Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building Workforce Readiness in Rural Healthcare with Dr. JohnRich Levin

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Building Workforce Readiness in Rural Healthcare with Dr. JohnRich Levin · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - The playbook for running a successful ASC in
• 0:04
  - 2026
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  - looks almost nothing like it did a few
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  - years ago.
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  - And the one for 2029
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  - probably won't look like this one either.
• 0:12
  - Case complexity is increasing. Payer models are shifting.
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  - Technology is creating new possibilities
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• 0:21
  - The spine and orthopedic leaders who are staying
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• 0:27
  - They are in rooms where the changes get
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  - talked about honestly. Becker's twenty third annual Spine
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  - Orthopedic and Pain honestly. Becker's twenty third annual
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  - is such a space.
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  - More than 1,000 attendees,
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  - 275
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  - plus physician and ASC speakers, three days of
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  - programming across the clinical,
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  - operational, and strategic
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  - with CME credits available.
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  - Join us June eleventh through the thirteenth. For
• 0:52
  - the agenda and event details, visit Becker's Hospital
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  - Review and click on the events tab in
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  - the upper right.
• 0:59
  - This is Graceland Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:01
  - Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  - first ever rural health summit. And I'm currently
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  - joined by Jean Rich Levine, who is the
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  - chief nursing officer at Reeves Regional Health. So
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  - Jean Rich, thank you for being here today.
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  - We'd love to have you start by briefly
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  - introducing yourself and telling us more about your
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  - role, the scope of your organization, and what's
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  - currently commanding most of your attention as a
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  - leader.
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  - Yes. My current role is as a chief
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  - nursing officer at Reeves Regional Health in Pecos,
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  - Texas. And you would wonder where is that
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  - in Texas, Texas being a large state. It
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  - is West Texas that is bordering Mexico
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  - and New Mexico.
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  - So, we're a critical access hospital. We're serving
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  - a very large
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  - rural region in the West. And for many
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  - patients, we are the only hospital within a
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  - long driving distance.
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  - We don't measure our driving distance by miles
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  - in that part of the country. We we
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  - measure it by hours.
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  - So the biggest city that
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  - sits next to us is one hour and
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  - a half away, and that's where we are.
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  - What I'm seeing here as far as leadership
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  - is concerned is that we cannot
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  - build systems
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  - that assumes that another facility is five minutes
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  - away because transportation
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  - seems like it's a problem for social determinants
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  - of health. It is really a problem of
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  - patient care and access,
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  - And and that's where we are. And right
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  - now,
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  - my major focus is workforce development
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  - to make sure that we do have resources
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  - no matter how limited they are, and those
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  - resources
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  - are trained
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  - and versatile enough to take care of our
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  - patient population.
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  - Certainly.
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  - So in a year marked by rapid change,
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  - what recent decision or pivot required the most
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  - leadership conviction from you, particularly when it came
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  - to aligning people, resources, or capabilities?
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  - One of the biggest shifts that involve
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  - pushing harder for us as far as our
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  - area is concerned is towards
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  - a broader clinical readiness. And so we created
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  - this module or what you call a a
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  - manual
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  - for our guide. We call it readiness that
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  - everyone is ready and able to take care
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  - of patients when they show up to the
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  - door in our facility.
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  - There was one moment in as an example
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  - of that when we
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  - had this experience recently about a pediatric patient
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  - that is suffering from a diabetic ketoacidosis
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  - and needing some insulin drips.
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  - And our nurses have to push back because
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  - they don't have pediatric ICU experience,
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  - much less a pediatric that comes in with
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  - the the DKA or diabetic ketoacidosis.
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  - So what do we do? We can't just
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  - turn a patient away.
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  - We have to have that background. And so
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  - from that experience, we took care of that
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  - patient, but we also made that a point
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  - as a learning experience for us
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  - to never be unprepared
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  - anymore. And that's where
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  - our manual, we call readiness,
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  - took took notice
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  - and, created,
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  - part of the module about pediatric ICU background
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  - for our nurses there. No matter what department
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  - you are, you're ready to take care of
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  - these kinds of patients.
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  - And how did this type of situation challenge
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  - your assumptions, and what did it change about
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  - how you approach decision making, talent, or organizational
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  - readiness today?
