Schafer has led Spooner Health since 1990. When he partnered with the Studer Group in 2009, his organization was at the 12th percentile for employee engagement. Within two years, they had hit the 94th. For the last three years, they have held at the 99th. This is an impressive turnaround story. But it’s also a staying-the-course story, and those are rarer and harder to tell.

Schafer brought that story to the inaugural Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future conference in Atlanta earlier this year, where attendees called him one of the most humble and self-aware CEOs they had ever seen on a stage. This episode gives listeners who were not in the room a chance to hear it.

Listeners will learn:

• Why Spooner Health's five-year engagement plan happened in two years, and what made the difference
• How employee-written standards of excellence became the cultural backbone of the organization and still hold today
• Why transparency with data, including the uncomfortable numbers, builds more trust than protecting people from them
• What Schafer tells every new hire at orientation and why storytelling is now central to how he does it
• How the rewiring concept gave a high-performing organization a framework for continuing to improve without starting over
• Why investing in external development matters even when an organization is already at the top of its game

This is a conversation for any healthcare leader who wants to know what it looks like to build something that lasts.

In this episode of the Healthcare Plus Podcast, host Dan Collard sits down with Corrin McCloskey, vice president of heart & vascular and oncology services at Tanner Health in Carrollton, Georgia, to explore what it actually takes for leaders to belong in a new culture…and why that belonging is the foundation of everything else.

Corrin brings her background in executive coaching, strategy, and physician leadership to a conversation about what that looks like in practice: building trust before pushing strategy; finding sponsors, not just mentors; crossing silos with confidence; and knowing when to lead with your skills rather than your expertise.

Listeners will learn:

• Why belonging is not a feel-good concept but a direct driver of leader effectiveness and team performance
• How new leaders can earn trust and build connection in a new culture 
• The difference between mentors and sponsors, and why sponsors matter more as leaders move up
• Why breaking down silos starts with personal security and a willingness to share, not just collaborate
• What leaders get wrong when they expand their scope, including the expert trap and the right-thing-wrong-way problem
• What the next generation of healthcare leaders needs to look like, and why culture-focused may matter more than credential-focused

This is a conversation for any leader who has ever walked into a new role, a new team, or a new organization and wondered how to make it work without losing themselves in the process.

About Corrin McCloskey:

Corrin McCloskey is a healthcare executive, executive coach, and national speaker focused on leadership, culture, and change management in healthcare. She serves as vice president of heart & vascular and oncology services at Tanner Health, where she leads strategy, growth, and service line development. Passionate about helping leaders build trust and navigate complexity, Corrin frequently speaks on physician leadership, organizational culture, and leading change in healthcare. Over the past year, she has expanded her national speaking presence and contributed thought leadership focused on creating healthier, more sustainable healthcare systems.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/corrinmccloskey/

https://corrinmccloskey.com/ 

Clement spent 11 years leading TriHealth from the 26th to the 97th percentile in team member engagement and building the most trusted, most preferred healthcare brand in Cincinnati. He did not leave succession to chance. He started planning from day one, built a structured multi-phase process, engaged the board at every stage, and partnered with an industrial psychologist to assess and develop five internal candidates over a decade. The result: a seamless, board-endorsed promotion of COO Terri Hanlon-Bremer as his successor, with all five candidates still in the organization and stronger for having gone through the process.

Dr. Reilly brings the assessment science behind the process to life, walking through how Sperduto & Associates uses structured interviews, psychometric testing, 360 feedback, and development planning to evaluate readiness and fit, not just current performance. Together, Clement and Reilly make the case that succession planning is not a one-time event but a sustained leadership discipline.

Listeners will learn:

• Why succession planning should begin the first year in the leadership role, not just when departure is imminent
• How to structure a confidential, non-competitive internal succession process that develops candidates without creating political friction
• What industrial psychologists assess beyond the interview, including problem-solving, self-awareness, personality fit, and behavioral patterns
• How to engage the board across three phases: awareness, formalization, and endorsement
• Why over 80 percent of TriHealth leadership appointments are promotions from within
• About the culture-monitoring tool Clement created to help organizations preserve core ideology and continuously improve, modeled on the Built to Last framework

 This is a masterclass in succession planning for any healthcare leader serious about leaving their organization stronger than they found it.

Mark C. Clement is the president and chief executive officer of TriHealth. He joined TriHealth as president in May of 2015 and took on the larger role of president and CEO in January 2016. TriHealth is a $2.1B integrated healthcare delivery system, made up of six hospitals and over 140 ambulatory/outpatient sites of care. Named as the highest performing accountable care organization (ACO) in the state of Ohio and one of the highest performing ACOs in the country by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, TriHealth cares for more than 500,000 attributed lives. As Cincinnati’s fourth-largest employer, TriHealth has 12,000 team members, more than 700 employed physicians, and an independent medical staff of more than 1,800 physicians.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and jointly sponsored by CommonSpirit Health and Bethesda, Inc., TriHealth’s vision is to work together with physicians, hospitals, and communities to “get healthcare right” by delivering better care, better health, and better value while fostering physician and team member engagement. Mark also holds the position of CEO at all of TriHealth’s hospitals: Good Samaritan Hospital, Bethesda North Hospital, Bethesda Butler Hospital, and McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, which all serve the tri-state region of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. With a focus on population health and improving the health status of those it serves, TriHealth is an award-winning health system frequently recognized by industry organizations such as U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, IBM Watson, DiversityInc, The Joint Commission, the American Heart Association, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and many more.

Dr. Chris Reilly graduated summa cum laude with dual degrees in mathematics and psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from Bowling Green State University in 1989. In 2012, he was honored to be selected as a SIOP Scholar, one of the highest forms of recognition for contributions to the field of industrial and organizational psychology. Chris has worked as a consultant for organizations in the healthcare, national defense, avionics, food distribution, nuclear power, and consulting industries. He has published and presented a number of technical papers in the areas of employee engagement, work scheduling, performance measurement, and decision-making.

Chris has been with Sperduto & Associates since 1991. He has consistently partnered with Quint Studer, co-founder of HPSG, beginning in 1996, on selection, performance management, executive coaching, and engagement. Chris has worked with clients throughout Europe, Central America, South America, and Canada on projects related to employee engagement, selection, team-building, talent management, and organization restructuring. He is a licensed psychologist and managing partner at Sperduto & Associates. Chris currently teams with Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® as an organizational psychologist 

Kennedy shares updates on the newly released book, Human-Centered Leadership in Health Care: The Revolution Continues, published in partnership with the American Nurses Association. The book builds on the original theory of Human-Centered Leadership and extends it into practice highlighting real-world implementation, outcomes, sustainability, and research emerging from healthcare organizations across the country.

The conversation previews Kennedy’s expanded role at the upcoming conference, where uLeadership will host breakfast and lunch breakouts, as well as a main-stage session. Together with colleagues Lucy Leclerc and Susan Campis, Kennedy explores what changes when leaders truly internalize the principle: it starts with you, but it’s not about you. When leadership becomes human-centered, how leaders spend their time, engage their teams, and make decisions fundamentally shifts.

They also discuss the importance of staying “high touch in a high-tech world,” the power of peer connection and networking, and why bringing like-hearted leaders together accelerates learning and impact.

Listeners will learn:

• How Human-Centered Leadership has evolved from theory to practice
• What organizations are seeing when they implement the framework
• Why leadership behaviors, not just intentions, must change
• How research, assessment, and reflection strengthen sustainability
• What to expect from uLeadership’s sessions at the conference

This episode offers a practical preview of a leadership approach designed to strengthen culture, connection, and care at every level of the organization.

About Kay Kennedy, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, FAAN

Kay Kennedy is a nurse executive, educator, and entrepreneur. By combining a love for nurses, patients, and quality improvement, she has led large nursing teams to create healthy work environments, satisfied patients, and consistent, high-quality care. With experience ranging from bedside nursing to chief nursing officer, she also serves as adjunct faculty at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, MGH Institute of Health Professions, and the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She is the CEO of uLeadership, LLC, an internationally recognized professional development and research organization. Her passion as a leader is to ignite innovative problem-solving, develop others to be their best, and lead with empathy and service.

Click here for speaking inquiries or to order books

Shupe will deliver two main-stage sessions at the conference, and this conversation previews both, starting with a timely focus on rewiring how healthcare organizations care for their caregivers. Drawing on nearly four decades in healthcare, Shupe reflects on the toll that passion, grit, and commitment can take on teams, and why the pandemic served as a catalyst for rethinking team well-being. She challenges leaders to go deeper than traditional employee rounding by pairing meaningful questions with practical support tools already available in many organizations, including employee assistance programs, Code Lavender, intentional pauses, and Schwartz Rounds.

The discussion then turns to the emergency department, where Shupe is widely known for her work on leadership, flow, and culture. She previews a session focused on rewiring ED operations through intentional flow strategies, non-negotiable goals, and leadership development tailored to today’s realities. From door-to-bed time to trust-building and “love leadership,” Shupe makes the case that emergency departments must be treated as an organization-wide strategy, not a standalone problem.

Listeners will learn:

• Why caring for caregivers requires deeper, more intentional leadership
• How to rewire employee support without adding complexity
• What effective ED flow looks like in today’s environment
• Why patients still expect speed, clarity, and compassion
• How leadership development must adapt for newer, less-experienced leaders

This episode offers a practical preview of two sessions designed to strengthen teams, improve flow, and create environments where caregivers and patients can thrive.

Click here for conference information and registration.

Regina Shupe, DNP, RN—author of Rewiring the Emergency Department: Innovative Solutions for Modern Emergency Care—serves as an advisor, speaker, author, and thought leader for Healthcare Plus Solutions Group®. She brings greater than 30 years of nursing leadership and healthcare operational leadership with expertise in emergency services. She is an innovative healthcare leader driven by the correlation between positive team culture and improved patient outcomes. She leads transformative organizational change by leveraging proven clinical, operational, and leadership development.

She holds a doctor of nursing practice degree. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Emergency Nurses Association. She holds a certification in LEAN for Healthcare.

Click here for speaking inquiries or to order books.

With nearly four decades in healthcare and more than 15 years of coaching experience across hospitals, clinics, critical access facilities, and behavioral health settings, Reich brings a grounded perspective on what truly transcends care environments: human connection. While technology, workflows, and roles continue to evolve, the moments that matter most for patients and for teams are still deeply human.Reich reflects on the concept of “rewiring” and why small, intentional shifts often produce better outcomes than wholesale change. Drawing from her work on patient rounding in Rewiring Excellence, she explains why practices that once worked may need adjustment, not abandonment, and how focusing on outcomes instead of habits leads to more meaningful interactions.

The conversation previews Reich’s upcoming conference session, Caring Connection, which explores how empathy, compassion, and kindness move from words on a slide to behaviors people can feel. She outlines the specific “message makers” and connection points that create memorable moments, whether delivered by a nurse, environmental services team member, food service staff, or leader. 

Listeners will learn:

• Why human connection still differentiates care in a technology-driven world
• How small rewires improve outcomes without adding burden
• What makes compassion visible and felt, not just stated
• Why caring connection applies to every role, not just clinical staff
• How leaders can design environments where connection can thrive

 This episode sets the stage for a session focused on the human moments that patients and teams remember long after the task is complete.

Learn more about the conference at www.rewiringhealthcare.com

After years of workforce disruption, turnover, and rapid change, healthcare organizations are operating with thinner experience pipelines and leaders who are being promoted into complexity they were never trained for. Studer and Collard make the case for rewiring—not abandoning what worked in the past, but giving leaders permission to change how leadership development, training, and learning actually happen.

At the center of the conversation is Precision Leader Development™, a personalized approach inspired by precision medicine. Rather than one-size-fits-all leadership training, leaders are developed based on how they learn, what skills they need now, and the realities of their role, experience level, and environment—making development more usable, focused, and sustainable.

The conversation also explores why in-person connection still matters, the “magic in the hallways” that virtual platforms can’t replace, and how the conference is designed to be accessible, practical, and immediately applicable—including hands-on post-conference working sessions that help teams turn learning into action.

Listeners will learn:

• Why traditional leadership development models no longer work
• How Precision Leader Development personalizes growth instead of overwhelming leaders
• Why rewiring is about permission, not replacement
• How connection and community drive resilience and performance
• What makes Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future different from typical conferences

This episode sets the foundation for a conference built around real-world leadership, practical learning, and sustainable change.

For conference information and registration: https://rewiringhealthcare.com

With nearly four decades in emergency medicine—as a frontline nurse, ED leader, national coach, and now author—Shupe brings a hard-earned perspective on why many traditional fixes no longer work. Today’s EDs face unprecedented clinical, operational, and emotional strain, often with less experienced teams and leaders who were never trained for the complexity they’ve inherited.  

Shupe makes a strong case for rewiring—redesigning leadership behaviors, flow, and culture so reliability and compassion can coexist. She reframes burnout as a system alarm, not a personal failure, and introduces “love leadership” as a practical strategy for building trust, psychological safety, and sustainable performance in high-pressure environments.

Listeners will learn:

• How to diagnose whether ED systems are helping or hindering team success
• Why leadership redesign must come before operational fixes
• How to improve flow without sacrificing compassion or safety
• What leaders get wrong about burnout and how to address it systemically
• Why consistent leader presence is one of the most powerful tools in the ED

This conversation offers grounded, real-world guidance for ED leaders who want to create environments where caregivers feel supported and patients receive the care they deserve.

About Regina Shupe, DNP, RN

Regina serves as an advisor, speaker, author, and thought leader for Healthcare Plus Solutions Group®. She brings greater than 30 years of nursing leadership and healthcare operational leadership with expertise in emergency services. She is an innovative healthcare leader driven by the correlation between positive team culture and improved patient outcomes. She leads transformative organizational change by leveraging proven clinical, operational, and leadership development. 

She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Emergency Nurses Association. She holds a certification in LEAN for Healthcare. Regina is the author of Rewiring the Emergency Department: Innovative Solutions for Modern Emergency Care, Advance Your Emergency Department: Leading in a New Era, and multiple articles. 

From candy striper to healthcare executive, she has dedicated her life to caring for patients, families, team members, and physicians. As a nurse, she enjoyed the intersection between the heart and science, healing patients from the inside out. As a leader, she is able to see the positive correlation between the experience of team members and the experience of patients. She believes when we intentionally design meaningful and memorable experiences for team members, physicians, and patients, we are able to heal as well as truly transform healthcare.

McDougal distills eleven short lessons leaders can put to work immediately: begin with the outcome you want and choose the response that gets you there (E+R=O); stop spending energy on things you don’t control; and redirect attention from rumination and score-settling to actions that move results. It’s a tool kit built for real-life conditions—night meetings, public scrutiny, and competing stakeholders—so you can show up steadier for your team and your patients. 

What you’ll learn:

• A clear framework for Outcome → Response decision-making—E+R=O—that you can use in tense conversations, crises, and daily ops.
• How to conserve attention by dropping “karmic bookkeeping” and reinvesting time/energy where it affects outcomes.
• Weekly practices that turn highlights into habits (brief reflection prompts, one behavior to ship each week).
• Ways to coach your team to respond, not react. Building calmer huddles, cleaner escalations, and better handoffs.
• How these skills help with today’s realities: turnover, rapid change, and high-visibility roles. 

If you’re navigating competing demands and want steadier execution, this conversation delivers practical moves you can start on Monday.

About the Author:

Dr. Tom McDougal, author of Karma Doesn’t Need My Help: 11 Weekly Lessons to Leadership Success and Peace, retired in 2024 after operating hospitals for 23 years over a 33-year career. He conceptualized this book more than a decade ago but had to wait for early retirement to publish it to assure its honesty and authenticity. Dr. McDougal holds a doctorate in healthcare leadership, a master’s of science in healthcare administration, a master’s of business administration, and a bachelor’s in business management. He is also a life fellow of ACHE. Tom and his wife, Wendy, just celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary and are the proud parents of Mary Ann and Madden.

• Get a grasp on the big picture. Speakers like Cristian deRitis help CEOs cut through the noise, explore the economic context, and make smart strategic choices.
• See the future first. Listen to keynotes and futurist insights (Amy Webb) on the next 10–20 years—and what to do Monday. 
• Make AI practical. Attend sessions by experts like Cheryl Pegus and Shiv Rao that delve into workflow, safety, and patient-experience impact (including ambient documentation at scale). 
• Level up your leadership. Explore a deep bench of sessions on change, culture, and multigenerational teams (Adam Grant, Patrick Lencioni, Anne Morriss, Scott Hamilton, and more). 
• Advance your career—at any stage. Check out an expanded Career Hub, plus larger applied workshops and a student administrative fellowship fair. 
• Network with intent. Make designed connections by role and career stage; ~40% first-time attendees each year means fresh perspectives and new collaborators. 
• Explore the Innovation Hub. It’s new this year and built with industry partners to tackle real operational problems together. 

This podcast makes it clear: if you need a reset, a roadmap, and a sense of connection to a that’s community moving the work forward, this is the room to be in. 

 The HPSG team looks forward to seeing you at  ACHE Congress 2026. 

• Quint Studer: Leadership Insights: Rewiring Leader Development—The Right Plan for the Right Person at the Right Time
  Tuesday, March 3, 2026 • 9:30am - 10:30am CT
• Dan Collard: Genfluence: How to Lead a Multigenerational Workforce
  Tuesday, March 3, 2026 • 3:15pm - 4:15pm CT

They move quickly from origin story to business case, connecting multigenerational leadership to retention, safety, and engagement. You’ll hear how disrespect drives toxic culture (and turnover), why communication gaps sit behind many sentinel events, and how reframing PTO and well-being improves team performance. They also preview the book’s myth-busting chapter (data that challenges doom-driven narratives) and explain why the patient belongs at the center of any workforce conversation.

The episode introduces Control+Alt+Lead, a leadership “reboot” framework that starts with self-reflection, builds psychological safety for new clinicians to speak up, and shifts from succession planning to success planning so people can thrive. 

What you’ll learn:

• A clear business case for multigenerational leadership (retention, safety, engagement)
• Why technology (not stereotypes) drives many generational differences
• Practical ways to reduce disrespect and strengthen communication
• How to apply the Control+Alt+Lead framework 
• Where Genfluence fits into ACHE Congress and your leadership development roadmap

Smart, usable, and grounded in real fieldwork, this conversation offers leaders a path to keep great people longer and take better care of patients in the process.

About Dr. Katherine A. Meese and Dan Collard

Dr. Katherine A. Meese and Dan Collard are co-authors of Genfluence: How to Lead a Multigenerational Workforce (ACHE Learn 2026).

Dr. Meese has fifteen years of experience in healthcare management, leadership and research, and is an award-winning scholar and author in organizational behavior, well-being and leadership. Most importantly, she is on a mission to use science to help healthcare leaders keep their people and keep them well. She is the author of five books including The Human Margin: Building the Foundations of Trust with Quint Studer.

Dan Collard’s thirty-one years in the industry include hospital and health system operations, technology start-up transactions and consulting. He has been described as a “change agent, builder, mentor and developer of others.” His lens-of-the-operator view continues to guide his leadership practice. Dan is the cofounder of Healthcare Plus Solutions Group and the coauthor of Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired and Rewiring Leadership in Post-Acute Healthcare.

They walk through Emerson’s end-to-end approach: paid summer internships embedded in real operating units, a structured mentoring lattice (direct manager, peer “buddy,” senior leader), and a one-year administrative fellowship that moves emerging leaders from classroom theory to hands-on management and, often, into first-role leadership. You’ll also hear how partnerships and a clear values stance keep the organization nimble while developing people who share its mission.

What you’ll learn:

• How Emerson structures paid internships (mid-May to mid-August), embeds students in practices, and supports them with a manager + buddy + senior mentor model.
• What its one-year administrative fellowship includes (early operational ownership, standards and accountability, and coached “reps” before promotion). 
• Why Emerson protects development dollars during budget pressure and how that stance ties directly to performance and culture.
• Practical tactics for recruiting nationally and creating visible on-ramps from intern, to fellow, to first leadership role.
• How partnerships (e.g., regional systems and specialty providers) complement the internal pipeline to keep the organization agile.

Smart, repeatable, and ROI-minded, this conversation is a playbook for any system serious about growing leaders who fit the culture and stay.

Christine Schuster, RN, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Emerson Health
Christine (Chris) Schuster has served as Emerson Health’s president and CEO for two decades, following CEO roles at Quincy Medical Center and Athol Memorial Hospital and earlier service as COO for Tenet’s Saint Vincent Healthcare (Extended Care Division). She serves on multiple regional health and business boards and advisory groups and has been recognized by Boston Magazine among the “Most Influential Bostonians,” along with honors from the Boston Chamber, Massachusetts Health Council, and ACHE. Chris holds an MBA (with honors) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Nursing from Boston University.

