Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / The Journey to Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification

Transcript

The Journey to Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
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  - to pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - 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.
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  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Cardiology and Heart
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  - Surgery podcast. I'm Araya Taylor, assistant editor, and
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  - I'm thrilled to be speaking with two leaders
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  - from MU Health Care.
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  - Arun Kumar, Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Service
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  - Line, and Amy Begeman, Senior Director of Cardiovascular
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  - and Neuroscience
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  - Services.
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  - Thank you both for being here today. I
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  - am really excited to learn more about your
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  - journey to becoming a joint commission's comprehensive cardiac
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  - center.
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  - So before we dive into that though, I
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  - would love for both of you to introduce
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  - yourself and tell us a little bit about
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  - your background. Doctor Kumar, will you go first?
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  - Yes. Thanks for having us on. I'm Arun
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  - Kumar. I'm an interventional cardiologist
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  - by training.
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  - I've been at, University of Missouri since 2009,
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  - and I've been involved in a lot of
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  - quality improvement projects
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  - and,
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  - educational projects. So this is, near and dear
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  - to my heart.
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  - Excellent. And, Amy, how about you introduce yourself?
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  - Sure. Appreciate the opportunity.
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  - I'm Amy Begeman. I'm the service line here
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  - at MU Health Care. Been here just a
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  - little over five years,
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  - but been in health care and in the
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  - cardiovascular
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  - space
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  - probably for upwards of
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  - eleven or twelve years, but in health care,
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  - probably twenty five plus.
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  - Excellent.
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  - Now I'm super excited to get into our
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  - topic today because recently,
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  - your system became
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  - one of joint commissions comprehensive cardiac centers,
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  - and you managed to get that certification.
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  - I believe if I saw correctly, you're one
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  - of 28 in the country, which is quite
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  - impressive.
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  - So talk us through how this journey to
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  - certification began.
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  - Yeah. Thank you for for that recognition.
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  - The journey really started with a simple question
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  - about how we can take our an already
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  - very strong program, from a cardiovascular
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  - aspect and make it even better.
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  - So we saw Joint Commission's comprehensive
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  - cardiac center certification as a great opportunity really
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  - to step back,
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  - evaluate everything that we were doing, and really
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  - celebrate what's working well and identify those areas
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  - in which we could,
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  - continue to improve.
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  - We really formalized that by placing it on
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  - our strategic plan several years ago as a
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  - tactic
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  - and, trying to get that achieved within a
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  - a twelve to eighteen month time frame.
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  - One of the things that really attracted us
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  - to the certification
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  - is the broad focus.
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  - We started down the path with our TAVR
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  - program probably as as the first
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  - to gain a certification.
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  - But this really let us,
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  - look back and
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  - not just look at some specialty or singular
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  - procedure type aspects,
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  - but really evaluate the entire service line as
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  - a whole and how all of those pieces
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  - work together on the behalf of our
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  - patients.
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  - For us, really, the certification
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  - standards provided a roadmap. They helped us bring
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  - together many of the initiatives and and improvements
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  - that we've had in development or had already
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  - implemented,
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  - over the last couple of years and really
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  - align them into a cohesive strategy,
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  - for the service line.
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  - Again, it was really collaborative,
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  - looking at all of the different aspects
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  - or specialties that are highlighted within the certification.
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  - Brought our physicians and nurses, advanced practice providers,
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  - our therapists, our technologists,
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  - our quality experts, data abstractors, and really our
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  - operational leaders together
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  - around a shared goal and vision really to
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  - develop and deliver the highest quality care possible,
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  - here in Mid Missouri.
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  - Throughout that, of course, we're keeping the patient
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  - experience, at the forefront and focused throughout that
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  - process.
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  - We wanted to ensure that every step,
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  - from early detection and prevention
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  - to diagnosis, whether that be emergent, from a
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  - surgical perspective, whether that's recovering,
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  - or even our cardiac and physical rehabilitation,
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  - all of those were coordinated and seamless
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  - and really grounded in evidence
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  - based practices.
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  - Ultimately, the, certification
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  - validated the great work that our teams had
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  - already been doing and really confirmed
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  - that what we were providing is nationally recognized
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  - cardiovascular
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  - care.
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  - Just as important, it gave us really the
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  - valuable insights into where we could continue to
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  - grow,
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  - knowing that we have improvements that, need to
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  - take place on a daily basis in everything
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  - that we do. So and,
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  - again, at the forefront, really, it's the patients
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  - and the communities that we serve and the
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  - mission at at NuHealthcare with the,
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  - aspects of saving and improving lives.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - That's such a great overview of your journey.
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  - Did you already say how long did it
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  - take you from when you started this journey
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  - to getting certification?
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  - So initial approval,
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  - to move down this pathway from an executive
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  - aspect probably started three or four years ago,
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  - to be honest.
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  - And, we got it on the strategic plan
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  - as a tactic.
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  - The system as a whole did a more
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  - comprehensive strategic plan, and this was one of
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  - the tactics probably two years ago that we
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  - initiated.
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  - Excellent.
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  - Now I'd love to dive a little bit
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  - deeper into some of those changes you've made
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  - over the past few years. So what have
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  - been some of the most important changes you
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  - made to achieve certification?
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  - Yeah. I can go into that. We we
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  - already know we have excellent physicians,
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  - nurses, caregivers
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  - throughout our system.
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  - But the certification process really helped us align
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  - our efforts across the entire service line.
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  - Really important it was important for us to
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  - bring everyone together in a more intentional way.
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  - And just going through some of the examples
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  - of things we did,
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  - included strengthening communication
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  - and collaboration
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  - among our team members,
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  - to make sure patients experience had a seamless
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  - con continuum of care.
