Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Advancing Care Delivery Through Virtual Nursing and Workforce Innovation with Theresa McDonnell

Transcript

Advancing Care Delivery Through Virtual Nursing and Workforce Innovation with Theresa McDonnell · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  helping you and improving health care for everyone.
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  That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable
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  solutions that truly make a difference.
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  to bring you innovative best practices to solve
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  the problems that we face in health care.
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  We're not just promising you results, we are
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  delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
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  This is Haley Redker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. And today, we are recording live at
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  the Becker's twenty twenty six annual meeting.
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  Right now, I am joined by Teresa McDonnell,
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  senior vice president and chief nursing officer at
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  Duke University Health. Teresa, thank you so much
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  for joining for me today. It is my
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  absolute pleasure to be here with you all
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  this morning.
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  Now to start, could you briefly introduce yourself,
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  your role, and the scope of your organization,
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  and what's currently commanding most of your attention
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  as a leader?
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  Sure.
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  So I serve,
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  Duke Health as the senior vice president
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  of patient care services, chief nurse executive,
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  and vice dean of clinical affairs for the
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  Duke University School of Nursing.
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  Duke Health is about a $9,100,000,000
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  enterprise
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  that has four acute care hospitals
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  in North Carolina, 250
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  plus ambulatory
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  sites throughout the state,
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  as well as Ducomb Health and Hospice, which,
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  spans a tristate
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  area.
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  The thing that's commanding
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  most of my intent my attention as a
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  leader these days is clinical care transformation.
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  We are at a critical juncture in health
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  care, and we have to transform the way
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  we do things.
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  Well, thank you so much for that introduction.
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  Now I'd like to get started here. So
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  in a year marked by rapid change, what
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  recent decision or pivot required the most leadership
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  conviction from you, particularly when it came to
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  aligning people, resources, and capabilities?
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  So I I would say that,
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  the decision that is is most consuming of
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  my time and resources
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  is the decision to
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  truly integrate virtual care into our acute care
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  and ambulatory
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  settings.
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  And what I mean by that is we
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  are transforming
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  the traditional model of care.
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  Our inpatient nurses are being cross trained to
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  deliver virtual care. We do believe this is
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  going to be the model of the future,
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  and we're
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  now transitioning
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  to team based models
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  where the same team of nurses will work
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  in a in a mixed methodology,
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  virtual and on-site, caring for the patient population.
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  This has taken,
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  some technology
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  resource as well as a lot of human
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  capital in training and change management.
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  How did that moment challenge your assumptions, and
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  what did it change about how you approach
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  decision making, talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  So I I think, you know, traditionally,
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  we have relied on the legacy model of
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  a nurse in the acute setting caring for
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  a ratio of patients, one to four, one
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  to five, one to three based on acuity.
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  And
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  what we're changing
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  is that whole paradigm. We're really trying to
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  lean in and look at acuity
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  and needs of a patient population
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  so that we can meet the needs and
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  do things like decreasing length of stay, but
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  more importantly, decreasing the burden on our staff.
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  You know, there's been a big narrative around
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  burnout and around turnover, and by transitioning the
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  care model and easing the burden
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  on our talent,
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  that hopefully is going to d lead to
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  decreased turnover and increased satisfaction for patients as
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  well as staff.
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  When you think about the forces reshaping health
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  care right now, where do you believe leaders
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  need to be more decisive,
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  especially when balancing speed, risk, and having the
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  right teams in place?
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  Well, I I think we need
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  to decide as health care leaders that the
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  way we've done things is not going to
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  be the way we're going to do them
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  moving forward.
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  We need to truly transform the way we're
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  delivering care.
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  It needs to be less resource intense,
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  more patient and staff centered.
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  And, you know, in order to do that,
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  we really need to think about
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  how we integrate technology
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  into the care setting and because there's tremendous
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  risk. If staff don't feel like they're engaged
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  in the decision making,
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  they're not going to be willing to come
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  with us on this journey of transforming care.
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  And as uncertainty has become the norm, what
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  leadership habit or mindset has been most critical
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  in keeping your organization and your people moving
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  forward?
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  Well, at at Duke Health, we have something
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  called, our cultural commitments. And the first one
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  of those cultural commitments is putting people first.
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  And what we mean by that is putting
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  our staff and our patients first.
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  So when we think about keeping our people
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  engaged and moving forward,
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  it's really taking those frontline staff that are
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  going to be most impacted by technology
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  and having
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  them join us in co designing and
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  figuring out how to effectively integrate these technologies
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  into care. You know, we all know that
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  the people closest to the work are the
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  ones who can easily identify the the problems,
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  and they are the ones who are going
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  to solve the problems with us.
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  And for my final question today, as technology
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  becomes more embedded in daily operations, how are
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  you ensuring digital investment support rather than straying
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  your workforce?
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  So we've actually made some pretty significant investments,
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  in integrating technology
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  for staffing.
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  So we're about to go live with an
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  AI enabled staffing tool where staff can self
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  schedule,
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  and we've integrated it with CareHog so that
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  we have now a closed loop
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  of demand and capacity when it comes to
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  our staffing. So our goal in all of
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  this is to be more efficient with our
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  staffing, less less flexing down, less floating,
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  and really enabling
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  to make sure that we've got the right
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  staff staffing complement for the right group of
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  patients in the right setting, but also ensuring
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  that our staff have more control in how
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  they're scheduled and how their time is spent.
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  Absolutely. Well, that's it for today's conversation. Theresa,
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  thank you so much for joining me today.
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  Again, we are recording live at the Becker's
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  twenty twenty six annual meeting. Thank you. Thanks
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  so much.