Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest April Hansen

On this episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, Quint Studer is joined by special guest April Hansen. April Hansen, MSN, RN is a nurse by background and currently serves as the Group President of Workforce Solutions with Aya Healthcare. No matter the role, April says her primary love and passion sits with improving the human experience and improving healthcare.

April shares that there is an exciting hunger and interest today in rethinking how healthcare is delivered and how leaders are guiding those changes through data insights. One innovative model she’s seeing health systems take great interest in is virtual nursing. Leaders are re-evaluating processes and determining the division of labor that can be handled virtually versus what is required to be done hands-on. With this data, organizations will be able to then perfect and optimize workflows and back them with technology to make a great impact on the patient and caregiver experience.

Quint and April discuss:

• How healthcare leaders should leverage data as they consider innovative care delivery models
• Ways to reduce nurse workloads and improve caregiver satisfaction
• How Aya Healthcare is filling talent gaps to help health systems maintain service line operations and meet the needs of their community

About April Hansen

As Aya Healthcare’s Group President of Workforce Solutions, April Hansen, MSN, RN, is responsible for strategic business development, workforce solutions program operations, recruitment augmentation and clinical services support. Hansen has led her team through exponential growth with new client expansion and several organizational acquisitions, increasing the distribution channels for Aya’s 45000+ clinicians. A strong proponent of lifelong learning, April created the Aya Scholars Program, the industry’s first clinical ladder and professional recognition model for travel nurses, to ensure their continued career growth.

Passionate for improving the clinician experience and solving workforce challenges, Hansen spearheaded an industry-first qualitative market research project examining the lived experiences of core staff, veteran travel nurses and new travel nurses during the pandemic and understanding how that lived experience influences nurses’ career choices. The research, “Mind the Gap: Repairing the US Healthcare Workforce” and its findings have been featured by Healthcare Dive, Axios and SIA and have been presented at numerous hospital and healthcare associations, including Wisconsin Organization of Nurse Leaders where Hansen served as the keynote speaker.

April is a nurse and an entrepreneur. She successfully co-founded a clinical management technology to ease the administrative burden of healthcare student clinical placements in 2012 and achieved a successful exit when the technology was acquired in 2016. In addition, she co-founded a mobile application for nursing engagement and achieved support through a nationally ranked start-up accelerator in partnership with Microsoft in 2017.

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest Blaine Douglas

On this episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Quint Studer is joined by Blaine Douglas, Managing Principal of Vizient overseeing indirect spend (or purchasing services). Blaine manages a team of 220 people who work to help Vizient’s provider members put processes in place and drive value. Quint and Blaine discuss how Vizient has driven its impressive workplace culture and created positive employee engagement results across the organization.

Vizient provides services that impact quality across the healthcare industry, but employees don’t necessarily see the direct impact they have on patient outcomes. Blaine believes that the key to improved engagement is tying the work his team members do to the company’s mission of improving patient care and serving member hospitals.

Listen to the full episode to learn more about:

• How to leverage employee engagement survey results
• Why having a “family atmosphere” is crucial to employee attraction, retention, and engagement
• How a hiring process can ensure bringing in talent that will flourish in your workplace culture

About Blaine Douglas

Blaine Douglas brings over 30 years of experience in the health care industry. His areas of expertise and professional skills include health care operations with a focus on operational efficiencies and expense control. Blaine leads the nonclinical consulting practice, including purchased services, supply chain, construction and facilities, and capital and equipment planning consulting service areas. Since joining Vizient, he has led many multimillion-dollar improvement projects totaling over $250 million in savings, including a $30 million financial improvement in 12 months at a large Southeastern academic medical center—surpassing a three-year savings guarantee in the first 13 months, exceeding the $12.5 million target by over 200% and improving a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-winning health system’s supply chain savings by more than $16 million.

