to support care in the home. He and Dr. Chapin discuss how virtual visits, remote monitoring, medication delivery, and rapid-response workflows all play a role in making the model safe and scalable.

A major focus of the episode is outcomes. Dr. Patel shares why mature hospital-at-home programs have shown encouraging results in patient safety, patient satisfaction, and readmissions. Public-facing hospital-at-home resources likewise describe the model as a patient-centered alternative that can improve care outcomes for appropriate adults while reducing exposure to hospital-associated complications.

Dr. Chapin and Dr. Patel also discuss the business and policy side of the model, including fixed versus variable costs, reimbursement, and the importance of federal waiver support. The CMS Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver was extended for five years through 2030 in March 2026, giving health systems more certainty as they invest in infrastructure and staffing. The AMA reports that the waiver supports hospital-level home care for Medicare patients, and advocacy materials from the Advanced Care at Home Coalition show broad national participation by hospitals and health systems.

The episode also highlights the role of technology. Dr. Patel explains how tablets, wireless monitoring devices, ambient AI documentation, and logistics coordination tools are becoming increasingly important in hospital-at-home workflows. He offers a practical look at how these technologies can support earlier intervention, improve efficiency, and help teams manage care across multiple patients and locations.

Later in the conversation, Dr. Patel reflects on his own career path and why he chose to pursue the Physician Executive MBA at the University of Tennessee. He shares how the program helped him think beyond individual patient encounters and better understand finance, operations, workflow design, and system-level leadership. He also discusses his work in medical writing and his involvement with The Hospitalist, which is the Society of Hospital Medicine’s monthly newsmagazine.

This episode is both a practical overview of hospitals at home and a thoughtful reflection on physician fulfillment. Dr. Patel closes with a powerful reminder that success is not only about titles, income, or credentials. For physicians, real success also means finding a path that supports personal well-being, family life, and meaningful patient care.

Key Topics Discussed

• What hospital at home really means
• Why health systems are...

What if the skills that make a great physician aren’t enough to lead healthcare, and the real transformation begins when medicine and business finally learn to speak the same language?

This recast episode of Pemba on Demand: Leadership Odyssey Bridging Medicine and Business revisits a compelling conversation with host Dr. Norman A. Chapin and Dr. Michael Marks, Senior Medical Director at Relievant Medsystems, Inc.

Dr. Marks reflects on his professional journey from orthopedic spine surgeon to healthcare executive in the medical device industry. He shares how his experience in the Physician Executive MBA program at the University of Tennessee shaped his leadership approach, supported complex orthopedic group mergers, and prepared him for roles in hospital administration and industry leadership.

The episode explores the evolving identity of physician leaders and highlights the importance of education, mentorship, collaboration, and adaptability when navigating the intersection of medicine and business. Dr. Marks also discusses the human side of leadership, including maintaining empathy in patient care, facing personal health challenges, and advocating for patients within complex insurance and reimbursement systems.

• Transitioning from clinical practice to executive leadership roles
  
  
• The value of the Physician Executive MBA program for physicians
  
  
• Managing healthcare mergers and navigating cultural integration
  
  
• Empathy and communication as essential leadership skills
  
  
• The role of mentorship in career development and growth
  
  
• Staying connected to clinical care during personal health challenges
  
  
• Advocating for patients amid insurance and coverage barriers
  
  
• Understanding healthcare spending and its impact on Medicare and Medicaid
  
  
• The importance of continuous learning in a changing healthcare landscape
  
  
• Collaboration and shared purpose as foundations of effective leadership
  
  

Links and Resources:

• Physician Executive MBA at the University of Tennessee
• Michael Marks MD MBA
  

In this episode of PEMBA On Demand, host Dr. Norman A. Chapin sits down with Camilo R. Gomez, MD, MBA, and former FBI lead hostage negotiator Christopher Voss to explore how elite negotiation strategies can reshape leadership in healthcare.

Drawing from their new book Strategic Conversations, the conversation bridges the worlds of medicine and high stakes negotiation. Dr. Gomez and Christopher Voss explain how principles like tactical empathy, calibrated questions, ethical ambition, and disciplined curiosity can improve physician leadership, strengthen care teams, reduce burnout, and create better outcomes for patients and organizations alike.

