"You cannot rest on your laurels. Yes, we are a top-ten Children's Hospital, but we strive to continue to get better and better every year." - Diane Hupp
This episode stars Diane Hupp, President of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. In her impressive career, Diane has embodied "limitless possibilities" at every turn. Listen as she documents her journey from UPMC volunteer to President across her 40-year career.
Acrisure provided a $7.5 million gift to UPMC Children's, the largest corporate gift ever received by the foundation. Your host John Pelle and Diane explore facets of this partnership, and much more, in this conversation.
Listen to the episode here, and don't forget to subscribe to the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Key Takeaways:
[1:38] Diane shares her career journey from volunteer to President of UPMC Children's.
[5:30] Why UPMC Children's continues to strive to get better, despite extraordinary success.
[7:34] What it means to be ranking-driven, not ranking-motivated.
[9:14] How being in Pittsburgh fosters innovation and constant growth through technology.
[11:36] Diane mentions four doctors who have devoted more than four decades of their lives to their professions.
[12:57] Inside Acrisure's partnership with UPMC Children's, and what we look forward to doing together.
[15:56] How the Pittsburgh Steelers partner with and support UPMC Children's.
[20:00] The limitless opportunities that lie ahead.
Further Reading:
Notable Quotes:
"Every child and every family that comes our way will receive top-notch, extraordinary, compassionate care." - Diane Hupp
"From a leadership perspective, it's important that they know that you care about them, that you listen, and that you are going to take action when they speak." - Diane Hupp
"I felt as if there was an instantaneous relationship between Greg Williams and our team." - Diane Hupp
TRANSCRIPT BELOW
JOHN PELLE
All right, we are back on Limitless. Very special guest today joining us. Diane Hupp from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital. Definitely encourage you to google Acrisure and UPMC as part of our commitment to the city of Pittsburgh and children's health overall. And so Diane graciously agreed to participate on our podcast and tell us a little bit more about her rich background and experience. So Diane, welcome to the podcast.
DIANE HUPP
Thank you, John. It's a real pleasure and privilege to be here today to do the podcast with you. I'm excited.
JOHN PELLE
I don't know if we've had a guest who's actually embodied limitless possibilities as much as you have. So I'm going to hype you up a little bit and then let's just dive in. So you're president of a hospital. That is a big job.
DIANE HUPP
It is a huge job being President of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. This hospital has been here, John, for over 130 years. It's a pillar in the city of Pittsburgh and well beyond. And for 38 years I've had the privilege of being here and serving the community and our patients and our families.
JOHN PELLE
You told me something when we met, and I was very impressed just knowing your title and what you do, but I wonder what our listeners would think when they hear more about your arc. So how did you even start your career? How does one wake up and say, I'm going to be the president of a hospital?
DIANE HUPP
To be honest, I don't know if I ever woke up and said I'm going to be the President of Children's Hospital. But some years ago, and it's now over 40, when I was at school at Duquesne University right here in Pittsburgh, I was studying business at the time, but I believe I had a calling to be a nurse. So I decided, I said, I'm not sure about healthcare. I decided to come up, take the bus up, it's just a couple miles down the road and volunteer. And my first real role here at the hospital was to be a volunteer during my college years. And I fell in love with the place. You don't stay at a place for decades after decades unless you truly have a passion for what you do and that you believe in the mission. And so while at Duquesne, I switched to nursing school and I graduated from Duquesne and after a volunteer I started as what they called then a childcare assistant or a nursing assistant.
That was my first job and that was back in 1986. And in 1987 I was hired as a nurse when I graduated from college. So I've spent, most of my world here has been in the nursing realm, but a couple of decades ago I was offered the position. I knew I always wanted to be the Chief Nursing Officer and Hospital Vice President. So I was offered that opportunity and then it grew into something a little bit more the Vice President of Hospital Operations. So with that dual role, had a lot of experience, exposure, great opportunities throughout the hospital to really prepare myself for this role, which I've been in just about a year and a half. But I don't think I would've saw myself as the president until really more recently.
JOHN PELLE
It's a remarkable, I mean just first of all, a shout out to everyone who works in your hospital and all hospitals. You are what make communities thrive and great. And so thank you. How do the nurses in your hospital, first of all, is that universal knowledge? Would you say most of the nurses in UPMC Children's know that our leader has once done our job, or do you feel like this is a little bit of a secret that we are breaking?
DIANE HUPP
I think many of them know, however, over the past year we have recruited in about 400-500 in the past two years, 400-500 new nurses and they probably don't know when opportunity presents itself. I do offer, try to give an introductory, I do believe it's important that they understand that I've walked the life here at Children's Hospital, that I believe in our mission, that I've had lots of experiences throughout the units and the floors and departments and the operating rooms. And I think that helps. It helps with credibility, it helps with the level of respect, but most of all from a leadership position, I believe it's important that they know you care about them and that you listen and that you're going to take action when they speak.