Prior to joining Vizient, Blaine spent 18 years in health system operations as a COO of a health system and CEO of a Level I trauma center. As CEO, Blaine led a dramatic hospital financial turnaround while also improving patient, employee and physician satisfaction, as well as overall hospital quality.

Blaine has a bachelor’s degree in fire safety engineering technology from Oklahoma State University, a master’s degree in health care administration from Oklahoma State University, and a Doctor of Health Administration degree from Central Michigan University.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. If you know or have followed Quint Studer, you know that mental health is an incredibly important topic to him because it’s personal to him. Quint is open and vulnerable about his own challenges and struggles and actively works to reduce the stigma of mental health in the workplace for the benefit of all.

On this episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, we’re doing things a bit differently. Tune in as Nicole Webb Bodie interviews Quint Studer to learn more about his journey through depression and alcoholism. Quint discusses the resources that helped him achieve 41 years of sobriety, the stigma that he has experienced in the workplace, and why honesty and transparency are so important to him.

Listen to the full episode for insights on:

• How vulnerability creates a culture of safety within an organization
• How leaders can help reduce the stigma of mental health in the workplace
• The resources available for people who want to seek assistance
• And much more!

Explore mental health and well-being resources from Healthcare Plus Solutions Group:

• Well-Being Tool Kit
• Well-Being Handbook (hard copy)
• Well-Being Handbook (eBook)

Hosted by Dan Collard with special guest Natasha Lee

On this week’s episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, Dan Collard is joined by special guest Natasha Lee to discuss her innovative approach to leadership and service in both her organization and community. Natasha is the Co-Founder and CEO of Floyd Lee Locums, a concierge healthcare staffing firm for physicians and advanced practice providers.

Floyd Lee Locums’ organizational goal is to connect clinicians to purposeful work in order to impact lives and Natasha believes that weaving this purpose into every facet of the company has been the key to their early success. In order to build a culture that embraces that purpose, Natasha has focused on connecting to employees on a more personal level. Today, Floyd Lee Locums has 85 employees and Natasha interviews every employee herself before hiring, not so much to assess their ability but to get to know them as people and learn their heart. This also allows her to understand what motivates her employees and create a more engaging environment for them at work.

Additionally, Natasha believes that having connection to your community is key to making a positive impact. Last year, Floyd Lee Locums led a program for 300 days of community service in 300 days with their employees. This work helped connect the company’s idea of service to the healthcare community with service in their own community.

About Natasha Lee

As CEO, Natasha Lee passionately upholds the core values of Floyd Lee Locums, whose primary focus is to revolutionize the healthcare staffing industry by connecting clinicians to purposeful work. A staffing industry veteran since 2001, she has extensive experience starting and growing new businesses, penetrating new markets, and recognizing and developing talent. Her authentic commitment to the industry informs the organization’s key promise of serving those who serve others.

Natasha is passionate about creating a company culture where all employees, partners, and clients feel valued and heard. Her impact and that commitment extends to our organization’s DEI&B efforts, corporate volunteerism program (We Serve), and our internal employee benefits program (We Sustain).

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest Tim Broderick

On this week’s episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Quint Studer is joined by special guest Tim Broderick to analyze healthcare data and share insights on why patient experience scores aren’t improving. Tim Broderick has served as the data and analytics lead for Modern Healthcare Magazine since 2018.

In the last 5 years, there has been very little change in HCAHPS scores across the country. HCAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems) is the first national, standardized survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care and was first implemented in 2006. The survey captures the patient’s experience of communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, communication about medicines, and other indicators of overall experience.

While many assume that COVID-19 is the cause of these stagnant HCAHPS results, Tim Broderick says the data points elsewhere. Tim and Quint take a deeper look at why patient experience scores aren’t improving and where healthcare organizations have the greatest opportunities to impact them.

Listen to full episode for insights on:

• The difference in patient experience scores in acute care hospitals vs. critical access hospitals
• Why the resources we’re putting into patient experience aren’t getting the intended results
• The impact of survey fatigue and declining response rates on HCAHPS surveys
• The areas where doctors and nurses could have the greatest impact on patient experience scores

Click here to explore Modern Healthcare’s reimagined data center.