This episode challenges traditional command and control leadership models and offers physicians a practical framework for navigating conflict, complexity, and change with clarity and confidence.

• Applying FBI hostage negotiation principles to healthcare leadership
• Tactical empathy as a leadership and communication tool
• Moving from authority based leadership to influence based leadership
• Reducing burnout through better conversations and alignment
• Ethical ambition and its role in modern medical leadership
• Improving collaboration across care teams and organizations
• Navigating high pressure conversations with patients and colleagues
• Building trust and psychological safety in clinical environments
• Creating sustainable win win outcomes in healthcare systems

Dr. Camilo R. Gomez, MD, MBA

Dr. Camilo R. Gomez is a physician, author, and healthcare executive with a focus on leadership, ethics, and system level improvement. He brings deep experience at the intersection of medicine, strategy, and communication, helping clinicians navigate complex professional environments with clarity and purpose.

Christopher Voss

Christopher Voss is a former FBI lead international hostage negotiator and the founder of Black Swan Group. He is the bestselling author of Never Split the Difference and a globally recognized expert in negotiation, communication, and decision making under pressure.

• Dr. Camilo R. Gomez on LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/neuroranger/
• Christopher Voss on LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophervoss/

Organizations

• Black Swan Group
  https://www.blackswanltd.com/

Books Mentioned

• Strategic Conversations by Camilo R. Gomez and Christopher Voss
  https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Conversations-Successbooks-Publishing/dp/B0DWH4R21H
• Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss
  https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
• Empathy and Understanding in Business by Christopher Voss
  https://www.amazon.com/Empathy-Understanding-Business-Chris-Voss/dp/B0CNF6J4G8
• Empathic Reasoning for Extraordinary Results by Christopher Voss
  https://www.amazon.com/Empathic...

What if reducing emergency department readmissions wasn’t about working harder, but about leading smarter through data, teamwork, and innovation?

In this episode of PEMBA On Demand, host Dr. Norman A. Chapin speaks with Dr. Max Baumgardner DO, FACEP, Chief Medical Officer at AdventHealth Apopka and current student in the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA program. Dr. Baumgardner shares the transformational journey of leading a multidisciplinary initiative aimed at reducing emergency department readmissions. He explains how his team leveraged data, care coordination, centralized case management, Epic integration, and innovative emergency department interventions to improve patient outcomes and move system performance from bottom quartile to top quartile. Dr. Baumgardner discusses the leadership lessons gained through PEMBA, the power of frontline engagement, and strategies for balancing administrative and clinical responsibilities while creating sustainable, scalable improvement.

Key Topics Covered

• Reducing emergency department readmissions through multidisciplinary collaboration
• Identifying high risk patients using real world data insights
• Leveraging Epic tools and alerts to improve care coordination
• The value of centralized case management and live Epic chat support
• Innovative emergency department solutions including infusions, dialysis, and direct facility placement
• Strengthening transitions of care using care plans and team based communication
• Maintaining quality and performance metrics while implementing major change
• Leadership strategies for empowering teams and sustaining improvement
• Balancing clinical work and the Chief Medical Officer role
• How the PEMBA program accelerated leadership capabilities and project success

Links and Resources

• Dr. Max Baumgardner on LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-baumgardner-do/
  
• ‍⚕️ Dr. Norman A. Chapin on LinkedIn
  
• ▶ PEMBA On Demand YouTube
  https://www.youtube.com/@PEMBAON-DEMAND
  
• AdventHealth Apopka
  https://www.adventhealth.com/hospital/adventhealth-apopka
  
• Physician Executive MBA Program – University of Tennessee
  https://haslamgradprograms.utk.edu/programs/mba/physician-executive-pemba/
  

How does a practicing surgeon turn a simple idea into a global platform transforming how surgeons connect, learn, and lead?

In this episode of “PEMBA On Demand,” host Dr. Norman A. Chapin interviews Dr. Mark Soliman, surgeon, entrepreneur, and graduate of the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) program. Dr. Soliman shares his inspiring journey from clinical surgery to co-founding Surgeon, a secure social networking and education platform built exclusively for surgeons.