JOHN PELLE
There's such a thread between our two organizations now. We will talk a lot more about that contribution and Acrisure investment in that mission that you described. But there's a real thread running through the whole season of Limitless podcast just around, I'd sum it up, "don't quit while you're ahead." That's probably not the best way to sum it up. But when you've achieved some modicum of success or many in our case, in your case, many modicum, modica of success, you look over your shoulder and you say, but I'm not done yet.
So your hospital, congratulations to you all. You are one of the 10, the US News and World Report honor roll of best children's hospitals like top-10 ranked Children's Hospital in the world. And yet here you are saying, and we're going to double down on employee listening, we're going to double down in moving locations and we're going to find new partners like Acrisure. So what keeps you honest? As someone who's achieved an amazing run in your own career, you're part of a hospital that is doing amazing things and we'll talk more about things that you want to highlight that your hospital is doing, but just on a macro level, how do you not look at the past success and say, we're good. I'm good because you clearly are not doing that.
DIANE HUPP
You cannot rest on your laurels. That would be my mantra. Yes, we are a top-10 children's hospital, but we strive to continue to get better and every year it's a tough race there at the top. There are over 250 children's hospitals in the United States. There are only 10 that make that honor roll of being the best of the best. And these are extraordinary children's hospitals. And you get there because of the extraordinary people that are delivering this extraordinary care every day, every encounter.
The US News and World Report, some would say, oh, how do they get to these rankings? And people question it. Much of it is based on quality. It's based on the quality we deliver the service, we deliver the brand and the reputation. We have quality such as our survival rates, infection rates, complication rates, keeping those very, very low. But we're not going to be done until we get to zero of those. We want zero infections in this hospital. We want every child to survive no matter how sick. And that's probably what's transformed the most over my time is being able to care for the sickest of the sickest come to Children's Hospital, not even just around Pittsburgh, but well beyond out of the state, sometimes out of the country that they'll come here for a transplant. They'll come here for the extraordinary heart program we have, which I know we'll talk a little bit more about.
JOHN PELLE
So as you think about that quitting, not quitting while you're ahead, looking at you're, there's a lot of parallels, you're ranking driven, but it doesn't seem like you're ranking motivated, if that sounds right.
DIANE HUPP
Yes, we're ranking driven because I think it does mean something to be able to tout yourself as a top 10. But what we're really trying to do, and we're not the biggest children's hospital out there and volume counts, but what we focus on is the quality and the service that we're able to deliver. So every child that needs us and every child that comes here, we strive to deliver top-notch care to that child and to that family. Being in a hospital is most likely one of the most challenging times in a child, in a family's life of having to be in a hospital. Some come in, they're here for months, John, months. We have children that have been here for a year and they finally graduate and go home, and we have a parade for them when they go out because they've graduated. We have other children that come in and out in a day or two tragedies that we see here every day, but our folks are very much driven to give it their all for these kids and their families.
JOHN PELLE
And I think your organization, your people are doing amazing things to not just lean into what humans do, but there's a whole undercurrent, just really frankly in the city of Pittsburgh around innovation. There's so much happening in Pittsburgh. How would you say innovation and just your presence in a city like Pittsburgh impacts your ability to say, we're going to lead, we're going to do things like you mentioned the cardiac unit and other areas where you've identified things that can be improved or maybe things that are going well, but we're going to double down and invest. I would love to hear your perspective there.
DIANE HUPP
Absolutely. Technology is so important in healthcare today. State-of-the-art technology to deliver state-of-the-art care. In our new Heart Institute, we are looking to develop and put in construct new cath labs, state-of-the-art with top-notch imaging. We're putting in a cardiac MRI, one of only five or six in the country that has a seamless entry right into the cath lab. It's an intra-cath MRI, so that if a child's getting an MRI, but we also need the scan immediately following or immediately before they don't have to have two anesthetics. They go in and have their scan and they slide right into the next room without even waking them up. Uninterrupted anesthesia to have that done. That's state-of-the-art technology and advanced imaging at its best.
JOHN PELLE
Amazing, amazing. I mean it's technology, but applied to something really revolutionary. How does your team feel about being able to wake up and say, I work for a hospital that is going to equip me as a nurse or a physician or a physician's assistant to be the absolute best at what I do?