Craig Nesta, JD, MBA, MS, Vice President, Emerson Practice Associates; Administrative Fellowship Director

Craig Nesta oversees Emerson Health’s physician practice enterprise and directs the system’s Administrative Fellowship Program, leading national recruitment, placement, and mentoring. He brings 25+ years in healthcare administration, with prior faculty roles at Boston University School of Public Health and Stonehill College. A longtime accreditation leader, he served the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education—including as chair of the Accreditation Council—and is a past board member of AUPHA. Craig is a fellow of ACHE, HFMA, and MGMA.

Michael (Mike) Tracy, Administrative Director, Emerson Health
Mike Tracy leads multi-service-line operations at Emerson Health. A Boston College graduate with an MHA from Virginia Commonwealth University, he began at Emerson as a summer intern, returned for a yearlong Administrative Fellowship, and advanced through roles including Practice Manager and Senior Practice Manager to his current post. An active member of HFMA’s MA/RI Chapter, Mike serves on the chapter’s board and has chaired the New to Healthcare Leadership Conference planning committee. 

Kay, Lucy, and Susan share uLeadership’s origin story: three experienced nurse leaders who met in 2019, burned out by overachieving, work-all-day-and-night leadership, decided to study the kind of leader nurses would follow to the ends of the earth. Their IRB-approved research validated a framework that puts connection, well-being, trust, and excellence at the core—and gave rise to Human-Centered Leadership in Healthcare.

They discuss real-world results from early client partners—higher engagement participation and scores, improved leader and staff retention, gains in patient experience (especially communication and teamwork), and even quality improvements—along with powerful moments from the road (a keynote that convinced a leader on the verge of quitting to stay, and a team that turned the framework into an award-winning poster). The team also talks about sustaining the gains (not “one and done”), building belonging as a strategic outcome, and how their book, Human-Centered Leadership in Healthcare: Evolution of a Revolution, helps leaders operationalize the behaviors, not just admire the ideas.

Finally, the group looks ahead at what the HPSG + uLeadership partnership makes possible. Scaling a movement that helps leaders feel replenished, not overwhelmed, and equips them to create teams people want to join and stay on.

About Kay Kennedy, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, FAAN

Dr. Kay Kennedy is a nurse executive, educator, and entrepreneur. By combining a love for nurses, patients, and quality improvement, she has led large nursing teams to create healthy work environments; satisfied patients; and consistent, high-quality care. Kay has held multiple leadership roles, from the bedside to chief nursing officer. She holds an adjunct associate professor role at Emory University School of Nursing along with other adjunct appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions and Case Western Reserve University. Her goal as a leader is to ignite innovative problem-solving, develop others to be their best, and lead by serving others.

About Lucy Leclerc, PhD, RN, NPD-BC

Dr. Lucy Leclerc is a dedicated nurse leader, nurse scientist, entrepreneur, and professor with over 30 years of diverse nursing experience. Early in her career, she spent time as a bedside nurse in high-risk labor and delivery before falling in love with nursing leadership as an officer and flight nurse in the United States Air Force Reserve. She is a lifelong learner and received her PhD from Medical University of South Carolina in 2010. She teaches all levels of nursing students, from undergraduates to DNP students. Her research focuses on generation of contemporary nursing-specific leadership models. 

About Susan Campis, MSN, RN, NE-BC, NBC-HWC

Susan Campis is a nurse executive, health and wellness coach, and entrepreneur. Susan is a nurse leader whose passion for coaching and mentoring others helped produce successful and engaged nursing teams throughout her career. As a nurse leader, Susan understands the importance of a safe and healthy work environment and worked to create a culture of excellence, trust and caring where her team could perform at their best, ensuring quality care and patient safety. Susan cares deeply for the health and well-being of healthcare professionals, and, as a health and wellness coach, her goal is to work with others to help them reach their full potential.  

Together, they explore what the future of nursing looks like and why leadership built on humanity is the most powerful tool we have. Dean Waite and Dr. Davis discuss the qualities that define great nurse leaders today, from courage and compassion to vulnerability and clarity of purpose. They explain why passion for the profession matters, because when leaders love nursing out loud, they inspire others to do the same. They share how empathy remains essential even in the most complex clinical situations and why centering the full humanity of every patient is nonnegotiable.

Listeners will hear:

• Why the three Cs—courage, compassion, and clarity—are foundational to nurse leadership
• How empathy helps nurses provide care without judgment, even when behavior is challenging
• Why AI should be viewed as augmented intelligence: a tool that frees nurses to focus more on patients
• How technology and robotics can reduce administrative and physical burdens, making leadership roles more sustainable
• Why advocacy skills are becoming just as critical as clinical skills, and how nurses can use their voice to influence policy and protect vulnerable populations
• How nursing must shift from using technology to building it, ensuring nurses are shaping the tools that will shape care

This episode is a powerful reminder that while technology may transform how nursing is delivered, it will never replace the human connection that defines the profession. It’s a must-listen for any current or future nurse leader who wants to influence how care evolves and ensure compassion stays at the center of it all.

Dr. Heather Resseger, senior VP, chief hospital operations officer, and chief nursing officer, and Jonna Taylor, recently promoted to director of acute care services, walk listeners through the systemwide cultural transformation that’s rewiring leadership, restoring joy to the front lines, and reconnecting teams to their purpose. Together, they’ve built a workplace characterized by trust, ownership, and relationship-building. Best of all, it’s producing measurable gains in employee engagement, patient experience, and safety.

Jonna shares how one powerful reframe (asking patients, “What is your biggest worry or concern right now?”) led to a 70-point leap in patient experience scores within one month. She also explains how her team drove down patient-handling injuries to zero. 

From skill-building rounds to a peer-led safety culture to values-based mentoring to a bold approach to performance accountability, this conversation offers practical takeaways for any leader working to create a culture of excellence. It’s a glimpse at what’s possible when you truly invest in your people and trust them to do their work well.

Bios

Heather Resseger, DNP, RN, CNL, CPHQ, NEA-BC, is a strategic and results-driven healthcare executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience in hospital operations, nursing, and quality improvement.

As senior vice president, chief hospital operations officer, and chief nursing officer at NorthBay Health, Dr. Resseger leads transformative initiatives focused on acute care strategy, patient experience, and operational excellence. She is widely recognized for her role in achieving Magnet designation with distinction and for consistently delivering high-quality clinical outcomes. 

Dr. Resseger brings deep expertise in high-reliability practices, employee engagement, and cost reduction. Her leadership has also been instrumental in advancing infection prevention protocols, behavioral health planning, and crisis response during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She holds a doctor of nursing practice in executive leadership and is deeply committed to fostering strong, values-based healthcare cultures. Her approach is grounded in real-world experience navigating complex health systems and a steadfast dedication to improving patient care.

Jonna Taylor, RN, BSN, MS-HCA, NE-BC, is the director of acute care services at NorthBay Health. 

Jonna-Lynn Taylor began a dedicated career in oncology nursing, serving patients and supporting care teams from 2004 to 2013. In 2013, she transitioned into a nurse leadership role, bringing a passion for clinical excellence and team development to the forefront. In 2017, Jonna advanced to a Nurse management position, where she led initiatives to improve patient outcomes and staff engagement. She assumed the role as Nurse manager at NorthBay in 2023.  Most recently, in June 2025, Jonna was appointed Director of Acute Care Services, where she continues to drive high-quality, patient-centered care across acute care settings.

Together, they explore why physician leadership is more essential than ever—and why so many physicians find themselves in leadership roles without the preparation or support they need. Drawing from years of experience in academic programs, military leadership, and physician career development, Don and Kurt talk about the serious gap in physician leadership training and what they’re doing to close it.

Listeners will hear:

• Why a certificate isn’t enough—and why the real outcome should be a personalized leadership plan for each physician
• What makes physicians different from other emerging leaders—and how to support them with the right level of challenge and psychological safety
• How their rolling cohort model and flexible structure honors physicians’ time while still building powerful peer connections
• Why organizations that invest in physician growth see stronger retention and better outcomes
• How leadership development is also a strategy for physician well-being and renewal

Whether you’re a physician, a hospital executive, or someone passionate about building strong clinical leaders, this episode offers smart, strategic insights into what physician leadership training should look like today—and how we can do it better.

For more information about the physician leader development course, please visit: https://www.plc-network.com/the-path-to-physician-leadership/

Don Taylor, Director of the Alliance for Physician Leadership and Professor of Practice at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, UT Dallas

At the Alliance for Physician Leadership, Don’s focus is on cultivating physician leaders who can navigate the complex dynamics of organizational change and healthcare management. Through their programs, they empower physicians with the knowledge to lead cultural shifts and respond to financial challenges in the medical field. As a professor of practice at UT Dallas, Don is dedicated to fostering innovation in healthcare. The team’s work centers on providing executive physicians with a deep understanding of themselves and the healthcare landscape, ensuring that learning is at the heart of health.

Kurt Scott, Founder & CEO, The Physician Leadership Career Network

With over 35 years of experience building and leading successful physician and physician executive recruitment programs, Kurt has dedicated his career to fostering meaningful connections between healthcare organizations and the leaders who drive them forward. In 2019, he recognized a gap in the field—a lack of a dedicated space for physician leaders to connect, grow, and advance their careers. To address this, Kurt founded the Physician Leadership Career Network, creating a platform that bridges this gap and empowers physician leaders to thrive.

 Quint and Dr. Kapoor dive deep into one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges: burnout. Drawing from personal experience, clinical insight, and extensive research, Dr. Kapoor explores why so many healthcare professionals are feeling overwhelmed—and what we can do about it. He explains that burnout isn’t just a workplace issue; it often starts within ourselves, and recognizing this can be the first step toward healing.

Listeners will hear why “work/life balance” may be a flawed concept and how “work/life synergy” can offer a more sustainable, fulfilling way forward. They’ll learn about the powerful concept of ikigai (a Japanese term for “reason for being”) and how finding purpose in even the smallest moments can bring resilience and joy back to a healthcare career. Dr. Kapoor also explores fundamentals like diet, exercise, and sleep in a way that’s fresh and compelling. (You’ll love his insights on the “night shift janitors” that clear out the waste in our brains.)

This episode is a must-listen for anyone in healthcare who’s grappling with stress, seeking practical ways to recharge, or simply wanting to reconnect with the meaning behind their work.

About Dr. Roger Kapoor

Roger Kapoor, MD, MBA, is the senior vice president of Beloit Health System in Beloit, Wisconsin, a community-based nonprofit hospital with approximately 23 service locations. He is a Harvard-trained dermatologist who also holds an MBA from the University of Oxford in England and has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles published in professional journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He was the recipient of the Wisconsin Medical Society’s Kenneth M. Viste, Jr., MD, Young Physician Leadership Award and named one of the Top 25 Emerging Leaders in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare.  

Kapoor has been credited with re-engineering the delivery of healthcare to his community, resulting in a dramatic rise in patient satisfaction at his institution from a stagnant 16th percentile to an astonishing 88th percentile in less than a year. He concurrently ushered in transformative results in quality, leading teams to achieve three consecutive “A” ratings from the national watchdog group Leapfrog, a four-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Five-Star Quality Rating System, and numerous quality-of-care pathway accolades. 

As a practicing board-certified dermatologist, he has built a successful medical and cosmetic dermatology practice using advanced techniques to help patients live happier, healthier lives. 

His book Working Happy! How to Survive Burnout and Find Your Work/Life Synergy in the Healthcare Industry was published in 2024.

They discuss insights Céu has gained from her unusual path, which led her from her first job in healthcare marketing to chief administrative officer and finally to academia. At Rutgers she’s observed major differences in today’s students vs. those of years past (for instance: they’re far more focused and specific on what they want, and very intentional about gaining the competencies and resources needed to achieve it).

Céu shares her recent idea for drawing undecided students into the Healthcare Administration major by building an exploratory course based on Quint Studer’s book The Calling: Why Healthcare is So Special. (“I feel healthcare is more than a job,” she says. “I’m trying to make it enticing for them to see the difference they can make through healthcare administration.”) 

Filled with practical takeaways, this episode will appeal to anyone seeking more understanding on what drives the next generation of Health Administration students, how to help them connect to their calling early, and how to develop and mentor them.

About Céu Cirne-Neves, MPA, FACHE

Céu Cirne-Neves, MPA, FACHE, is a healthcare executive with more than 25 years of experience in senior level positions and has made a successful leadership transition as full-time faculty at the Rutgers University EJ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. At Bloustein, she teaches in the Master of Health Administration Program and serves as the coordinator for the undergraduate Health Administration Program. Furthermore, she is the faculty advisor for the undergraduate student organization, Future Healthcare Administrators, which signature event is the annual healthcare administration case competition. 

Cirne-Neves brings to the classroom a wealth of practical health administration experience resulting from years leading culture change, operational effectiveness, and patient safety and experience. She served as the CEO of Saint James Hospital, Cathedral Healthcare System, Newark, for 10 years, and most recently, in a variety of senior level roles including as Vice President of Ambulatory Services at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (CBMC), RWJBarnabas Health, Livingston.  

Throughout her career, Cirne-Neves has demonstrated how to convert an organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values into a leadership model that improves workforce engagement, organizational performance and results. She excels at strategic planning and implementation, operations management, and community benefit; and most of all, she shares the resolve that health administrators must nurture and contribute to the next generation of healthcare leaders.

Cirne-Neves is board certified in hospital administration and as a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE); she is a past president of ACHE’s New Jersey chapter and serves as the ACHE Regent for New Jersey – Northern; as part of her annual Regent Awards Program, she has now introduced the Student Associate and Mid Careerist Regent Awards, elevating the significance of both levels of health administration. She has served on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners and under her leadership CBMC received the regional Baldrige Gold Award for Performance Excellence. 

She has enjoyed serving in the most senior roles at healthcare organizations and now promotes bridging healthcare organizations with healthcare education.

While leadership can be an exhilarating path, it can also wear people down when they don’t know how to manage it. Still, Annamarí says it’s possible for leaders (and everyone) to thrive in healthcare, regardless of its pressures. It’s about being the boss of our brain: Thoughts that might not even be true create an emotion in our body that ends up driving stress or success. That emotion drives us to act in ways that can either get us the results we want…or not. 

After deeply researching burnout, she formulated a methodology to tackle it. Called THRIVE—an acronym for Targeted Thoughts, Healthy Habits, Rest and Resilience, Intentionality, Vigilance, and Empowered Energy—it’s a framework for creating the mindset and skillset to be solution-oriented, keep your thoughts from hijacking you, and build a thriving career. 

Annamarí says fighting burnout is both personal and a corporate responsibility. She wants every leader and every individual in healthcare to work on their personal well-being as if nobody else is going to help. At the same time, she wants corporations to fight burnout as if no individual is going to do it themselves. If both groups put in 100 percent, that 200 percent effort might help us finally win this thing—for ourselves and, ultimately, for our patients. 

About Annamarí Dietrichson

Annamarí Dietrichson, BSc, MHA, is a seasoned healthcare executive, executive health coach, and keynote speaker renowned for her expertise in avoiding burnout, creating a thriving culture, and cultivating leadership essentials. As the founder of Annamari Health & Leadership Coach, LLC, she empowers healthcare leaders and organizations to unlock their full potential and THRIVE. 

Annamarí serves as the division vice president of care experience for the Continental Division of HCA Healthcare. She completed her graduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 2001. In 2018 she received her master’s in health administration from Louisiana State University. Annamarí is a South Africa native who is proud to be a naturalized U.S. citizen since November 2022. When she is not at work or coaching her clients, you can find her somewhere in the mountains adventuring with her husband and their two cattle dogs. 

Quint, Regina, and Jennifer explore the “patient experience” concept, which has evolved tremendously over the past few decades. Now it encompasses the sum of all interactions from the initial touchpoint when a patient even considers selecting a healthcare organization until the time that they are back home caring for themselves and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. (It’s interesting to hear Quint, who has been described as putting patient experience “on the map,” open the discussion with his own history lesson on the field.) 

They also discuss a 2021 JAMA article—“Criterion-Based Measurements of Patient Experience in Health Care: Eliminating Winners and Losers to Create a New Moral Ethos” by Thom Mayer, Arjun Venkatesh, and Donald M. Berwick—debating the pros and cons of moving away from traditional percentile-based evaluations.

Finally, they offer a wealth of takeaways. Listeners will learn from the thoughtful discussion of common barriers people face when working to improve the patient experience and some practical (and doable) tips for overcoming them. 

About Jennifer Carron Passon, MSOM, CPXP

With 30 years of leadership experience and a Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP) credential, Jennifer is a patient experience officer at BJC Health System, a $6B integrated academic health system that serves millions of patients and families across the Midwest. 
 
 Her mission is to ignite a passion for human centricity and to transform the healthcare experience for all. She uses her Disney Institute training and contemporary thinking to design and deploy innovative interventions and digitally enhanced programs that elevate service excellence, hospitality, ownership, and regulatory results. She also contributes to various state-level and global initiatives that aim to advance patient and family engagement, equity and inclusion, and quality and safety in healthcare delivery. 

About Regina Shupe, DNP, RN

Regina works for the Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® team as an advisor, bringing her expertise in emergency services to help our partners assess and improve upon their patient experience and throughput to better serve patients and communities. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and also holds a certification in LEAN for Healthcare. 

For the past 35 years, she has dedicated her life to caring for patients, families, team members, and physicians. As a nurse, she enjoyed the intersection between the heart and science, healing patients from the inside out. As a leader, she is able to see the positive correlation between the experience of team members and the experience of patients. She believes when we intentionally design meaningful and memorable experiences for team members, physicians, and patients, we are able to heal as well as truly transform healthcare.

Highlighting his commitment to Aramark’s 25,000+ teammates and the hospitals and patients they serve, Bart shares the importance of a human-centric approach to employee engagement and collaboration to enhance patient experiences. 

Along Aramark’s journey to becoming a Modern Healthcare Best Place to Work (which they achieved for the first time in 2024), Bart shares several key learnings and adjustments his team made, including:

• Implementing Early Connect, a program aimed at supporting new employees, and Team Member Connect, a new system of rounding that encourages coworker connections.
• Offering a daily pay system to support the team’s financial flexibility and address social determinants of health (SDOH).
• Reducing early turnover by connecting with new hires before they step onsite and regularly through the first 120 days. 
• Advocating for a focus on purpose, culture, and effective communication.

Missed an episode in our Emotional Onboarding series? Listen back now with Dr. Katherine Meese, Patti Frank, Natasha Lee, and Abby Spence. 

About Bart Kaericher

Bart Kaericher is the President & CEO of Aramark Healthcare+. Since his arrival to Aramark he’s been focused on building an organization that is delivering a vision of having engaged employees, positive patient experiences, operational excellence, caregiver support, and being problem-solvers within the healthcare arena.  Having a unified Culture of Caring has become a strong differentiator for Aramark Healthcare+. 

Before joining Aramark in May 2021, Bart served as Chief Growth Officer & Senior Vice President of Compass One Healthcare. While at Compass Group, he played an instrumental role in building revenues, profits, and valuable strategic partnerships. Prior to his tenure with Compass One Healthcare, Bart worked for more than a decade in the medical device industry at American Hospital Supply, now B. Braun Medical.  

Bart holds an MBA in Healthcare Marketing from Saint Joseph University in Philadelphia, PA, and a BS in Business from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He has also completed Cornell University’s Executive Healthcare Leadership program.

After attending the inaugural Post-Acute Leadership Institute (PALI) summit in July 2024, Abby brought a number of the selection, hiring, and onboarding solutions she learned back to her team in Cleveland, TN. 

In an effort to retain top talent, attract new team members, and improve residence care, Abby has implemented and seen success with several key Emotional Onboarding tactics, including:

• Creating a welcome video for new hires to reduce anxiety
• Implementing the “battery charge” exercise and creating a gratitude board to foster appreciation and open communication
• Completing a Personal Retention Plan with all new hires

Abby and Dan also discuss the need to attract Gen Z healthcare workers to solve the staffing shortage in post-acute care. Abby highlights how she’s adjusted her leadership style to cultivate a more supportive and development-focused workplace culture and how she’s leveraging new ideas brought forward by Gen-Z employees. 

Tune in next time for the final episode of the Emotional Onboarding series or listen back for more ideas from Katherine Meese, Patti Frank, and Natasha Lee today. 

About Abby Spence

Abby Spence is the CEO of Signature HealthCARE of Cleveland and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator for 11 years. With a background in mental health and social services, she is committed to enhancing the quality of life for seniors and creating a positive work environment for healthcare professionals. Under her leadership, Signature HealthCARE of Cleveland recently received the Bronze Award from the AHCA National Quality Award program. Abby is also part of the inaugural cohort of the Post-Acute Leadership Institute, using her experience to further the success of her facility and its mission.

Natasha and Dan discuss Floyd Lee Locums’ innovative onboarding and leadership development programs, designed to support a strong corporate culture that prioritizes trust, engagement, and personal well-being. 