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  - Yes. I come from my background is in
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  - education, very operative,
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  - leadership and critical
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  - care leadership in a large facility down in
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  - Houston for twenty years. I've been trained there,
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  - grew up there, and,
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  - assume leadership roles there. When I transitioned to
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  - West Texas,
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  - those number of years have never prepared me
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  - to see what actually is nursing and health
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  - care for that matter in rural Texas.
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  - And what that means to me is that
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  - the
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  - smaller
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  - or what you call is rural health care
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  - is not necessarily
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  - smaller health care. It's the same kind of
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  - care. We are still,
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  - called to be accountable
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  - to the level level and quality of care
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  - that we provide
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  - no matter how big or small our patient
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  - population is.
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  - So it reinforced something in me that I
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  - think leaders may eventually discover, and that is
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  - about
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  - that staffing
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  - alone or staffing an organization or nursing for
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  - that matter
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  - doesn't equate
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  - to
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  - readiness.
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  - You have got to assess the kind of
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  - staff that you have and build them from
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  - there on. It is about being able to
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  - lay down
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  - how much clarity you provide to them and
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  - how much of the repetition
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  - you will have to do
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  - in order for the new
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  - skill sets and competencies to
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  - stick and be useful and utilizable in the
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  - future
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  - because it also changed how I think about
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  - talent. I said that I was never prepared
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  - enough and we are never prepared enough, but
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  - we were just got to do it. And
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  - for that matter, in health care, the strongest
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  - future leaders that I've seen are not always
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  - those people who are the loudest in the
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  - room, but they are the people who can
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  - be quiet, who can be calm, but are
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  - versatile enough
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  - to know what they're doing and where they
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  - are headed.
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  - And shifting gears slightly, when you think about
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  - the forces reshaping health care right now, where
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  - do you believe leaders need to be more
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  - decisive,
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  - especially when balancing things like speed risk and
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  - having the right teams in place?
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  - Yes. And I think that, health care leaders
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  - need to become far more decisive about workforce
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  - development, and that's one of the major focus
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  - that we have. And also,
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  - not just
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  - workforce development and leadership development for that matter,
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  - especially that you,
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  - we are kind of like a desperate,
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  - area when you when you talk about leadership
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  - because people are just put into leadership position
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  - without necessarily having the leadership training. But in
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  - addition to that, also the operational simplicity.
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  - You can't be too complicated
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  - in
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  - a rural facility. You know, we have this
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  - AI technology, and we have all these things
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  - going on. And yet, we know that much
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  - of them don't really apply until we actually
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  - desperately really need them. For example, predictive analytics.
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  - How do you apply predictive analytics
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  - when you know who your patients are and
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  - you actually know when they are not showing
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  - up and,
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  - you wonder what's going on with them? So
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  - there's nothing that could be replaced by human
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  - interaction knowing where they're actually at last night
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  - and why they're not coming to their appointments
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  - and why are they not showing up to
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  - their procedure.
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  - Understanding those,
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  - will make the leader
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  - become more
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  - decisive in terms of the direction
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  - and understanding the patient population they are serving.
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  - And wrapping our conversation,
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  - as uncertainty has become the norm, what leadership
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  - habit or mindset has been most critical in
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  - keeping your organization and your people moving forward?
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  - Well, I think that clarity is very important
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  - because if you are not clear enough, the
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  - people will end up following those who are
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  - clear. So clarity,
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  - but also not just so you are clear,
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  - but you're not visible also, and you are
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  - not steady. Some people are very clear with
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  - where they're going, but they're not visible.
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  - The other one is they are not really
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  - necessarily
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  - steady, which means that they are unstable leaders.
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  - They fluctuate
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  - in their ways of giving directions. So the
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  - most important part for me to help people
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  - understand is that when you're moving forward,
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  - are you moving forward with clarity, and are
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  - you being visible and actually is palpable with,
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  - the team that you are leading?
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  - Well, John Rich, thank you so much for
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  - joining me today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast
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  - to share these thoughts and insights. And, again,
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  - we are recording live at the first ever
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  - rural health leadership summit. Thank you. Thank you
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  - very much.