DIANE HUPP
I think there's a lot to be said about that. When you take pride in what you do every day, at the end of the day when you feel good about it and you walk out saying to yourself, wow, I made a difference and I feel supported and I was recognized for it. That drives people. That drives people to keep coming back and keep doing better. And I think that's in part why the culture that we have here at the Children's Hospital. And I think you could find that at various children's hospitals. The people are here for the kids. And so many of our times, when you look at people that have been here for years, we just had service awards. We were recognizing several individuals that had been here 45 years, 45 years, John, that's four and a half decades of their life have been devoted to taking care of these kids here at Children's Hospital. In fact, two of them said, I'm going for 50. It was the best thing I heard at the awards.
JOHN PELLE
I don't want to put you on the spot. Do you want to mention anyone by name or can we put their names out there?
DIANE HUPP
Absolutely. Dr. Lee Beerman, who is a cardiologist, Susie Fulton was our cardiac cath lab nurse. Missy O'Leary is our respiratory therapist. And Patty Klein who works in support staff in our department of anesthesia. Those four individuals, we gave them a tout out again today, but for 45 years, they've devoted their life's work to helping the kids and the families.
JOHN PELLE
It's probably one of the most, the biggest points of pride for myself as an employee and for many others who I work with that we were able to contribute to your organization as we've done where I'm recording this in Grand Rapids at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital here near our headquarters, obviously Pittsburgh, the first thing you think of is, oh, well, Steelers. And so you extrapolate from there and you see Acrisure has really doubled down on that city, whether it's by introducing some of the tech talent that we have and obviously the branding. And you start to see a lot more of that coming here soon. But I mean, I'd love your take on Acrisure as a partner. Maybe just walk through a little bit of that process with Greg Williams, our CEO, and how we got acquainted, what we ended up doing, and maybe some of your aspirations, like where do you see our two organizations headed toward together?
DIANE HUPP
I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Williams and Elliott Bundy and some of the other team about a year ago or so, or maybe longer. And at that meeting, he and his team came in for a tour and myself and our president of our hospital foundation, Rachel Petrucelli, and our lead physician, Dr. Victor Morell, who was our surgeon in chief and oversees Director of our Heart Vascular Institute here at Children's, had the opportunity to not only tour him and show him what Children's Hospital is about. And I know that children's hospitals aren't a stranger to him. I know the work that he's done previously, but we wanted to sit down and talk to him about priorities. He actually said to me, Diane, what is your top priority right now? What are you trying to get done? And I thought to myself, wow, how insightful, how kind of him to look me in the eye and say, tell me about your top priority.
And we did just that. The three of us, we spoke to the top priority being elevating our Heart Institute and within the institute we're trying to do a few things. Some may say, well, why cardiac? How did you pick that? Well, number one, our cardiac program has been ranked in the top few programs of the country for years. Number two, we've been growing, we've been growing and we've grown out of our space. Third, you mentioned technology. We need new technology. We're looking to upgrade our current technology of cath labs and MR imaging scanning devices, which we need more space for. And finally, we're looking to create an institute. Right now, our cath labs are housed on our fourth floor in the middle of a very busy surgical floor where we have ORs and procedure centers and cath labs and interventional rooms. This is going to be a separate segregated space, family coming in for heart surgery for a cath lab. They'll come in through our heart center, everyone in the center itself, it's a three-story building, will be focused on taking care of children that have heart diseases and heart anomalies.
JOHN PELLE
It's amazing.
DIANE HUPP
Yeah, we're so excited. But when you said a little bit about Acrisure and some of the common themes of Children's and Acrisure, I felt as if there was an instantaneous relationship between Mr. Greg Williams and his team when they were here.
JOHN PELLE
And you have some other pretty big-name partners. How would you say your relationship is to some of those other, there's a team, they play fairly close by, the Pittsburgh Steelers. We know a little bit about them. How does it work, how is it being the president of a children's hospital in a town where you could be, I think they call it a pinnacle partner. You're sort of in that rare high standing with that organization. There's involvement with players. How does that all come together for you?
DIANE HUPP
It's wonderful. How is it to be the president of this children's hospital? It's extraordinary and it's a privilege. And each and every day we have people that come in and give us a call and say, let me give you an example here. A couple of the Steelers, I mean, T.J. Watt, he's wonderful to our children. He comes in on his own time, come in with his new wife, Dani, just to come in. We have a broadcast studio here. They'll broadcast out to all the rooms, and after they do, they were playing games against each other who could win some sports and some Pittsburgh memorabilia. And the kids call in and talk to them on the phone, and then they take time out to go and visit lots of children when they're here.