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  - We continued working on standardization
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  - of our clinical processes and protocols,
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  - reduce variation.
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  - Again, just really make sure the patients get
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  - evidence based care at every stage of their
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  - treatment.
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  - Care transitions are very important, so we focused
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  - on that area in great detail.
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  - Again, just prevention, outpatient, hospital care,
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  - cardiac rehab, and just long term follow-up, really
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  - looking at that entire continuum.
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  - Additionally, we looked to be very data driven.
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  - We are already very data driven at MU,
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  - and we're really,
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  - leaned in on that,
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  - measuring quality, track outcomes in a more system
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  - systematic way throughout the service line.
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  - We're already involved in continuous quality improvement, but
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  - this gave us the ability to get more
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  - members of our team,
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  - not just the operational leaders, but members of
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  - our team to be really engaged in this
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  - process.
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  - So I think a combination of all those
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  - things,
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  - and aligning all the team members,
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  - was very important to help get to the
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  - certification.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - And what have been some of the most
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  - impressive results that have come from this journey?
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  - So I'd say one of the biggest is,
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  - really how patients view us as a service
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  - line, but even as an organization. They they
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  - wanna know there's confidence in
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  - the facility or organization or service at the
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  - services that they're looking to,
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  - have here at MU Health Care. So this
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  - certification really enforced that patients don't have to
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  - leave Mid Missouri
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  - to access the exceptional cardiovascular care that we
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  - provide here.
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  - Right here in Columbia, patients have access to
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  - nationally recognized expertise. We have advanced procedures
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  - where leading edge technology
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  - aspects,
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  - we try to put into place, being cognizant
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  - that may not be,
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  - on the on the cutting, cutting edge, but
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  - we wanna be first adopters or as quick
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  - to that as we can. And we have
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  - the expertise here to be able to do
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  - that.
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  - And a highly coordinated team focused on really,
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  - again, delivering that best possible outcome,
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  - to our patients.
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  - Honestly, what I'm proud of is the culture
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  - that really has emerged from this journey.
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  - As Doctor. Kumar kinda insinuated,
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  - really digging in and having the people that
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  - do the work every day be involved in
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  - this and really helping from an improvement standpoint.
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  - And so that has,
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  - I think given more value to everyone on
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  - the team, and I think that's a huge
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  - component of this.
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  - The certification process really brought people together in
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  - a more meaningful way. It strengthened that collaboration,
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  - that accountability,
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  - that really shared sense of purpose across the
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  - entire service line.
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  - Team members really gain, a deeper appreciation
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  - of how their roles really connect,
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  - across that continuum of care and how every
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  - interaction really does contribute to the patient's overall
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  - well
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  - overall experience and well-being.
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  - It kind of helped to also break down
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  - traditional silos instead of thinking only as as
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  - a specific department or a phase of care.
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  - Our teams really started to look at cardiovascular
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  - care through the lens of the patient's complete
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  - journey.
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  - For the patients,
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  - really a more coordinated and seamless and consistent
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  - experience from start to finish is what we're
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  - trying to achieve. So our physicians, again, nurses,
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  - therapists,
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  - everyone on the team, really is being a
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  - part of this program
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  - and always striving to learn or improve and
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  - achieve even better outcomes.
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  - I think one of the things that was
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  - valuable as well,
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  - really with any certification or process like this
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  - that you go through
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  - is that those that are coming into survey
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  - do share best practices that they have seen
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  - at other facilities or allow you to be
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  - contacted or or to make connections with others
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  - that have achieved this certification.
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  - So I think that was another component that,
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  - I would really highlight, through this journey also.
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  - Ultimately, the certification
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  - recognizes
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  - much more than just clinical excellence. It really
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  - reflects on the commitment and expertise and dedication
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  - of the people providing the care every day.
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  - Every physician,
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  - nurse, technician,
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  - support team member played it in its at
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  - a a very high aspect role in achieving
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  - this milestone, and and it really is a
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  - testament to the collective efforts
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  - of the entire service line.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - That's some incredible work. And like I said
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  - at the beginning, you're one in about 28
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  - of hospitals that have this certification, and I'm
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  - sure there are many more out there that
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  - are on the same journey trying to get
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  - where you are now. So what advice do
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  - you have for those leaders in programs about
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  - reaching certification?
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  - Yeah. I think from a mindset standpoint,
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  - really, it's to not focus on earning the
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  - certification itself, but really building on the culture
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  - of excellence and continuous
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  - improvement.
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  - I know here we really, you know, wanted
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  - to strengthen our cardiovascular program. That's the goal.
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  - And then the certification would be just a
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  - natural result of those efforts. So having that
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  - mindset, I think, is the key as opposed
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  - to saying, what do we have to do
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  - to get this certification?
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  - It's really just doing the right things,
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  - that need to be done to have an
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  - excellent program.
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  - As far as specifics, I would suggest starting
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  - early. Amy mentioned
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  - that we thought about this years in advance.
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  - So I would recommend,
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  - beginning the process at least twelve to eighteen
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  - months in advance.
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  - Finding physician administrative champions to align the teams
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  - toward a shared vision.
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  - And I think really important point is involving
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  - frontline staff from the beginning.
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  - They're the ones who have the best insight
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  - on the day to day management,
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  - knowing what the gaps in care are, ways
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  - where we could really improve the patient experience
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  - and the quality of
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  - care. Those are, I think, the key,
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  - aspects that I would suggest with respect to
• 12:48
  - advice.
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  - Excellent.
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  - Well, this has been such a great discussion.
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  - I really appreciate both of you coming on
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  - the podcast today.
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  - Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity.