Sustainability and being a 'breeder reactor'

Pete McCanna, CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, believes that health systems are built around the wrong objective… and he has an ambitious goal to change that.

This week, Halle sits down with McCanna to unpack how one of the largest and most successful health systems in the country is shifting from a supply-driven model to one built entirely around the customer. They discuss why legacy systems operate like “walled castles,” what it takes to redesign care around real conditions instead of departments, and how Baylor Scott & White is testing a model that prioritizes access, personalization, and long-term trust over short-term profit.

We cover:

• Why most health systems are structured to fill capacity, not create value for patients
• The reason why he uses the term "customer" instead of "patient" (and how his colleagues initially responded)
• How loyalty and trust make it economically sound to offer services that lose money.
• The strategy for deploying AI to create product differentiation for patients rather than just improving internal efficiency
• The limits of the “payvider” model and why it’s harder than it looks
• The three healthcare laws he thinks need to be rewritten

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About our guest:

As CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, Peter (Pete) McCanna is focused on empowering customers to live well by reimagining traditional healthcare—offering more convenient, personalized, and informed experiences. He is leading Baylor Scott & White’s customer-centric transformation by bringing together the system’s 59,000 team members around a common goal to keep people healthy and feeling connected and supported.

Before becoming CEO, Pete served as the health system’s president. In that role, he drove operational excellence, strengthened clinical alignment, scaled the system’s digital health platform, MyBSWHealth, and deepened academic partnerships to address the critical need for healthcare professionals.

Pete has nearly 40 years of industry experience. As executive vice president and chief operating officer at Northwestern Medicine, he exceeded targets for operating revenue, quality, patient experience, and employee engagement, making it one of the top 10 academic health centers in the country.

Known as a thoughtful and innovative leader, Pete formerly served as chief financial officer at New Mexico-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services and the University of Colorado Hospital.

Passionate about transforming healthcare, Pete was named one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.” Driven by a deep sense of purpose, Pete currently serves as the inaugural board chair of Longitude Health, an innovative healthcare collaborative, and as a board member of University of Michigan Health, Texas Hospital Association, and Catholic Extension. He holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan.

Baylor Scott & White Health is the largest not-for-profit health system in the state of Texas. It includes 55 hospitals, more than 1,300 access points, a health plan, a research institute, and an accountable care organization, plus Levanto—a company offering digitally-enabled health solutions—and 3.5 million customers connected through MyBSWHealth.

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Snow notes:

• Visit BSWHealth.com to learn more.
• Download the MyBSWHealth app.
• Explore Levanto.Health to learn about employer solutions built on Baylor Scott & White's digital platform and care model.

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