Whether it's Pittsburgh, Steelers, Art Rooney, Dan Rooney have always been so good to us, so good to us each and every year. They're partners with us. We have an annual telethon in December, and we couldn't be more grateful for the support and the generosity and advocacy for the Children's Hospital here. I always say Children's is a gift to the community, but we receive gifts right back from our community that we are grateful for.
JOHN PELLE
What's something that would surprise a listener about you? So you obviously, we heard your journey from nursing, frankly, volunteering to nursing, to leadership, and now I think you've really outlined, well, this whole journey really from 2009 to 2025+. What's something about you that a listener would be maybe surprised or intrigued by?
DIANE HUPP
Surprised or intrigued? Well, I do love and back to the community myself. Maybe that's not surprising or intrigued. I serve on a lot of boards. I do serve as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at Duquesne University. It is my alma mater, and I'll always be grateful for the education that I received, very holistic education that focused on the spiritual, the education, and the whole person. I would say a fun fact, I do like harness racing. My father had horses in the day, and I've been in the bike. If you know what a standard bred horse is, and I've been in the bike before. We used to jog the horses and actually just went out this past weekend to watch the biggest race of the year out at the Meadows called the Adios with my mother. That's what we did growing up. It was a hobby of my father's, and it's a little hidden hobby of mine. I don't have a lot of time for it, but once or twice a year, I get out there.
JOHN PELLE
Well, that explains the horse that just walked by you in your office. So can't see it as we record this.
DIANE HUPP
There go. You can't see that.
JOHN PELLE
Well, that's really cool, Diane. Honestly, I'm even shocked you have time to talk to me just given all the things that are going on.
DIANE HUPP
No, it's important.
JOHN PELLE
Well, before we let you go back to all of the amazing things that you discussed, when I remember to ask Brittany, the show's producer always has a question like, let's make sure we get this question. Sometimes I forget, and you're a guest where I'm not going to forget. The name of the show is the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast." We say it's presented by Acrisure because it's not the Acrisure podcast. So hopefully if you're listening and you are confused on why this is mostly about Diane and there's no other Acrisure guest, it's because we're a very partnership-driven organization and we always want to try to use our platform and our content to highlight those really special relationships we have. And UPMC is a new and very special relationship.
And Diane, as we wrap up here, I would love for you to just have the sort of last words on what does that phrase mean to you? What does limitless possibilities mean to you? And maybe even some advice for folks listening who may be in a healthcare or a healthcare adjacent field or just starting out and figuring out like you've done it, you've done this amazing climb. Some would say it's a climb. You might not even see it as a sort of ladder. So I would love to just hear a little bit more from you as we wrap up.
DIANE HUPP
When I think of limitless opportunities, and I first saw that the first words that come to my mind are endless options, infinite options in healthcare. We've had a lot of challenges over the past couple of years. The pandemic coming out of the pandemic, healthcare worker shortages, financial strains on the system, all of that included. But if you look at all of those and one might say there are problems, I like to think of them as we have opportunities. And we have a lot of opportunities to continue to be the best we can be. I said this before, but I think it's worth repeating. Having a child that comes in with a tragic accident, a near death accident, having a child that comes in with congenital heart disease, that spends months here with us, that goes to the operating room and takes months to heal back up and recover. These are miracles every day that we see at this children's hospital. Being able to contribute even in small ways and make the differences that we do every day is what I believe keeps people coming back and keeps people here at the hospital.
I obviously have a huge passion as our team does here for taking care of these kids. And I look at the limitless opportunity as being sure that every child and every family that comes our way will receive top-notch, extraordinary, compassionate care and that they recover. And it's, it's our position in our jobs here at a Top Children's hospital in the nation to do our best to not only deliver the care, but to continue to give hope to families that maybe the cures aren't out there. One of our scientists right now is working on solving diabetes and curing diabetes, and he's getting closer and closer every day, every month. That, to me, is an inspiration and just one of countless endless opportunities that we have a responsibility to continue to do here at Children's Hospital. So it's delivering care, but it's keeping hope and faith and finding new cures for all of these ailments that come our way.
JOHN PELLE
That was Diane Hupp. This was the Limitless podcast. Thanks everyone for listening. Diane, you and your team are heroes. It's a privilege to work with you.
DIANE HUPP
Thank you, and I appreciate being on here today. And a special shout out to you, John, and also Mr. Greg Williams and Acrisure for their partnership here.
Important Information:
For additional information, please visit our website at Acrisure.com. Products or services identified herein may not be available in all jurisdictions. The information and descriptions contained herein (a) are not necessarily intended to be complete descriptions of all applicable terms, conditions, and exclusions of the policies referenced, (b) are provided solely for general informational purposes, and (c) should not be viewed as a substitute for legal, regulatory, or other advice on any particular issue or for any particular reason. The advice of a professional should always be obtained before purchasing any insurance product or service, and you should not rely on the information provided herein for the prevention or mitigation of risks or as a full and complete explanation of coverage under any insurance policy. While the information contained herein has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, no warranty, guarantee, or representation, either expressed or implied, is made as to the correctness or sufficiency of any representation contained herein.
