Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Andy Anderson, MD, MBA, Chief Medical and Quality Officer at RWJBarnabas Health

Transcript

Andy Anderson, MD, MBA, Chief Medical and Quality Officer at RWJBarnabas Health · 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 Clinical Leadership podcast.
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  - I'm Mariah Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled
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  - to be speaking with Andy Anderson,
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  - chief medical and quality officer of RWJBarnabas
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  - Health. Thank you so much for joining me
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  - today. I'm really excited to learn more about
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  - what you think hospitals will need from clinical
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  - leaders in the next few years. But before
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  - we dive into that, I'd love for you
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  - to introduce yourself and tell us a little
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  - bit about your background.
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  - Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.
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  - I'm a general internist
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  - and, continue to work,
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  - as a primary care physician
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  - and
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  - lead
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  - the quality
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  - and medical staff services at RWJBarnabas
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  - Health, which is the largest
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  - academic health system in in New Jersey. We
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  - are very committed to
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  - excellence
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  - in patient care, including safety, quality,
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  - and patient experience. And we also enjoy a
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  - very deep partnership with Rutgers University around our
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  - academic mission,
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  - training the next generation of doctors and nurses,
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  - and
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  - advancing research with cutting edge clinical trials and
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  - discoveries.
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  - Excellent.
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  - Now as we all know, leadership and what
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  - is needed from leaders is constantly changing and
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  - evolving. So as we're looking forward to 2030,
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  - I'm sure that the chief medical officer role
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  - will likely see a little bit of differences
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  - and responsibilities
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  - and roles compared to what we have today.
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  - So in your opinion, what competencies or capabilities
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  - do you think the current and future CMLs
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  - will need to develop in the coming years?
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  - Yeah. It's a great question. And, you know,
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  - health care is a team sport. And part
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  - of what, you know, physician leaders need to
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  - do is to be well grounded in all
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  - aspects of health care delivery, and that includes
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  - operations
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  - and finance and human resources
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  - and legal, etcetera.
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  - But for me, the most important competency that
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  - future leaders need to to really pay attention
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  - to is, I'll call it, change management
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  - and and influence. And, you know, physician leaders
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  - already are influencers,
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  - but to be truly effective
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  - as a physician leader, you have to be
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  - able to influence others, particularly your physician colleagues,
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  - but also nurse colleagues,
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  - administrative leadership, etcetera, in the health system to
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  - really be at the table
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  - as decisions are made on prioritization,
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  - on goal setting,
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  - on clinical initiatives. It's very important
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  - for physician leaders to be effective as change
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  - agents and and influencers. And, you know, some
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  - of that's just basic,
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  - communication skills and listening skills and
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  - understanding organizational behavior
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  - and learning how to make changes,
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  - doing things like
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  - PDSA cycles and and and continuous quality improvement
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  - and or
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  - understanding
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  - how to
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  - try something out, pilot it, and then scale
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  - it across the system.
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  - These are really important pieces of of being
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  - an effective leader and an effective change agent.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - And I'm sure part of being a change
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  - agent comes with all the AI and automation
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  - changes that have been blowing up in the
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  - industry lately, especially as they become more involved
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  - in clinical decision support functions.
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  - So how do you see the relationship
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  - between chief medical officers and chief information
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  - officers or chief medical information officers
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  - evolving? And are today's organizational structures actually built
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  - to support that collaboration?
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  - Yeah. It's very important for the physician leadership
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  - to be very well connected with
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  - the chief medical information officer roles and
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  - specifically when we're looking at the electronic health
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  - record
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  - and really how to make that work well
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  - for clinicians.
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  - It's important for the chief medical officer to
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  - understand,
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  - again, change management, how to listen carefully to
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  - issues that are coming up, how to look
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  - ahead to understand how the electronic health record
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  - can best be utilized,
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  - and really trying to solve pain points, trying
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  - to make it easier to use the electronic
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  - health record. It's really important for the CMIO
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  - to be closely tied to the CMO. In
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  - many
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  - health systems,
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  - the role is a direct report. The CMIO
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  - will report to the the chief medical officer.
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  - It's also important to be connected to the
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  - chief information officer. That's the the architecture, the
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  - data,
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  - all the different,
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  - ways that the IT structure is put together
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  - have to be understood, and there has to
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  - be conversations about sort of what is possible,
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  - how quickly can something be implemented,
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  - and really staying close as a team is
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  - is very important.
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  - AI is certainly part of all this, and
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  - AI is here and is here to stay.
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  - And it's really, in my mind, a companion
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  - to assist the clinician, to assist the health
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  - system in doing its work. The ultimate decision
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  - maker still should be clinical judgment, still should
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  - be the the health system, but AI is
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  - there to to make it easier and to
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  - speed up processes and streamline processes
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  - so that we can be more efficient and
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  - effective.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - Now if you were sitting down to advise
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  - a system level CEO today on how to
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  - future proof their clinical leadership bench, what's one
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  - structural or cultural change you would recommend they
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  - make?
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  - Yeah. I would be sure that physician leadership
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  - is at the table as decision making is
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  - happening, as strategies are being developed, as tactics
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  - are being decided upon, as priorities are being
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  - set. And having physician leadership at the table
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  - is extremely important. And part of that is
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  - making sure that you have enough physician leadership,
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  - that you really have a a bench, if
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  - you will, that there's succession planning, that you're
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  - growing and developing your physician leaders in your
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  - organization so that they can be know, part
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  - of the decision making and part of the
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  - strategy. And and, again, really listening and understanding
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  - what's happening out in the field because that's
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  - gonna be important to to help shape that
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  - strategy.
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  - Excellent.
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  - Is there anything else that you think that
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  - leaders should know about the future of being
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  - a c suite in the hospital?
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  - Well, back to where I began, it's a
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  - team sport and and really developing your team
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  - to work together effectively
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  - to have a culture where everyone's free to
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  - share their opinion and express their ideas
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  - and coming to consensus.
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  - But being innovative and creative along the way
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  - in all the conversations, that's gonna lead to
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  - better ideas,
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  - and it's also gonna lead to more effective
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  - implementation of ideas when everyone gets to that
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  - consensus after they've had time to discuss and
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  - and express their ideas.
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  - Excellent. Well, this has been such a great
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  - discussion. Thank you for joining me today and
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  - sharing all of your thoughts.
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  - Absolutely. Thank you.