Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. Andy Anderson, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer at RWJBarnabas Healh

Transcript

Dr. Andy Anderson, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer at RWJBarnabas Healh · 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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  - Hello. Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the
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  - Becker's Clinical Leadership podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
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  - Andy Anderson,
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  - executive vice president and chief medical and quality
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  - officer at RWJBarnabas
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  - Health. Doctor. Anderson, thank you so much for
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  - being here today. Thank you for the opportunity.
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  - Absolutely. We're we're gonna start with a subject
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  - that,
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  - touches pretty much every health system and health
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  - care organization. That's physician burnout.
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  - Where, from your perspective, does physician burnout stand
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  - and what's actually changed in the last few
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  - years to combat it?
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  - That's a great question and and and very
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  - important
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  - and, a focus, you know, for us to
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  - to make sure that our physicians
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  - are, doing well. And I sometimes like to
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  - think of it as as well-being
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  - versus burnout. And I do think it's a
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  - little bit better,
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  - but still work to do. I think
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  - we have improved,
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  - our work environment overall in health care partly
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  - by having adequate staffing. You know, post COVID,
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  - we had staffing shortages, and those have gotten
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  - better. That makes a big difference in terms
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  - of of health care and and the functioning
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  - of our hospitals and our medical offices.
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  - I also think we've gotten
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  - better at supporting physicians with the electronic health
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  - record and and making
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  - it easier for them to to do their
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  - work and things like reducing the number of
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  - clicks, things like order sets and best practice
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  - pathways.
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  - And most recently, the adoption of ambient voice
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  - technology has enabled doctors to spend more time
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  - with their patients, looking them in the eye,
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  - and less time having to to type on
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  - the computer.
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  - So I do think we're heading in the
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  - right direction.
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  - We're measuring burnout. We're trying to to make
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  - sure that we're monitoring our physicians and that
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  - they're they're doing better and feeling more healthy
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  - and and, well in the workplace.
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  - Mhmm. Absolutely. You mentioned the the AI use.
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  - I'm curious.
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  - What else have AI scribes and documentation tools
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  - done for the physician worked at your organization?
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  - Yeah. It really has created,
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  - efficiency and and, you know, better throughput,
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  - enabled physicians
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  - to to spend more time
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  - with their patients,
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  - physically in person with them, and, you know,
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  - thinking about them, researching them. When you've got
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  - tools such as AI Scribes
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  - that are doing the documentation work, the the
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  - documentation still needs to be checked. It still
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  - needs to be reviewed.
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  - But it just saves a lot of time.
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  - And
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  - we see physicians, you know, finishing their workday
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  - in a timely manner where they used to
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  - be working into the evening and or and
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  - or on weekends. And so it really has
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  - made a huge difference.
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  - Mhmm. Mhmm. Absolutely. That's that's something that is
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  - very resonant with, lots of physician leaders and
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  - health systems I've spoken to recently. Another component
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  - that we talk about a lot in clinical
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  - leadership and physician leadership is compensation. And I'm
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  - curious,
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  - if you've made any adjustments or changes to
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  - your compensation model and how those changes have
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  - gone over.
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  - Yeah. We
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  - try to involve the physicians themselves as much
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  - as possible when we're developing compensation models, and
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  - we wanna be transparent about them. You know,
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  - typically,
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  - the the balancing act is between productivity
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  - and and outcomes and making sure that we're
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  - incentivizing,
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  - things like quality outcomes and and safety outcomes,
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  - and and then tailoring the compensation
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  - to the particular specialty to make sure that
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  - there's alignment
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  - of the metrics with the particular specialists.
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  - So, you know, I think comp models overall
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  - have gotten to be much more specific
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  - and aligned with our physician's specialties. And I
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  - think our physicians
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  - are much more involved, much more in tune.
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  - You know, it's much more of a transparent
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  - process.
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  - And I I feel like that's been helpful
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  - with things like, burnout and wellness that physicians
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  - understand how they're paid, and they understand how
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  - they can make more money if they wish
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  - to to do that and or how they're
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  - gonna be, you know, monitored over time. The
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  - other piece of that is just transparent metrics,
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  - making sure physicians know where they're at in
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  - terms of productivity and and outcome metrics and
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  - and sharing those with physicians and then helping
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  - them, if they are struggling, helping them with
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  - support, with staffing models, etcetera.
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  - Mhmm.
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  - Mhmm. Absolutely.
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  - And related to compensation is, of course, the
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  - discussion surrounding employed and independent dynamics,
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  - any given
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  - community. So I'm curious, how are,
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  - employed and independent
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  - dynamics playing out in in your market?
