Who is Central Health's new president and CEO? Here's what we know about Dr. Patrick Lee.

Central Health is starting the new year with a new president and CEO. Dr. Patrick Lee will head the hospital district for Travis County beginning Jan. 29. His predecessor Mike Geeslin ended his seven years with Central Health on Dec. 31 in a planned exit announced in April.

The board of Central Health held a nationwide search and brought in two finalists before choosing Lee. His contract is still being worked out, but his base salary will be $486,000, compared with Geeslin's $329,000.

This will be a big year of transition for Central Health, which is funded by Travis County taxpayers with the mission to provide health care for people at or below 200% of the poverty level. Central Health will begin its seven-year health equity plan, which will lead to an almost doubling of its staff as it moves from working with partners to provide health care to opening its own primary care and specialty clinics. Its board is also under new leadership. Dr. Charles Bell ended his term as board chair, and Ann Kitchen has been elected the new chair.

All of this comes as Central Health expects to have the results of a Travis County Commissioners Court-mandated performance audit this summer and as it is suing and being sued by Ascension Texas hospital group over a contract to work together to provide hospital care for people at or below that 200% of poverty level. Central Health is also being sued by a group of citizens over its annual $35 million payment to the University of Texas Dell Medical School, which voters approved in 2012.

"I believe Dr. Lee is exactly the right person for us right now to lead Central Health," Kitchen said in introducing him to members of the media. "As a practicing physician, he understands and cares for patients who have faced historical barriers in accessing health care. ... He cares for folks."

Here's what we know about Lee from his conversations with the media and community members:

He's worked in safety-net hospital systems before

Lee, 46, describes himself as a "physician executive" with a "lifelong commitment to health equity."

Lee spent the past two years as the system chairman of medicine for One Brooklyn Health in New York, which works in three hospitals and 27 ambulatory centers.

Before Brooklyn, he was in the Boston area as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, the chair of medicine at Salem Hospital, the chief performance improvement officer at Lynn Community Health Center and the medical director at the Cambridge Primary Care Center.

He sees Central Health as having the potential to lead

His vision is to cut health disparities in half.

The mission, he said, is "to ensure that every single person regardless of who they are ... can receive the compassionate, high quality, whole person care that they need and want without delay."

"When we deliver on that mandate, as I believe that we can, we will transform health care in Travis County. We will go first when someone needs to take the first step. We will set and reach a high bar of compassion and quality, and we will inspire and assist others to reach and clear that high bar," he said.

He would like a more integrated care model, in which behavioral health and physical health happen together along with housing, food access and other support.

Trust is his focus for Central Health

"Our core business, especially when talking about health equity, is trust," he said. "It's not insurance. ... It's not drug delivery. ... Our patients have to truly believe that we have their best interests at heart."

Trust and whole person care are "essential in achieving health equity," he said.

Read more: Amid push for transparency, Travis County OKs performance audit for Central Health

Decades of distrust in the health system must be dismantled

Lee talked about taking a hard look at the health disparities and removing the barriers.

"The key is to listen to our patients, to earn someone's trust," Lee said. "If we can help them believe that this time will be different, that I will treat you like a human being and I truly want to hear what you say.

"Good intention is not enough," he said. "You have to learn how to deliver, learn to be effective."

Lee, who also speaks Spanish, talked about the importance of having practitioners who can speak in the patient's language as part of building trust.

His first step is listening

"I have a great deal to learn and get up to speed," he said.

This first year will be about listening, learning and implementing the beginnings of the health equity plan. That plan, which includes adding respite care and transition care and expanding specialty care with Central Health's own practitioners, has to get out of the gate correctly in the next two to three years to be effective, he said.

Read more: Travis County commissioners pass Central Health's $744 million budget but questions remain

Central Health has its challenges

The health landscape in Travis County, with its government bodies, clinic systems, hospital systems and medical school, is "a complex political space," he said. "We have to navigate through all of that," as well as build an alignment of purpose and goals with all the stakeholders.

Central Health's equity work is going to require "substantial" partnerships, Lee said. "That takes effort, transparency and character," he said.

The lawsuits are important, and they are also a distraction, he said. Rapid growth of the organization is also a challenge and will require developing a strong culture with people at the center, he said.

And the pivot to providing direct care will require the organization to acquire new skills and behaviors, he said.

Central Health has its opportunities

Because Central Health wasn't created until 2004 by voters and just now is getting into direct care, "we don't have to build it the way it's always been done," he said. "We can get it right the first time."

Funded by the taxpayers of Travis County and with a $744 million budget for this year, Central Health has the resources it needs and some flexibility with the money to focus on its priorities and innovate, he believes.

"We can show what's possible here," Lee said.

Innovation is important to him

Though the health equity plan has "excellent bones," he said, it doesn't talk about innovation. He would like to work on improving care delivery in new ways.

"We have a lot of forward-thinking tech people in Austin. Let's have that conversation," Lee said.

The focus should be on "upstream" care to prevent hospitalization, he said. Some of that could be using digital health systems such as apps or artificial intelligence, while not negating human connection. His example: Create a system to alert a physician that a patient hasn't picked up medication and then send someone to the patient with the medication.

In addition to touting whole health care, he talked about open-access care models.

"When we put all these pieces in place, you ought to be able to see your primary care doctor today," he said.

Lee sees Central Health as operating at the tip of the iceberg.

"We can go below the tip of the iceberg," he said. "We can be bold and create some things."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Meet Dr. Patrick Lee, Central Health's new president and CEO