He discusses the rapid growth of the platform, how it’s transforming peer-to-peer collaboration in surgical practice, and the realities of leading a healthcare startup. Dr. Soliman also reflects on how business education reshaped his leadership mindset, empowered his entrepreneurial goals, and provided the tools to innovate in an evolving healthcare ecosystem. His story offers valuable lessons for physicians seeking to combine clinical expertise with business acumen to create lasting impact.

Key Topics Covered

• The founding story and mission behind Surgeon, a secure networking and education hub for surgeons
• Challenges and rewards of transitioning from clinical practice to entrepreneurship
  
• Navigating early-stage startup challenges, funding, and strategic growth
• Building community and engagement through a physician-led digital platform
  
• The role of trust, collaboration, and security in medical networking
• How the PEMBA program provided business, leadership, and strategic skills for success
• Lessons in innovation, risk-taking, and perseverance from the startup journey
• Balancing the dual identities of clinician and entrepreneur
  
• Practical advice for physicians seeking to innovate or launch their own ventures
• The future of healthcare technology and physician-led digital ecosystems

Dr. Mark Soliman's Bio:

Dr. Mark Soliman, MD, MBA is a colorectal surgeon, entrepreneur, and PEMBA graduate from the University of Tennessee. He is the co-founder of Surgeon, a secure, physician-only platform designed to connect surgeons globally for education, case collaboration, and professional development. With a deep passion for innovation and leadership, Dr. Soliman combines his surgical expertise with business insight to advance healthcare through technology and community-driven solutions.

Links & Resources

• Dr. Norman A. Chapin on LinkedIn
  
• PEMBA On Demand Podcast on Apple
  
• SurgeOn – Surgery Unified Platform
• SurgeOn App
• Dr. Mark Soliman on LinkedIn
• AdventHealth

What does it take for a physician to redefine success and build a career that truly aligns with purpose, passion, and leadership?

In this episode of “PEMBA On Demand,” host Dr. Norman A. Chapin sits down with Dr. Pamela Sullivan, founder of National Healthcare Solutions, PLLC and former Chief Clinical Officer at Landmark Health. Dr. Sullivan—an accomplished physician leader, author, and consultant—shares her remarkable journey from physical therapy to emergency medicine, executive leadership, and entrepreneurship. She discusses the inspiration behind her new book, Career Prescription Guide: A Physician’s Guide for Career Transformation or Advancement, and the deeper motivations physicians should explore before making major career moves.

Together, they unpack key themes from her book, including identifying your “why,” recognizing the arrival fallacy, navigating cultural fit, and building a fulfilling leadership path aligned with your values. Dr. Sullivan also reflects on her PEMBA experience, lessons from consulting, and how her MBA boosted her confidence, perspective, and leadership impact.

Key Topics Covered:

• The inspiration and process behind writing Career Prescription Guide
  
• How imposter syndrome and personal stories shaped the book’s message
• Recognizing the arrival fallacy—why new roles don’t always equal happiness
• Evaluating career pivots and transitions objectively, not emotionally
• Assessing organizational culture and finding the right professional fit
• The founding of National Healthcare Solutions, PLLC and lessons from consulting
• Balancing entrepreneurship with full-time leadership opportunities
• How the PEMBA experience transformed her confidence, mindset, and peer network
• The importance of mentorship, self-awareness, and resilience in career growth
• Advice for physicians seeking leadership roles or pursuing new credentials (MBA, CPE, FACHE)

Dr. Pamela Sullivan’s Bio:

Dr. Pamela Sullivan, MD, MBA, CPE, FACP, FCUCM, PT is the Founder and Principal Consultant at National Healthcare Solutions, PLLC, and the former Chief Clinical Officer at Landmark Health. A board-certified physician and accomplished healthcare executive, she has led transformative initiatives in value-based care, clinical operations, and physician leadership. Dr. Sullivan is also the author of Career Prescription Guide: A Physician’s Guide for Career Transformation or Advancement, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL). Through her work, she empowers physicians to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Links & Resources

• Dr. Norman A. Chapin on LinkedIn

• PEMBA On Demand Podcast on Apple

• Dr. Pamela Sullivan on LinkedIn

• American Association for Physician Leadership

• PEMBA On Demand on YouTube