Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health

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Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
This is where health care leadership comes together.
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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speakers to Chicago April.
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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
0:20
w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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visit beckershospitalreview.com
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and click on the events tab in the
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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
0:29
in Chicago.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare
0:34
podcast. I'm Scott King joined by a very
0:37
special guest today, Von Thome Quinlivan,
0:40
CEO
0:41
of Futura Health. Von, how are you doing
0:43
today? Thanks so much for joining us.
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Delighted to be here, Scott.
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So good to have you. I know we
0:48
have a lot to talk about. We're really
0:50
gonna kinda get into, I think, fixing healthcare's
0:53
workforce crisis.
0:55
And, before I do that, before we jump
0:58
into the conversation, can you just tell us
1:00
a little bit about yourself and your background?
1:04
Well, Scott,
1:05
my career has spanned the private sector, the
1:08
public sector, and now non profit sector. Expertise
1:11
is workforce development. And when I was recently
1:14
approached by,
1:15
well, five years ago when I was approached
1:17
by Kaiser Permanente and its partners to found
1:20
Vitora Health and bring some best practices into
1:22
this space,
1:24
to address critical shortages on healthcare workers, I
1:27
have to say,
1:29
it was it was quite a thought to
1:30
think, well, I was running a billion dollar
1:32
organization
1:33
previously,
1:35
with the California Community Colleges,
1:38
which is the largest system of higher education
1:40
in the country. Do I want to,
1:42
found a new nonprofit?
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Is that the way to go?
1:48
And
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when I thought about it and reflected on
1:52
it and especially
1:53
the fact that I had come to The
1:55
United States,
1:57
at the age of six,
1:59
out of
2:00
a war torn situation in Vietnam.
2:02
I was so
2:04
pleased to have the opportunity,
2:07
to have education that unlocked opportunities
2:10
for me. And so in this role, in
2:13
this and the last role, it's all about
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unlocking opportunities from others.
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So really delighted to be here.
2:20
Appreciate you sharing your background
2:23
info there, Vaughn, and and your career journey.
2:26
The you know, I've we hear a lot
2:28
about
2:30
the employee
2:31
shortage and and workforce shortages
2:34
in healthcare right now. It seems like an
2:35
issue that's kind of been going on for
2:37
a long time. I was on a call
2:39
with nine COOs
2:40
of of different health systems, all kinds of
2:42
different
2:43
makes and sizes yesterday, talking about what the
2:45
issues they're still having.
2:47
So do you think it's a good idea
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for
2:50
employers to try to solve these workforce surges
2:52
on their own or is there another approach
2:54
they can take?
2:56
Well, you know, Scott, I was talking with,
2:59
folks from McKinsey and, and company, the management
3:02
consulting company.
3:03
And they they say healthcare leaders come to
3:06
them frequently asking whether they should build a
3:08
university to address the shortage, the many shortages
3:12
in workforce,
3:13
that is facing healthcare. We know about the
3:15
massive shortages in doctors and nurses and other
3:18
workforce shortages.
3:20
But what about the 65%
3:22
of the allied health roles that everyone needs?
3:26
Already, you know, 85%
3:27
of US, healthcare facilities report a shortage in
3:30
these critical workers that we all need like
3:33
surgical tech, medical assistance, imaging techs, and so
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on.
3:37
And so Scott, you know, it's a myth
3:39
that organizations
3:40
need to do workforce development on their own.
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And especially when it comes to these important
3:45
allied health rules,
3:47
it may be better to collaborate than to
3:50
go solo.
3:51
And so this is why, Kaiser Permanente and
3:54
its its partners launched for Total Health, my,
3:56
national nonprofit,
3:58
five years ago using community
4:00
benefits dollars,
4:02
to share to set up a shared capacity
4:05
to grow
4:06
and address this shortage in, allied health workers
4:10
and set up the Total Health to help
4:12
the industry. And it's working. I mean, we
4:14
additionally, you know, we have Stanford Health, Packard
4:17
Health, Dignity Health, Broward Health,
4:20
UCSF.
4:22
You know, over,
4:24
the the,
4:25
the last five years, we've been able to
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bring
4:28
over 10,000
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untapped talents from communities,
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who have gotten their credentials and qualifications
4:35
to enter their first and next,
4:38
allied health careers through us.
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And now Futura Health is a shared resource,
4:44
to grow local health care talent. You know,
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there's so many people who wanna be of
4:49
service. There are untapped talents in our communities.
4:51
And when we did a focus group to
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figure out why they couldn't find their way
4:55
into health care,
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there were a number of reasons
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that we've, set up to address. And so
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we're really proud
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that in the nine states
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as well as DC, which we have,
5:06
sponsorship to operate,
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all these individuals are coming out debt free
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and are entering work,
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these important roles
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now, today,
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in allied health roles.
5:20
Oh, by the way, Scott, in a Yeah.
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We
5:23
this is our fifth year anniversary.
5:26
Not only were we asked to share our
5:28
best practices with the WHO,
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yes, last
5:32
year, we were also featured on CMS Innovation
5:35
Day,
5:36
featured with the National Governors Association,
5:39
and our scholars,
5:41
were featured in the BBC,
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Caring with Courage,
5:45
series
5:46
that that, launched this year. So a lot
5:49
a lot of good things, and we're looking
5:51
forward to working with
5:52
additional partners,
5:54
to bring out these best practices and solutions.
5:57
Well, big congratulations, not just the anniversary, but
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all those well deserved accolades. That's tremendous. That's
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the way to go. That's great. And, you
6:05
know, I, I, it sounds like you're seeing
6:07
a lot of positive results for how you're,
6:09
and Futero
6:11
is addressing that workforce shortage. It sounds like
6:13
it just kind of requires a, a shift
6:15
in mindset and hopefully,
6:17
you know, we can see more of that
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in healthcare.
6:19
And Vaughn, I want to get to, you
6:21
know, something you actually said. You've described the
6:24
current hiring and graduation mismatch
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as a fire hose versus a garden hose
6:30
problem. Can you kind of unpack that metaphor
6:33
and what it means for healthcare workforce planning?
6:37
Well, Scott, you know, your listeners know that
6:40
all of us who have been in, in
6:42
roles of employers,
6:44
put out jobs in a drip drip drip
6:47
format like a garden hose we put out
6:49
one job, two job, five jobs. We never
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put out 30 jobs or 20 jobs at
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a time, right?
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But now think about how higher education
6:58
works and they put out their graduates in
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a big old gush,
7:02
like 30 graduates in May or 20 graduates
7:05
in May. So it's really like a fire
7:07
hose phenomenon
7:09
and they can't do one person, two person
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and especially when then you ask Scott, oh,
7:15
can you,
7:17
change your curriculum, set up new labs, you
7:19
know,
7:20
do the following things.
7:23
Their economics is one where if they don't
7:25
have enough enrollment,
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courses get canceled. Right?
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So the biggest complaint from employers in trying
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to activate education to come to come to
7:35
this common cause of addressing workforce shortages is
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that they're slow. And this is because it's
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a fundamental mismatch between the fire hose and
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the garden hose. And so when we think
7:46
about workforce development, we're trying to reconcile
7:49
this mismatch,
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in order to facilitate a collaboration where each
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party does what it does best.
7:57
And so for for providers,
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this means bringing
8:01
kind of unusual allies
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to come together and play together,
8:06
in a space where healthcare systems may be
8:09
fiercely competitive for talent. Right?
8:12
So instead
8:13
of dripping out, you know, five pharmacy techs,
8:17
if you could pull together the needs across
8:19
all of these,
8:21
employers and providers, maybe it comes 25 or
8:23
with Futura Health because we're working
8:26
at some scale, we can ask, you know,
8:28
we can secure at 75,
8:31
sterile processing tax, for example.
8:33
And because we're working with multiple health systems,
8:36
we'd have volume,
8:38
right? We can ask for a larger tuition
8:41
discounts, better working,
8:43
better hours, study hours for working adults,
8:46
group learning situations for cohorts,
8:50
and and also double clicking on
8:54
an education journey that incorporates
8:57
our human touch health care,
8:59
coursework, which has gotten a net promoter score
9:02
of 79.
9:04
Excellent.
9:05
Not only the the the learners love it,
9:08
but the employers love it because it's really
9:10
drilling down on cultural competence and,
9:14
teamwork collaboration, all the essential skills for health
9:17
care.
9:19
And
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what it also does is it builds adult
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learner confidence
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to,
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engage in color, in learning
9:28
to get in order to get their, credentials
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and qualifications.
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So, you know, we normally think about competing
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for talent, but in the case
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of workforce development, you wanna grow the talent
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pool together
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rather
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than compete in a shallow pool, which only
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drives up the prices for, you know, the
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the wages for talent.
9:47
That sounds great, Fawn. And you I actually
9:49
wanna ask you
9:51
about Futura Health's model because it brings employers,
9:55
educators, and community organizations
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to the same table.
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How does the the alignment there actually work
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in practice and what makes it different from
10:04
traditional workforce development approaches?