About Tim Broderick

Tim Broderick is an award-winning data journalist with Modern Healthcare magazine. His data analysis and visualizations of healthcare data fuel Modern Healthcare’s new data center at modernhealthcare.com/data-center

He joined the magazine in 2018 after working more 30 years for daily newspapers in and around Chicago. He and his family live on the Northwest Side of the city but root for the baseball team on the Southside.

 

Hosted by Dan Collard with special guest Tyler Lyne

On this week’s episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Dan Collard is joined by special guest Tyler Lyne, CEC, PCIII. Tyler is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and is a hospitality entrepreneur.

Dan and Tyler discuss the difference between service and hospitality and offer ideas on how the healthcare industry can learn from restaurants. Tyler shares a quote he learned from the book Unreasonable Hospitality, which says that “service is black and white; hospitality is color.” Written by Will Guidara, the co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park, the book explains that “black and white” means doing your job with competence and efficiency; “color” means you make people feel great about the job you’re doing for them.

Whether you are a chef or a nurse, this color is what separates high performing individuals and organizations from their peers. In healthcare, it also directly correlates with improving patient experiences. Listen to the full episode to hear Dan and Tyler’s insights on the relationship between customer service, leadership, and employee engagement.

About Tyler Lyne

Tyler Lyne is a molecular gastronomy expert & Culinary Institute of America graduate. He has honed his skills in Japan and at such highly regarded restaurants as Restaurant Cru, Bouley, Momofuku Ko and Ciano before landing his first chef job as Chef de Cuisine at La Esquina. From there, he became a partner and held the title of Executive Chef at Cloud Catering, Riviera Caterers, and Creative Edge Parties. He is currently VP of Culinary at Neuman’s Kitchen. His clients have included Nasdaq, Facebook, the NFL and various red-carpet A-List events. Simultaneously, he serves as Culinary Director for Bamboo Asia – Far Out Market in San Francisco and Lucky Rooster Market Street in Miami, Chicago and South Carolina.

Tyler has appeared in Food Network’s Iron Chef America in Battle Pasta. He has also been recognized by ZAGAT as one of New York City’s “30 under 30” list of trailblazers helping to define the next wave of culinary greatness.

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest Katie Boston-Leary

On this week’s episode of The Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Quint Studer is joined by special guest Katie Boston-Leary, director of nursing programs for the American Nurses Association (ANA), to share the results of the Models of Care Insight Study and analyze what the findings mean for the healthcare industry.

Katie previously joined The Busy Leader’s Podcast to preview the study, which she and Quint unveiled at the 2023 ACHE Congress on Leadership. To learn more about the background of the study, listen to their recent episode titled “Reimagining Care Delivery: A Look at the Models of Care Insight Study”.

This week, Katie and Quint join forces again to share the results of the study and analyze what the findings mean for the healthcare industry. What the Models of Care Insight Study revealed was that there is a perception gap and an awareness gap between leaders and their frontline staff pertaining to care delivery models. Katie and Quint discuss how each model can be implemented, the need for change management expertise in healthcare, and additional opportunities to engage employees through career and professional development.

The Models of Care Insight Study was made possible by Healthcare Plus Solutions Group, the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), and Joslin Insight.

For more information about the study or to download the full report, visit https://healthcareplussg.com/models-of-care-insight-study/. To learn how this information applies to your organization or to have Quint Studer conduct a webinar for your team, please contact Info@HealthcarePlusSG.com.

