Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building Rural Healthcare Workforce Stability Through Leadership and Clarity with Dr. Johnrich Levine

Transcript

Building Rural Healthcare Workforce Stability Through Leadership and Clarity with Dr. Johnrich Levine · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  - delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
• 0:26
  - Hello, everyone.
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  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  - My name is Giles Bruce, an assistant editor
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  - with Becker's HealthCare.
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  - We are coming to you live from Becker's
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  - sixteenth annual meeting in Chicago.
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  - Pleased to be joined by doctor Levin for
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  - our,
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  - podcast today. Doctor Levin, thank you for being
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  - here. Thank Thank you for having me, Giles.
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  - Yeah. Can you please start by, introducing yourself?
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  - Tell me a little bit about your role
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  - and organization. Yeah. Sure. Of course. My name
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  - is John Rich Levin, and I am the
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  - current chief nursing officer,
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  - at Reeves Regional Health in Pecos, Texas. That
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  - is West Texas.
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  - Our hospital is a rural hospital, and it
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  - is a critical access hospital. We are the
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  - only hospital
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  - within the 110
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  - mile radius. So a lot of our,
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  - patients
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  - traveled to us, and they don't have lot
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  - a lot of choices because the next hospital
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  - is
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  - over a 100 miles away.
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  - And our
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  - goal there is to be able to provide
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  - that community
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  - who needs to travel farther away because we
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  - don't have the services that they that that
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  - they need,
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  - that we can provide it to them so
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  - they are locally accessible.
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  - Okay. Yeah. Great mission there. So in a
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  - year marked by rapid change, what what decision
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  - or pivot required the most leadership conviction from
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  - you, particularly when it came to aligning people,
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  - resources, or capabilities?
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  - I think for the geographical location that we
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  - have and currently the problems that we currently
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  - have,
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  - we have,
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  - decided that the thing that we need to
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  - focus on,
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  - as far as the rapid changes are concerned,
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  - especially with digital technology and AI, is, the
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  - decision
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  - to make sure that we work on our
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  - workforce
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  - staffing stability,
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  - and that involves leadership development at the bedside
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  - and also
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  - making sure that
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  - we we have the cross trained staff so
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  - that we are more versatile
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  - in delivering the care no matter what kind
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  - of service line we have.
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  - Okay. And and, yeah, how how did coming
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  - to that decision, you know, challenge your assumptions,
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  - and what did it change about the way
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  - you approach decision making, talent, or organizational readiness
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  - today? Well, it is because,
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  - I come from a huge medical center before
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  - I joined Reeves Regional Health, and that is
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  - an 895
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  - critical quaternary hospital
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  - with the resources that they have. And then
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  - I moved into this critical access hospital, which
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  - is very resource limited.
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  - And what happened was
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  - I learned very quickly that there is no
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  - such thing as copy and paste from the
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  - practice that you had before to the current
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  - practice,
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  - which is very resource limited. And workforce wise,
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  - we tend to
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  - see the ability of our team to
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  - not just do quick fixes, but
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  - fixes that are long term. And one of
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  - that is developing a workforce,
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  - making them stable,
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  - but also
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  - making sure that
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  - we see that they have a ladder to
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  - move gluten.
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  - That's great. And what do 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 speed, risk, and having the
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  - right teams in place? Yeah. So teamwork is
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  - very important for us, but not only teamwork.
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  - It is also the ability to make sure
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  - that we understand
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  - that the greatest factor in all this endeavor
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  - today with the advent of technology
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  - is the people and the visibility of the
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  - leaders. So people, you have to develop people
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  - and really believe in them. But, also,
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  - you wanna be able to see that your
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  - leaders are really visible and at the point
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  - of care themselves
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  - so that they can provide hands on leadership.
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  - Right. And as uncertainty has become the norm,
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  - what leadership habit or mindset has been most
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  - critical in keeping your organization and your people
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  - moving forward?
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  - So, we we want to make sure that
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  - we identify those leaders. We want to have
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  - the internal
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  - capability and internal development,
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  - but also wanna understand that early on, we
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  - have seen their potential and move with it.
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  - Our workforce at the moment are
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  - diverse in the sense that there
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  - are workforce members that have been there for
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  - over ten years, and there are work force
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  - members for a couple of months. And we
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  - want to make sure that they meet together
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  - in some balance so that their
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  - concerns are addressed and that we are adaptable
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  - to the needs of these, particular
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  - staff and that the leaders are prepared
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  - and are capable to meet them.
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  - Got it. And and how are shifting workforce
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  - expectations
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  - around
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  - flexibility,
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  - purpose, and mobility influencing how you design roles,
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  - schedules, or care teams today?
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  - So it is all about clarity for us.
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  - I've mentioned about visibility before, but not only
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  - that you are visible, but you are not
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  - clear. A lot of our leaders are working
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  - towards making sure that direction is clear.
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  - Because if they are not clear, people will
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  - end up following those who aren't who are
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  - clear. And so we want our leaders to
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  - continuously and consistently
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  - make sure that their direction is clear. So
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  - clarity for us is very important.
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  - Number two is consistency.
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  - Can't just do things at one time and
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  - then not do that again.
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  - Do that consistently,
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  - and we have this project we call the
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  - sixty day project.
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  - In at least sixty days, you consistently
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  - do that simple task or a task or
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  - a particular
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  - goal that you want to accomplish
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  - in a matter of
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  - sixty days and onwards so that it gets
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  - ingrained and instilled in their senses. So those
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  - are those are what what we identified as
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  - what we need at the moment.
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  - Excellent. And and what signals or metrics tell
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  - you your workforce strategy is actually working, and,
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  - what are you still, experimenting with or or
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  - course correcting?
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  - Well, number one is when we have our
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  - staff
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  - staff tenure, we we know that our our
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  - staff stayed with us longer than, let's say,
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  - two years. That's one indicator.
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  - The other one is when they are
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  - experiencing internal promotion. That's another one for us.
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  - But the the most important part is our
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  - quality outcomes because that tells us that we're
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  - doing the right way, and we're doing it
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  - consistently
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  - towards building that.
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  - Excellent. And looking five years ahead, how do
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  - you expect global labor dynamics to shape the
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  - health care workforce, and what strategic shifts are
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  - you making now to stay ahead of that
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  - change?
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  - That's a good, question.
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  - The thing is that in the, let's say,
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  - five or ten years, we have a program
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  - for five
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  - and ten years,
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  - as we move forward. And for five years,
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  - we're looking towards making
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  - making our direction clearer in the direction of
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  - pathways to excellence
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  - and not only for pathway of excellence because
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  - a lot of people don't believe in rural,
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  - critical access hospitals are not able
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  - to obtain magnet designation, but we are on
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  - that journey as well. So in the next
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  - five or ten years, the the most important
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  - part for us is to really just move
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  - forward and not only just move forward, but
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  - move forward in the direct direction where
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  - our talent local talent are built, and we
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  - have those pipelines in our local
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  - schools and institutions of knowledge that will provide
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  - us with those,
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  - talent so that we can build them and
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  - we build them long term.
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  - Excellent. We have a lot of exciting things
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  - in the pipeline and some great strategies there
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  - for, workforce.
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  - So, yeah, thank you, doctor Levin, for joining
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  - us today and being here at Becker's sixteenth
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  - annual meeting. Thank you so much for your
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  - time, guys.