Natasha shares key insights and solutions for healthcare executives, including:

• The importance of being involved in selection, hiring, and onboarding at the C-suite level to convey clear expectations, maintain high standards, and enhance your company culture. 
• How getting to know employees on a personal level ensures understanding that they are cared for even beyond the work they do for your organization. 
• Why Floyd Lee is focused on continuous improvement, despite recognition as #1 on Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work list for two consecutive years.  

Tune in next time for the final episode of the Emotional Onboarding series or listen back for more ideas from Katherine Meese and Patti Frank today. 

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).

Patti discusses her journey since joining CCM Health in 2018, highlighting the challenges they faced with high turnover, a reliance on travel nurses, and instability in senior leadership, which prompted a new focus on staff engagement and leadership development. Under Patti’s leadership, CCM Health first debuted on Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work list at #66 and this year, they reached #9. 

Patti and Dan discuss the intentional efforts CCM has made in Emotional Onboarding that have increased first-year retention by 15% and have contributed to their award-winning culture. A key initiative is helping new employees understand the phases of change and recognize that anxiety and doubt are normal with a new position or new organization. By creating this open dialogue, CCM has been able to provide resources and solutions to help team members navigate that anxiety and move more quickly towards feeling a sense of belonging in the organization. 

Patti also serves as an advisor at Healthcare Plus Solutions Group. Through this lens, she offers practical and doable tips for leaders to improve their onboarding processes and drive improved retention and engagement. 

Tune in next time for another episode of the Emotional Onboarding series that will dive into the post-acute care industry or listen back for more ideas from Katherine Meese today.

About Patti Frank
Patricia Frank, RN, MSN, FACHE is a distinguished healthcare executive and Advisor with Healthcare Plus Solutions Group, celebrated for her contributions to rural healthcare and her expertise in operational management, strategic planning, and patient care optimization. Recognized in 2020 among Becker’s Hospital Review’s “50+ Hospital and Health Systems CNOs to Know,” Patricia has a longstanding commitment to transforming healthcare in rural communities, where she has consistently improved patient outcomes, enhanced staff engagement, and elevated service delivery.

Patricia’s background includes extensive experience in clinical oversight, conflict resolution, and process improvement within rural settings, where she has reshaped organizational culture and built high-performing teams. Known for her integrity and strategic vision, Patricia has been honored with multiple “Best Place to Work” awards from different organizations by Modern Healthcare magazine, reflecting her dedication to making quality healthcare accessible in underserved regions. As an advisor, she now partners with healthcare organizations across the country to develop leadership capacity and optimize performance, all with a deep commitment to strengthening rural healthcare.

Dan and Katherine’s conversation explores several key facets of Emotional Onboarding™, a solution that improves early retention by reducing new hire anxiety and accelerating their feeling that they belong and are part of a team. 

Dr. Meese shares the latest research and industry insights on key areas of focus, including:

• The importance of building trust in the first 30-90 days and demonstrating flexibility and understanding through the hiring process
• Myth-busting what “belonging” really means and strategies for developing high-performing teams
• The significance of co-worker relationships in early onboarding and retention and how to best include peers in the interview and hiring process
• Challenges facing the multi-generational workforce and lessons learned from other industries 

Stay tuned over the next month as Dan Collard explores what Emotional Onboarding looks like in practice with leaders from four organizations across the continuum of healthcare. 

About Dr. Katherine Meese

With fifteen years of experience in healthcare management, leadership and research, Dr. Meese is an award-winning scholar and author in the field of organizational behavior, well-being, and leadership. She is the Founder and CEO of HuMargin Group which takes a data-driven, scientific  approach to help organizations solve their complex human challenges. Dr. Meese has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and has served as an evaluator on multi-million dollar grants.  She has co-authored two textbooks on organizational behavior in healthcare that are used in over 160 schools across the country. Her most recent book is The Human Margin: Building the Foundations of Trust with Quint Studer.

Dr. Meese also teaches and mentors graduate, doctoral and executive students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Health Services Administration, home to the #1 ranked MSHA program (U.S. News and World Report).

She is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, delivering over 100 presentations, workshops and keynotes across the globe. Her passion is to translate data and research into meaningful knowledge to help leaders and organizations support their humans.

Dr. Meese has a B.B.A from Texas A&M, an MPH from the University of Texas Health Science Center, and a PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She lives in the Nashville, TN area with her husband and two children.

This annual event will attract more than 7,000 healthcare leaders – from students in Master of Health Administration (MHA) programs to tenured executives – to Houston, TX this March for 3 days of learning and networking. With more than 500 expert speakers and 220+ education sessions, the ACHE Congress has something to offer every healthcare professional. 

David highlights exciting keynote sessions from leading experts, including:

• Brené Brown, PhD, Research Professor and New York Times Bestselling Author
• Ozan Varol, JD, Rocket Scientist turned Professor, No. 1 Bestselling Author, and Expert on Innovation and Creativity
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, PhD, Presidential Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning Author
• Michael Sorrell, EdD, Visionary Leader, Institutional Change Agent, President of Paul Quinn College
• And many more!

Quint also shares his excitement to join Mark Clement, CEO, TriHealth onstage for their session, “Leadership Insights: Building a Culture That Drives and Supports Value-Based Care”. 

Learn more about ACHE 2025 Congress and register today at www.congress.ache.org. 

About David Bartholomew

David Bartholomew is a lifelong advocate for health professionals and international education.  David is the Senior Vice President, Learning at the American College of Healthcare Executives in Chicago.  The role encompasses oversight of ACHE’s Professional Development and Publishing activities, including the Congress on Healthcare Leadership. 

David Bartholomew assumed the role of Senior Vice President of Learning with the American College of Healthcare Executives in January 2019.  In this capacity David is tasked to drive the strategic direction for ACHE Learning and oversee the design and development of new learning modalities for ACHE including virtual, face-to-face, and hybrid learning approaches across the Learning portfolio.  Prior to ACHE, David worked for more than 20 years in strategic roles related to healthcare licensure education and publishing.  

David holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a master’s degree in International Affairs from the University of Kentucky Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce.   David serves as a Board member for CAHME, the Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education.

Their conversation highlights the transformative “Build a Brain, Build a Life, Build a Community” initiative, which aims to enhance early childhood brain development, and showcases the implementation of the program at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital. 

Quint shares about the initial research conducted in Escambia County that led to the founding of the program and the difference it has made for parents, children, and communities across the country. 

Dr. Gumiroff and Jason Kimbrell also examine the program’s broader implications for addressing health inequities and encouraging community engagement through activities like book donations and the education of childcare workers. They underscore the importance of ongoing leadership and authentic community involvement in sustaining this initiative, ultimately aiming to improve future health outcomes and kindergarten readiness

About Alexander Gumiroff, MD, MBA, MHA, FACOG

Dr. Alex Gumiroff has been appointed Chief Medical Officer of HCA Florida Palms West Hospital, effective May 15, 2023. 

After finishing his residency training at New York Presbyterian/Cornell University Lower Manhattan Hospital, Dr. Gumiroff relocated to Florida and has been a practicing OB-GYN for a Federally Qualified Health Center in Fort Myers, caring for the underserved population. 

During that time, he also supervised the training of Medical, Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner students in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

About Jason Kimbrell

Jason Kimbrell was appointed chief executive officer of HCA Florida Palms West Hospital in June of 2021. 

Prior to Palms West, Kimbrell was the chief executive officer for Highlands Hospital and transitioned the newly acquired asset into the HCA healthcare portfolio. Kimbrell has been with HCA Healthcare since 2015. He is a graduate of HCA’s Executive Development Program and started his HCA career as the assistant administrator for HCA Florida West Hospital in Pensacola. 

Kimbrell is a veteran of the United States Air Force and began his career in healthcare in the public safety sector, serving as a firefighter, critical care flight paramedic and EMS Chief.  

About Stephanie Montgomery, Ed.D.

Stephanie is a native Georgian with over 24 years of experience in education and community partnerships. Stephanie has served Northwest Georgia as a School Improvement Specialist in literacy and academic achievement. She has worked as an ELA Specialist and liaison to help strengthen relationships between state and local school systems. Through this work, she has developed a unique lens for identifying issues related to readiness skills and achievement gaps. She is skilled at working with teams to bridge the gap between knowledge and research, helping put policy into practice. Stephanie has also served as a classroom teacher, district-level curriculum coordinator, and grant writer.

In their conversation, Dr. Mayer discusses his new book, “Leadership is Worthless, but Leading is Priceless,” emphasizing the distinction between leadership as a noun and the act of leading as a verb. He challenges each individual to realize that they are a leader today no matter the role they serve in and to always ask the question, “How will I lead today?”. Dr. Mayer also highlights the importance of relationship-building, storytelling, and a curiosity-driven approach to innovation in healthcare. He says “there’s no solo practice of medicine anywhere. It’s a team sport.” 

Their conversation also explores the idea of clinical trials as a way for organizations to reconsider practices and processes and drive continuous improvement. On the topic of improving patient experience, Dr. Mayer discusses his recent article, “Criterion-Based Measurements of Patient Experience in Health Care: Eliminating Winners and Losers to Create a New Moral Ethos,” published by JAMA.  

Dr. Mayer and Quint inspire leaders to use failures as steppingstones on their mission to foster cultures of trust and gratitude. Plus, they offer actionable tips and resources to help you do so. 

About Dr. Thom Mayer

Dr. Thom Mayer is the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association, Executive Vice President of Leadership for LogixHealth, Founder of BestPractices, Inc., Speaker for Executive Speakers Bureau, and Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University. 

He is one of the most widely sought speakers on leading in times of crisis, leading innovative change, customer experience, hardwiring flow, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, EMS/disaster medicine, and sports medicine. In sports medicine, his work at the forefront of changing concussion diagnosis and management in the NFL has changed the way in which these athletes are diagnosed and treated. His work in each of these areas has resulted in changing the very fabric of patient care. 

In 2022, Dr. Mayer helped lead a mobile team to Ukraine, caring for more than 350 internally displaced persons during the current war and training over 1,700 Ukrainian doctors, nurses, and paramedics. On September 11, 2001, Dr. Mayer served as the Command Physician at the Pentagon Rescue Operation and has served on three Defense Science Board Task Forces, advising the Secretary of Defense. 

He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, over 200 book chapters, and has edited or written 25 textbooks. His newest book, Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading is Priceless will be released on May 7, 2024 through Berrett-Koehler. He was won numerous awards, including the ACEP James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award in 2018. He has also been named the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of The Year, ACHE James Hamilton Award (twice), and has been nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. 

Quint and Dr. Hickson’s conversation focuses on addressing professional behavior among healthcare providers. Dr. Hickson discusses research linking disrespectful behavior to poor patient outcomes and malpractice claims, emphasizing the importance of professionalism in the workplace. The conversation also extends to nursing, offering innovative leadership strategies for behavioral intervention. 

In Part 1, Dr. Hickson discusses the early career experiences that led him to explore professionalism and what he learned about the importance of respect in the practice of medicine. The conversation explores Vanderbilt’s latest research on the topic and shares how health system leaders can start pursuing a culture of safety and respect. 

In Part 2, Quint and Dr. Hickson discuss intervention techniques for both physicians and nurses, highlighting “cup of coffee” conversations as a way to make medicine kinder, safer, and more reliable. 

About Gerald B. Hickson, MD

Gerald B. Hickson, MD, Joseph C. Ross Chair of Medical Education and Administration, Professor of Pediatrics, Founding Director of the Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy (CPPA). 

Dr. Hickson serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He also serves on the Board of Directors of Keck (USC) Health System, the RL Datix Customer Advisory Board and is a member of the International Regulatory Expert Advisory Group to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Dr. Hickson previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). Dr. Hickson received a BS from the University of Georgia and MD from Tulane University School of Medicine.

Quint and Dr. Hickson’s conversation focuses on addressing professional behavior among healthcare providers. Dr. Hickson discusses research linking disrespectful behavior to poor patient outcomes and malpractice claims, emphasizing the importance of professionalism in the workplace. The conversation also extends to nursing, offering innovative leadership strategies for behavioral intervention. 

In Part 1, Dr. Hickson discusses the early career experiences that led him to explore professionalism and what he learned about the importance of respect in the practice of medicine. The conversation explores Vanderbilt’s latest research on the topic and shares how health system leaders can start pursuing a culture of safety and respect. 

In Part 2, Quint and Dr. Hickson discuss intervention techniques for both physicians and nurses, highlighting “cup of coffee” conversations as a way to make medicine kinder, safer, and more reliable. 

About Gerald B. Hickson, MD

Gerald B. Hickson, MD, Joseph C. Ross Chair of Medical Education and Administration, Professor of Pediatrics, Founding Director of the Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy (CPPA). 

Dr. Hickson serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He also serves on the Board of Directors of Keck (USC) Health System, the RL Datix Customer Advisory Board and is a member of the International Regulatory Expert Advisory Group to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Dr. Hickson previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). Dr. Hickson received a BS from the University of Georgia and MD from Tulane University School of Medicine.

Carla discusses how she recognized that leaders were seeking development opportunities within the organization and why she proposed Precision Leadership Development™ as the solution through the Nurse Practice Council.  

Then, Dannette shares her experience leading the orthopedics unit during challenging times, including the staff shortages experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she decided to invest in her charge nurses by mentoring them individually and involving them in the decision-making process, she began to see extraordinary results. 

Through this investment in leadership development, Dannette’s unit has seen:

-              Engagement scores increase from 77% in 2021 to 92% in 2023

-              Turnover reduced from 27% to 4% on the orthopedic unit

-              Net Promoter Scores improved from 39% to 75%

-              Length of stay reduced from 1.62 to 1.29

-              Falls rates reduced from 4.33 to 2.79

Dannette and Carla attribute all of these results to their focus on the mid-level, “boots-on-the-ground”, frontline leaders and emphasize the need for investment and development to drive positive change in healthcare organizations. 

About Carla Yost

Among Becker's 66 CNOs to know in 2022, Carla Yost, BSN, FACHE, CPHQ, is the Chief Nursing Officer of Hillcrest Medical Center, Ardent Health System. Here, she leads the nursing and patient care operations for the 656-bed facility, successfully fostering achievements like most recently, a top-ranking hospital in patient safety, awarded by the organization, Leapfrog. She also advocates for nurses, investing in their growth, and increasing staff retention.

Carla brings with her more than 15 years of knowledge and experience in senior executive leadership. Her previous roles include System Chief Nursing and Quality Officer for Ascension Kansas, Vice President of Nursing and Quality at HCA Healthcare in Overland Park, Kansas, and a Baldridge Examiner for the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2018, Carla was named a Health Care Hero by the Wichita Business Journal. 

About Dannette Staples

Dannette Staples is a multidimensional nursing leader with more than 24 years of experience and a proven record of accomplishments built by the foundation of relationships that produce results that improve quality, efficiency, and growth. She is a dedicated nurse leader with a passion to mentor and develop new nurses by empowering and educating driven team members to become effective leaders. 

She has worked in various organizations across the country, starting with Vanderbilt University, HCA, Ardent, and Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria Oregon. She has worked in a variety of healthcare organizations ranging from large tertiary facilities to small outlying facilities, all of which have impacted her growth as a leader in healthcare. She has also created and facilitated customer service training and coached improvement skills to enhance teammate development and performance. 

Leonard highlights key insights from his article, "Developing Leadership Competencies for an Uncertain Future," (published by the American College of Healthcare Executives) revealing that nearly half of healthcare leaders are relatively new to their roles. The conversation explores crucial leadership skills such as change management, self-awareness, and adaptability to complexity, underscoring the importance of fostering a culture of innovation and developing a workforce capable of navigating today’s and tomorrow’s changing environment. 

Quint and Leonard highlight the need for healthcare leaders to embrace open-mindedness, introspection, and collaborative approaches to break down departmental silos and improve patient outcomes. 

About Leonard H. Friedman, Ph.D., M.P.H., FACHE

Leonard Friedman is a Professor of Health Policy and Management and is director of the Executive Master of Health Administration degree at the George Washington University.  He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, School of Public Administration in 1991 where his dissertation examined technology acquisition in hospitals in Southern California.  Dr. Friedman’s scholarly work has concentrated on the mechanisms of organizational change and strategic decision-making in health service organizations. Dr. Friedman has been the chair of the Health Care Management Division of the Academy of Management and Association of University Programs in Health Administration. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a past-president of the National Capital Healthcare Executives Chapter of ACHE. In 2015, Dr. Friedman was inducted into the Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame. Dr. Friedman is the editor of the Journal of Health Administration Education.

Listeners will walk away with actionable insights on:

• The importance of primary care development and forging strategic partnerships with specialists
• Why leadership development and collaborative community engagement are key pillars for sustained success in rural healthcare
• The indispensable role of rural hospitals in the broader healthcare ecosystem

Tune in as Quint and Brian navigate the complexities and bright future of rural healthcare, offering practical strategies and inspiring success stories from Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics. 

About Brian Burnside

As President and CEO of Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics, Brian Burnside leverages more than 20 years of hospital Chief Executive Officer experience.  He specializes in generating organizational momentum by recognizing the potential in every employee to provide the best possible care to the residents of the rural communities they serve. Applying innovative tactics related to culture, strategy, and growth/care advancement, Brian leads the Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics team toward creating a model rural healthcare system of the future. By doing so, Brian has shown rural healthcare can not only survive — it can thrive with revolutionary thought leadership and an unwavering commitment to the organization’s team and its mission to advance a professional medical community and hospital to promote expert healthcare, close to home.

Healthcare facilities under his leadership have been consistently recognized for high patient and employee satisfaction by national industry publications such as Becker’s Hospital Review and Press Ganey. Accolades include the 2016 Pioneer Rural Healthcare Leadership Award by the Texas Hospital Association, the 2010 Young Executive Achievement Award by the Iowa Hospital Association, the 2009 Summit Award: Patient Satisfaction Excellence by Press Ganey, and “150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare” by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2015 and 2017.

In his role as President and Chief Operating Officer of Good Samaritan Hospital, Kelvin focuses on providing the high-quality care patients have come to expect from TriHealth facilities. Maria Ashdown serves as Chief Nursing Officer of Good Samaritan and has responsibility for all six of their emergency departments. 

On this episode, Kelvin and Maria share several key performance improvement initiatives and offer best practices for healthcare leaders facing similar challenges, including:

• New leader onboarding, mentorship, and how to use peers as resources
• Service line ambassadors to assess challenges, barriers to success, and opportunities for process improvement
• Support for “floaters” to reduce anxiety and ensure every employee feels a sense of belonging
• Holding teams accountable to quality metrics and best practices for improving patient experience

About Kelvin Hanger

Kelvin Hanger is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Good Samaritan Hospital. He previously served in the same role for TriHealth Hospital Inc. He is responsible for the operations, management, strategic planning, quality, safety, and program development for the hospital. He is focused on ensuring Good Samaritan Hospital continues to provide the high-quality care patients have come to expect from TriHealth hospitals. Along with being a Hospital President, he is also the System Executive over Surgical Services.

Kelvin moved to Cincinnati, Ohio from Louisville, Kentucky where he received his degree from the University of Louisville in Business Administration. He has been in healthcare for 33 years beginning in 1984 working for Humana in the actuary department and multiple market offices within the company.

Kelvin is very active in the Evendale Community and has held multiple board positions within professional healthcare organizations throughout his career. He was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel from the Commonwealth of Kentucky by Governor Ernie Fletcher. Kelvin fosters strong physician relationships and empowers his team to deliver exceptional patient experiences.

About Maria Ashdown

Maria Ashdown, MSN, RN, NE-BC, VP, Chief Nursing Officer at Good Samaritan Hospital since 2022 and serves as System Director, Emergency Services at TriHealth, since 2018, with responsibility for all six emergency departments. She has been a part of TriHealth for more than 20 years, starting her career as a staff nurse on the orthopedic/trauma unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in 1991. She served in a number of progressive leadership roles over thirteen years in the Emergency Department at Bethesda North and has served as chair of the Nursing Operations Council and co-chair of the Stroke Committee. Maria maintains Nurse Executive Board Certification (NE-BC).

Chief Nursing Executive Jenny Skinner states, “Maria has been an integral part of our nursing leadership team, proven leader with a passion for leading teams to greatness. She has demonstrated success in building strong teams, pursuing excellence, and collaborating across operations.”

Dr. Pulicharam also highlights the challenges faced in scaling population health programs to larger organizations and stresses the importance of a centralized approach, advocating for automated data reconciliation and task management. Her ultimate goal is to reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits while improving patient satisfaction through informed clinical decision-making and by addressing social determinants of health. The discussion underscores the crucial role of data and technology in improving patient care. 

To learn more about Dr. Riya Pulicharam’s population health platform, visit www.CaretHealth.com.