© Acrisure, LLC. All rights reserved.
This episode stars Diane Hupp, President of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. In her impressive career, Diane has embodied "limitless possibilities" at every turn. Listen as she documents her journey from UPMC volunteer to President across her 40-year career.
Acrisure provided a $7.5 million gift to UPMC Children's, the largest corporate gift ever received by the foundation. Your host John Pelle and Diane explore facets of this partnership, and much more, in this conversation.
Listen to the episode here, and don't forget to subscribe to the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Key Takeaways:
[1:38] Diane shares her career journey from volunteer to President of UPMC Children's.
[5:30] Why UPMC Children's continues to strive to get better, despite extraordinary success.
[7:34] What it means to be ranking-driven, not ranking-motivated.
[9:14] How being in Pittsburgh fosters innovation and constant growth through technology.
[11:36] Diane mentions four doctors who have devoted more than four decades of their lives to their professions.
[12:57] Inside Acrisure's partnership with UPMC Children's, and what we look forward to doing together.
[15:56] How the Pittsburgh Steelers partner with and support UPMC Children's.
[20:00] The limitless opportunities that lie ahead.
Further Reading:
- Acrisure Donates $7.5 Million to UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation
- Acrisure.com
- UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
- Acrisure on LinkedIn, Instagram and X
- Send your ideas, questions, and suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]
Notable Quotes:
"Every child and every family that comes our way will receive top-notch, extraordinary, compassionate care." - Diane Hupp
"From a leadership perspective, it's important that they know that you care about them, that you listen, and that you are going to take action when they speak." - Diane Hupp
"I felt as if there was an instantaneous relationship between Greg Williams and our team." - Diane Hupp
TRANSCRIPT BELOW
JOHN PELLE
All right, we are back on Limitless. Very special guest today joining us. Diane Hupp from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital. Definitely encourage you to google Acrisure and UPMC as part of our commitment to the city of Pittsburgh and children's health overall. And so Diane graciously agreed to participate on our podcast and tell us a little bit more about her rich background and experience. So Diane, welcome to the podcast.
DIANE HUPP
Thank you, John. It's a real pleasure and privilege to be here today to do the podcast with you. I'm excited.
JOHN PELLE
I don't know if we've had a guest who's actually embodied limitless possibilities as much as you have. So I'm going to hype you up a little bit and then let's just dive in. So you're president of a hospital. That is a big job.
DIANE HUPP
It is a huge job being President of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. This hospital has been here, John, for over 130 years. It's a pillar in the city of Pittsburgh and well beyond. And for 38 years I've had the privilege of being here and serving the community and our patients and our families.
JOHN PELLE
You told me something when we met, and I was very impressed just knowing your title and what you do, but I wonder what our listeners would think when they hear more about your arc. So how did you even start your career? How does one wake up and say, I'm going to be the president of a hospital?
DIANE HUPP
To be honest, I don't know if I ever woke up and said I'm going to be the President of Children's Hospital. But some years ago, and it's now over 40, when I was at school at Duquesne University right here in Pittsburgh, I was studying business at the time, but I believe I had a calling to be a nurse. So I decided, I said, I'm not sure about healthcare. I decided to come up, take the bus up, it's just a couple miles down the road and volunteer. And my first real role here at the hospital was to be a volunteer during my college years. And I fell in love with the place. You don't stay at a place for decades after decades unless you truly have a passion for what you do and that you believe in the mission. And so while at Duquesne, I switched to nursing school and I graduated from Duquesne and after a volunteer I started as what they called then a childcare assistant or a nursing assistant.
That was my first job and that was back in 1986. And in 1987 I was hired as a nurse when I graduated from college. So I've spent, most of my world here has been in the nursing realm, but a couple of decades ago I was offered the position. I knew I always wanted to be the Chief Nursing Officer and Hospital Vice President. So I was offered that opportunity and then it grew into something a little bit more the Vice President of Hospital Operations. So with that dual role, had a lot of experience, exposure, great opportunities throughout the hospital to really prepare myself for this role, which I've been in just about a year and a half. But I don't think I would've saw myself as the president until really more recently.
JOHN PELLE
It's a remarkable, I mean just first of all, a shout out to everyone who works in your hospital and all hospitals. You are what make communities thrive and great. And so thank you. How do the nurses in your hospital, first of all, is that universal knowledge? Would you say most of the nurses in UPMC Children's know that our leader has once done our job, or do you feel like this is a little bit of a secret that we are breaking?