10:08
Right. So, you know, the the the traditional
10:11
talent approach is one maybe, if you're getting
10:14
to a a point where you're posting and
10:16
praying and not sure that you're actually going
10:18
to have a talent pool to draw from,
10:20
it's time to do to make the investment
10:23
in workforce development. And I will also say
10:25
to you that if you only have a
10:28
strategy that is going out into high schools,
10:30
it is not enough
10:32
because that population is shrinking almost in all
10:36
communities across the
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the country.
10:39
So where the action is is really adults
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how to bring untapped talent
10:44
into the health care and they're very very
10:45
interested but they need to find a way.
10:46
So you know,
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so, you know, like we were featured on
10:52
CMS innovation,
10:54
day
10:54
because it,
10:57
we can we have situations
10:58
like, let me tell it in in the
11:00
story of like the individual themselves. So maybe
11:03
you have,
11:04
a security guard,
11:06
like Tamika
11:08
who,
11:09
took care of her mother
11:11
who had cancer
11:12
and thought maybe I
11:14
would like a caregiving role. And it was
11:17
when she found a flyer at her hospital,
11:20
that she signed up with Futura Health, and
11:22
the employer had already sponsored a scholarship so
11:26
that she she could attend, debt free.
11:28
So she came out of a phlebotomist,
11:30
and she's now a phlebotomist
11:33
working in health care today. Or it's a
11:36
situation like Justice who,
11:39
had been laid off during the pandemic. He
11:41
wanted to become a nurse,
11:43
but was trying to
11:45
earn money. And so he was working at
11:47
a ramen noodle shop
11:49
when he found a flyer, from his aunt,
11:53
who had worked at a hospital and said
11:54
you should really give Fatura Health a try.
11:56
And so he became a medical assistant for
11:58
us,
11:59
debt free.
12:01
And not only did he,
12:04
do well in his first job, but he's
12:05
already been promoted into the second job. And
12:08
so,
12:09
again, he's working in health care today
12:12
and,
12:13
on his way to, becoming,
12:16
a nursing student.
12:18
So there's many stories like that where there
12:21
are individuals who want to get into health
12:23
care, but the navigation to get in and
12:26
the debt load
12:27
for those who make it in just keeps
12:29
them on the first rung. And we need
12:31
to be able to bring people in from
12:32
the community and grow them because that will
12:35
not only improve
12:37
retention and loyalty,
12:39
but in the end, improve outcomes for patients
12:42
because you have
12:44
a culturally concorded workforce.
12:46
That was incredible story about how someone's journey
12:49
into healthcare started. Thanks for sharing that, Fawn.
12:53
What are the biggest misconceptions
12:55
employers have about building a talent pipeline,
12:58
and how does your model help address them?
13:03
The biggest misconception
13:04
is that it's an individual sport.
13:08
Building a talent pipeline is actually a team
13:10
sport where each player does what it does
13:13
best. So the most important thing for employers
13:15
is that,
13:17
the providers and health plans, and we have
13:19
a situation with Health Net right now, which
13:22
is a health plan
13:23
that is underwriting,
13:26
scholarship seats
13:27
so that
13:29
the all the providers in its network in
13:32
a rural rural regions,
13:34
have the ability to send some of the
13:36
frontline
13:36
staff to skill up and get a next
13:38
credential.
13:39
Alright. So there's many roles that people could
13:42
play, but community benefits dollars from a health
13:45
plan
13:46
or operational dollars,
13:47
I'm sorry, community benefits dollars from a health
13:50
system
13:51
or their operational dollars,
13:54
or health plan can unlock dollars. These are
13:57
all ways in which we can braid efforts.
14:00
So there's someone funding the scholarships.
14:03
There's,
14:04
our work is to set up all the
14:06
education programs to the quality and and standards,
14:10
and we have 41 education providers with a
14:13
108,
14:15
campuses,
14:16
partner campuses fully integrated,
14:20
to match with what,
14:22
providers need and what where the workers are.
14:26
So exciting to be able to reduce the
14:28
workload,
14:31
on the,
14:32
on on the employers
14:34
because building this ecosystem so that it's simple
14:38
for our community members to get in is
14:40
is,
14:41
a heavy undertaking, and we simplify all of
14:44
that.
14:45
Yeah. I think so many great resources
14:48
available there will definitely reduce that that workload.
14:51
Can Von, can you share a specific example
14:53
where
14:54
collaboration rather than isolated efforts led to a
14:57
breakthrough solution
14:59
for a health system or regional market?
15:03
You know, I would love to talk about,
15:05
like,
15:06
doctor, Lawrence Sher at the Palo Verdes Medical
15:09
Group.
15:10
So he took on
15:12
a clinical student,
15:13
that is a scholar.
