October 05, 2009
Since coming to the United States at the age of 12 ½ from his
native land of Cairo, Egypt, Akram Boutros, M.D. '83C has lived the
American dream. He’s worked hard, married the love of his life,
fathered three beautiful daughters and forged a successful career
as a medical doctor and hospital administrator. He is Founder and
President of i3 Business Performance Solutions Inc., a consulting
firm that assists healthcare organizations in improving their
operational, clinical and financial performance.
While
the family had been part of the upper echelon of Egyptian society,
their being Christians meant they could only go so far and after
learning of his sons’ dreams to become doctors, the elder Boutros
moved them all to the United States where they started over. The
three Boutros sons have made their parents proud. They all attended
St. John’s University, followed each other to SUNY Downstate
Medical College and became doctors. Akram Boutros is the youngest
son and says St. John’s is where he “began seeing the joy that
comes from serving others.” It was also the place he met his wife,
Suzanne ('82C), his most ardent advocate and a great supporter of
his career which has included graduating and becoming a guest
lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
He took a few minutes out of his busy schedule recently to have a
heart-to-heart with St. John’s University Magazine.
What first drew you to medicine?
My mother’s cousin was a general surgeon in Egypt and he made a
meaningful difference in people’s lives. That’s what was most
attractive to me, giving back and having an impact on people’s
lives and that is what drew me to hospital administration —
actually being able to have an impact on more people than I ever
could in practice [as a doctor.].
What are some of the biggest challenges being in the
healthcare field?
We have ways of delivering health care that have evolved over the
years and no structure to permit the overall effectiveness of
health care. Society values the amount of services we get more than
the quality of services we get. We also treat healthcare as
separate areas, there’s no continuum of care. So you go to a doctor
who refers you to another doctor who then has you provided with
testing elsewhere. Then you come to a hospital for a procedure and
then you go to post acute care. All that information is never
shared; only very small bits of the information are shared,
creating inefficacies in healthcare. Finally, we value treatment
much more than we value prevention. So we have lots of unaligned
incentives. You, as an individual have no incentive to go to the
doctor until you are sick, I as a physician have incentive to see
you as often as possible and keep you happy, and the hospitals are
rewarded for performing procedures, so there’s very little
investment in prevention. The alignment of the system is very
poor.
Health care, of course, is such a hot button issue
especially in the arena of politics. Do you think the debate is
helpful or harmful?
The debate is always helpful. What is harmful is the
thought that there is a quick fix to this. We didn’t get here
overnight and we can’t get back on track overnight.
What should be done?
If I were given the opportunity to fix the health care
system, I would put together a commission that would have leaders
from consumer groups, medicine, health care, technology, economics
and sociology and give them three to five years to study the issue
and come back with long-term recommendations.
Finally, what’s in your heart?
I feel most passionate about my life with my family. Five years
ago, if you had asked me what I wanted to be my legacy, it would
have been easy to say I wanted to affect how health care gets
delivered in this country in the future. Today, that’s a distant
second. My legacy is to raise three wonderful young ladies who can
bring happiness and joy to those whom they meet.