About Katie Boston-Leary, PhD, MBA, MHA, RN, NEA-BC

Katie Boston-Leary is the Director of Nursing Programs at the American Nurses Association overseeing the Nursing Practice and Work Environment Division and Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation. She is also the Co-Lead for Project Firstline, a multi-million-dollar grant collaborative with the CDC for training on Infection Prevention and Control. Katie is also the co-chair for the DEI committee for the Healthcare Leaders Network Delaware Valley, an ACHE affiliate. She helped redesign the Nurse Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland with an embedded coaching program. Katie is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and the School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She is a board member on St. Johns University Health Programs and an editorial advisory board member with Web/MD Medscape and ACHE. Katie serves as staff on the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and is also part of the National Academy of Science and Medicine’s National Plan to Address Clinician Well-Being supported by the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Katie also leads as an ANA representative with 4 partner organizations to organize a National Nurse Staffing Think Tank and Task Force, which published short term actionable recommendations to address the nurse staffing crisis.

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest Dr. Laura McClelland

Quint Studer is joined by special guest Laura McClelland to discuss the impact of compassion on healthcare organizations and how managers can demonstrate compassion to their workforce. Laura currently serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

When Laura McClelland’s father was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma, she began spending considerable time with him at California Pacific Medical Center while he received treatment. As someone studying management and interested in workplace dynamics, she was struck by the level of compassion with which staff treated patients, family members, and one another. She could see clearly the impact this had on both the workplace culture and patient outcomes. Following that experience, Laura began her journey to understand the benefits of compassion in the workplace and build a business case for why compassion matters to healthcare organizations.

From her latest research, Laura shares insights on:

• The relation between compassion and improved patient outcomes in healthcare organizations
• The immunological benefits of compassion for patients
• The impact of a compassionate work environment on employee burnout, emotional exhaustion, teamwork, and performance productivity
• The direct financial implications of compassionate workplaces

Laura says that leaders can use this research to begin modeling compassion in their own organizations and create an environment where it is both expected and appropriate.

About Laura McClelland

Dr. Laura McClelland is an Associate Professor and the Director of the HSOR PhD program at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Department of Health Administration. She received her Ph.D. in Organization & Management from Emory University and B.S. degrees in both Management and Economics from Villanova University. Before entering academia, she was a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. She is a highly regarded expert in health care management, leadership, workplace compassion, employee well-being, and patient experience. Her research is published in top health services and social science journals and cited in popular press outlets such as CNN and Kaiser Health News. She has served on the National Academy of Medicine Scientific Advisory Panel on the Evidence for Patient and Family-Centered Care, and has received multiple national and international awards for teaching excellence.

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guest Dr. Katherine Meese

This week Quint talks with Dr. Katherine Meese (UAB), who conducted an extensive study on what’s driving burnout in health care workers and it’s not at all what you’d expect!

In healthcare, we often talk about the financial margin (Do we have enough money to keep the doors open and pursue our mission?) and the operational margin (Do we have enough beds, space, speed and quality?).  Dr. Katherine Meese says it’s time to focus on the Human Margin. In its simplest form, healthcare is humans working with humans to heal humans. Dr. Meese says that for every decision we’re making, every conversation we’re having at every level of the organization, we must start asking, “How will this impact our human margin?”

In 2020, Dr. Meese conducted an extensive survey of healthcare workers from all parts of the organization (both clinical and non-clinical), asking what would improve their well-being or experience at work. She looked at more than 40 different variables. The things that contributed the most to their stress levels were really surprising and not all what she had assumed was driving burnout.

Dr. Meese says we can utilize this research to create conditions that maximize the human margin. She says it’s not just about the absence of burnout, but creating a culture where our people can actually flourish. When people bring their best selves to work, it solves a lot of other problems.

About Katherine A. Meese, Ph.D

Katherine A. Meese, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also serves as the Director of Wellness Research in the UAB Medicine Office of Wellness and Director for the Center for Healthcare Management and Leadership. She earned her Ph.D in Health Services Administration with a specialization in strategic management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the faculty in 2020. Dr. Meese has several years of industry experience which encompassed work in ten countries on four continents, including management within a large academic medical center. She has co-authored two textbooks for organizational behavior in health care that are used in healthcare management programs across the country, and over 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.  Her research interests are in organizational behavior, leadership, well-being, and delivery models that enhance organizational learning. Her passion is in helping translate rigorous research into a format that can be easily understood and utilized by individuals and teams.

Hosted by Quint Studer with special guests Chuck Stokes and Dr. Paula Song

This week Quint talks with Chuck Stokes, interim department chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Department of Health Services Administration, and Dr. Paula Song, Richard M. Bracken professor and chair of the Department of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University. The discussion centers on how universities are preparing students for careers in healthcare and supporting those already in their career, in light of the pace and scope of change we all must navigate.

Educators are rethinking how they do things, shifting modalities, and adjusting instruction to meet the changing needs and expectations of students and practitioners as they grapple with changing circumstances. Stokes and Song see this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. Listeners will learn about a few things the academic community is doing differently.

Here’s an overview:
Providing simulation programs (It’s not just the what but the how). There’s a lot of power in putting students in real-life situations that require both hard and soft skills. Instructors put them through a simulation to see how they deal with a situation and give them feedback on it.

Creating more options and providing more support for people already working in the field. Programs are allowing more flexibility for working professionals, whether they’re early, mid, or late careerists. One example is the tailored certificate options in sub-specialties to supplement master’s programs (including topics like health equity, financial management, and climate and sustainability).

Giving students various opportunities to gain different perspectives in all sorts of ways. For instance, they’re partnering with national associations and making sure their programming includes broader health communities. Students are exposed to different career stories and the unique challenges providers and patients face.

Providing more assessments and coaching before students enter the workplace. For example, early testing on personality profiles gives them insight on what they need to work on. There’s a big focus on self-reflection.

Looking to build lifelong partnerships with students. Schools are focused on helping students continue lifelong learning and development throughout their career and helping them leverage the value of alumni communities.

Forming partnerships with healthcare organizations in the community. Faculty are spending more time in local hospitals, which informs them on what’s really happening on the ground in real time. This gives schools an opportunity to help improve the health status of their community by solving problems. It also helps build important relationships for students.

Aiming a laser focus at engagement. This is one of the biggest issues facing our industry. Engagement impacts safety/high reliability, reduces costs, improves consumer-centered care, and boosts innovation. How well the academic community trains leaders to engage and motivate their workforce will be paramount to our success.

Encouraging professionals to get involved in their local healthcare education programs (even if they aren’t alums). Schools are eager for students to hear different voices, see different experiences, and be exposed to a variety of career paths. People don’t need to be formally tied to a program to have an impact and be important mentors and coaches for students.

About Chuck Stokes

In December of 2019, Chuck Stokes retired from Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, Texas, after serving eight years as their system EVP and COO and two-and-a-half years as system president and CEO.

Chuck started his career as a critical care nurse after receiving his BSN from the University of Mississippi, and transitioned to executive healthcare leadership after receiving his MHA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Chuck is a two-time recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (2006 and 2016). He served as chairman for the Board of Governors of the American College of Healthcare Executives and was their 2020 Gold Medal Award recipient.

In 2020, Modern Healthcare named Chuck as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. Chuck also received the 2020-2021 University of Mississippi Medical Center Nursing Alumnus of the Year Award and the 2021 Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership Excellence.

In July 2021, Chuck accepted the position of interim department chair at UAB in the Department of Health Services Administration. Chuck will see the department through its new chair transition.

About Paula Song

Paula H. Song, PhD, MA, MHSA, is the Richard M. Bracken professor and chair of health administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dr. Song’s research expertise includes healthcare finance, accountable care organizations (ACOs), payment reform, community benefit, and utilization and access for vulnerable populations, including the underinsured and children with disabilities. Her current research interests focus on innovative financing and delivery mechanisms to improve the delivery of healthcare. She has expertise using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Dr. Song teaches graduate-level courses in healthcare financial management and has coauthored several leading textbooks in healthcare finance. Dr. Song is the 2020 recipient of the John D. Thompson Prize from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.