15:15
And where
15:17
employers can lean in is of course, where
15:19
competition can occur between,
15:22
providers is really at the point of hiring
15:25
or the point of clinical.
15:26
So let's not compete,
15:28
at the beginning,
15:29
we'll collaborate to build that talent pool and
15:31
then compete at the
15:33
point of clinicals and or the board of
15:35
hiring. So Doctor. Lawrence Sher was very, very,
15:37
very pleased,
15:39
to receive a scholar
15:40
who was, who was trained through us, debt
15:43
free, to be a medical assistant.
15:45
And what he said was, we was particularly
15:48
pleased, I'm gonna give you a quote, Futura
15:50
Health can show a student how empathy should
15:52
be shown, I couldn't have been more impressed.
15:54
And this was,
15:57
an adult learner who would not have otherwise
16:00
participated. She had always wanted to go into
16:03
health care, but life got in the way,
16:04
which is often the situation
16:06
of many adults.
16:08
And we were able to unlock that, rebuild
16:10
her confidence to to begin the journey.
16:13
And,
16:15
it's a great story
16:16
in terms of her success with,
16:19
with the Palo Verdes medical group.
16:21
And then we have, Health Net Health Plan
16:23
with Centene. They're underwriting a whole,
16:26
set of, seats for medical assistance.
16:30
For rural providers, we have, Sutter Health
16:34
underwrote 300
16:36
medical assistance seats using the community benefits dollars,
16:39
and those are all located in geographies
16:42
where they have facilities.
16:44
And so those are strategic ways in which,
16:47
they work with us and we go and
16:50
we connect the community, the source the education
16:52
partners,
16:53
provide the success coaching,
16:57
to individuals
16:59
so that they can easily navigate the education
17:02
journey process.
17:03
As a matter of fact, Scott, you know,
17:05
many of these adults, they don't even talk
17:08
about the free,
17:09
tuition that they get from us. They talk
17:12
about how our success coaches were there for
17:14
them in those moments when they thought they
17:16
couldn't make it through. So it's very important
17:19
working with the adult population,
17:22
to be able to navigate all of these
17:24
complexities of life so that they can get
17:26
their credentials and qualification. But there's so many
17:29
success stories.
17:31
I think it's a great point about having
17:32
those those coaches available. It's one thing to,
17:35
you know, get the opportunity and it's another
17:37
to kinda get coached in the in the
17:39
right way to proceed on your journey.
17:41
Ivana, the last thing I wanna ask you,
17:43
as you look ahead, what structural changes do
17:46
we need across education,
17:48
policy,
17:49
and employer engagement to meaningfully fix the health
17:53
care workforce
17:54
crisis?
17:56
Yes. So I stare I chair our,
17:59
state council on health care workforce training and
18:01
education. And certainly, yes, you go down the
18:04
list of all the occupations, major occupations in
18:07
health care. There's a shortage, there's a shortage,
18:09
there's a shortage.
18:11
So,
18:12
you know, there are,
18:15
alternative paths, but it does take intentionality.
18:18
And so I really appreciate,
18:19
Becker's healthcare
18:21
getting the word out that there's a different
18:23
way. There's a different way of being able
18:25
to solve the workforce development problem,
18:28
but, fix the healthcare workforce crisis, but it
18:31
does take intentionality
18:33
and it does take,
18:34
teamwork. And and maybe, lastly, I'll say there
18:37
is a win win win solution out there.
18:40
You know, it's
18:41
it's not only the win is from growing
18:43
the workforce
18:44
locally
18:45
because
18:46
those who are local in the community are
18:48
more likely to
18:50
stay. It's a win because
18:52
there's goodwill
18:53
from the community
18:55
as
18:56
health health systems are bringing opportunity to their
18:59
community.
19:01
There's also the win of the five zero
19:02
one c three status,
19:04
which I know the healthcare leaders know has
19:07
been debated,
19:09
continues to be
19:10
in debate,
19:11
and so this is a way to express
19:14
community benefit.
19:15
And then of course most importantly is that
19:18
with
19:19
a workforce that is reflective of the communities
19:22
being served,
19:23
we all can improve the outcomes for patients
19:26
and best serve patients.
19:28
So with intentionality,
19:32
we can collectively
19:33
deliver on a reliable, diverse, and skilled workforce
19:37
that's day one ready.
19:40
Vaughn, thanks so much for all your great
19:41
insight on the workforce crisis in health care
19:43
and the tremendous things Futura Health is doing
19:46
to deal with it. I appreciate you joining
19:47
us and look forward to working with you
19:49
again soon.
19:50
Thank you so much, Scott.