Meeting Max Buetow: inside CoxHealth's next chapter

From hot dog buns to health care

It was Buetow’s love of change and progress that originally brought him to CoxHealth about a decade ago. The career move was a leap from his background in manufacturing.

Before switching to health care, Buetow worked in his family’s real estate and construction business. He also ventured into food manufacturing, working for Sara Lee’s bakery division. 

Buetow describes the path with a wry grin and a dry, deadpan delivery. “It’s an easy jump for people to see. I worked in construction, I made hot dog buns and then I went to health care. It’s simple to put two and two together. It’s a textbook career path, really,” he says with a laugh. 

Buetow originally arrived in February 2012 to lead efforts at Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute. Over the next several years, he led the neuroscience service line before moving to a role with Cox Medical Group.

None of those health care moves were in his original plan. In fact, they were all kicked off by a chance meeting with a CoxHealth leader during his MBA training at Drury University. 

When Buetow was studying at Drury, he had befriended Brian Williams, who served as the president of SNSI. The two roomed together on a program trip to China, and Williams soon became a mentor to Buetow.

When Buetow graduated, he thought he would continue the family business in real estate. Unfortunately, the United States was mired in a recession with double-digit unemployment at the time.

After months of looking, he had a couple of job offers – one with Xerox and one in Sara Lee’s production line in Wichita. He asked Williams which one he should take.

Williams said the answer was easy. “He told me, ‘You should go get operations experience. If you understand process and people, you can parlay that into anything. And, in two years, maybe I’ll call you to come work at CoxHealth.’”

Buetow assumed this was a joke.

A couple of years later, though, he was about to take a new manufacturing job in Kansas City when Williams called him. Williams wanted him to interview for a job at SNSI.

Buetow had toured CoxHealth once and met a few leaders, but he had no experience in health care. And the Kansas City job just made sense.

He gave in to Williams’ request and came for the interview. As he remembers it now, he “spent the whole day getting grilled by neurosurgeons.” He was a bit out of his element, but he was excited about the conversation, and the potential of working with the people he encountered.

To his surprise, they wanted him for the job. 

“I remember thinking about it and praying about it. I told my wife, ‘I want to take this job.’ I felt like God was leading me to do this. I was comfortable in manufacturing, but, deep down, I knew health care is where I could grow.” 

Gravitating toward those who challenge him

The day he spent being grilled by neurosurgeons wasn’t the first time he had been under pressure and had risen to the challenge.

Buetow grew up in a sports family. His dad played professional football and professional hockey. An uncle he was close with coached professionally and in the collegiate ranks. Hockey was part of the family legacy and it became his sport.

He immediately gravitated to the position of goalie, the one person everyone on the team depends on.

“I was drawn to that because I loved the pressure of the situation,” he says. “I loved being that person to be counted on in the most intense moments.”

Even in his personal life, he likes performing under pressure. His face lights up when he recalls the phone call he had with his wife, Laura, before their first date.

“We had, like, a three-hour phone call. She grilled me on my faith and my politics. She asked me about what my relationship with God looks like. I remember thinking, ‘this girl has some depth!’”

He passed that test, just like he had under pressure on the ice, and how he would later do with the neurosurgeons. Few things can actually prepare you for the pressures of being a health system CEO, but if Buetow likes the challenge of thriving under pressure, health care in 2022 is the perfect playing field.

He’s excited about the swift progress of health care

Buetow likes to be constantly moving, and he likes the daily dynamic challenges that health care provides.

“My favorite days are ones where you are worn a little slick, in a good way. At the end of the day you are exhausted from working on 30 different topics. You may deal with staffing issues, strategic planning, physician compensation, or any number of issues. It is very different hour to hour. I thrive in that.” 

In his factory work, it was all about perfecting processes. Health care offers him something quite different.

“In the health care setting, it is about the importance of the team. I like variation and change. I love the challenge of working with people.”

You can see an idea go from square one to square 30 with all the different perspectives in the room. You can be in a one-hour meeting and see an idea take off like a rocket.”

He recalls how change in manufacturing would come quickly, with improvements made on a factory line in a matter of days. In health care, change is more complex and takes more time.

“In health care, you can’t pull all the levers at once. You have to focus on what is most important right now, and you have to work with the time, resources, people and energy you have. Focus is so important.” 

As a health care leader, Buetow says he wants to remove any barriers our teams may face as they try to make improvement.

“Henry Ford said, ‘Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.’ As an organization, if we keep our eyes on who we know we can be and we work to overcome those obstacles along the way, just knowing that there may be short-term impediments, I think we can accomplish great things.”

Leading toward the future

Buetow says that in CoxHealth’s next chapter, it is vital that we be willing to be bold and take chances on new ideas and new ways of thinking.

His time in sports taught him that great teams are the ones that work most closely together, and a team that can combine talent and hard work is virtually unbeatable.

“I think CoxHealth is a good example of that. We have teams who work hard and we have talent,” he says. “Our number-one priority going forward will be our workforce, and there is no more exciting way to invest your time and energy than in people.”

Buetow says CoxHealth will set clear and courageous goals while exhibiting the focus and discipline necessary to achieve them.

“I admire individuals who identify and eliminate perceived barriers to stellar performance and reject the complacency born from accepting excuses.”

He says that ultimately, he wants CoxHealth to bring together our individual talents and energies to produce exceptional results for those who need us the most.

“I want our teams to push outside their comfort zone and be willing to fight for elegant solutions,” he says. “I am determined to relentlessly remove any barriers standing in the way of those pursuing excellence.”