About Dr. Riya Pulicharam

Dr. Riya Pulicharam is the co-founder of Caret Health, a clinical execution platform for value-based population health. For more than 20 years, Dr. Pulicharam has served as the National Medical Director for Population Health at Legacy Healthcare Partners (now Optum Care). 

A pediatrician by training, Dr. Pulicharam was a research fellow at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, and later founded the Clinical Research, HEOR, and population health departments for the Legacy Healthcare Partners. Dr. Pulicharam has led more than 500 research studies and is widely recognized as a certified clinical trials investigator.

Dr. Pulicharam's primary focus lies in population health, where she addresses social determinants of health and designs clinical care pathways for high-risk patient populations managed within value-based organizations. Notably, her work has been instrumental in various quality improvement initiatives aimed at reducing total healthcare costs for chronic disease management programs, which have been prominently featured in several publications.

Driven by a commitment to improving healthcare outcomes, Dr. Pulicharam is currently dedicated to reducing hospitalizations and ER visits for high-risk patients. Her work emphasizes the integration of healthcare technology, automation, and machine learning. Notably, Dr. Pulicharam has invented and patented a groundbreaking population health platform (Caret Health), which achieved a remarkable 57% reduction in hospitalizations and ER visits for high-risk elderly patients with multiple comorbid conditions.

Their discussion emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts between healthcare systems and pediatricians to integrate brain-building practices into routine care settings. This includes nurse training videos, scripting assistance, coaching sessions, and partnership calls to inform healthcare providers about effective brain development strategies for young children. The end goal? To ensure consistent support for parents to nurture their child’s cognitive growth and create lasting positive outcomes for families and communities.
 
To learn more, interested parties can visit BuildABrainNow.com or contact Stephanie Montgomery directly via email.

Additional Resources:
- Video on Childhood Brain Development (5 minutes)
- Website: BuildABrainNow.com
- TMW Newborn Implementation Trial

About Stephanie Montgomery, Ed.D.
Stephanie is a native Georgian with over 24 years of experience in education and community partnerships. Stephanie has served Northwest Georgia as a School Improvement Specialist in literacy and academic achievement. She has worked as an ELA Specialist and liaison to help strengthen relationships between state and local school systems. Through this work, she has developed a unique lens for identifying issues related to readiness skills and achievement gaps. She is skilled at working with teams to bridge the gap between knowledge and research, helping put policy into practice. Stephanie has also served as a classroom teacher, district-level curriculum coordinator, and grant writer.

Stephanie serves students and families in her community through various non-profit organizations. She works with the Get Georgia Reading campaign, Ferst Readers, and library task force committees to bolster access to literacy resources. As a Commission on Children and Youth Executive Board member, she assists in strategic planning and developing educational programming. Committed to sharing her passion for literacy and learning, Stephanie continues to tutor students with academic challenges and learning disabilities in her spare time.

• Challenges facing post-acute leaders both pre- and post-pandemic and the critical need for specialized leadership development to tackle staffing shortages
• The newly published book, “Rewiring Leadership in Post-Acute Healthcare” authored by Quint Studer and Dan Collard with input from post-acute industry leaders
•  The launch of the Post-Acute Leadership Institute (PALI), kicking off July 2024, to help leaders navigate the complexities of the post-acute care environment and achieve improved outcomes

To learn more about the Post-Acute Leadership Institute or order your copy of “Rewiring Leadership in Post-Acute Healthcare”, visit www.thePALI.org or contact info@thePALI.org.

About Tracy Jansen

Tracy Jansen, SPHR is the Chief Executive Officer of GIGCS, LLC, an executive search firm specialized in serving the post-acute industry and the Chief Operating Officer of the Post-Acute Executive HR Roundtable. Over the past 20 years, she served in the industry as Chief Human Resources Officer for Signature HealthCare, Consulate Healthcare and Golden Living. She is a purpose driven, faith forward, solution focused HR and operations executive with an expertise in strategic planning, operations management, mergers and acquisitions, leadership development, talent acquisition and culture building.

Tracy strives to fulfill her purpose by using her business acumen, empathy and influence to continually serve our most vulnerable population and bring executives together to forge new pathways to greater quality of life for all.

About Nick Porter

Nick Porter is the President of Premier Workforce Solutions and has been serving the post-acute industry for more than ten years. After a decade of effectively leading hospitals and long-term care organizations through successful large-scale transformations in the benefits, compensation, and employee total rewards space, Mr. Porter formed Premier Workforce Solutions, LLC. Premier Workforce Solutions is an innovative HR Consulting Firm that delivers customized, affordable, integrated HR solutions specializing in the post-acute industry. 

In January 2023, Mr. Porter expanded as CEO and Co-Owner of the Executive Roundtable, LLC. The Roundtable’s mission is to expand Executive HR leadership proficiency and value-add throughout the Post-Acute Care Continuum by providing access to a national network of peers, for exploration of best practices, real-time information sharing, and vendor management.

Quint and Katherine share new insights and solutions on:

• Ways to improve well-being in the workforce and create employee flourishing
• Factors that contribute to trust building from individuals and teams to middle management and senior leadership
• The relationship between safety, communication, and trust in promoting healthy organizational cultures

Katherine and Quint will be sharing their new research and speaking in more detail on this topic at the upcoming 2024 ACHE Congress on March 26th from 9:00-10:30 am. Attendees can register for their session at https://congress.ache.org/.

The Human Margin is now available for pre-order at this link.

About Dr. Katherine Meese

With over a decade of experience in healthcare management, leadership and research, Dr. Katherine Meese is a scholar in the field of organizational behavior, leadership and well-being. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration and the Director of Research at the UAB Medicine Office of Wellness, where she oversees the evaluation of evidence-based interventions to improve the health and well-being of healthcare workers.
 
 She teaches and mentors students in UAB's many programs, including the MSHA program, which is ranked #1 in the USA by U.S. News and World Report. She has co-authored two textbooks on organizational behavior in healthcare, and over 30 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Her most recent book, The Human Margin: Building the Foundations of Trust with Quint Studer was released in early 2024. 

In their conversation, Dr. Grenache also shares valuable insights on:

• The critical role laboratory professionals play in predictive and preventative care
• The role of AI in healthcare
• And the importance of leveraging tools and insights from laboratory data to impact population health

About David G. Grenache, PhD

Dr. Grenache is the chief scientific officer for TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In that role, he leads the TriCore Research Institute which helps to innovate healthcare through cutting-edge clinical device trials, advanced central lab services, and a sample biorepository.

He is also the laboratory director of TriCore’s flagship core laboratory, the medical director of immunology and of point-of-care testing, and a clinical professor of pathology at the University of New Mexico. He is a past president of the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine, formerly known as the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. His term as president coincided with the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and, as such, he helped lead the association through a period of turbulence and uncertainty.

Dr. Grenache earned his PhD in biomedical sciences from WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts, and completed postdoctoral training in clinical chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He has published over 100 research articles, abstracts, and book chapters and is frequently invited to speak at scientific meetings.

His research interests are centered on leveraging longitudinal laboratory data to gain insights into individual and population health and the diagnostic tests used to manage the pregnant patient.

The conversation highlights the importance of trust in leadership and coordination of care in the post-pandemic world. Marty believes that when we recognize and appreciate what each team member brings to the table, we can bring our best to the patients and the community. He also emphasizes the need for a balanced scorecard approach and the measurement of outcomes to drive continuous improvement.

Marty's personal experience as a patient, resulting from a freak accident where he was hit by a car while training for an ironman race, provides a profound shift in his leadership approach. He emphasizes the significance of understanding the patient experience and the need to make meaningful changes in healthcare delivery. Marty and his team at Ardent have launched initiatives such as the "Ban the Clipboard" committee, focusing on enhancing patient interactions and streamlining administrative processes.

The conversation further explores Marty's vision for innovation and patient engagement, including attracting and engaging patients through technology advancements such as virtual nursing. Marty's passion for creating an environment where healthcare professionals feel valued and appreciated shines through, as he emphasizes the importance of the "people pillar" and showcasing the unique contributions of Ardent team members.

The podcast episode concludes with Marty's advice to aspiring healthcare leaders, emphasizing the importance of integrity, commitment to the triple aim, and resisting the temptation to cut corners. Marty's journey serves as an inspiration for leaders in the healthcare industry to prioritize patient-centered care and continuously strive for improvement.

About Marty Bonick

Marty Bonick is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ardent Health Services. Ardent is one of the largest private health systems in the U.S. with over $5 Billion in Net Revenue, encompassing 30 hospitals and more than 200 sites of care across six states. Ardent employs more than 23,000 people including over 1,200 employed providers who collectively care for over 3 million patient encounters each year. 

A veteran health care leader, Mr. Bonick brings 25 years of experience driving business growth through innovation and quality improvement across a variety of health care settings. With experience in for-profit, non-profit, public, and privately held companies, he has held senior management roles in large tertiary and academic medical centers, multi-site systems of inpatient hospital and outpatient facilities, and physician services organizations. 

Prior to his appointment as President and CEO of Ardent Health Services in 2020, Mr. Bonick served as CEO of PhyMed Healthcare Group, a national provider of anesthesia and pain management services; Division President at Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH), where he led operations for a $4.5 billion healthcare portfolio; and CEO of Jewish Hospital and Senior Vice President of Operations for Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Bonick began his health care career at Hillcrest HealthCare System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was acquired by Ardent Health Services during his tenure. 

In their conversation, Quint and Mark discuss:

• TriHealth’s definition of value-based care
• How TriHealth included physicians in the shift towards value-based care and how they’re shaping a shared vision of the organization’s future
• How TriHealth has worked to form equitable, collaborative partnerships with payers to further their mission of delivering value-based care

About Mark Clement

Mark C. Clement is the President and Chief Executive Officer of TriHealth. He joined TriHealth as President in May of 2015 and took on the larger role of President and CEO in Jan 2016. TriHealth is a $2.1B integrated healthcare delivery system, made up of 6 hospitals and over 140 ambulatory/outpatient sites of care. Named as the highest performing Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in the state of Ohio and one of the highest performing ACOs in the country by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, TriHealth cares for more than 500,000 attributed lives. As Cincinnati’s 4th-largest employer, TriHealth has 12,000 team members, more than 700 employed physicians and an independent medical staff of more than 1,800 physicians.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and jointly sponsored by CommonSpirit Health and Bethesda, Inc., TriHealth’s vision is to work together with physicians, hospitals and communities to “get health care right” by delivering better care, better health and better value while fostering physician and team member engagement. Mark also holds the position of CEO at all of TriHealth’s hospitals: Good Samaritan Hospital, Bethesda North Hospital, Bethesda Butler Hospital and McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, which all serve the Tri-State region of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. With a focus on population health and improving the health status of those it serves, TriHealth is an award winning health system frequently recognized by industry organizations such as U.S. News and World Reports, Newsweek, IBM Watson, Diversity Inc, The Joint Commission, the American Heart Association, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and many more. 

Tom Dahlborg has worked in the healthcare industry for more than 40 years in roles ranging from housekeeper to Chief Financial Officer. This background, in addition to his own experience as a patient, has allowed him to see healthcare through numerous lenses and to recognize both the goodness in the system as well as the opportunities to make things better for others. 

Tom believes that engaging heart, compassion, empathy, and love is the key to shifting the trend and improving patient experiences. From cutting back on measurement to rethinking financial incentives, listeners will walk away from the episode with actionable insights on how to refocus patient experience efforts in your organization.  

About Thomas Dahlborg

Named a Healthcare Disruptor and a Mental Health Champion by Authority Magazine and a Ruckus Maker by The PX Community, with forty years of extensive healthcare leadership experience, Tom is a voice for love centered care models, servant leadership, and quality and systems improvement.

A former healthcare CFO, VP of Strategy, Analytics Leader, Value-Based (before it was called that) Contracting Leader, and more, Tom is also an internationally recognized speaker and writer. 

Tom’s multiple award-winning book, From Heart to Head & Back Again … a journey through the healthcare system, is a call to action serving to bring people together to make a positive impact for others in healthcare and beyond and served as a 2021 AUPHA book award for healthcare leaders of tomorrow.

Tom brings practical, tangible, impactful tools married with love, compassion and caring to transform healthcare to healthCARING and to improve the health and well-being of all.

Tom believes at the end of the day it is all about Love and Impact – Love is the Force Multiplier – and sometimes you must disrupt the system for the betterment of All. 

Resources

Harley Davidson Completes Rewiring of Strategic Plan

Dahlborg HealthCARING Leadership Group

·      Article: It is disheartening to read that health systems require financial incentives to do what is right

·      Article: Love > Tactics to improve Patient Experience

Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired by Quint Studer

From Heart to Head and Back Again… A Journey Through the Healthcare System by Thomas Dahlborg

The Big Kid…And Basketball…And the Lessons He Taught His Father And Coach by Thomas Dahlborg

The Models of Care Insight Study Part II, conducted by Joslin Insight, collected 1,450+ responses from direct care nurses, nursing leadership, and healthcare executives in the acute care and ambulatory settings. The goal of the second study was to gain a better grasp of how nurses can operate at the top of their licensure while cultivating leadership qualities to enhance their contributions to their organizations. 

Key findings include:

• Retired nurses are willing to help fill the knowledge and complexity gap but most don’t want full time work and aren’t interested in direct patient care.
• Nurses rate their weakest leadership traits as change management, positivity, and delegation.
• 63% of respondents say their organization’s CNA workforce is understaffed or very understaffed. 
• 47% of respondents say CNAs are not treated with the same respect as their RN peers. 

Quint and Katie stress that there is not one solution to all of these challenges but that there are steps leaders can take to narrow the scope, reduce caregiver workloads, and improve care delivery. 

About Katie Boston-Leary

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.

Resources:

-       Podcast: How to Kill Your Own Company

-       Models of Care Insight Study Report and Data

-       Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired by Quint Studer and Dan Collard

-       ACHE Magnet Presentation by Quint Studer and Katie Boston-Leary

-       American Nurses Association

Quint and Scott discuss: 

• How Becker’s Healthcare evolved from a thought leadership platform to a trusted media source for hospitals, health systems, and leaders across healthcare
• Why access is the greatest challenge facing healthcare today
• How healthcare organizations can improve caregiver retention through training, development, and a strong focus on culture
• And what the future of Becker’s looks like

Listen to the full episode for actionable insights on how organizations and leaders can meet the challenges of the healthcare industry today.  

About Scott Becker

Scott Becker is a partner in the healthcare department at McGuireWoods.  He previously served on the Board of Partners of the firm and chaired the healthcare department for nearly 13 years.

Scott is the founder and publisher of Becker’s Hospital Review and Becker’s Healthcare. He represents hospitals and health systems, healthcare companies, surgery center chains, large practices and private equity funds.

Scott is a Harvard law graduate and certified public accountant. A full professional profile can be found here.

Kathleen shares actionable insights on:

• How to move past hostility and bring nurses together to work towards a common goal
• Why structure dictates outcomes and where healthcare needs restructuring
• And how to impact issues of access, cost, and fragmentation in healthcare

“It is my dream that nurses can walk into a culture where they are supported and nurtured and cared for.” – Kathleen Bartholomew 

About Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN 

Kathleen has been an international keynote speaker and culture expert for over 20 years educating hospital boards, physicians and nurses on leadership, culture, teamwork, and patient safety. She uses the power of story and her strong background in sociology to illuminate and transform the health care culture.  Kathleen has published numerous articles and authored “Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication”, “Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility”, and coauthored “Charting the Course”; and “The Dauntless Nurse: Communication Confidence Builder”.  Her TEDx talk challenges our covert belief that some people are more important than others. With a call to integrity, and a passion for healing, Kathleen is a visionary thought leader, Op Ed writer and blogger for My American Nurse.  

Amelia shares her learnings and key takeaways on:

• What leaders and organizations can do to help younger generations feel a greater sense of belonging
• How organizations can stand out to millennial applicants during the recruiting process
• Why passion is a driving force for employee engagement and retention
• How employees of all ages can be better teammates in a multi-generational workforce

“I’ve spoken to many different industries and it always comes down to the same thing – it’s so important for us to get to know people for more than just their age and more than just their position at your organization.”

About Amelie Karam

After studying at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Richmond University in London, and finishing her degree in Performance and Film Studies from Loyola University in New Orleans, Amelie Karam recognized that people in her Gen Y age group, known as “Millennials,” view the world differently than do previous generations. The great divide between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y piqued Amelie’s interest.

Amelie is passionate about bridging generational gaps. She speaks and consults both nationally and internationally about how organizations can better work together to attract and retain the Millennial generation to ultimately bridge generational gaps.

Through her Millennial perspective and rich research, along with her background in theatre, film, health, and wellness, Amelie brings an entertaining and informative voice to this important and highly sought-after topic of bridging generational gaps.

1.     Selection and Onboarding

2.     Supervisor Relationships

3.     Coworker Relationships

4.     Skill Building & Career Development

5.     Resources & Support

6.     Operational Efficiency

The Human Capital Ecosystem™ assessment enables organizations to identify top priority areas for further coaching and investment. This gives leaders the focus and clarity needed to narrow their scope of work, focus on the most impactful elements, and yield improved results. 

Listen to the full episode to learn more about The Human Capital Ecosystem™ and discover how Healthcare Plus Solutions Group is helping organizations to address gaps and achieve and sustain high performance. 

• How being a Vietnamese refugee impacted her life
• Why gratitude is one of her guiding principles
• The impact that entering a male-dominated industry had on her early career in healthcare
• How she has used her position at Modern Healthcare to become a guiding voice for women and people of color in leadership

“As I conclude this chapter of my career at Modern healthcare, my wish is for the future leaders to continue to encourage healthcare leaders and organizations to push for faster, more sustained efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We need to amplify the call for increased representation of women and minorities and address both conscious and unconscious biases diligently.” – Fawn Lopez

About:
Fawn Lopez is Publisher Emeritus of Modern Healthcare. Prior to her retirement on January 1, 2023, Fawn was publisher of the industry’s leading source of healthcare business and policy news, research, and information for healthcare executives since 2005.

Fawn dedicated her entire professional career to the publishing industry. Prior to joining Modern Healthcare, she held the position of National Sales Director for Crain’s Chicago Business. Before joining Crain’s Chicago Business, Fawn served as Advertising Director at the Kansas City Business Journal in Kansas City, Missouri.

Currently, Fawn actively serves as a board member of two privately held company, SourceOne Global Partners and GeoCann, where her expertise and insights contribute to their strategic direction and decision-making processes. In addition, she holds a position on the Dean’s advisory board for DePaul University-College of Communication. Fawn’s dedication to professional networks is evident through her memberships in Women of Impact: Leaders in Health and Healthcare, and The Health Alliance. She is also a fellow of The Institute of Medicine of Chicago. 

Fawn has a passion for fostering and driving diversity, equity, and inclusion, not only in her organization, but also throughout the healthcare industry. Moreover, she embraces her role as a champion and an advocate for advancing health equity for all.

About Matthew Bates
Matthew Bates is a Managing Director with Kaufman Hall and leads their physician enterprise service line. Matthew has 30+ years of healthcare experience working with physicians and C-suite leaders in the US and beyond. His expertise includes envisioning and executing transformations in healthcare around the physician enterprise, ambulatory healthcare delivery, healthcare economics and data & analytics.

Matthew is a frequent author and speaker on the topics of the US healthcare economy, the future of healthcare and the evolving physician enterprise. He is the lead author of Kaufman Hall’s Physician Flash Report and numerous other thought leadership pieces. He is also the co-author of the book, Leading Medical Group Transformation.

Prior to joining Kaufman Hall, Mr. Bates was a Managing Director at Deloitte in their Strategy and Operations practice and launched their Healthcare AI & Data Strategy offerings. Before that, he was a Managing Director at Huron Consulting and a Senior Leader with Studer Group. 

Mr. Bates holds a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Denver and a Bachelor’s in Health Care Management from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. He also serves on the curriculum committee for the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).

Matthew is married to his primary care provider with whom he is raising twins in Montana. His son is into freestyle skiing and his daughter is a rodeo barrel racer. And when Matthew finds a quiet moment to slip away, you will find him standing in a cold mountain stream fly fishing.

Contact Matthew Bates:
MBates@kaufmanhall.com
406-285-1652

In healthcare, we have a tendency to overcomplicate programs. Carlton shares that one of the things he loves about working in early brain development is the simplicity of it. 85% of a baby’s brain is being built in the first three years and words are the food it needs to develop. We have the opportunity in hospitals to provide educational resources to new mothers and fathers who happen to be the first teachers of their newborn and explain the role they play in brain development.

Tune in today to learn about the role you play in building brains and how you can offer resources within your own organization or community.

About Carlton Ulmer

Carlton has been a healthcare leader for more than 26 years across five states with a track record of creating a positive culture and a commitment to excellence always. 

In 2022, Carlton founded N-Evolve, a firm who connects people, companies and ideas to transform outcomes through innovation, mentoring and best practices.

