From clerk to CEO: Lovelace head looks to 'create healthier communities,' up recruitment in new role

May 8—Working as a unit clerk at a hospital in Austin, Texas, David Schultz was asked by an employee what he wanted to do when he grew up. Schultz was just a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin and he "didn't know."

That's when a coworker, who Schultz says was then a nursing executive, "asked at that point in time if I'd ever considered a master's (degree) in health care administration."

He hadn't considered it — and he wasn't exactly sure what working in health care administration entailed. But the question stayed with him, and he began to learn little by little what it meant to work in that field.

Three decades later, Schultz is now leading one of New Mexico's largest health care systems. In his role as president and CEO of Lovelace Health System, he oversees six hospitals, 33 health care clinics and seven outpatient therapy clinics. And he is leading a team in an entirely new environment.

Schultz, who began in his new role on April 17, said he knows there is work to be done. For example, recruiting more health care professionals, particularly physicians and nurses, is going to be a key point of his leadership. But so is making sure the values of the health system are aligned with those of the people it serves.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Let's start from the very beginning. Tell me where you were born and where you were raised.

"I was born in Houston, raised just north of Dallas in a town called Plano, where I graduated high school. Then I went to the University of Texas in Austin for my undergraduate degree in economics."

Then you got your master's degree in health care administration from Trinity University? Tell me a little bit about that.

"Part of the graduation process at Trinity is you do a year's residency — administrative residency. I got to do that up in Tulsa, Oklahoma (at Hillcrest Medical Center) and then I graduated once the residency program was finished."

When and where did you get started in your career?

"So it really started once I graduated from the master's program (at Trinity University). It started at Hillcrest in Tulsa. It was a great time for career growth and expansion because we purchased all of the assets from a for-profit company in eastern Oklahoma. We went from four hospitals to 13 within a year's time after I graduated, and so I got a lot of exposure to a lot of different health care settings. It was very dynamic, very fast paced. And because of that, I got to go in-between facilities.

"I worked at a children's hospital for a couple of years. I worked for Hillcrest Medical Center, the main hospital there in Tulsa. I got to experience what it means to be a health care executive, not just a hospital administrator or a clinic administrator. I got to do a little bit of everything: managed care contracting, due diligence for acquisitions. Really, that dynamic environment is what made me fall in love with health care, because you could see how you can impact patients in a role like mine.

"While I'm not a direct caregiver, I can immediately see all the aspects of health care that can either create a healthier community or create barriers toward creating a healthy community. So it was just a great learning experience there."

Tell me about some other stops you've made along the way.

"My career progression was interesting, because I was really looking for opportunities to learn how to be a better health care executive. So I went to Tyler, (Texas), which wasn't far from where my wife grew up, not far from where I grew up, actually. But it was actually not as dynamic as Tulsa (when I worked at Hillcrest).

"I had an opportunity to learn in a different setting in Tucson, Arizona, where I was the administrator and COO of a 300-bed hospital there (Northwest Medical Center). ... Now a company called Community Health Systems owns it. I went out there because I was told that the for-profits knew how to run better hospitals, and when you look at their metrics for growth and safety and quality, at least compared to where I was currently, that was proving to be true. I wanted to go learn from the for-profits on how to do that. I spent almost five years there.

"I then had an opportunity to go up into the Pacific Northwest in Bellevue, Washington, to work for an independent hospital (called Overlake Medical Center). It was a privately held, independent hospital. ... The community up in Bellevue is pretty dynamic and different from anywhere I had lived before. My wife was very interested in it. Our kids were still relatively young. ... I was one of three corporate officers and you made all of the decisions along with your board on the future of that hospital and health care system. It was a learning experience unlike any other, I have to admit.

"And again, my goal is to be a well-rounded health care executive. So to go into that environment was very unique. There's not a lot of independent health systems around any longer. Certainly not as many as when I started my career."

You spent about seven years with CHI Franciscan Health and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.

"So I left Overlake to join CHI Franciscan. ...It is now known as CommonSpirit Health. And that division of CommonSpirit Health is now known as Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. Just because in that seven years we merged with a number of different organizations. But during my time there I actually started as a president of a hospital that had been independent and was transitioning into the system structure, and since I had worked for both independents and systems, I was uniquely qualified to take that role over.

"Within the first year, my duties were expanded to include another hospital. And then my duties were expanded a little further to include service lines for our eight-hospital division within the state of Washington. At that point in time, I got to get intimately involved with our cardiac service line, our oncology service line or women's and children's service line. ...And so it was really a great learning environment, and I was covering that territory around what we call the Puget Sound. ...I did that for seven years — great experience."

What attracted you to the role as president and CEO at Lovelace, and Albuquerque?

"Well, I mean, quite frankly, New Mexico and Albuquerque, first and foremost, it was a region of the country that my wife and I were looking at joining. Again, having been in Arizona, I tend to like the sun even more than my wife. But certainly just the geography, everything that Albuquerque has to offer, was very attractive from just that perspective.

"And then Ardent Health as a company — I know quite a few people that work for Ardent. Obviously, I've worked for hospitals in my past that weren't Ardent quite yet, but the people that are there I'm still very familiar with.

"...I was aware of Lovelace when I was back in Texas, certainly in Arizona. It had a wonderful reputation. It was one of the first integrated health care systems in the country in a lot of ways with its health plans. It was very progressive. And so just knowing the history of Lovelace, combined with the other things, just led to a no-brainer for me."

What are your goals in leading this health system?

"The ultimate goal is to create healthier communities. I mean, that's really what our jobs are to be and to do that in this environment, of course, you have to provide excellent patient care. So I have to make sure we have the resources to be able to do that. That's one of our greatest opportunities.

"I think we have an opportunity to improve our access. Certainly, that starts with recruitment. At this point in time, it's been pretty evident both on the nursing side and the professional physician side. So working with the University of New Mexico — the medical school — our partnerships with them are certainly vitally important. ...

"And again, just overall to make sure we are providing health care in the settings that our patients and our communities need them. We know going forward that is going to be less and less in the hospitals. So we need to extend into what we call our ambulatory settings — making sure we provide easy access to patients where they can most easily access them, which is closer to home or if not at home."

More on David Schultz

PERSONAL: David Schultz, 52, born in Houston and raised in Plano; married to Becky Schultz, 52; father to Sydney Schultz, 25, and Braden Schultz, 21.

EDUCATION: Master's degree in health care administration from Trinity University, 1996; bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, 1993.

POSITIONS: President and CEO, Lovelace Health System, since April 2023; multiple executive level roles, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, 2014-2022; EVP and COO, Overlake Medical Center, 2007-2014; administrator and COO, Northwest Medical Center, 2003-2007; VP of professional services, East Texas Medical Center, 2000-2003; multiple roles, Hillcrest HealthCare System, 1995-2000.