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  - Yeah. We're seeing,
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  - you know, shift toward, you know, more employed
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  - physicians.
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  - Some of of that is direct employment.
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  - Some of that is is very tight alignment
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  - through things like joint ventures. I do think
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  - it's
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  - easier for physicians to practice medicine when they
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  - have a health system behind them, supporting them
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  - with things like revenue cycle and staffing,
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  - and human resources.
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  - And so
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  - the the private practice positions are extraordinarily valued.
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  - I do think there... There's a role there
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  - that will continue, but I do think over
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  - time, we'll continue to see some shifting toward
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  - employment.
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  - Mhmm. Absolutely. Yeah. That's that's definitely the main
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  - trend that we've observed over here at Becker's,
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  - pretty pretty much nationwide there.
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  - I'm curious, pivoting a little bit to your
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  - own leadership.
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  - As a chief medical and quality officer, you
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  - are a physician, but also now an administrator.
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  - And I'm curious,
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  - what's the hardest part of going from a
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  - physician peer to a boss or, you know,
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  - a leader in that way?
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  - Yeah. I think the biggest thing is is
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  - just missing patient care and missing that that,
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  - time
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  - with patients and and seeing them get better
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  - and and helping them to to be on
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  - the right treatments.
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  - The other part of it is the the
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  - skill set that that has to be developed
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  - to be an effective
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  - leader.
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  - And, you know, to be a leader, you
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  - can... Not only have to be sort of
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  - a boss, but you also have to to
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  - know when you need to step in to
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  - to be a coach, for example, or or
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  - a mentor.
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  - If you're... If you are, you know, going
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  - to be a boss, sometimes it's a disciplinary,
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  - and there's real issues that have to be
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  - addressed. And so, you know, those are all
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  - skills that aren't, you know, well taught in
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  - medical school and and really develop over time
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  - and important for all of us to have,
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  - you know, really good mentors along the way,
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  - important
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  - for all of us as leaders to get
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  - feedback, to make sure we're doing a good
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  - job,
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  - because the skill set is different, than than
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  - being a practicing physician.
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  - Things like, you know, achieving consensus, you know,
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  - listening carefully to different ideas,
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  - and then still, you know, making a decision
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  - and and sticking with it and and really
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  - communicating well about those decisions. All these are
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  - skills that develop over time and and don't
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  - necessarily come naturally,
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  - to physicians. So I do think
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  - physician leadership is critically important for health systems
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  - to be successful. So we're actively
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  - developing our physicians, identifying future physician leaders, trying
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  - to coach them, teach them so they can
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  - be effective leaders over time.
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  - Mhmm. Mhmm. Absolutely.
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  - And then kind of the flip side of
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  - that question, I'm curious, what does the C
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  - suite often get wrong about physicians?
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  - Yeah. I think there's a stereotype sometimes that
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  - physicians are, you know, in it for themselves
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  - more so than than they are. I I
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  - do think physicians,
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  - enjoy and value
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  - the success of the health system where they
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  - they work in. They take pride in it.
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  - They they want, to see the very best
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  - outcomes. They wanna be part of a highly
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  - effective team, and and I think that is
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  - part of of what physicians are are sort
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  - of hardwired to do is they wanna see
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  - if their patients
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  - and their and their patients' families really be
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  - engaged and get those very best outcomes.
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  - Mhmm. Mhmm. And I'm...
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  - Sorry. Absolutely.
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  - What do you think physicians kind of conversely
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  - there get wrong about the c suite and
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  - misunderstandings?
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  - Yeah. I think I think sometimes
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  - there's a stereotype there that the c suite
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  - is is mostly concerned about financial outcomes, and
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  - I I don't think that's true at all.
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  - I think physicians
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  - will see that quality, safety, patient experience. Those
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  - are the the drivers. If we do those
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  - things well, the the finances will follow.
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  - And I and I do think that, health
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  - system leadership
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  - is
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  - more than ever understanding the importance of physician
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  - engagement and well-being as a critical success factor
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  - for the health system to to move ahead
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  - and be the highest quality,
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  - you know, best health system around. Mhmm.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - Is there anything else that I haven't asked
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  - about that you feel like is this important
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  - to add here?
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  - I think we covered it, just, you know,
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  - to go back and and emphasize the importance
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  - of physician engagement,
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  - that... That's the the success factor,
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  - that's essential
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  - for a health system to achieve the the
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  - very best outcomes.
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  - Mhmm. Absolutely. Well, that is all I have
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  - for you today, doctor Anderson. Thank you so
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  - much for joining us. It's been a pleasure
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  - speaking with you, and I look forward to
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  - connecting with you again in the future. Thank
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  - you so much.