Carlton is VP of Healthcare at CogAbility, where they build Ai-powered digital employees (also known as CogBots) to empower leading government, education, and healthcare organizations - and the people they serve. CogBots automate low-value and error-prone tasks to free up staff to focus on what matters mosts: serving human life.

And most recently in January of 2023, Carlton co-founded with Quint Studer - Build a Brain, Build a Life, Build a Community — a company that helps educate parents and caregivers about the crucial role they play in helping to develop their child’s brain and the importance of talk and interaction to fuel healthy brain development in the first three years of a child’s life.

Contact Information:
Stephanie@BuildABrainNow.com
Stephanie cell: 706-936-1579

Carlton@BuildABrainNow.com
Carlton cell: 850-387-3846

Info@BuildABrainNow.com

• 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. 
 
Learn more about April Hansen.

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 (ebook)
• Well-Being Handbook (hardcopy)

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).

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.

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. 

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.

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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.

 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 modelling compassion in their own organizations and create an environment where it is both expected and appropriate. 

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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.

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?”

From 2020 to 2023, Dr. Meese has 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.

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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. 

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. 

To learn more about Chuck Stokes and Dr. Paula Song, visit: http://www.thebusyleadershandbook.com/chuck-and-paula/

In this podcast, Quint talks with David Bartholomew, the senior vice president for learning at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). David shares insights from this year’s Leadership Congress and discusses some of the biggest trends in healthcare right now. Topics covered will include:

·      The future of healthcare as envisioned by ACHE Congress keynoters, including technology disruptions and lessons from other industries 

·      Why conferences function as safe spaces for dialogue around the very complex issues healthcare leaders face  

·      Why solutions for workforce issues and the staffing crisis will be front-and-center this year

·      Why the sense of community created by conferences like Congress is so powerful (not feeling “alone” goes a long way toward filling a leader’s cup)

·      The importance of “healing the healers”—restoring wellness among staff

·      How DEI initiatives help align purpose and potential, and are crucial to building an inclusive culture

·      Why closing healthcare’s gender equity gap is so urgent

·      Why there is such a focus on “transformational leadership” right now, and what that means for leaders on the front lines

·      Insights into “must-see” sessions at this year’s Congress, and best practices for maximizing your experience 

# # #

David Bartholomew is the senior vice president for learning at the American College of Healthcare Executives. In this role, David oversees education and publishing strategy for the organization. For 90 years, ACHE has been focused on one mission: advancing leaders and the field of healthcare leadership excellence. It is the home to more than 48,000 healthcare executives who are committed to integrity, lifelong learning, leadership and diversity, and inclusion. 

ACHE’s annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership remains the premier event dedicated to advancing healthcare leadership excellence. This year’s event is March 20-23 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. Congress provides candid perspectives from leaders within and beyond healthcare on the most critical issues, as well as opportunities to network and see and be seen by some of the most esteemed leaders in the country. You can learn more and register at congress.ache.org.

After learning from doctors that while there are many support groups for genetic alterations, there was none for his, John took action. He drew from his background as a serial entrepreneur to set up a patient-centric advocacy group for people with his particular genetic alteration. 

You'll hear about:

• John’s story from his diagnosis of stage IV metastatic cancer to his treatment to where he is today
• MET Crusaders, the advocacy group John founded that’s dedicated to helping patients with the MET alteration live normal lives 
• Biomarker Collaborative, a comprehensive body that represents all the advocacy groups, and their work connecting patients with the resources and support they need during what is likely the most traumatic point in their life       
• How others can find support and resources
• Most importantly, you’ll meet a courageous individual who is using his own serious life challenge as a springboard to help, educate, and support others.

https://biomarkercollaborative.org/

John Hallick is a serial entrepreneur of several companies, all based around data warehousing, data mining, and individualized communications management. In December 2017, John developed what he thought might be the flu. It was diagnosed as an upper respiratory infection, and he was prescribed an antibiotic. After several weeks, the symptoms didn’t go away, and he went back to the doctor’s office. The second diagnosis was bronchitis, and he was prescribed prednisone. Again, the illness never went away. In January of 2018, he flew a helicopter four hours from Madison, WI, to Louisville, KY. The drive back to Madison was eight hours. He coughed on and off the entire drive back home. The next day, he went back to the doctor, and they decided to take an X-ray. The X-ray showed he had a mass in his right lung. As a note, nine months earlier he had a normal chest X-ray.

 At the end of January 2018, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, performed a complete workup, including PET scans, CT scans, brain MRIs, bone scans, and blood work. On February 1, 2018, at age 67, John was diagnosed with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. Several weeks later, the genetic tests came back, and the cancer was determined to be driven by the MET 14 skipping alteration. 

His initial treatment was a combination of carboplatin, Alimta, and Keytruda every three weeks. John experienced all the normal side effects, including losing 65 pounds and half his hair, hearing loss, neuropathy on the bottom of his feet, no energy, and a significant loss of red blood cells. He was given two units of blood to get his red blood cells back into range. After four treatment sessions, carboplatin was removed from his treatment due to intolerability. After a total of five months of mixed results, it was decided for him to have one additional treatment and look for a clinical trial. After the last treatment, the immunotherapy started to work, and the tumors shrunk about one-third.  

 Now John had to make the decision of whether to stay on the current treatment plan or go on the trial. John decided to go on the capmatinib phase 2 clinical trial in July 2018. At first, the tumors shrank and then became stable. Targeted therapy returned his quality of life. Like all TKIs, capmatinib stayed effective for over three-and-a-half years. John trialed a MET antibody with limited success and is back on chemo and immune therapy.

The actual survey will go live January 27th, with the hope of receiving responses from every hospital in the country. This podcast overviews what has been done so far, including highlights from listening interviews that were held late last year. 

Themes discussed in the podcast include:

• Creative ways to tackle nursing staff shortages, including the role and impact of travel nurses (and how best to optimize them).
• Building workforce pipelines. Discussion includes residency and transition to practice programs, an emeritus campaign (which bring retired nurses back), and a boomerang program (aimed at re-recruiting nurses who have left).
• How to better engage the existing nursing workforce (including how to create a sense of belonging with nurses across the spectrum of credentials).  
• Stabilization of management teams (due to the industry’s huge influx of new nurse managers).
• How to close the competency gap with newer nurses. 
• Determining which practices can be scaled and how to create a collaborative approach between nursing and management for rolling them out.

The data and the ideas generated by the Models of Care Insight Study are meant to improve working conditions for nurses and care for patients. By creating better places for nurses to work, organizations can help relieve caregiver stress, elevate staff well-being, retain the best talent, and improve patient outcomes. To learn more about the Models of Care Insight Study and/or to sign up as a participant, visit https://healthcareplussg.com/models-of-care-insight-study/. 

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE STUDY

January 27: Survey launches.

March 20: Quint Studer and Katie Boston-Leary will present findings at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) 2023 Congress on Healthcare Leadership.

Creating a workplace that people want to be a part of requires a lot of things to happen at once. The leadership team has to be on the same page and be really transparent and consistent about what they are trying to do. All the employees need to feel heard and feel like they are included in the important things going on in the organization. 

In order to make that happen, Monticello created the “culture committee,” whose primary role is to create cohesion and consistency across the organization. When done right, it can really accelerate your employee engagement efforts, as it provides diverse perspectives and valuable insight into where the leadership team should focus their efforts. 

Brooke feels the number-one reason they made it on the Best Places to Work list is because they have been effective in aligning their values with the values of employees. The culture committee makes that possible. 

Brooke explains that flexibility and adaptability go both ways, and that they have put together a myriad of programs and offerings for employees to make them feel appreciated, valued, and cared for. “The idea is that if we are there for them in times of need,” she says, “they’re there for us whenever we’re in times of need.”

At Monticello, they have operationalized the word “care,” and in this podcast, Brooke will share some of the specific and really creative strategies they have used that make people feel consistently valued, supported, included, and appreciated, and the role the culture committee has played in developing these highly effective programs.

*The game referenced is called Mind The Gap. 

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Brooke Montoya is a dynamic HR Practitioner with over ten years of experience in healthcare human resources management. Having had the opportunity to lead several organizations as the head of HR she has proven success in creating cultures of collaboration and implementing change to achieve workforce excellence. Brooke possesses experience in several aspects of human resources, including recruitment and retention, employee engagement, employee relations, and performance management. She believes that building relationships, leadership development, mentorship, and coaching are key to creating healthy workplace cultures. 

Brooke holds a bachelor’s degree in human resources management as well as her PHR certification. 

Brooke passionately pursues continued learning in all areas of leadership. She is currently enrolled in the master of science in management program at Tarleton State University. Her mission is to inspire individuals and companies to be the best versions of themselves by sharing her knowledge through teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Her most recent achievement is helping to lead her Monticello team to becoming one of Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work. 

Bob and Tammy talk about how their emphasis on culture has helped them sustain these results. It created a strong foundation and the consistency to get through some rough patches over the years, most recently COVID-19. And they believe culture will carry them into the future. Here are a few of the insights they share:

·       You must have “guardians of the culture” to maintain the consistency.

·       Communicate early. Don’t make people wonder what the plan is. Make sure they have the information they need to lead their team.

·       When the message stays consistent over time, people know what the core expectations are. This is invaluable.

·       Recognizing the value of the entire team (frontline care providers and those who support them) is critical. Leaders should spend most of their time rewarding and recognizing others. 

·       Always think, What can we do differently? What can we do better? It’s important to be aware of that creative tension where you want to feel really good about where you are but also keep improving.

 # # #

Bob Page and Tammy Peterman are coauthors of Proud But Never Satisfied: Ten Transformative Actions for Healthcare Systems (Huron Consulting Services, LLC, 2021, ISBN: 978-1-62218-111-7, $30.00).

Bob Page is president and CEO of The University of Kansas Health System. Page has guided its transformation from an institution with the lowest patient satisfaction ranking in the nation to an organization consistently recognized among the best comprehensive academic medical centers in the country by the Vizient Quality and Accountability Study since 2006.

Tammy Peterman, MS, RN, FAAN, is president, Kansas City Division, and executive vice president, chief operating officer, and chief nursing officer at The University of Kansas Health System. The organization achieved Magnet status four times in a row—to date—and “Best Hospital in Kansas City and Kansas” consistently under her leadership. 

The University of Kansas Health System is a premier academic health system providing a full range of services, from routine primary care to advanced care for complex conditions. With over 1,100 staffed beds, the system includes facilities located across the Kansas City metropolitan area, as well as hospital and clinic locations in Great Bend, Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. During the past fiscal year, the health system cared for more than 355,000 unique patients, coming from every county in Kansas, 96 percent of counties in Missouri, each of the 50 states in the U.S., and nearly 30 international locations. The health system appears on many best hospital lists and is recognized for its quality and service, provided by an outstanding team of staff and physicians. For more information, visit http://www.kansashealthsystem.com/.

It’s not just a theory; it’s a philosophy, an approach, and a lens through which to see the workplace. They operationalized all their research into specific behaviors leaders can use to create these cultures of excellence, trust, and caring, and that are going to bring about the outcomes we’re all looking for. 

At the center of Human-Centered Leadership is the idea that great leaders not only hit the metrics, but they also stay balanced and healthy in the process. Once you really understand the impact your own wellness has on your team, you can create a culture where well-being is a priority for everyone.

They are big believers in the butterfly effect. If a butterfly flaps its wings in South America, the changes can resonate to cause a tornado in Texas. If every leader makes one small change—wherever you are in the world and whatever the size of your environment, whether it’s a small unit or a system—that energy emanates outward and can make a big change. So flap your wings! 

Contact information: team@uleadership.com  

Website: https://www.uleadership.com/

In this podcast, you will learn about:

• Banner’s “five-pillar” strategy that represents the different dimensions of well-being: physical, mental, intellectual, social, and financial. It all adds up to well-being for the whole person. 
• How they worked with their EAP to embed onsite and virtual counselors within their 30 hospitals across the system to help team members struggling with stress and burnout during COVID.
• Creative strategies they used to create a private, discreet experience for employees and achieve a higher utilization of services. (For example, counselors hand out business cards with QR codes people can scan to quickly and easily make appointments, and they can make appointments during work hours, without using PTO.)

Ultimately, Banner’s emphasis on well-being underscores its belief in investing in its most valuable asset: its people. Having a great well-being program helps with recruitment and retention and creates a better, more meaningful work experience…which is what today’s employees want.

In addition to being the director of well-being for Banner Health, Nicole is a national speaker on employer on-site clinics and well-being strategies. For the past ten years, Nicole has worked in community and corporate health settings, designing and implementing population health management strategies for organizations, including healthcare systems, small businesses, the U.S. military, and local government.

In her current role, Nicole is responsible for Banner Health’s system-wide well-being strategy for 55,000+ team members located in six states. Nicole recently implemented the Banner Strong Center for Healing to support the mental well-being, healing, and recovery of healthcare workers post-pandemic. Nicole has also increased Banner’s team member well-being engagement to more than 50 percent in the past two years with the introduction of a holistic well-being approach and new wellness technology.

Nicole is a graduate of the University of Southern California (BS), the University of Phoenix (MBA), and the University of South Florida (MPH). She also holds many certifications, including being certified in public health (National Board of Public Health Examiners) and a certified wellness practitioner (National Wellness Institute).

Nicole's Gratitude Group Presentation

In this podcast, special guest host Dan Collard, cofounder/partner with Quint Studer of Healthcare Plus Solutions Group, talks with Denise and Jim about why being with people at the most critical times of their lives creates a responsibility to be the best we can be. Seeking a Best Places to Work designation helps achieve that. The data is invaluable. It gets us focused on the right things, shows us what’s going well, and pinpoints areas for improvement. (Side note: Don’t wait until you’re ready to apply to start this journey.)

Denise and Jim share some of the benefits of being named to the Best Places to Work list:

·      It provides a good road map/game plan for success. It really promotes the foundational skills that make an organization run smoothly.

·      It creates a great culture that permeates every corner of your organization. (It’s not department-specific.)

·      It helps promote continuous improvement as you strive to move up the list every year. 

·      It gels your leadership team together in a really unique way as it requires a lot of collaboration.

·      It shines light on some things you might not normally look at (the demographics of the workforce, for example).

·      The skills you develop in the process help you manage the ever-changing healthcare landscape. (Jim says York’s rock-solid culture and strong team helped them navigate COVID.)

·      The designation will help you attract talent and organically retain the talent you have. It means something.

·      It gives you a great chance to see where you compare to others and helps you figure out whom you can learn from.

·      It gives you a great opportunity to celebrate, shine the light on your heroes, and focus on your strengths. It reminds you to narrate to your community how good you are!

·      It helps you see you are on the right track. The third-party validation is reassuring to patients, community, and employees.

One of the biggest benefits of this designation is the impact it has on the community. It promotes involvement and ownership. With hospitals often being the largest employer and literally the ones caring for community members, there’s a sense of obligation to make life better for everyone. We don’t just have a seat at the table, we get to help set the table—and being a Best Places to Work organization builds the trust that allows us to do so.

Contact Information:
Denise Webber
President/CEO
Stillwater Medical Center
Cell 405-880-5117

James P. Ulrich, Jr., MHA, FACHE, FHFMA
Chief Executive Officer
YORK GENERAL
(402) 362-0445 Office
(308) 340-1752 Cell
Jim.Ulrich@yorkgeneral.org

Mindy says when we talk to a patient, we need to imagine they have a snake on their head. That snake is fear. If we can’t get rid of the snake first, how will they hear anything we say? They won’t—and compliance and outcomes will suffer. She says in her research study interviewing families about their fears and how to reduce them, the findings boiled down to this: “Keep me informed, keep me safe, keep me comfortable.” She hopes shining a light on this topic will not only lead to better outcomes, it will help healthcare workers reconnect to their purpose.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- Why acknowledging and reducing fears in both patients and employees matters

- How we can train ourselves to see the “snakes” on people’s heads

-Impactful steps we can take to help reduce those fears and worries

- How to also reduce anxiety for employees (including new hires and transitions in leadership)

- Why we’re still playing catch-up after COVID-19—and how we can rebuild camaraderie, trust, and those critical networks and learning environments 

Mindy G. Spigel, RN, MSN, CPXP, is a nurse with over 40 years of experience in healthcare, working in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Mindy has taught in academic and clinical settings and has been honored to speak at numerous national, state, and local conferences.

Contact Mindy Spigel, RN, MSM, CPXP
mgspigel@gmail.com
https://mindyspigel.com 

• Mindy's New Book: There's a Snake on My Head! Strategies for Alleviating Fear and Anxiety in Healthcare For Patients, Families AND Healthcare Teams
• Beryl Institute Research
• Gratitude Symposium Presentation
 

In this podcast, special guest host Dan Collard, co-founder/partner with Quint Studer of Healthcare Plus Solutions Group, talks with Clay about the evolution of the patient experience. Linkous says we’ve moved from patient satisfaction (how happy they are) to evidence-based practices (measuring how well clinicians do the things that result in great care) to patient engagement (getting patients more invested and involved in their own care after they leave the hospital setting). 

Clay explains that we are now in the patient partnership phase, which means we not only try to affect outcomes at the bedside, but we work to change patient behaviors (diet, exercise, etc.) that are impacting their overall health. This level of compliance from patients requires a trusting relationship with providers. High levels of trust lead to better listening and more compliance, thus better outcomes. 

So how do we build this level of trust? Linkous says we start by reducing anxiety by creating more experiences that lead to positive emotions and fewer that lead to negative ones. Clay says that ChenMed has some interesting models in place for building trust. Their approach involves building on some foundational things that have worked well, infusing new learning from neuroscience around human behavior, and learning from organizations outside the industry, like Chick-Fil-A and Ritz-Carlton. 

Chen Med is also taking a closer look at the social determinants of health for their patients. By thinking more broadly than traditional medicine and looking at how housing, transportation, and other factors that happen away from the bedside impact the patient partnership, they have been able to get better outcomes.

While they are still innovating and evolving, one thing is for certain. Linkous believes that all of this requires leaders and the care team to feel (and express) a deep compassion and care for others. The old adage comes to mind: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

During his work as an ER physician, Dr. Mayer learned the basics for retaining the best people. Simply put, “please” and “thank you” matter! At the end of every shift he would personally thank every nurse, every tech, and every housekeeper. And he would ask “What could I have done to make your job easier today?” He says this practice was humbling but also enlightening. 

In this podcast he’ll share other insights he has learned from his career. For example:

• A good culture is about two things: 1) making patients happy, and 2) doing the right thing for the people who take care of the patients.
• The concept of leadership is worthless because it’s a noun; it’s something you say. Leading is a verb—we demonstrate leadership by our actions, not our words.
• Every person on the team is a leader—they lead themselves or they lead other team member
• The work of battling burnout begins from within. Every team member is a performance athlete, involved in a cycle of performance, rest and recovery, over and over and over again. This is why it’s so vital to invest in yourself and your team.
• One of Dr. Mayers’ favorite tools is the Love, Hate, Tolerate tool because it forces a lot of reflection
• How do you get a great job (like one with the NFL)? Don’t focus on resume building. Instead, build trust and relationships and your career will take care of itself.

Finally, he’ll talk about why the true key to battling burnout is not about building resilience in people, but adaptive capacity. Those who use the systems and processes have to be the ones who re-design them. That’s why Dr. Mayer is adamant that innovation doesn’t belong in the C-suite.  As Napoleon Bonaparte once said, leaders are dealers in hope. Our role is to create the trust and hope that empowers the frontline people to say “I see a way to do it better.”

Email: thommayermd@gmail.com 

Here are some of the things you will learn from this week’s podcast:

• Why a strong goal-setting process is the foundation for organizational excellence and why devoting some time to it is a good investment (MUSC does a goal-setting retreat.)
• How to make sure you are focused on the right goals
• How to pick which metrics to focus on and how to best weight goals
• How to align and cascade goals across an entire organization
• How to provide support for team members who aren’t achieving goals
• How to manage an organizational goal where you might not have direct impact
• When and how you should modify goals mid-year

Organizations and people thrive where there is clarity and prioritization. A solid goal-setting program helps us know where to focus to achieve the desired outcomes. This dynamic duo from MUSC will show you how to get everyone rowing in the same direction. 

Dr. Cory Robinson is the System Administrator for Performance, Health Solutions and Health & Wellness for the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health System and a Faculty Member at the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Health Professions. He is a member of the MUSC Health System and Charleston Division Executive Leadership Teams. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of vital administrative functions of the health system.

Cory completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at Erskine College (Due West, SC) and received both his Master of Health Administration (MHA) and Doctorate of Philosophy in Health and Rehabilitation Science (PhD) from the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC). He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Professional, Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award National Examiner.
Contact: robinsonco@musc.edu, 843-792-5412

Mary Finley is the Director of Performance and Alignment for the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), a role she assumed in September 2019. In this role, she oversees the measurement and monitoring performance for the MUSC Health System, which includes goal/ target setting and benchmarking. Finley joined MUSC in June 2009 and has held positions within HR and Analytics. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Clemson University and her Master of Health Administration from the Medical University of South Carolina. 
Contact: whitems@musc.edu, 843-792-0317

This week’s guest is Bart Kaericher, President and CEO of Aramark Healthcare+. He talks about how they shift their employees’ mindset to remind them of the bigger picture and the role they play in the healing process (e.g., “food is medicine” and “by creating a clean environment, we keep patients safe”). A few of the things you’ll learn in this podcast:

·      How Aramark employees serve as true partners with clinical staff, anticipating and solving problems before patients hit the call button

·      How the company brings its “serve, solve, strengthen” statement to life

·      How Aramark’s culture inspires and empowers employees to innovate using their heart and their common sense…

·      …and how that freedom and flexibility leads to “magic moments” and creates amazing patient experiences

·      Facetime counts: why spending so much time on the road and with frontline employees not only helps him learn but reenergizes and replenishes him

·      How to learn and harvest best practices from vendors and different industries and scale them throughout your organization

·      Creative ways Aramark leverages its “food as medicine” philosophy to create happier, healthier caregivers

About: 
Bart Kaericher is the president and CEO of Aramark’s Healthcare+ division. Before joining Aramark in 2021, Kaericher served as senior vice president of sales & marketing, retention & strategic partnerships for Morrison and Crothall, divisions of Compass Group, NAD. While at Compass, he played an instrumental role in driving new business and building a culture focused on healthy growth. Kaericher also served as sales leader & architect on several prominent account wins and led strategic retention efforts. Prior to his tenure with Compass Group, NAD, Kaericher worked for more than a decade at B. Braun Medical Inc.  

Kaericher holds an MBA in pharmaceutical & healthcare marketing from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, and a BS in business from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He has also completed Cornell University’s Executive Healthcare Leadership Certificate online program.

With stress and burnout at an all-time high, we need to be more conscious than ever about self-care. In this episode, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak shares how caring for and serving others actually replenishes us, and shares the physical and psychological benefits of helping others. We’ve always known compassion feels good to both parties. What we may not realize is there’s a wealth of data proving compassion heals both parties in profound and measurable ways. 

Dr. Trzeciak’s first book, Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference, coauthored by Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, lays out the evidence that compassion benefits patients, care providers, and organizations. Their new book, Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself, reiterates that message in light of the burnout crisis, and gives a specific prescription for building energy, resilience, and happiness by investing in caring relationships.

In this podcast, you’ll learn:

·       Why serving others is really the best medicine for yourself 
·       How to ask the right questions and show people you really care
·       How to recognize the nine (on average) opportunities for empathy each of us face every day and maximize them 
·       How to support people through tough times, even when you can’t fix everything 
·       Why ruthless leaders don’t do well and the benefits of compassionate leadership

About:
Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH is a physician scientist, Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey.  Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist (specialist in intensive care medicine), and a clinical researcher with more than 120 publications in the scientific literature.  His scientific program has been supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with Dr. Trzeciak serving as Principal Investigator.  

Dr. Trzeciak is the co-author of two books, Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, and Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself.  Broadly, Dr. Trzeciak’s mission is to raise compassion and altruism globally, through science.

Learn more about upcoming events at www.HealthcarePlusSG.com/events 
All in-person attendees at the RYTO Conference  will receive a copy of Wonder Drug.

The current staffing shortage showcases just how valuable contractor partnerships can be. We need great partners more than ever! As healthcare organizations everywhere were stretched thin during the COVID-19 pandemic, Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) leaned on their strategic partnership with Aramark to hire and onboard almost 400 people in just 30 days to staff the entrances of their hospitals.

In this podcast, Kevin Graves from Baylor Scott & White and Shannon Heard from Aramark Healthcare + share best practices for how to integrate outside contractors and build a cohesive culture across large teams. You’ll learn:

• How to build a culture of collaboration where everyone feels like they’re part of the same team, even if they come from different organizations.
• How to engage contractors in conversations that make them feel like true partners, and why this is so important.
• How to leverage your relationship with partner organizations to bring in new resources and talent when things get tough.
• Why you should be using metrics to drive your decision-making process, and how this keeps decisions from being personal or emotional.
• How the Aramark culture helps them nurture incredible long-lasting partnerships that create a win-win for both organizations. 

Kevin Graves leads hospital and clinic operations in hospitality for Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH), the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Texas and one of the top 10 not-for-profit healthcare systems in the nation. He led the development and integration of BSWH Hospitality Services, resulting in over $31 million annualized savings, standardization of operating practices, and significant improvement in patient satisfaction.

Shannon Heard is a healthcare executive who currently serves as regional vice president for Aramark Healthcare +. In partnership with Baylor Scott & White Health, Shannon has successfully led a workforce of over 3,500 team members throughout the state of Texas through the integration of hospitality services. During the merger of Baylor and Scott & White, Shannon was instrumental in bringing all related services under one umbrella of leadership, while implementing strategies to result in multi-million-dollar cost reductions and improving upon key performance metrics.

Sonia Rhodes and Dr. Renee Thompson share strategies for how to build a strong culture that creates a great experience for patients, employees, and coworkers. They say culture and employee experience will not only allow us to attract and keep the best and brightest, it will allow us to provide the best clinical outcomes, as well as achieve our financial and operational goals. 

You’ll learn:

·      How to build a culture by design, not by default

·      Why getting intentional about the kind of workplace you want is the key

·      Why a high performer who behaves badly is really a low performer

·      Why leaders might ignore bad behavior and why that’s so dangerous

·      Why naming bad behaviors is key to helping the team confront them 

·      How to create a self-regulating culture where every single colleague understands what right looks like and becomes an ambassador for how to make things better

·      How culture and experience drive all other success

·      Practical strategies for approaching employees who are having a difficult time complying with the rules

Sonia Rhodes is the founder and CEO of The Experience Lab—an incubator of ideas and an accelerator of action—bringing Experience design and cultural transformation principles to the healthcare industry. The Experience Lab partners with visionary healthcare systems and executives to imagine, design, and bring to life a new kind of healthcare Experience for team members, providers, patients, and guests and is home to The Inside Out National Experience Transformation Collaborative. Sonia is a pioneer in the realm of healthcare Experience Design, leading the way in the industry for more than 20 years. At Sharp HealthCare, a San Diego, CA-based not-for-profit health system, she was the nation’s first health system executive to lead organizational Experience transformation.

As an international speaker and consultant, Renee Thompson, DNP, RN, CSP, tackles the professional challenges facing healthcare leaders today. With 31 years of experience as a clinical nurse, nurse educator, and nurse executive, Dr. Thompson is an internationally recognized expert on creating a healthy workforce by eradicating workplace bullying and incivility. She is the CEO and founder of the Healthy Workforce Institute and works with healthcare organizations to cultivate a professional workforce. Renee is one of only 26 nurses in the world who have achieved the prestigious certified speaking professional designation, and in 2018 was recognized as one of LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Healthcare for her contribution to their global online healthcare community.

To learn more about the RYTO Conference, click HERE. 

During busy, stressful times, it’s easy to get transactional in our communication with employees, co-workers and our patients. However, hard times really require a different kind of communication, one that’s more relationship driven. It’s vital that we look inward to ensure that our words are aligned with our intentions and values, that we engage employees in ways that make them feel like partners, and that we connect with others in ways that generate meaningful answers.

In this podcast, Quint explores the subjects and more with human potential developer Terre Short (author of The Words We Choose: Your Guide to How and Why Words Matter) and service excellence expert and former Disney executive Dennis Snow (author of “Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life). 

Here are a few of their insights:

• Why you have to do more listening than talking right now
• How to ask the powerful questions that get you really connected to people
• How to make sure what you say and what you mean is aligned
• Why employees are the best people to answer your toughest questions and how to create the partnerships that elicits their input.
• How to celebrate those daily moments of getting things right and why you should
• What EVERYTHING SPEAKS really means
• How to see your organization through the lens of employees and patients
• How constantly narrating the process relieves anxiety for employees and patients

About Terre Short:

Terre Short is the CEO/owner of Short Group. She has been a coach in some capacity her entire career. Through coaching, speaking, and facilitating she has inspired countless staff, senior leaders, physicians and middle managers to connect to their why, and to harness the power of empathy and personal relationships. She excels in assessing complex situations/challenges and helping others break them down with clarity into actionable steps.

Terre has more than 30 years of leadership experience, a Masters in Business Administration/Healthcare Management, her Professional Coach Certification (PCC), and is a Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP).

Prior to returning to Short Group, Terre served in corporate healthcare roles for ten years (2010 - 2020), as a high-level executive for one of the largest health systems in the U.S. (HCA), and as a regional director for Huron/The Studer Group.

She first established Short Group in 1995 and at that time specialized in leadership development and consulting, including coaching GMs, CEOs and other leaders. Short Group followed her hospitality career that spanned many senior leadership positions within Four Seasons Hotels and later Pebble Beach Company.

Since 1995, she has spoken for a wide range of organizations, and audiences large and small. She is highly sought after for leadership development forums and spoke at the 2018 Annual Becker's Hospital Review Conference.

Terre is passionate about bringing out the potential of others through 1:1 and team coaching, and helping leaders improve results through her speaking, and consulting. Topics outlined on Short Group website.

Terre published The Words We Choose: Your Guide to How and Why Words Matter in July 2020. The book covers how to choose words that connect to values and intention. It spans the words we choose for ourselves (the voice in your head), with loved ones, at large in the world, at work, through technology (not spoken), and with a higher power.

About Dennis Snow:

Dennis Snow’s customer service abilities were honed over 20 years with the Walt Disney World Company. There, he developed his passion for service excellence

 You’ll learn: 

• Why we should include “preparedness” as a core part of our mission, along with our industry focus on “cost, quality, and outcomes”
• Why collaboration and resource sharing is so important in difficult times and how to hardwire these practices into the everyday 
• Why “just-in-time” procurement policies need to be updated to account for Black Swan-type events
• How to allocate financial resources to staying prepared in a way that makes things better, not harder

Eugene Schneller, PhD, has held faculty and research scholar positions at Duke University, Union College (New York), and Columbia University. His consulting and research focus on health care policy, best practice adoption, supply chain purchasing strategy design and governance, human resource development, and supply chain integration. He was principal investigator for the Department of Defense efforts to integrate the medical supply chains for the three services. He is co-founder of Healthcare Supply Chain eXcellence and president of Health Care Sector Advances.

The Gratitude Symposium Session 

You’ll learn:

• How to deal with feelings of failure in senior leaders who are dealing with staffing problems that are largely out of their control (and how their boards can support them through uncertain times).
• Why and how to recapture hospital leadership’s role as a leading voice in health, not just healthcare delivery. 
• Why community health should be on everyone’s radar and how hospitals can find innovative solutions to promote wellness. 
• How to keep polarization from disrupting your organization and keep everyone united around giving patients the best care possible.
• Why healthcare delivery must be at the center of your healthcare system and drive all your redesign efforts.
• Finding the bright spots and redesigning care teams and processes for the workplace of the future: Why senior leaders need to take an honest look at the changes they’ve made during the pandemic and ask themselves, Is this something we should continue moving forward? 

James E. Orlikoff is president of Orlikoff & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in health care governance and leadership, strategy, quality, patient safety, and system development.  He is the National Advisor on Governance and Leadership to the American Hospital Association and Health Forum. He was named one of the 100 most powerful people in healthcare in the inaugural list by Modern Healthcare magazine.

ORLIKOFF & ASSOCIATES, Inc.
4800 S. Chicago Beach Drive
Suite 307N
Chicago, IL  60615-2054
(773) 268-8009 phone
(773) 268-8006 fax
j.orlikoff@att.net 

Michael D. Pugh, MPH has over thirty-five years of CEO experience in hospitals, health care systems, managed care organizations, consulting, and health care technology companies. He is a frequent speaker at regional, national, and international conferences on subjects of leadership, quality, governance, and strategy. 

Michael D Pugh
President
MdP Associates, LLC
719 671-2668
mdp@mdpassociates.com
www.mdpassociates.com

Diane Rogers and Sue Murphy share strategies for leaders to engage in conversations with their teams that leave people feeling seen, heard, and cared for. Not only does this help create high-performing teams, it also helps make you more fulfilled as a leader. 

You’ll learn:

• Why basic “check-ins” and asking, “How are you doing?” doesn’t cut it anymore, and what to do instead
• How to hold up a mirror to your own magnificence as an organization and highlight what’s going right, and why this is so valuable
• How to hardwire gratitude into your everyday practices
• Why how you show up for people determines how they show up for you
• How to meet people where they are and give coaching that actually improves outcomes

Diane Rogers has a diverse background and a big heart, both of which power a simple and focused mission: to inspire individuals and organizations to harness the strengths and magnificence of people, so together they can achieve higher levels of organizational performance and individual engagement. Founder and president of Contagious Change, LLC, Diane is best known for her breakthrough programs for healthcare organizations, where she has long been a trusted coach—sought after for her ability to inspire strengths-based leadership behaviors among healthcare professionals who want to optimize performance, experience, and engagement.

Susan Murphy, RN BSM MS is currently the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Northwest Community Healthcare. Prior to her role at NCH, Sue was the Chief Experience Officer at University of Chicago Medical Center, where she led experience strategies that improved system-wide patient satisfaction scores. In the role of the CXO, Sue’s attributes include being a visionary and pragmatic leader with experience and expertise in service excellence strategies, program development, metrics, and benchmarking.  Responsible for designing and overseeing the implementation of an integrated, comprehensive strategy that transformed and drove outcomes in quality of care, service and patient experience. Serving as the role model for the mission as well as an advocate for the “voice of the patient” in all endeavors, leading with providing strategic leadership for the development of sustainable programs that foster experience excellence, empathy, and compassion, as well as, patient and family engagement. 

Watch their Gratitude Symposium presentation: "Uniting and Engaging Employees – An Artistic Masterpiece (20:15)"

 You’ll learn:
- How to use “Mission Moments” to inspire gratitude and fulfillment and fight burnout
- How to infuse purpose into role descriptions that go beyond just a list of tasks
- Why learning plans are vital to driving performance excellence
- How to break down learning and development sessions into bite-size chunks that can be absorbed virtually
- How and why to adopt a more holistic approach to goal setting

 Chris Comeaux (KO-mo) is an award-winning expert and lifelong student of leadership and the performance required to truly be a leader. He has spent his life and career researching, learning, coaching, and implementing the pushes and pulls necessary to create high-performance leaders and high-performance organizations. Chris is currently the president/CEO of Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN).

Chris Comeaux, CPA, MLAS
President/CEO Teleios Collaborative Network
ccomeaux@teleioscn.org
828-329-0175

Management By Strengths (MBS) 
Contact Nicole Webb Bodie - Nicole@QuintStuder.com  

• How to hold real conversations that establish commonalities and rapport and encourage people to open up.
• How to make one-on-one human-to-human connections with your team, and why this makes your job as a leader more fulfilling and rewarding. 
• How to ensure that your non-verbal cues (body language) are consistent with your words
• Why “How can I help” is a far more powerful phrase than “Do you need anything?” 

When we lean in, not only do we foster the kind of relationships employees crave, we’re more likely catch mental health issues before they become major problems.     

Dr. Anthony Orsini has spent the last 25 years developing proven communication techniques that help doctors build rapport and quickly form trusting relationships with their patients. Dr. Orsini is a practicing physician, author and frequent speaker on the topic of compassionate communication in medicine. He is the Level II Medical Director at one of the largest Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the world. He also serves as Chief of Patient Experience and Palliative Care Liaison for his neonatal practice.
Dr. Orsini's Gratitude Symposium Presentation

Bob Murphy is a corporate chaplain, executive coach and speaker who has presented around the world to hundreds of thousands of leaders on performance excellence, service, and many other leadership topics. He is an expert on how to become a high performing organization, department, leader and employee. Bob is a registered nurse and an attorney, currently serving as the chief of medical missions and director of international programs for GBS Institute.

Bob Murphy's Gratitude Symposium Presentation

Dr. Kaplan is the Medical Director of Care Transformation and Director of the Be Well Center for LCMC Health in New Orleans, LA. He is the Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, at LSU Health Sciences Center, and an attending physician and academic faculty for the Emergency Medicine Residency at University Medical Center New Orleans. 

Dr. Kaplan is a past President of the American College of Emergency Physicians and current national faculty for ACEP, as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. 

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kaplan was recently named the 2021 John G. Wiegenstein Leadership award winner; this is the highest award of the American College of Emergency Physicians and it is given for outstanding contributions to the College. 

Dr. Kaplan continues to practice clinically because he loves the clinical practice of medicine, and caring for patients helps him remain close to the patients’, the hospital staff’s, and the physicians’ current experience.

Dr. Kaplan discusses how the healthcare workplace has changed and the frontline needs new assurances from their leaders. During the podcast, you will learn specific tactics to help empower staff and medical staff to connect back to themselves, their patients, and their colleagues. Dr. Kaplan also gives a preview to his session at the Replenishing Yourself, Your Team and Your Organization conference taking place Feb. 22 and 23. 

Contact Jay Kaplan, MD, FACEP
jaykaplanmd@gmail.com
Cell: 415-686-8291
www.JayKaplanMD.com

Resources: 

• Read Dr. Kaplan’s full bio HERE
• Dr. Kaplan’s Gratitude Symposium Presentation
• Conference: Replenishing Yourself, Your Team and Your Organization (RYTO) Feb. 22 and 23

Quint sits in the guest seat as he looks back and shares what he has learned over the last 5 years.

From early brain research and development to the start of covid and where we are at today. Learn more about overall well-being and why it’s more important now than ever. Quint shares what he has learned with co-worker and supervisor relationships, selection and onboarding, training and development and more. 

Resources can be found at www.thegratitudegroup.com.

As a special edition episode, watch the interview HERE. 

Dr. Keckley is Managing Editor of The Keckley Report and Managing Partner of The Keckley Group which provides market research, advisory, and policy analysis services to health systems, health insurers, technology companies, and investors.

He is widely considered an industry thought leader on healthcare industry trends and regulatory policy and served as a facilitator between the White House Office of Health Reform and major industry trade groups in developing the Affordable Care Act.

Nathan Kaufman is Managing Director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors. With over 40 years of experience as a strategist, executive, and negotiator, Nate is considered one of the nation’s most experienced industry experts. He is a strategic advisor to healthcare executives, boards, physician groups, and other healthcare companies. He is known for his practical advice focusing on succeeding in the new post-ACA, MACRA, value-based- risk environment. In addition, he is a seasoned negotiator and has successfully completed hundreds of transactions. 

Resources:
Watch Dr. Paul Keckley's Gratitude Symposium Presentation
Watch Nate Kaufman's Gratitude Symposium Presentation  

Contact:
Paul Keckley, PhD
Managing Editor, Managing Partner
The Keckley Report and The Keckley Group

Nate Kaufman M.S.
Managing Director & Founder
Kaufman Strategic Advisors, LLC

Colby B. Jubenville, Ph.D. is an accomplished international speaker, author, educator, and coach. Currently the Director of Middle Tennessee State University’s CBHS Center for Student Coaching and Success, he is a member of the Honors College faculty and holds an academic appointment as Special Assistant to the Dean for Student Success and Strategic Partnerships in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences.

During the podcast Colby and Lyn share how the pandemic is providing an opportunity for leaders and organizations to relook at what skills are needed in today’s environment. They discuss how being able to find solutions that are fast, meaningful, and articulate a vision of the future of healthcare that are differentiators. Throughout this podcast, learn how to adopt and refine best practices and understand what skills leaders need to be able to manage rapid change; as well as ways to use innovation to find the best solutions. You will also learn 4 questions that create meaningful relationships that build trust and how focusing on the best cast scenario can lead to success.

 Resources: 

www.TheGratitudeGroup.com

Lyn Ketelsen’s presentation

Colby Jubenville’s presentation

About Lyn Ketelsen

About Colby Jubenville

During the podcast, Ken shares the findings from their Malcomb Baldrige Award Recipient CEOs’ research study. He also discusses why “Revolving Doors” exist in key leadership positions and why it matters. Throughout the podcast Ken reveals how to make accurate hiring decisions and the importance of setting up a system and process to hire super stars the first time. Listen in to learn the 3 questions that Ken has asked thousands of people during his research study. Now here is your host Quint Studer and Kenneth Cohen.

About Kenneth R. Cohen, PhD
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
The Synergy Organization
http://www.synergyorg.com/
ken@synergyorg.com
1-866-HIRE-123

Kenneth Cohen, PhD is the Founder & CEO of The Synergy Organization.  Over the last 32 years, his firm has distinguished itself as the country’s first Evidence-Based Executive Search® and Executive Assessments firm with Evidence-Based Best Practices, including Psychological Testing and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program standards.  They are recognized for helping progressive healthcare organizations make more accurate and cost-effective decisions in their Executive Search, Executive Selection, and Succession Planning practices, the first time.  Dr. Cohen integrated his special expertise and experiences as a Psychologist along with the proprietary Synergy Screening System®, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program standards, and the findings from Synergy’s Leadership Best Practices research studies.  These stop the dangerous “Revolving Door” phenomenon while simplifying the challenging and costly task of hiring extraordinary senior executives and staff.  His exciting pioneering research study with Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient CEOs yielded powerful Predictive Analytics that help organizations better define and measure their unique leadership needs, and then identify which individuals are most likely to achieve extraordinary results. 

Dr. Cohen is proud to serve as the Founding Sponsor of the Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award in close collaboration with the Baldrige Foundation.   He serves as a Board Member for the Mid-Atlantic Alliance for Performance Excellence (MAAPE), the regional Baldrige program serving PA, NJ, DE and parts of MD.  Over the last 32 years, he has published and presented extensively to national, state and regional healthcare organizations including ACHE Congress, American Hospital Association, ASHHRA, Baldrige Quest, and HFMA.  He earned his Masters and PhD as a Psychologist at Temple University.

Katie challenges organizations to re-look at how they can bring well-being into the workspace where nurses spend most of their time. Katie shares recent research from 9,500 respondents where nurses rated their overall emotional health an average score of 3 out of 10. Throughout the podcast, Katie provides recommendations for building a culture where well-being is a top focus as well as free resources for you and your organization. 

Research: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/hunter.j.joslin/viz/COVID-19SurveySeries3/COVID-19SurveySeries3?publish=yes

Suicide Rates: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-10-25/nurses-have-suicidal-thoughts-more-often-than-other-workers-study

Resources:
Nurse Suicide Prevention and Well-being Initiative: www.NursingWorld.org
Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation: www.HNHN.org

Contact Information:
Katie Boston-Leary, PhD, MBA, MHA, RN, NEA-BC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiebostonleary/
Director of Nursing Programs
Nursing Practice & Work Environment 
Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation

During the podcast, learn how sharing your expertise and experience can lowering the anxiety of those you serve. Justin shares how remote learning during the pandemic helped break down silos and the importance of communicating with humility. Justin shares one of his biggest challenges around compassion fatigue and how doing early interventions and providing well-being resources continues to make an impact. 

ABOUT JUSTIN REED:

Justin Reed is currently the Assistant Chief – EMS for Cy-Fair Fire Department. As the overall EMS Director, he is responsible for all activities involving the 140 full-time paid staff, 13 ambulances who respond to approximately 40,000 calls annually, covering a population of 640,000. Justin has over 15 years of progressively responsible experience delivering the highest quality of leadership, patient care, and customer service.

Justin Reed is currently attending University of Pennsylvania’s Master’s of Health Care Innovation and is an honors graduate of Western Carolina University Emergency Medical Care program. He was recently recognized by the American Ambulance Association Top 40 Under 40 and is a Fellow of the American College of Paramedic Executives, 2020.

Justin has volunteered with numerous organizations including a non-profit organization, MyLifeSpeaks, in Haiti providing prehospital care, education, and equipment. He serves in numerous committees including the National Association of EMS Managers, where he is the immediate former Chair of the Quality and Performance Improvement Committee. As a thought leader, Justin holds various certifications and has taught both domestically and internationally with a strong passion for behavioral economics, change management, and prehospital care in Haiti.

Justin Reed, NRP, FACPE
Assistant Chief – EMS
Cy-Fair Fire Department
Justin.Reed@cyfairfd.org

Throughout this podcast, Dr. Beeson shares how they help clinicians, teams and leaders build new skills that help them experience more of those restorative moments of patient connectivity, team collaboration and leadership effectiveness. These are the moments that help people sore, and they can happen throughout an organization. 

Learn how creating a sense of belonging may be the greatest burnout counter method there is and how providing people the skills to allow “team” to manifest, so much so that people wake up Monday morning excited to go to work and hang out with their tribe. This podcast will give you a greater understanding that we have dominion over the things that drive the human experience and how adjusting one’s is mindset and leadership approach are elements. 

About Dr. Stephen Beeson 

stephen@practicingexcellence.com  

Dr. Stephen Beeson is a nationally recognized author, physician, and speaker. 

A board-certified family medicine physician, Dr. Beeson practiced with the Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group in San Diego County for 18 years. During his tenure with the medical group, Dr. Beeson was selected by Sharp HealthCare leadership to serve as the Physician Director for the Experience,” an organizational commitment tooperationalize service excellence. Dr. Beeson’s patients ranked him in the 99th percentile nationwide, and the San Diego County Medical Society voted Dr. Beeson as one of San Diego’s best physicians for eight consecutive years. During this time, the medical group improved their patient satisfaction from the bottom to the top decile, won three AMGA Acclaim Honoree awards for clinical performance, and with Sharp Healthcare was the recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige Award.

Dr. Beeson’s first book, “Practicing Excellence A Physician’s Manual to Exceptional Health Care,” became a national bestseller that articulates a prescriptive “how-to” approach to improve physician performance to drive organizational success. In 2009, he released his second book, “Engaging Physicians: A Manual to Physician Partnership.” This critically acclaimed book takes system leaders on a staged journey to physician enrollment in organizational change efforts.

Most recently, Dr. Beeson founded Practicing Excellence, which builds skills to drive outcomes in well-being, patient experience, and leadership effectiveness. Built for busy clinicians, their micro-learning approach delivers short, evidence-derived, video-based coaching to clinicians, leaders, and teams through a mobile app. They partner with some of the nations’ largest health systems and medical groups to deliver coordinated skill-building programs that provide measurable results. Learn more at www.practicingexcellence.com. 

Resources: 

www.thegratitudegroup.com/

Gratitude Symposium talk by Dr. Stephen Beeson - Finding Gratitude When Life is Hard

The frontline care teams have been through one of the most challenging times in healthcare ever. Exacerbation of burnout, thoughts of retiring early, anxiety, depression, and PTSD have come into our beautiful healing profession.

In this session, we spend a few moments on the personal impact of what healt

The DAISY Foundation was created to express gratitude to nurses by the Barnes Family in their son Patrick’s memory. 

Bonnie and Mark share the power of recognition and how compassionate care impacts the patient and the family. Hear stories about the little things that make the biggest difference and the how the role of a nurse has evolved during Covid. 

References:

The DAISY Foundation 

About the DAISY Award

Shining the Light on All the Right - The Story of The DAISY Foundation

The Gratitude Group - see presentations from The Gratitude Symposium that took place in May, 2021.

Research:

Hospital Visitation Restrictions Are Hurting Patients and Nurses — New protocols and COVID mitigation techniques can enable safe visitation by Karen Cox, PhD, RN, and Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH - September 2, 2021

Beryl Institute Consumer Perspectives on Patient Experience 2021 

Melody Dickerson is the Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Virginia Hospital Center Health System, a 437-bed, not-for-profit Magnet teaching facility in the Washington DC metro area. A nurse leader for more than 25 years, Melody is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and is the President of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Virginia Nurses Association.

Melody leads the clinical and quality initiatives that advance high-value healthcare for the health system. Melody has played a critical role throughout the pandemic as the voice of the health system to the surrounding community, serving as one of the Hospital’s primary spokespeople for the region’s first drive-through COVID testing facility. Melody also led the Hospital’s effort to become a Level II Trauma Center earlier this year, filling a critical need in the community. 

Grace Greenan, MA, LPC, Associate Vice President for People and Experience - Talent Management & Patient Experience, Virginia Hospital Center
ggreenan@virginiahospitalcenter.com 

Grace Greenan, MA, LPC has been a counselor for 18 years and a counselor educator for the past 5 years. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts and her MA in Professional Counseling from Liberty University. Grace currently works as an Associate Vice President for People and Experience at Virginia Hospital Center and maintains a private counseling practice. For her Ph.D. work in Counselor Education and Supervision with a focus on Organizational Development, Grace’s research has included a deep analysis of the supervisory relationship dynamic to determine if supervisor realism and genuineness predict an increase in staff willingness to report errors. Grace is passionate about positive psychology, employee and patient engagement, and leadership development. She is a member of the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. She is also a graduate of the Arlington Leadership Center for Excellence program.

Mike is the founder and president of Harbour Resources, a leadership consulting, training, and talent management firm. During the podcast he shares 4 ways individuals can create a path of upward mobility in their life and leadership to experience more peace, more success, and more abundance in their life, business, and leadership of others. 

Dr. Brian Haas is hospitalist, and physician leader and coach who explores how life stressors can deplete your emotional intelligence reserves and how this can negatively impact, your patients, your family, your friends and lead to burnout and dissatisfaction with your career. During the podcast Brian provides strategies to create an environment and culture to maximize the human potential.

Take a listen to learn valuable resources to help your mindset and replenish your emotional intelligence.

Resources:

• Mike Harbour
• The Gratitude Symposium Presentation - How To Use Gratitude to Raise your Altitude (47:03)
• Tool - Action Guide

• Brian Haas
• The Gratitude Symposium Presentation - Your Emotional Intelligence fuel tank and how it is being depleted without you even knowing it. (37:47)
• Blog Post - “What We Can Learn From Ted Lasso” 

Books Referenced: 

• The Calling: Why Healthcare is So Special, by Quint Studer
• The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge 

Lisa and Adrian join the podcast to share how creating a culture of empathy can lead to better organizations. 

Lisa offers wisdom, insights and practical tools to attend to our spirit through “BUILD,” an acronym inspired by Lisa’s life experience of loss.  She shares how to release fear, embrace love, value intuition and connect to each other as we explore aspects of leadership by leading ourselves first.  

Adrian shares what you can do for yourself to help with your own anxiety and how to help those you lead. In addition, he shares his extensive research on why employees leave their job and how an employee’s resignation involves their relationship with their supervisor. 

In this podcast learn how you can maximize your own potential and those you lead.

Resources:

Lisa DeLong: 

Miracles Manifest Through People: The healing power of spiritual exploration for healthcare professionals. (30:42) The Gratitude Symposium

BUILD 

Adrian Gostick:

The Anxiety Solution: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done (38:23) - The Gratitude Symposium

Forbes Article: “4 Ways To Beat The Great Resignation”

View Gratitude Symposium Presentations HERE

• Presentation from The Gratitude Symposium: 

"Caring From The Heart" - Don Dean
"Outstanding Leadership is a Choice" - Linda Deering Dean

• Book referenced: Compassionomics| Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli 

Kris explains how having a great patient experience starts with having a great culture; having a great culture retains talent. She says that the best way to build a great culture within your organization is by having an unrelenting focus on people as individuals. Healthcare organizations tend to spend more time recruiting new people rather than retaining the talent they already have. Kris empathizes that when we get to know our people better and listen to their stories, we then know how to coach and lead them better. Stories connect us back to our purpose.

Unlike Kris, Jeff never intended to get into the healthcare industry. It wasn’t until his daughter Madison was born that Jeff saw first-hand the difference that healthcare workers make each day. Going to doctor’s offices and hospitals regularly with his daughter, Jeff saw the impact that Madison’s story made on those who listened. He soon discovered the power of storytelling. Jeff explains how we must focus on the importance of telling stories because hearing and understanding the story of a patient can make all the difference in their care.

The is a must-listen for healthcare leaders, providers, workers, or anyone looking to connect back to their calling.

Dr. Mehta started her journey in healthcare leadership about 10 years ago when she was a hospitalist and part of a 20-physician team. While on this team, her Medical Director unblinded each physician’s patient experience scores. Dr. Mehta shares how these scores became the catalyst for her building the best practices for herself and her team to improve patient experience while becoming the only minority leader in her organization. 

Dr. Mehta set out to develop techniques designed to make improving patient experience and healing burnout among healthcare workers real and achievable. She shares some of her valuable tools such as the 6H Framework, which is designed to connect patients with their clinical teams; R.I.S.E., a technique to address healthcare burnout amongst your team; and R.E.A.L., a tool to connect with patients virtually. If you are looking to reinvest in yourself and your team this is the episode for you!

Connect:

Swati Mehta, MD, FACP , CPXP
Director of Quality & Performance
Patient Experience- Vituity
Chair- S.H.M Patient Experience Executive Council
Executive board member- S.H.M Bay Area Chapter
Mobile: 510.410.1991
www.vituity.com
Swati.Mehta@vituity.com

Tools and Resources: 

1. 6H Model for Human Connection ( S.H.M The Hospitalist August 2020)  
2. 6H model to connect with your team 
3. R.I.S.E  from Burn out like a phoenix! 
4. COVID patient experience  

The Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) is a group of educational, professional, and other health sector organizations dedicated to improving the education around healthcare management and administration professionals. Put in simpler terms by Anthony, CAHME reviews the criteria and standards of programs that are educating future healthcare leaders to ensure they are meeting these said standards. He dives into the specific of these standards and what it means to be an accredited program by CAHME. 

Together, both Dan and Anthony discuss how their organizations coped during the pandemic and what the future has in store for their members. Whether you are a student, educator, leader, or individual in healthcare, this is an episode you will want to listen to. 

Bert served two years as an artillery officer in the United States Army and served one tour with the 5thBattalion, 2nd Artillery in South Vietnam.

Upon separation from the service, he worked as a systems analyst and salesman in NCR’s IT Division, and in 1971, Bert joined Waffle House as a manager trainee.  Four years later, he became a Vice President.  In 1994, he was elected to the Board of Directors. For over 40 years, Bert worked with both Company and Franchise Operations in Waffle House and in 2004 was named President and Chief Operations Officer of Waffle House, Inc. Today, he is the retired Vice Chairman Emeritus of Waffle House.

Bert is also very active at Georgia Tech, serving from 1996-2000 as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Trustees. In 1999 he chaired Tech’s highly successful $7.8 million dollar annual giving “Roll Call” initiative, and was named President of the Alumni Association in 2001 and 2002. He has been a member of the Georgia Tech Foundation Board of Trustees since 2001 where he has served on the Finance, Development and Stewardship Committees. In 2016 Bert received the Joseph Mayo Pettit Alumni Distinguished Service Award, the highest award conferred by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

Bert is a member of the board of directors of The Studer Community Institute in Pensacola, Florida and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of West Florida, College of Business- Center for Entrepreneurship.

Bert also has an Advisory Board role with The Museum School of Avondale Estates, a charter public elementary-middle school in DeKalb County, Georgia. He is a former trustee of the school and was honorary chair for The Museum School’s successful 5 million dollar expansion capital campaign.

He is the recent author of the book Find an Old Gorilla, a handbook for the development of emerging leaders.

Bert lives in Perdido Key, Florida with his wife, Kathy, who devotes her time to several “not for profit” organizations. Kathy and Bert have three daughters: Aspen, Chaice, and Mayson. All three girls are very successful graduates of Georgia Tech and members of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

As a life-long learner, Brian has earned two clinical degrees and an MBA; while also reading and studying hundreds of books and articles on personal growth, leadership and spirituality; attending numerous workshops, retreats and certification courses led by experts in their fields; and continuing to practice and integrate these experiences into real life.

At a point on this journey, while immersed in seeking a more effective and integrated approach to leadership service, the full developmental progression of our growth as a leader began to “emerge” to Brian… who then organized these findings into a unique and practical framework that others can use to develop their own expression of leadership mastery. The AQ Model of leadership development is detailed in his book, The Leadership Revolution: Because Evolution Takes Too Long. While the fundamentals of our AQ (Awareness Quotient) are illuminated in his groundbreaking book, Our AQ (Awareness Quotient): The Missing Link to Extraordinary Leadership and Life.

As an active Leader in today’s complex healthcare environment, Brian understands the real challenges and the amazing opportunities that these complexities present to us, and he is here to share his visionary yet practical approach to taking our leadership service to the highest levels.

 https://awarenessquotientleadership.com 

Her session is entitled “Stressed! Who me? Selfcare for the Selfless .” All you have to do is register to view the material, and you can watch the videos on your schedule. Information on how to register can be found at www.thegratitudesymposium.com/. 

To make it easy to register your entire workforce or student body, please contact Nicole Webb Bodie at Nicole@QuintStuder.com or 850-748-2027.  

Stressed! Who me? Selfcare for the Selfless
In this important and timely presentation, Liz will focus on the importance of self-care as a critical and necessary survival skill for all of us deemed “essential workers.” As practiced and skilled that we are in helping others, often we are not so great at helping ourselves. In fact often just the term selfcare brings up feelings of discomfort and guilt. All participants will benefit from tactics and techniques shared in order to recognize stress in its early stages, implement both emotional and physical selfcare strategies and most importantly keep ourselves from sliding into negative self-destructive habits. She concludes with a straightforward approach to the importance of our collaboration with others in fostering a healthy work environment by focusing on our strengths as individuals as well as the abilities of our teams

Objectives - Discover the importance of selfcare as a necessary practice. - Acquire strategies in managing stress. - Discuss the impact of replacing guilt with pride.

In this episode, Jason shares with Quint the latest research from the Institute around understanding the human experience in healthcare. He reveals which ideas gained strength during the pandemic, as well as upcoming trends, including the growing acknowledgment of patients as consumers, a bigger spotlight on the healthcare workforce, healthcare inequities and disparities, the importance of communities, and how all these things impact the human experience in healthcare. 

In May, Jason will be presenting at The Gratitude Symposium, a free month-long series of online presentations from 45 well-known experts meant to thank, teach, and inspire those in healthcare. 

His session is entitled “To Care Is Human: Elevating the Human Experience in Healthcare and Beyond.” All you have to do is register to view the material, and you can watch the videos on your schedule. Information on how to register can be found at www.thegratitudesymposium.com/. 

To make it easy to register your entire workforce or student body, please contact Nicole Webb Bodie at Nicole@QuintStuder.com or 850-748-2027.  

To Care Is Human: Elevating the Human Experience in Healthcare and Beyond 

In this talk, Jason Wolf discusses how healthcare at its heart is built on a simple premise: We are human beings caring for human beings. This idea is grounded in the reality that both those who seek care and those who provide it agree that what matters most is the relationships they build through listening and communicating clearly, teamwork, and respect. The evidence shows that with a commitment to caring and to the human experience provided in every healthcare encounter, healthcare organizations can and will achieve the quality and financial results desired and the loyalty they seek. In the end, the humanity on which healthcare is built may be its greatest key to success.

Resources:
Consumer Perspectives on Patient Experience 2021
This report is a follow-up to The Beryl Institute’s 2018 study, Consumer Perspectives on Patient Experience 2021 reveals the qualities healthcare consumers look for in a healthcare experience remains much the same, even during a global pandemic. The data also provides a clear call to action. In order for healthcare providers to remain viable and competitive long-term, they must reinforce their efforts to deliver an exceptional experience and focus on being genuinely patient/consumer-centered.

Susan realizes that it’s the moments that matter. In one of her latest tools, Split-Second Kindness—Making a Difference When Time Is Limited, she offers up ideas that make a big difference, but don’t take a lot of time. She is known for providing practical, relevant content in a dynamic and enthusiastic manner and is on a mission to harvest and share best practices. She not only shares great ideas but also some of her best tools for creating a culture brimming with satisfaction. 

In May, Susan will be presenting at the Gratitude Symposium, a free month-long series of online presentations from 45 well-known experts meant to thank, teach, and inspire those in healthcare. 

Her session is entitled “How to Use the Four Habits to Create Memorable Experiences.” All you have to do is register to view the material, and you can watch the videos on your schedule. Information on how to register can be found at www.thegratitudesymposium.com.

To make it easy to register your entire workforce or student body, please contact Nicole Webb Bodie at Nicole@QuintStuder.com or 850-748-2027. 

Books Referenced: 

• Split-Second Kindness—Making a Difference When Time Is Limited by Susan Kean Baker
• You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
• Getting Things Done By David Allen

Tools:

• Quarterly Goals Template
• Visit https://www.susanbaker.com for additional tools

In his first book, he talks about the experience of watching his son being bullied (mostly by adults) to the point where he tried to take his own life. In the Big Kid in Basketball…and The Lessons He Taught His Father and Coach, he talks about what parents and coaches should know about bullying, kids in trouble and how these adverse childhood experiences affect us as adults. 

In his second book, From Heart to Head & Back Again … a journey through the healthcare system, he takes us through his experiences as both a patient who was told he would never work again and get in line for a heart transplant ... and as a health leader with a mission to fix the brokenness of healthcare system. 

With more than 35 years in healthcare leadership, Tom brings a very unique perspective and is able to share stories and reflections that not only inspire us, but they show us what real caring looks like in action. His real gift is connecting the head to the heart. Tom says that by bringing “love in action” in all we do, we not only deliver better patient care, but it also keeps our flames of goodness burning bright as healthcare workers and leaders.

In May, Tom will be presenting at The Gratitude Symposium, a free month-long series of online presentations from 43 well-known experts meant to thank, teach, and inspire those in healthcare.  

