ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT


ASCA Honors Industry Stalwarts Bill Wilcox, Randy Leffler receive Nap Gary Award BY SAHELY MUKERJI


ASCA named Bill Wil- cox, retired vice chairman of Tenet Healthcare Cor- poration in Dallas, Texas, and retired chairman and


chief executive officer of United Sur- gical Partners International (USPI) in Addison, Texas, and Randy Leffler, the recently deceased executive direc- tor of the Ohio Association of Ambula- tory Surgery Centers, as the recipients of its 2020 Nap Gary Legacy Award for Lifetime


Achievement in the ASC Community. Please see page 19 in the April 2020


issue of ASC Focus for Leffler’s tribute. Leffler, passed away last December. Wilcox’s contributions to the ASC


industry extend far and wide. “Bill was instrumental in getting the ASC com- munity started,” says Ann Shimek, RN, CASC, executive director of the ASC Quality Collaboration (ASC QC) and principal of Ann Shimek Clinical Path- ways LLC in Plano, Texas. “He was passionate about initiating the ASC QC to demonstrate the high quality of care the industry provides to patients.” Marian Lowe, senior vice president


of strategy at US Anesthesia Partners in Dallas, has known Wilcox for the past 15 odd years. It is hard to know where to start when it comes to Wilcox’s con- tributions to the ASC community, she says. “I’d give him credit—which he will most likely freely share or at least partially deflect—for the following: ■


seeing opportunity in the surgery cen- ter as an enduring business model and the future of how surgical care will be delivered in the community setting;


■


pioneering the three-way joint ven- ture ASC ownership model to align the interests of hospitals, surgery centers and physicians in a profit- able business;


■ ■ Bill Wilcox (left) and Randy Leffler (right) ■


leading the ASC community toward an in-network strategy with commer- cial payers;


championing the unification of the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers and the Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association and creating a strong foundation of advo- cacy; and


developing the ASC QC and cham- pioning the use of quality and patient experience data to improve performance.”


Shimek, who has known Wilcox for more than 16 years, describes him as a man of passion, integrity, fierce loy- alty and utmost care. “Bill treats every- one as if they are a family member,” she says. “His favorite saying is to be tough on the issues but kind to the people.” Lowe agrees. “Bill is the ultimate


team player. He is humble, hungry and smart. He sees opportunity in people and process and is relentless in his pur- suit. And he has a beautiful mind that can translate opportunity into action and execution.” Shimek reminisces about the time when she was a newcomer at USPI and bumped into Wilcox in the elevator. He addressed her by her first name, said good morning, and asked what the com- pany could do to help her in her role. “At the time, I was overwhelmed with starting out in corporate America after leaving the front line in the OR and was trying to learn everything I could about


Excel, emails, spreadsheets, reading financials and the list went on,” she says. “Quite honestly, I was thinking of leav- ing and going back to my comfort zone of the operating room. Bill changed that because I felt so valued that the CEO of the company would care enough to know my name and how I was doing that I gave it another chance.” Lowe says she feels lucky to have


Wilcox in her life all these years. “He has had a greater influence on my career and my life and happiness than any other person outside of my imme- diate family,” she says. After her father passed away, Lowe remembers writ- ing Wilcox an email about what her father meant to her. “Fast forward three years: Bill is giving a toast at our wed- ding—my wife also worked for USPI and Bill takes credit for matchmak- ing—and he starts quoting my words about my father from an email I had sent him years prior in honor of my dad’s absence from the ceremony. How many CEOs of multibillion-dollar com- panies would have kept that email and remembered years later about it? He knew how important that relationship was to me and honored the moment and my family. Truly amazing and classically Bill.


“The great thing about Bill is that my story and relationship with him is hardly unique,” Lowe says. “I could name a dozen people off the top of my head who would have equally deep and transfor- mative relationships with him.” The Nap Gary Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the ASC Community honors ASC community members who have worked in the industry for the preceding 10 years at least and have made sustained contri- butions in the local, state or national outpatient surgery communities as advocates for, and to the betterment of, the ASC healthcare delivery model.


ASC FOCUS AUGUST 2020| ascfocus.org 23


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30