A sense of forward momentum sweeps through a conversation with Brandie Meyer, Texas Health Resources’ new senior vice president of Strategic Transformation.
She tends to work standing at her desk on the 8th floor at the Arlington Tower and is frequently on the move, stopping to greet people, heading to a meeting, having a quick conference with her team.
In an interview just 24 hours after she was named to the position, Brandie already had a vision for her new job: “It’s really about building some of the capabilities that the organization needs to operationally be prepared for the future of health care.”
Before long, she gets down to one of the major realities of that future: “As we move into a world where consumers are bearing more of the cost of health care directly out of pocket, we need to be increasingly mindful about how we efficiently use our resources to make it affordable for the consumers.”
To be affordable, the organization needs to be better coordinated, which is another key aspect of Brandie’s new role. She will be guiding the integration of work across various channels, as well as supporting new capabilities. She also will be leading work to evolve and transform core business operations and building products and services to compete on health and well-being.
It’s a big job, but one she’s been preparing for throughout her career.
“Brandie’s work has been key to Texas Health’s goal of meeting consumers’ health and wellness needs for a lifetime,” said Winjie Miao, senior executive vice president and chief experience officer. “Her leadership is paving the way to Texas Health’s consumer-focused future.”
All about change
Brandie, 36, has risen quickly at Texas Health.
She started as project manager in Strategy and Planning in 2014, and moved to senior director, Transformation Office, in 2015. By July 2017, she was vice president of Strategic Integration, a job she held until her promotion this month.
“Brandie’s promotions are an excellent example of the success one can have with a career at Texas Health,” Miao said.
The work Brandie has done as vice president paved the way to this new role. “End to end, it’s change management,” she said. “And change management is a huge part of what our team will need to be adept at.”
She and her team helped launched major initiatives that vitally impacted Texas Health, including Reliable Care BlueprintingTM, Dispatch Health and the Supportive and Palliative Care program. The team is currently working on Telestroke and a pilot program involving an observation unit at Texas Health Dallas. Brandie also plays a key role in representing Texas Health as work advances with Southwestern Health Resources and Texas Health Aetna.
Standardization is at the core of many of the Transformation Office’s initiatives and changes.
That said, “Standardization for standardization’s sake is not the vision of this role,” she added. “There are certainly benefits to standardization — when done thoughtfully.”
Again, she pivots to the realities: “The frontline staff already has a full-time job, and then some. We need to respect that and respect what they do and say, ‘How do we make this change in a way that sets them up for success, but also is as easy as possible so they can focus their time and energy on what they do best, which is care for patients?’ “
The change that comes with standardization and launching new initiatives can be painful, and Brandie has created a culture that makes it easier, said Stephen Allen, director of system transformation.
“She has a really good sense of humor, which is nice. Sometimes our work can be very hard, so to have a lighter personality is very helpful in sometimes very stressful situations,” he said, adding that Brandie’s management style is all about: “Working through problems together. Let’s figure it out. Let’s talk about it.”
An entry into health care
After growing up in Durango, Colorado, Brandie did her undergraduate work at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, starting out as a theater/math major and vowing to have nothing to do with health care after growing up the daughter of a doctor. Meyer felt pulled toward the math side of her double major and wound up with a degree in economics.
Despite her vow, she ended up in health care and found her career sweet spot — strategy implementation — while working at a then-new specialty physician practice in Austin. Brandie entered the MBA program at the University of Texas at Austin while still working for the practice. She married her partner of four years during her second year of business school. After they both graduated, his career took them to Dallas in 2013.
She did consulting work for awhile and ultimately applied for a job at Texas Health Resources — and didn’t get it. She tried again, for a different position, and was hired in 2014.
“I was blessed with working with people who took a chance on me and let me do things I was wildly unqualified for,” she said with a smile.
She remembers the time she became vice president as hectic. Her son Theo, now 3, came first and then the promotion. “That was a crazy time coming back from maternity leave, figuring out a new job and a new family life.”
Given a few years to work on the balancing act, Brandie today spends most of her free time with family — husband Andrew, son Theo and the family dog, Ody. They live in Oak Cliff and enjoy exploring the neighborhood.
“Really it’s time with family, and when we can, with friends. We love spending time outside playing as a family.”
By Judy WIley • Posted June 4, 2019