His session is entitled “Gratitude in Action…a Foundation for HealthCARING.” All you have to do is register to view the material, and you can watch the videos on your schedule. Information on how to register can be found at www.thegratitudesymposium.com/. 

To make it easy to register your entire workforce or student body, please contact Nicole Webb Bodie at Nicole@QuintStuder.com or 850-748-2027.

Resources:
https://tbkid.org
https://www.health-caring.org
Tom Dahlborg Cell - 207-747-9663

This week Quint hosts Tony Brigmon, the former “ambassador of fun” at Southwest Airlines. Tony worked closely with Herb Kelleher, former Southwest CEO, to create a legendary business culture that totally disrupted the airline industry. 

Tony describes how Herb’s uncanny ability to connect with and engage employees created a culture that led to outrageously great customer service, legendary productivity, and profitability. 

Love, gratitude, and the Golden Rule were the foundation for all business interactions. Basics like hire for attitude, train for skill; put employees first, customers second; allow people to be themselves; and leave your ego at the door created one of the most engaged workforces and sustainable cultures in modern-day business history. Join Tony and Quint to get the inside scoop on how Southwest did it.

In this podcast, he explains how to find and really leverage a great mentor and how to tap into the multiplier effect of a mastermind group, which are incredible ways to greatly accelerate performance. He believes when you find a group where you are loved and cared for, it’s a huge performance driver. In fact, he believes that loving and connecting with people is the heart and soul of all high-performing organizations. He admits he regularly tells his patients and his employees he loves them and seeks to get to know them on a personal level, both of which traditionally have been taboo in business. This podcast is full of great ideas and tactics for improving performance and creating powerful connections with others, two things he feels are inextricably intertwined.

About:
Dr. Marcus Chacos is a chiropractor with twenty-four years of clinical experience specialising in family wellness care and arthritic conditions. He is the bestselling author of The Arthritis Solution as well as two other books.

Dr. Chacos has presented on chiropractic philosophy at events like The Philosophy Symposium and The Remarkable Practice Immersion events. He is passionate about chiropractic philosophy and guarding Our Sacred Trust The author of the 40 Tests of The Philosophical Chiropractor Dr. Chacos serves the mission of chiropractic with passion.

Dr. Chacos founded Chiropractic Education Online, a non-profit organisation designed to raise funds through chiropractic education for chiropractic institutions dedicated and committed to serving vitalist chiropractic. Dr. Chacos has hosted the Neuroscience of Chiropractic and Family Wellness Super-Conference events bringing together the leading chiropractors in the field to raise funds and education opportunities for the chiropractic profession. 

Dr. Chacos speaks internationally and has appeared on health summits with his keynote on The Total Healing Blueprint as well as business summits such as the Marketing and Practice Growth Summit with Brandy Kinnear and Dr Krista Burns Practice Growth Challenge.

Dr. Chacos is also the founder of Chiro Author Mastery that teaches chiropractors how to write, publish and promote a bestselling book to help them grow their practice, establish their authority and deliver profound and life changing care.

Sheridan talks about the role of culture in keeping people engaged, particularly during stressful times. One major, but often overlooked, component of a positive company culture is having fun in the workplace. Research shows that companies that make fun a part of their culture have much lower burnout rates and less turnover. Sheridan shares great examples of companies that have made fun a measurable part of their culture. Quint and Sheridan share real-life stories where “fun” not only made the employees happy, but it became part of the company’s brand with customers. You’ll not only get solid research on the benefits of fun but also some great ideas for making fun part of your business plan.

Resources: 

• https://kevinsheridanllc.com
• Blog Post - The Importance of Adaptability In Your Next Hire
• Kevin Sheridan's Books
• Peter Drucker, The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done

On this week’s podcast, Griffin shares with Quint how he achieved this unprecedented growth. He talks about how having a mentor (Bert Thornton, former Waffle House CEO) and how being part of a business roundtable (other company owners who meet regularly) changed his life. His mentor and the other business owners talked openly about their mistakes, from which he learned so much. They also encouraged him to seek out training on all the things he didn’t know. This led to a major revelation and a pivot in the services the company offered. Griffin and his family successfully built a business  and created a solid brand that differentiated them from competitors.

He talks about the role great employees played in their success and how they implemented a hiring and onboarding process that is the gold standard in finding and keeping the best talent. He also shares how he transitioned from working “in” the business to working “on” the business (book referenced E-Myth Revisited) and all the valuable lessons he learned along the way.

About Harold Griffin, Jr.

Harold Griffin Jr, was born and raised in Pensacola, FL. In 2009, Harold graduated from Tate High School. After graduating, Harold moved to Tallahassee, FL to attend Florida A&M’s School of Business. While in college Harold worked full-time and went to school full-time year-round. In the Fall of 2013, Harold graduated with honors from Florida A&M with a Bachelors in Accounting and a Minor in Business. After graduating Harold turned down a promotion at First Commerce Credit Union and returned home to Pensacola to be with his son Cayden and his family. Once back in Pensacola, Harold applied and was hired by Navy Federal Credit Union. In September of 2015 Harold resigned from Navy Federal to build & grow his family’s transportation company with his father (Harold Griffin Sr.) and his brother (Braxton Griffin). In the first year they doubled the size of the company and became more profitable. In year 2 the company exceeded the $1 million mark in revenue.

Harold, is the Director of Business Development and Co-Owner of ITL Solutions. Over the past 2 years Harold and his brother Braxton Griffin grew ITL Solutions from 5 employees to now employing over 75 people. During this time, Harold has successfully managed and negotiated contracts & projects for ITL totaling over $15 million.  ITL Solutions is a transportation management companies that manages, coordinates and provides non-emergency transportation services for both private and public entities.

From all his work inside hospitals, Joe could see that COVID was pushing them to the brink. Depression and anxiety were rampant. He started to think about what he could do to help, as he could see they were struggling. Joe’s latest initiative, Everyday Courage for Extraordinary Times, provides some answers. 

The program consists of videos, e-books, and supplemental materials designed to help employees navigate today’s challenging world. It features 21 videos (11 minutes each), which are short conversations on courage and perseverance. The videos show people that they are doing extraordinary things and encourage them to keep pushing forward. Video and e-book themes include:

• How to manage anxiety, fear, and worry, which are three different emotional states
• The difference between fear and courage
• How to confront irrational fears and choose emotional battles wisely
• How to reprogram negative self-talk
• How to leave behind negative emotional baggage
• Staying on top when the world is upside down

Joe Tye is the leading authority on values-based leadership skills cultural transformation. He is the author or coauthor of 15 books, including his newest release, Building a Culture of Ownership in Healthcare.

Resources:

  “Everyday Courage for Extraordinary Times” Nursing Management, January 2021

Everyday Courage for Extraordinary Times program flyer 

This week’s podcast features an interview with Regina (“Regi”) Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. (She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School.)  She initiated the courses in healthcare at HBS and was the first faculty member to be selected by the students as their best instructor. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious ACHE Honorary Fellowship, which represents the leaders of America’s hospitals, and was one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare—World Edition by Grupo Midia. 

Her new book, Innovating in Healthcare (Wiley, May 2021), focuses on how the healthcare industry (from hospitals to start-ups) can better implement new solutions that lower costs while increasing quality and access. 

(The first 100 people to email Quint will receive a copy of the book. Email Quint@QuintStuder.com.)

As one of the world's leading authorities on healthcare innovation, Dr. Herzlinger explains how innovation is the key to solving our biggest problems. Healthcare accounted for 18 percent of the 2017 GDP and will likely reach nearly 20 percent by 2025, while hospital-induced deaths have skyrocketed, and tens of millions of people remain uninsured. She says we need innovations in healthcare that can meet these needs.

She talks about why many past innovations have failed to cut costs or solve our biggest problems and why we have to rethink how we view innovation, and she provides a ton of real-life stories to showcase her point. She gives the framework for how to tell a good innovation from a bad innovation and provides a tool kit for how to successfully innovate (either a product or service), including the right questions to ask before you even get started.

This is a must-listen for healthcare execs, providers, students, or anyone interested in how to successfully innovate in any industry.

This was a tumultuous year for baseball. The year 2020 was supposed to be a banner year for new ballparks, and they were excited to be covering it. While they missed out on that and on the award season, Ballpark Digest reports that visitors are up 26 percent (even with no games being played this year). The fact that they are a trusted brand, provide good (and diverse) products, and are known for excellence in their practices has allowed them not just to survive but to thrive. When times are hard, a history of excellence helps you manage change and weather storms.

Kevin also talks about how important it is to find your passion. While he didn’t grow up as a “baseball kid,” he got into it as a way to pass the time while he was traveling for his job. But it’s one of his breakout projects at August Publications that reflects his true passion: YellowstoneInsider.com. This site and the Yellowstone Insider for Families book helps visitors plan to have the best experience at Yellowstone National Park. It’s a great example of something that doesn’t seem to “fit” with the rest of his product offerings, but because he is passionate about Yellowstone (and the service journalism it provides), it has been very successful.

Poore is best known for helping organizations with easy-to-implement basics that lead to a first-class operation. On the podcast, he talks about how to weave safety, compassion, courtesy and excellent service into everything you do. He says the best way to do this is to ask your employees for ideas, as they are often masters of creativity and innovation. They are also close to patients and customers, so they see how the little things we hardwire can make a big difference. (Poore has great ideas on how we can show people we are happy, even though they can’t see our smiles behind our masks!)

As for leaders, he really drives home how important it is to stay connected to employees, patients, and customers with a good, solid communications plan and a good scout (who keeps you close to what’s happening in your organization). This not only keeps everyone informed in a highly fluid, stressful situation, but it also relieves anxiety. He says to treat your efforts to stay connected like a morning talk show.

Poore also talks about how he used 2020 to make his own company better. He’s a master at creating simple, easy to implement ideas and tactics that create big impact.

In this podcast, you’ll get an insider’s view as to how they effectively utilize grants to leverage assets, promote collaboration, and drive innovation with healthcare partners in various communities. They aren’t looking for quick fixes, but high-impact projects. Jill talks about their decision to invest in multi-year, multi-million-dollar projects, because they know it takes a while to get programs off the ground.   

Bethesda doesn’t just focus on healthcare delivery; they have a real interest in the social determinants of health. According to Jill, around 20 percent of your health equation is tied to healthcare delivery. The other 80 percent is tied to pieces like genetics and behaviors. But at least 50 percent is tied to those social determinants of health, where you work, live, play, learn. They know that in order to transform healthcare, they can’t just focus on what goes on inside the hospital walls; they really have to look at issues beyond that and work in partnership with the community.

Jill shares about their latest focus: integrating behavioral health into primary care. Experts say that a behavioral health crisis is on the heels of this pandemic—and they’re doing all they can to prepare for it and alleviate it.

This has been a tough year for baseball, and many of the things they normally cover were canceled. JJ talks about how Baseball America has become adept at managing change and how 2020 forced them to get even better.

JJ has a lot to teach business owners through the lessons he has learned in his position. He talks about what it was like to navigate the transitioning of the magazine to new owners, what it took to merge the two cultures, and the importance of transparent communication in his journey.

He also discusses the role of culture and process in baseball and how it really defines an organization. The same is true inside a company. He talks about how easy it is to do long term damage to your culture, tearing down in five minutes what took five years to build. The culture of caring is so prevalent in great organizations. Many of the people who work in baseball are incredibly passionate, often working long hours. As long as they know the people at the top value their work and care about them, they will do virtually anything.   

JJ’s take on how Baseball America stayed strong during COVID and the baseball shutdown was especially interesting. It’s a subscriber-based business and the product it focused on was gone. Yet they continued to deliver a good product and traded on their strong sense of community. In fact, in some cases loyal fans would donate a subscription to someone who could no longer afford it. When you stay true to what you do well, you can weather almost anything.

His company shares the expertise and best practices clients need to navigate the complex Accountable Care Organization (ACO) system while reducing administrative risk and freeing themselves to do what they do best: practice patient care. Not only does Caravan help create the ACO, they stay with clients long-term and offer ongoing guidance. Tim explains how players of all sizes can better understand and leverage their data and implement survival strategies like sharing resources, expertise, and technology…while reaping the benefits of scale.

In this conversation with Quint, Mougey delves into the deeper truths the survey revealed about his firm: its strengths and weaknesses, where communication shortfalls lay, the flaws in how performance was assessed and progress gauged, and more. He also talks about how they used the findings to revamp their processes, create great new tools, and build a stronger infrastructure.

The culture that grew from this survey is one where people are more aligned and engaged, where collaboration happens on a deeper level, where performance and progress improve year after year. The changes have allowed the firm to work successfully on some of the biggest, most complex cases in the country. And as a bonus, Mougey has become a much better leader in the process.

If you’ve never considered the benefits of seeking real and honest feedback from your employees, this podcast will convince you that it’s a true game-changer.

Tiffany spent some time in the corporate world, learning everything she could and building her skill set. She also had a few side hustles to help fill in the gaps, all the while wondering how she could ever follow in her grandmother’s footsteps. Then the idea came to her. She taught herself to code at her kitchen table and started Mogul. Within a few weeks, she knew she had found her passion, so she quit her super safe corporate job and took the risk of a lifetime. It was that day that began fulfilling that promise to her grandmother and creating a company that is on the forefront of helping others, particularly women. 

Tiffany doesn’t just long for diversity, she creates it! Mogul is now the premiere platform for connecting companies to diverse talent. By joining Mogul, you get access to a supportive community, job opportunities from Fortune 1000 companies (along with a methodology match to make sure you are a good fit), access to events all the world, workplace research and a Learning Library where you can further develop your skill set. They serve entry level to the most senior-level women worldwide and long-time clients include Amazon, IBM, Intel, Deloitte, Stanley Black & Decker, Nike, McKinsey, Bain, and more. Mogul has been praised by Sheryl Sandberg and referred to as "the perfect business" by Melinda Gates. 

Tiffany is also the best-selling author of You Are a Mogul. In this podcast, she talks about the journey of taking risks (Note to self: live cheaply so you can afford to!), attracting world class investors and mentors, and being able to grow a company around something you are truly passionate about.

In this podcast, he talks about that journey, what he learned about himself and success, and how he used the circumstances to take a long, hard look at whom he had become. 

Now with COVID-19 and the loss of a best friend and business partner, he’s experiencing his second great awakening. He talks about giving up the illusion of control and predictability; how to find the opportunity in adversity; and why he believes the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn might be the greatest skill set anyone can have.

Join Harold and Quint as they talk about how to get off autopilot and really engage in life and work; how to manage bitterness, anger, disappointment, and fear; and why this quote from Viktor Frankl changed his life: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

 The podcast is filled with resilience hacks, necessary mind shifts (new ways to think about things) and tactics to help manage the uncertainty and change we are experiencing and begin the personal transformation to help create a life worth living. 

Harold can be reached at harold.dawson@thedawsoncompany.com

Resources:

Mindfulness Practice/Training
Resources: Calm App; Omvana App; Emotional Intelligence Mindfulness Handbook Harvard Business Review (2017)

Gratitude Practice/Training
Resources: Happify App; Forbes July 2016 Article; Lifehack.Org

Stoicism Practice/Training
Resources: Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (Translated); Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic And The Obstacle Is The Way

Diana says it’s vital to make the distinction between stress and trauma. With short term stress, employees can usually power through. But once we cross over into trauma—and the duration, intensity, and frequency of change we face now makes this far more likely—we must treat the problem differently. Coping and building resilience is very important but insufficient alone in dealing with trauma that affects an entire organization. (Not that they don’t work.) 

In this interview Diana reveals some of the ways trauma manifests in individuals and companies. And she discusses some tools and tactics that can help leaders of all types of organizations navigate through traumatic crises and periods of intense change. The good news? Not only can your organization survive trauma it can thrive on the other side—growing into a stronger, better, more unified version of itself.

Diana will be a keynote at EntreCon 2020. Click here to learn more.

Diana Hendel, PharmD, is the author of three upcoming books. One, Responsible, is a memoir about leading a major medical organization through a deadly workplace shooting. The other two, published by Harper Collins, are coauthored by Mark Goulston, MD: Why Cope When You Can Heal? helps healthcare workers deal with the trauma caused by COVID-19, and Trauma To Triumph guides leaders in navigating their organization through change and traumatic crisis.

A big point of discussion is the patterns of success Deborah and James see in cities and regions working to renew themselves. For example, they realize they must attract young people and make everyone feel welcome, regardless of background, political views, orientation, etc. They discuss the need for truly engaged citizens, who don’t just “consume” what the community has to offer but who feel a sense of responsibility for it. And they zoom in on the collaborations between institutions and also small businesses that create a lot of synergy and trust.

You’ll be interested to hear about the upcoming HBO documentary based on James’s and Deborah’s book. And you’ll be uplifted by their optimistic mindset: while America is surely going through a hard time now, we’ve been through many other hard times before. We can achieve renewal and reconstruction. It is up to us to make it happen.

James and Deborah will also speak at EntreCon, our virtual business and leadership conference held Wednesday and Thursday, November 18 & 19, 2020. Click here to register. 

In difficult times like these, when people are feeling overwhelmed and overworked, it’s more critical than ever to get intentional about engagement. Reward and recognition are a huge part of keeping people motivated and committed. In this podcast, Quint and Dr. Bob will discuss:

• What effective recognition looks like: timely, specific, tied to actions taken by the individual or group, and (if possible) connected to company values and/or purpose.
• Why we must constantly make deposits into employees’ emotional bank account
• How to harness the power of technology to create even more touchpoints for reward and recognition
• Sneak peak into Dr. Bob's keynote presentation at EntreCon.

You’ll walk away from this conversation excited and energized about the power of reward and recognition—and ready to put systems in place to leverage, build and sustain a culture of engagement in your workplace.

Discussion centers on why a “small ball” approach (small, incremental, inexpensive changes that improve people’s lives) makes much more sense than focusing on giant projects that require outside government funding. Chuck also talks about how we must protect our entrepreneurs and give them the space they need to make our cities incredible places to live. He’ll discuss this subject at length in his upcoming EntreCon presentation, titled Why My Cities Top Draft Pick is an Entrepreneur, Not an Investor.

Finally, Chuck will preview his upcoming book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, which explores how the way we build roads is failing communities— and how we can rethink our approach in a way that builds wealth in our neighborhoods.

Healthcare has been one of the hardest hit industries. Mark talks about how TriHealth took a $100 million loss in the first few months of the pandemic and came back stronger, more aligned, and more cohesive. Their success lay in how they approached one of the most crucial leadership competencies: communication. Not only did COVID force TriHealth to get better at using video technology to reach distributed stakeholders in a timely and effective way, it reinforced the benefits of on-the-ground tactics like leader rounding (executed safely, of course). With more than 12,000 team members, real time communication was key.

Great communication alleviates anxiety and keeps people engaged and connected to their sense of purpose in a time of uncertainty and rapid change. It keeps organizations nimble, adaptive, highly aligned, and able to innovate in the face of a crisis like a pandemic. Mark talks about communication on two levels: one, how to say what needs to be said in a direct and transparent way, and two, how to hardwire the right tools (monthly senior leader meetings, town halls, rounding, daily huddles, etc.) to cascade communication and keep messages consistent. 

When you get communication right,  it will accelerate your performance in the good times. It’s what will move you from good to great. In the bad times, it’s what will save you.

Emily shares specific tactics she used to move from selling a product (transactional) to building a community (relational) to grow the Simplified brand. As she discusses, a cornerstone of this transition was making some tough but necessary mind shifts. She talks candidly about mistakes, the hard lessons she learned, and some of the risky decisions she made along the way (including a business decision that cut 40% of her revenue overnight). 

Throughout her journey, Emily found that nurturing the culture of her business was key to being sustainable and working through the hard times. She shares some of her favorite best practices for connecting with an all virtual workforce and some of her favorite tech solutions for making it work.

We also get a sneak peek into insights from her new book, Growing Boldly: Dare To Build A Life You Love, due out in Feb 2021.

Referenced in this episode: 

• Emily Ley’s Books
• Simplified by Emily Ley
• EntreCon - 2-day Business and Leadership Conference

About Emily Ley:
Emily Ley is the founder of Simplified® - a brand of planners and organizational tools for busy women. Emily has been featured in Forbes, Family Circle, Better Homes and Gardens, Glamour, and Good Housekeeping. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including Best New Product at the National Stationery Show as well as Small Business of the Year, Female Owned Business of the Year, and Entrepreneur of the Year by Studer Community Institute. Emily and her team collaborated with AT-A-GLANCE® to create gift and planning collections carried in Office Depot, Staples, and Target. Emily is the author of national bestselling books, Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy, A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living, and When Less Becomes More: Making Space for Slow, Simple, and Good. Now as an author, entrepreneur, wife and mother to three, Emily lives in Pensacola, Florida with her husband, Bryan, and their son Brady, and twins Tyler and Caroline.

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