DIANE HUPP
I think many of them know, however, over the past year we have recruited in about 400-500 in the past two years, 400-500 new nurses and they probably don't know when opportunity presents itself. I do offer, try to give an introductory, I do believe it's important that they understand that I've walked the life here at Children's Hospital, that I believe in our mission, that I've had lots of experiences throughout the units and the floors and departments and the operating rooms. And I think that helps. It helps with credibility, it helps with the level of respect, but most of all from a leadership position, I believe it's important that they know you care about them and that you listen and that you're going to take action when they speak.
JOHN PELLE
There's such a thread between our two organizations now. We will talk a lot more about that contribution and Acrisure investment in that mission that you described. But there's a real thread running through the whole season of Limitless podcast just around, I'd sum it up, "don't quit while you're ahead." That's probably not the best way to sum it up. But when you've achieved some modicum of success or many in our case, in your case, many modicum, modica of success, you look over your shoulder and you say, but I'm not done yet.
So your hospital, congratulations to you all. You are one of the 10, the US News and World Report honor roll of best children's hospitals like top-10 ranked Children's Hospital in the world. And yet here you are saying, and we're going to double down on employee listening, we're going to double down in moving locations and we're going to find new partners like Acrisure. So what keeps you honest? As someone who's achieved an amazing run in your own career, you're part of a hospital that is doing amazing things and we'll talk more about things that you want to highlight that your hospital is doing, but just on a macro level, how do you not look at the past success and say, we're good. I'm good because you clearly are not doing that.
DIANE HUPP
You cannot rest on your laurels. That would be my mantra. Yes, we are a top-10 children's hospital, but we strive to continue to get better and every year it's a tough race there at the top. There are over 250 children's hospitals in the United States. There are only 10 that make that honor roll of being the best of the best. And these are extraordinary children's hospitals. And you get there because of the extraordinary people that are delivering this extraordinary care every day, every encounter.
The US News and World Report, some would say, oh, how do they get to these rankings? And people question it. Much of it is based on quality. It's based on the quality we deliver the service, we deliver the brand and the reputation. We have quality such as our survival rates, infection rates, complication rates, keeping those very, very low. But we're not going to be done until we get to zero of those. We want zero infections in this hospital. We want every child to survive no matter how sick. And that's probably what's transformed the most over my time is being able to care for the sickest of the sickest come to Children's Hospital, not even just around Pittsburgh, but well beyond out of the state, sometimes out of the country that they'll come here for a transplant. They'll come here for the extraordinary heart program we have, which I know we'll talk a little bit more about.
JOHN PELLE
So as you think about that quitting, not quitting while you're ahead, looking at you're, there's a lot of parallels, you're ranking driven, but it doesn't seem like you're ranking motivated, if that sounds right.
DIANE HUPP
Yes, we're ranking driven because I think it does mean something to be able to tout yourself as a top 10. But what we're really trying to do, and we're not the biggest children's hospital out there and volume counts, but what we focus on is the quality and the service that we're able to deliver. So every child that needs us and every child that comes here, we strive to deliver top-notch care to that child and to that family. Being in a hospital is most likely one of the most challenging times in a child, in a family's life of having to be in a hospital. Some come in, they're here for months, John, months. We have children that have been here for a year and they finally graduate and go home, and we have a parade for them when they go out because they've graduated. We have other children that come in and out in a day or two tragedies that we see here every day, but our folks are very much driven to give it their all for these kids and their families.
JOHN PELLE
And I think your organization, your people are doing amazing things to not just lean into what humans do, but there's a whole undercurrent, just really frankly in the city of Pittsburgh around innovation. There's so much happening in Pittsburgh. How would you say innovation and just your presence in a city like Pittsburgh impacts your ability to say, we're going to lead, we're going to do things like you mentioned the cardiac unit and other areas where you've identified things that can be improved or maybe things that are going well, but we're going to double down and invest. I would love to hear your perspective there.
DIANE HUPP
Absolutely. Technology is so important in healthcare today. State-of-the-art technology to deliver state-of-the-art care. In our new Heart Institute, we are looking to develop and put in construct new cath labs, state-of-the-art with top-notch imaging. We're putting in a cardiac MRI, one of only five or six in the country that has a seamless entry right into the cath lab. It's an intra-cath MRI, so that if a child's getting an MRI, but we also need the scan immediately following or immediately before they don't have to have two anesthetics. They go in and have their scan and they slide right into the next room without even waking them up. Uninterrupted anesthesia to have that done. That's state-of-the-art technology and advanced imaging at its best.
JOHN PELLE
Amazing, amazing. I mean it's technology, but applied to something really revolutionary. How does your team feel about being able to wake up and say, I work for a hospital that is going to equip me as a nurse or a physician or a physician's assistant to be the absolute best at what I do?
DIANE HUPP
I think there's a lot to be said about that. When you take pride in what you do every day, at the end of the day when you feel good about it and you walk out saying to yourself, wow, I made a difference and I feel supported and I was recognized for it. That drives people. That drives people to keep coming back and keep doing better. And I think that's in part why the culture that we have here at the Children's Hospital. And I think you could find that at various children's hospitals. The people are here for the kids. And so many of our times, when you look at people that have been here for years, we just had service awards. We were recognizing several individuals that had been here 45 years, 45 years, John, that's four and a half decades of their life have been devoted to taking care of these kids here at Children's Hospital. In fact, two of them said, I'm going for 50. It was the best thing I heard at the awards.
JOHN PELLE
I don't want to put you on the spot. Do you want to mention anyone by name or can we put their names out there?
DIANE HUPP
Absolutely. Dr. Lee Beerman, who is a cardiologist, Susie Fulton was our cardiac cath lab nurse. Missy O'Leary is our respiratory therapist. And Patty Klein who works in support staff in our department of anesthesia. Those four individuals, we gave them a tout out again today, but for 45 years, they've devoted their life's work to helping the kids and the families.
JOHN PELLE
It's probably one of the most, the biggest points of pride for myself as an employee and for many others who I work with that we were able to contribute to your organization as we've done where I'm recording this in Grand Rapids at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital here near our headquarters, obviously Pittsburgh, the first thing you think of is, oh, well, Steelers. And so you extrapolate from there and you see Acrisure has really doubled down on that city, whether it's by introducing some of the tech talent that we have and obviously the branding. And you start to see a lot more of that coming here soon. But I mean, I'd love your take on Acrisure as a partner. Maybe just walk through a little bit of that process with Greg Williams, our CEO, and how we got acquainted, what we ended up doing, and maybe some of your aspirations, like where do you see our two organizations headed toward together?
DIANE HUPP
I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Williams and Elliott Bundy and some of the other team about a year ago or so, or maybe longer. And at that meeting, he and his team came in for a tour and myself and our president of our hospital foundation, Rachel Petrucelli, and our lead physician, Dr. Victor Morell, who was our surgeon in chief and oversees Director of our Heart Vascular Institute here at Children's, had the opportunity to not only tour him and show him what Children's Hospital is about. And I know that children's hospitals aren't a stranger to him. I know the work that he's done previously, but we wanted to sit down and talk to him about priorities. He actually said to me, Diane, what is your top priority right now? What are you trying to get done? And I thought to myself, wow, how insightful, how kind of him to look me in the eye and say, tell me about your top priority.
And we did just that. The three of us, we spoke to the top priority being elevating our Heart Institute and within the institute we're trying to do a few things. Some may say, well, why cardiac? How did you pick that? Well, number one, our cardiac program has been ranked in the top few programs of the country for years. Number two, we've been growing, we've been growing and we've grown out of our space. Third, you mentioned technology. We need new technology. We're looking to upgrade our current technology of cath labs and MR imaging scanning devices, which we need more space for. And finally, we're looking to create an institute. Right now, our cath labs are housed on our fourth floor in the middle of a very busy surgical floor where we have ORs and procedure centers and cath labs and interventional rooms. This is going to be a separate segregated space, family coming in for heart surgery for a cath lab. They'll come in through our heart center, everyone in the center itself, it's a three-story building, will be focused on taking care of children that have heart diseases and heart anomalies.
JOHN PELLE
It's amazing.
DIANE HUPP
Yeah, we're so excited. But when you said a little bit about Acrisure and some of the common themes of Children's and Acrisure, I felt as if there was an instantaneous relationship between Mr. Greg Williams and his team when they were here.
JOHN PELLE
And you have some other pretty big-name partners. How would you say your relationship is to some of those other, there's a team, they play fairly close by, the Pittsburgh Steelers. We know a little bit about them. How does it work, how is it being the president of a children's hospital in a town where you could be, I think they call it a pinnacle partner. You're sort of in that rare high standing with that organization. There's involvement with players. How does that all come together for you?
DIANE HUPP
It's wonderful. How is it to be the president of this children's hospital? It's extraordinary and it's a privilege. And each and every day we have people that come in and give us a call and say, let me give you an example here. A couple of the Steelers, I mean, T.J. Watt, he's wonderful to our children. He comes in on his own time, come in with his new wife, Dani, just to come in. We have a broadcast studio here. They'll broadcast out to all the rooms, and after they do, they were playing games against each other who could win some sports and some Pittsburgh memorabilia. And the kids call in and talk to them on the phone, and then they take time out to go and visit lots of children when they're here.
Whether it's Pittsburgh, Steelers, Art Rooney, Dan Rooney have always been so good to us, so good to us each and every year. They're partners with us. We have an annual telethon in December, and we couldn't be more grateful for the support and the generosity and advocacy for the Children's Hospital here. I always say Children's is a gift to the community, but we receive gifts right back from our community that we are grateful for.
JOHN PELLE
What's something that would surprise a listener about you? So you obviously, we heard your journey from nursing, frankly, volunteering to nursing, to leadership, and now I think you've really outlined, well, this whole journey really from 2009 to 2025+. What's something about you that a listener would be maybe surprised or intrigued by?
DIANE HUPP
Surprised or intrigued? Well, I do love and back to the community myself. Maybe that's not surprising or intrigued. I serve on a lot of boards. I do serve as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at Duquesne University. It is my alma mater, and I'll always be grateful for the education that I received, very holistic education that focused on the spiritual, the education, and the whole person. I would say a fun fact, I do like harness racing. My father had horses in the day, and I've been in the bike. If you know what a standard bred horse is, and I've been in the bike before. We used to jog the horses and actually just went out this past weekend to watch the biggest race of the year out at the Meadows called the Adios with my mother. That's what we did growing up. It was a hobby of my father's, and it's a little hidden hobby of mine. I don't have a lot of time for it, but once or twice a year, I get out there.
JOHN PELLE
Well, that explains the horse that just walked by you in your office. So can't see it as we record this.
DIANE HUPP
There go. You can't see that.
JOHN PELLE
Well, that's really cool, Diane. Honestly, I'm even shocked you have time to talk to me just given all the things that are going on.
DIANE HUPP
No, it's important.
JOHN PELLE
Well, before we let you go back to all of the amazing things that you discussed, when I remember to ask Brittany, the show's producer always has a question like, let's make sure we get this question. Sometimes I forget, and you're a guest where I'm not going to forget. The name of the show is the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast." We say it's presented by Acrisure because it's not the Acrisure podcast. So hopefully if you're listening and you are confused on why this is mostly about Diane and there's no other Acrisure guest, it's because we're a very partnership-driven organization and we always want to try to use our platform and our content to highlight those really special relationships we have. And UPMC is a new and very special relationship.
And Diane, as we wrap up here, I would love for you to just have the sort of last words on what does that phrase mean to you? What does limitless possibilities mean to you? And maybe even some advice for folks listening who may be in a healthcare or a healthcare adjacent field or just starting out and figuring out like you've done it, you've done this amazing climb. Some would say it's a climb. You might not even see it as a sort of ladder. So I would love to just hear a little bit more from you as we wrap up.
DIANE HUPP
When I think of limitless opportunities, and I first saw that the first words that come to my mind are endless options, infinite options in healthcare. We've had a lot of challenges over the past couple of years. The pandemic coming out of the pandemic, healthcare worker shortages, financial strains on the system, all of that included. But if you look at all of those and one might say there are problems, I like to think of them as we have opportunities. And we have a lot of opportunities to continue to be the best we can be. I said this before, but I think it's worth repeating. Having a child that comes in with a tragic accident, a near death accident, having a child that comes in with congenital heart disease, that spends months here with us, that goes to the operating room and takes months to heal back up and recover. These are miracles every day that we see at this children's hospital. Being able to contribute even in small ways and make the differences that we do every day is what I believe keeps people coming back and keeps people here at the hospital.
I obviously have a huge passion as our team does here for taking care of these kids. And I look at the limitless opportunity as being sure that every child and every family that comes our way will receive top-notch, extraordinary, compassionate care and that they recover. And it's, it's our position in our jobs here at a Top Children's hospital in the nation to do our best to not only deliver the care, but to continue to give hope to families that maybe the cures aren't out there. One of our scientists right now is working on solving diabetes and curing diabetes, and he's getting closer and closer every day, every month. That, to me, is an inspiration and just one of countless endless opportunities that we have a responsibility to continue to do here at Children's Hospital. So it's delivering care, but it's keeping hope and faith and finding new cures for all of these ailments that come our way.
JOHN PELLE
That was Diane Hupp. This was the Limitless podcast. Thanks everyone for listening. Diane, you and your team are heroes. It's a privilege to work with you.
DIANE HUPP
Thank you, and I appreciate being on here today. And a special shout out to you, John, and also Mr. Greg Williams and Acrisure for their partnership here.
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